I BOUGHT A BLOWDRYER!!

Picture got from Jesuseun

So, yeeeeeeaaaaah, I bought a blowdryer. It worries me a bit because I heat damaged my hair at the start of my natural hair journey. However, there have been quite a number of reasons for me to purchase this hair tool and that's what I will talk about in this blog post.


REASON 1: I am a uni student and I live a bit far from school
As a uni student, I need more time studying and working and less time doing other things. So, by investing in a dryer, I can quickly dry and stretch my curls and the curls will stay stretched longer and I might even get them more stretched than if I just braided them (and some times, aft,,.er setting your hair in braids, you wake up and your braids are still damp!).
Also, I live 30mins away from school if I use the tube (London Underground) and I need to have my hair dry when I leave where I live especially if I wash/rinse my hair in the morning, which I might do depending on if I go to the gym in the morning or in the evening.


REASON 2: It has been predicted that the UK will experience the coldest winter in 50 years this year
Wet hair and being out in the cold are two things that do not go together well. I don't want ice in my hair neither do I want to be freezing because I walked out the door with wet hair.


REASON 3: I work out on an almost daily basis now
Working out a lot, I might need to rinse my hair out every now and then so it still looks good and yeah, I'll need a blowdryer to speed up the process of rinsing and drying out my hair in the morning/late at night.


REASON 4: It's easier to style stretched hair/styles look better when done on stretched hair
I must say, a braid out on pre-stretched hair looks really good and so does a twist out. If the braid/twist-out is done on a Curlformer set or on hair that wast stretched by pre-braiding, African threading, banding, et cetera it looks better than if it was done on freshly washed and wet hair, in my opinion. Well, this is the case for my hair. With a blowdryer, I can stretch my hair to style it much easier and faster than if I just banded, braided, African threaded it.


So, yeah, I had one or two more reasons, but I can't remember them right now.

Hope this helps you understand why I decided to take this step and invest in a blow dryer.

~SammyWithTheBigHair
(SammyWithThe"Not as big, but will soon be as big"Hair)

My New Hair Routine

I waited about a week before uploading this.

So, as I mentioned before, now that my hair's longer, I have realised that I need to wash it more often. I actually need to wash it every 2-3 days. Due to this, my hair routine has changed quite a it. It is stable now and that's why I'm uploading this. So, here it goes, my hair routine:

Shampoo
I wash my hair with shampoo once every 2-4 weeks using Shea Moisture's Coconut & Hibiscus shampoo. I haven't reviewed this product yet as I have only used it once since I received it and I feel I have to use a product more than once before reviewing it especially if I've been protective styling for a month or more (with extensions). I focus on my scalp, but I work the lather down my hair shaft before rinsing it out of my hair. I would usually shampoo once, but depending on how much build up I feel, I might shampoo twice.

Condition/Co-Wash
I condition my hair after every shampoo wash and I co-wash my every 2-5 days using Shea Moisture's Coconut & Hibiscus conditioner. I really like this conditioner. I had a better experience with it today than I did prior to reviewing this product. I focus on my hair shaft when using this product, but if I'm co-washing, I put a bit of the product on the pads of my finger and massage my scalp a bit before rinsing out the product.
I also use about a dime-size amount of extra virgin olive oil, working it in on the two halves of my hair before leaving the shower. Some times, I partially rinse out the oil, other times, like today, I leave it in.
As a leave-in conditioner, I tend to just use a little of Shea Moisture's Curling Gel Soufflé as I have found this product to be rather moisturising and good at reducing the amount of frizz I experience.

Other forms of cleaning
I rinse out my hair and water-wash whenever I decide not to co-wash, but I need to get my hair wet and ensure my scalp is hydrated/cleaned to an extent. I plan on using my Terressentials Mud Wash every now and then to cleanse my hair and scalp too. Also, I might invest in to Bentonite clay or Amla powder as I find these work really well in cleansing and conditioning the scalp and my hair looks awesome and my curls clump and look amazing after mud washing.

Detangling
I try to keep detangling to a minimum. I thoroughly detangle my hair whenever I wash it so that's 2-3 times a week. However, I might run a comb through it a bit if I want to achieve a really big and neat puff.
To detangle, I first part my hair in two and saturate each section in extra virgin olive oil while moving my hands down my hair shaft in closed fists. This makes some of the shed hair slide out easily. Next I repeat this process, but using Shea Moisture's Restorative Conditioner, but I do not saturate my hair in it because....well....this product is rather pricey and you actually don't need to saturate your hair in it for it to do its job. Some times, I put on a heat processing cap (I have a foil-like one) while I sort out some things then I hop in the shower, rinse out my hair and then start my co-washing process. After applying the Coconut & Hibiscus conditioner, I run a comb through my hair (usually under the shower stream, but I can do it without this). As my hair is longer now, I spend less than 5mins detangling it as the tangles just slide out (whether or not there is product in my hair - as long as my hair's under the shower stream, the tangles are out). I do not comb or really finger detangle my hair before this.

