Update on my hair

Picture from De Piramide

Heyo!

Sorry for totally being M.I.A on this blog. I'm here now, so.....UPDATE TIME!

Yeah, so, my hair is actually past APL (ArmPit Length) now. It's not quite ate BSL (Bra-Strap Length) yet. I'm so excited by it's length, though! Eeep!

I am currently stretching out my hair with some African threading which is awesome. I started stretching out after washing out my deep conditioner and showering and then before going to bed, I undid some of the threaded hair, separated it and rethreaded it for that 'super stretched' effect. My hair looks practically straight and like, y'all know I love big curly hair to bits so, I guess I probably will add a bit more texture to it before the New Year's party tomorrow (it's now the 30th in England) by bantu knotting it or something. Maybe I might even try out a new hairstyle.

So, yeah, here's what I've done with my hair post-take down (in case you forgot, I had crochet braids in and I normally would keep them in for about 4 months before I redo them):

• I took down my hair yesterday (day before yesterday) and it like took less than an hour to get all the extensions out and my hair down which was awesome. If you need tips on this, let me know 'cause like it took 30mins, if not less to take down my hair and it usually would take me over an hour to do that.
• I worked some Extra Virgin Olive Oil into my hair as I detangled it using a wide toothed comb straight after taking down my extensions. I still had my spray bottle of coconut oil and water nearby, but I didn't use that because, I experience A LOT of shrinkage when my hair gets wet (like my hair can shrink up to my ears) and, well, it's easier to detangle my hair when it's stretched out although I could easily hand-stretch it while combing or melt the tangles away with the water as my tangles melt away easily. However, I had a little it of dirt in parts of my hair from not washing it out as often as I should've with the extensions in (got way too busy with school and work and stuff) and I didn't want dirty water dripping everywhere.
• I put my hair in random twists, donned on a plastic bag covered by my satin scarf and went to bed. So, basically, I prepooed. I did this for three reasons. 1) I was lazy and didn't want to bother with my hair anymore that night so I decided not to wash it then, 2) My hair takes almost a full 24hrs to dry especially if I decide to wear it in a wash and go (which is rare for me, but....) and 3) I felt that prepooing will help melt away any tangles that might still be in there and make the washing process easier.
• This morning (yesterday morning), I woke up and went straight to my bathroom where I washed my hair with my BeeMine Botanical Shampoo (sulfate-free, 100% natural and organic ingredients) twist section by twist section. This made washing my hair much easier, faster and ensure that every inch of my scalp and hair was clean 'cause as y'all know, some times, people wash their hair and don't wash it properly so there are like a few random parts that have lint in them or something or parts that can make your finger feel sticky or your nail get dirty ("I ain't about that life").
• Next, I conditioned my hair with three different conditioners. Yup! I did. I first used my BeeMine BeeLovely Conditioner followed by some of the VitaNourish conditioner that was sent to me (to review) by Midas Naturals. I worked this in my entire hair and then rinsed it out. Why did I do this? No reason, really. I like MidasNaturals' products and I liked the results I got from them when I initially used them (for the review) so I wanted to use that HOWEVER, I was sent a small bottle of the product and I have a lot of hair so....yeah. With the BeeMine conditioner, I brought a practically empty bottle home with me and I hadn't used that product in a while so I decided to just use it too combined with the MidasNaturals conditioner. Moving on....
• After rinsing out the conditioner combo going on in my hair, I used some of my SheaMoisture Restorative Conditioner to finger detangle, further soften and condition my hair (I just felt that my hair needed some tender loving care). I worked in the conditioner and finger detangled twist section by twist section and then I rinsed it out without taking out the twists to rinse then retwisting. Why? 1) Too much work and 2) I'm not so big on thoroughly rinsing out conditioners from my hair especially when the conditioner contains just natural ingredients.
• After the whole process my hair had undergone so far, I decided to treat it to one of my favourite products and the only deep conditioner I have ever used on my entire head of hair since I went natural (y'all know my and my 100% natural ingredients thing so, yeah, I always made my own deep conditioners prior to trying this one (for the review) and I only used this on my entire head of hair back then because I liked its ingredients list (normally, I'll use <1x1cm section of my hair to try out DCs or products I'm sceptical about)). I used the MidasNaturals Shine Conditioner. I absolutely love this product! Its consistency is on point, its smell is on point and its results are ON POINT. A little goes a long way with this product. I don't have a lot of it left as I got a small jar sent to me (looking forward to purchasing a larger jar of it) and like I've said before, I have a lot of hair so, yeah, I was glad that I could still get awesome results from just using a little of it.
• I left the conditioner in for a little over an hour before rinsing it out. This was because I wasn't in the mood to get back to the bathroom to rinse it out as my head had been feeling weird and I had woken up feeling terrible (I think I had my scarf on a little too tight when I slept or the heat going on up in the plastic bag combined by temperatures rising here while I was asleep and under a thick quilt (aka continental quilt, duvet, doona or comforter) messed up with my body). So, yeah, I got some breakfast (at around 3:11pm), chilled on a teddy bear that's almost my height (and I am much taller than the average height for women here in England), listened to a friend and my cousin play the drums (at first, I couldn't stand it because of how I was feeling and then when I started feeling better, it became more appealing to me), texted a friend and then I went to rinse out the DC and have a proper shower (and change out of the weird clothes I had been in (disappointing combination)).
• After rinsing out the DC, showering and changing into sweatpants and a comfortable top, I began to take down the twist (I forgot to mention, I rinsed out the DC with my hair still being in twists (I applied the DC taking down the twists first, though)) and African thread my hair to stretch it out because like I said before, my hair shrinks A LOT and up to my ears. I'm not a fan of horridly shrunken hair on me, neither was I up for wearing a wash and go or having to detangle my hair again any time soon. So, yeah, I threaded my hair.
• Before heading to bed, I took down the threads individually and separated my hair using just my fingers before rethreading to get my hair from collarbone length to almost APL without being 100% straight.