Styling
If I'm not leaving my house, I wouldn't bother styling my hair. I would just leave it in whatever it's setting it - braids, twists, bantu knots, et cetera. If I am heading out, I would've had my hair stretched so all I'll do is take it down from its stretched state and either style it with bobby pins, put it in a bun, do a tuck-roll-and-pin or put my hair up in a puff. I try to keep styling/manipulating my hair to a minimum and most of all, I try to keep the need for a comb to a minimum too so I always end up doing a tuck-roll-and-pin quite often as it saves me from a bad hair day or old-looking hair. When styling my hair, I seldom put any product on it, but if I do use a product, it would be Shea Moisture's Curling Gel Soufflé and a little goes a VERY LONG WAY with this product.

Night Routine
I sleep on a pillow wrapped up in a satin material (or I cover my hair in a satin-scarf). If I feel lazy, I just put my hair up in a bun and go to bed. If not, I re-braid my hair or add flexi rods to the ends of my braids/twists if I never took them down. At times, I will use some of the Curling Gel Soufflé on my edges and wherever my hair was parted and that's pretty much it. My night routine is very minimal. Ain't nobody got time to be going through a long process when they're tired.


And that pretty much sums up my hair routine. It's pretty simples, I guess. I try to keep manipulating my hair to a minimum and I try to avoid using combs more than twice during a week (if not just once).

My routine might change slightly in the next few weeks to months. All that would be different would be that I'll invest in a blow dryer and be using it on the cool setting after washing my hair on weekdays especially because I'll be doing that after working out in the morning and as a student at uni (who lives about 30mins, using the tube, away from school), I need my hair to be easily sorted out and stretched before I need to start heading out to school.

This routine has been working pretty well for me as my hair has been breaking less and I've been having less shed hair. Also, my hair looks much better and as most of you know, my hair got really damaged from my last protective style.

Product Review: Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Curling Gel Soufflé

Picture got from SheaMoisture

Product description

"SheaMoisture's Coconut & Hibiscus Curling Gel Soufflé for thick, curly hair defines and promotes curls with a soft, smooth finish. This all natural styling aid moisturizes and conditions while leaving hair with a frizz-free, brilliant shine." 

Ingredients

Aqueous Infusion of Agave Teqilana Leaf Extract and Sugar Cane Extract, Pectin, Vegetable Glycerin, Adansonia Digitata Pulp(Baobab) Extract, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil*, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B-5, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract*, Tocopherol (Vitamin E - Vegetable Oil Source), Linum Usitatissimum (Linseed/Flax) Seed Extract, Hibiscus Sabdariffa Extract, Potassium Sorbate, Proprietary Essential Oil Blend *Certified Organic Ingredient

Price

£12.99/$12.99 (12 oz)


My review

Like the Curl & Shine Conditioner, this product smells good. It does what it says when it comes to moisturising and conditioning the hair and it has left my hair with less frizz than usual. However, as mentioned when reviewing the conditioner, I'm not sure about the shine because my hair is naturally shiny.

When it comes to the frizz, I had been playing with my hair while it was in two buns yesterday so it got quite frizzy. This morning, after doing a little rinse and scalp massage, I applied a little of the product to my hair and right now, the frizz is still less than usual.

I like that this product did not leave my hair crunchy and with white residue like many gels have done.

However, I do not like that this product can be quite sticky when you touch your hair after applying it. I guess to combat this, you just have to use very little of the product on your whole head of hair as the stickiness is much less today and I have less product on my hair. Also, this product did not do much with defining my curls. Yes my curls are not the greatest fans of clumping in most parts of my hair, but by just running my hands down my hair with some oil in them and with closed fits, I can get my curls to clump and stay together pretty well.

Overall, I would recommend this product as it has been the best gel I have used on my hair in the almost 5 years that I have been natural. The product is really moisturising and leaves your hair feeling so soft and with minimal frizz. I have a lot of hair and it's not easy to define the curls in every single part of my hair so I'm not too bothered about this product not doing much in the defining aspect. I think that this product can be used as a leave-in conditioner so, if that's what you're looking for, purchase this product. Also, if your hair's not so big, it might help with defining your curls more than it helped with mine. Lastly, as a little goes a VERY LONG WAY, I believe this product will last for quite a number of months before I need to repurchase it so that saves having to spend £12.99 every few weeks and as a student, I need to keep my spending to a minimum.

----
It seems there are two consistencies of this product. I received the thicker one. A little goes a long way with both consistencies (just did some research on it after it came to my attention that there are two very different consistencies). If you want the lighter, more runny consistency, you have two options:

1. Return your jar to the store you bought it from (if you didn't order it online) and ensure the new one you pick up is runny before you leave the store, and
2. take some of the product out of the jar, put it in something microwaveable and heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds/until it becomes more runny.

For now, I am going to leave this product the way I received it, but some day, I might try heating it up to try it out with a runny consistency.

Product Review: Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Curl & Shine Conditioner

Picture got from SheaMoisture

Product description

"This lightweight daily conditioner for thick, curly hair restores and smoothes dry hair cuticles. No more knots, snarls and tangles. Helps tame frizz as it defines and enhances natural curls." 

Ingredients

Deionized Water, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut ) Oil*, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Sorbitol Esters, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter*, Simmondsia Chinesis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive ) Fuit Oil*, Cetyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B-5), Proprietary Essential Oil Blend, Silk Protein, Aloe Barbedenis Leaf Extract, Hibiscus Sabdariffa Extract, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Melia Azadirachta (Neem) Seed Oil, Rosemary Extract, Caprylyl Glycol *Certified Organic Ingredients

Price

£12.99/$11.99 (13fl oz)


My review

This product smells really good, let's start with that. It smells really coconut-y, but its smell is definitely not overpowering - it's actually quite pleasant.

I have used this product twice now. Once as a normal rinsing conditioner and once as a co-wash. The first time I used this product, I had just taken out a weave after having it in for quite a while so my hair wasn't in the best of states (it also was a bit damaged).

My initial impression of this product was that it pretty much had no slip whatsoever and that it did not do much for my hair. I was going to write this review then, but chose to try the product out again, before I go ahead with the review.

I used this product again yesterday. This time, I used it on semi-stretched hair that was a bit tangled as it had been manipulated a few times without proper detangling/combing each time. During my co-washing session, I did not use a comb until I had this conditioner in my hair and although I did not feel like my hand was just sliding off my hair, I felt like this product actually helped the tangles slide out of my hair easily. I had very little breakage while washing my hair and the shed hair was to a minimum. I also was able to run my hands through my tightly curled type 4 hair! That is definitely something that doesn't happen often. My hair also felt really nice, soft and moisturised and it handled being out in the sun better today than it did before I co-washed it when it seemed to dry out and feel straw-like after just a few minutes in the sun.

I must say, I am not having a "WOW!" factor from this product, but I do really like it. I prefer it to my BeeMine conditioner and I prefer it to the Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner as a co-wash.

My hair is naturally shiny so I can't say much about the shine from this product as I feel it didn't add or take much out of my hair's natural shine.

One thing I would really like for this product to have is more slip as I feel that would have helped a whole lot more with my post-protective style wash day, although I don't plan on protective styling like that again in at least a year. More slip will also result in me having to use less products to detangle my hair and in turn, it would lead to me spending less on hair products on the long run as I am still a student and purchasing these products does put quite a dent in my bank account.

Overall, I think I would recommend this product as I haven't had any bad experiences from using it and it actually did leave my hair soft and helped in the detangling process. Also, although my hair has been in two buns since I washed it, I can tell that the frizz it normally experiences is less.

Simbi Akanni is Naturally Glamourous

 

Simbi and I first met when we were much younger. However, after she moved, we hadn't contacted each other till this summer. I am glad we're in touch now.

Simbi is an inspiring young lady (I say that like we're not the same age!) and I'm glad that I got the chance to interview her for this blog.

Check out her out online! All her links are at the end of this interview!

I hope you enjoy this reading this interview!

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Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I'm Simbi Akanni, an 18 year-old student and Christian blogger!  I was born in New York, raised in Nigeria and now I'm back here in NY for as long as God desires. In addition to that, I'm a sister to 3 handsome brothers and 1 loving sister. I've been blessed with an amazing family!    

In my spare time, I blog, edit films and videos (yes, I'm a Nikon and Final Cut Pro X girl), I love dancing, singing and frolicking around in pretty dresses with sunflowers in my hair. That's a bit about myself for now!  Thanks for having me on your blog today.

How long have you been natural?

Oh man, I've been natural since 2009. That's 6 years now! Wooh! 

When did you get your first relaxer and why did you get it?

Here's my little relaxer story (according to my mom!) I had just moved to Nigeria and I was about 5 or 6 years old. The hairdressers and my mom constantly complained that my hair was too "hard", it cut their fingers and all the other regular unkept natural hair problems. Therefore, momma put a relaxer in my hair.  She regretted it though, because my natural hair was really long and cute. It was what I had been known for.

What made you decide to go natural?

When I moved back to america, I just decided to stop relaxing my hair. If I remember clearly, my hair had been breaking off and I decided I wanted it to grow. So I transitioned from 2009.

How did your family and friends react to the idea of you going natural?

No one really knew because I always had a protective style in. I would wear braids and weaves back to back (drake reference, did you catch it? no? ok) but leave my hair out for a week or just the weekend.

What's your hair journey been like so far (and how has it changed your perception on some things)?

My hair journey has been awesome. Most girls want long hair and that was my goal for a while.  Now, I focus more on healthy and bouncy curls as opposed to length.  I'm also getting more comfortable with wearing my hair out.  I never knew how to style it so I would always hide it, but thank God for YouTube!  I've grown to love my kinks/curls/fro, whatever you call it.

What is your daily hair regimen (including your night-time routine)?

When my hair isn't in a protective style, my go-to hairstyle is a braid out/high-puff. I spritz some water on my hair, apply some of my shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie and put about 9 single braids in. Then in the morning, I unravel the braids and voila! However, if I have more time, I love doing flat twist outs with perm rods at the end. Those usually come out looking pretty dope!

Do you think you might be changing or incorporating new things to your regimen soon? If so, what do you have in mind?

Not really, my regimen works for me. It also matches my lifestyle. I'm always on-the-go so I need a quick and easy regimen that doesn't take up too much time. Although, if I were to change my regimen, I'd probably be a bit more consistent with my protein treatments and just treating my hair in general. Laziness is an underlying theme lol!

What are your go-to hairstyles, which is your fav. and how do you achieve it?

I think I may have answered this in a previous question but to recap; my go-to is a quick braidout. My fave is my flat twist out with perm rods at the end. I tried a bantu knot out a while back and I was pretty disappointed but i'm actually giving it another shot tonight, so we'll see how that goes. (update: it came out looking great)

What are your must-have hair accessories and tools?

For about a week now, I've been rocking a high puff. So in this case, it's a wide tooth comb, my hands and the stockings I use to tie my hair up.  

How do you deal with hair issues such as: breakage, shrinkage, length retention and moisture?

Shrinkage is beautiful! Let's accept it and not see it as an issue. But to answer the question, I put a few braids, twists, bantu knots (or something) in my hair every night before I sleep. I try to keep my hair stretched as much as possible because that hang time is beautiful too!

As far as breakage, oh gosh, I deal with this so much. Most of my breakage results from super tight braid patterns under my weaves. I literally have patches of broken off hair because of this and it sucks. However, I'm now enforcing less tension in my hair routines and hair styles, keeping my hair soft and making sure I deep condition (or do a protein treatment every now and then). Let's see how it'll work out.

Length retention- I'm not afraid to trim my dead ends, cut off a few inches and allow my hair to grow back healthier. Protective styles are also really good for length retention and growth (braids, weaves etc)

Moisture- This is tough to keep up with when my hair is in a protective style, but when it isn't, I'm usually really good with moisturizing my hair. I love to use the l.o.c. (liquid, oil, then cream) method. For that, I use water, coconut oil and my shea moisture curl enhancing smothie.

What products do you currently use, and how are they working for you?  

Currently, I'm loving my shea moisture curl enhancing smoothie, extra virgin coconut oil, creme of nature moisture & shine argan oil shampoo, shea moisture restorative conditioner and my home-made deep conditioner. 

Hand-In-Hair syndrome. Do you have this issue? Do people ask before touching your hair or do they just randomly reach out and touch (or grab) it? How does this make you feel? What is your reaction to this?

I love hair, so my hands are always in other people's hair (sorry guys).  I also really like when people play with my hair, as long as they aren't messing up my hairstyle, we're good!  No one has ever just reached out to touch my hair without my consent though.

What do you love the most about being naturally curly?

Being naturally curly gives me so much variation.  Because of the way my hair is, I can do so many different styles.  One day it's straight, the next it's an afro, the next it's just huge.  Curls are so beautiful and I would never trade them for anything.  It's not all beautiful because sometime's it's just outright tough, but believe it or not, it's like a relationship.  You don't love bae every day. lol.

Any advice for the natural teens, parents, kids and grandparents?

 Teens - Don't get pressured into thinking your kinks and curls aren't beautiful. You are set apart.  God created you in His image, which is ultimate perfection!  Whatever hair texture you have, what makes it beautiful is that it's yours.  No one can ever take that away from you.

Parents- Tell you daughters how beautiful they are.  Give them the affirmation they need.  Your words mean the world to them.  I walk around with a mantra that goes "Momma said I'm beautiful, so that means, I'm beautiful and I don't have to wait for anyone else to say it." 

Where can we find you online?

You can find me at www.SimSpirituallyInspired.com.  I upload blog posts every Sunday!  It get's really personal on my blog, so please join the ride.

YouTube- SimInspired.  I have a couple of videos on there

Instagram - @Sim_Inspired

And, that's all I have!  <3