So, yeah, that's it.

I probably will leave my hair in the threads all tomorrow and in the morning of the day after to avoid manipulating my hair often and to retain this stretch for as long as possible (also, I need to be able to study and not worry about my hair).

I will be reinstalling my crochet braids (with new extensions identical to the old ones) before I head back to the west country (basically, back to college) and my aunt will be reinstalling them for me which is a process that makes me rather nervous haha (the pain!). I probably will go over to her place with my hair threaded to minimise the pain when she combs with a fine toothed comb (don't know why she does that) and does whatever she needs to do to install the extensions.

Anyways, it's really late now.

Gotta sleep.

Adios!

~Sammy

My Mini Twists so far. Take-down in a few days.

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Hola!

So, my mini twists are still in, but they're coming down on Saturday. This means that I'll have had them in for about two and a half weeks. Not bad, not bad, longest I've kept mini twists with just my hair in. I guess if they were a bit smaller, I'll have kept them in longer.

Okay! So, I've been spraying my hair with lavender water and lavender oil (in a spray bottle) daily. I hand picked the lavender leaves from the garden. After that, I seal in the moisture with my lovely new product (did I mention that it's pH balanced?). I dusted all my twists some days ago, can't remember when exactly. The ends of my twists are like popping with defined curls and I didn't twirl them neither where they twirled when they were done. They're just popping and looking gorg'.

Okay! So, my plans are.....I'm going to wash my hair with the twists in on Friday, stretch out the twists overnight and take them down on Saturday. I actually just wash my scalp and condition my hair, not wash my hair. I never work shampoo into the hair strands. I don't even work amla into my hair strands. I focus on my scalp and the hair's cleansed when I rinse out what I washed my scalp with. So, I guess I'm going to braid the twists in sections or just hold them off with ouchless bands and work section by section washing my scalp and working conditioner in my hair then I'm going to seal in the moisture (after rinsing the conditioner, of course, with my new product) then hold my hair up to stretch as it dries. On Saturday, after a nice, warm shower, I'll take down the twists quickly and.....I'm not sure about a twist out so, I guess I'm going to fake a blow out and then curl my ends a bit with my flexi rods or fake a blow out and do a braid 'n' curl on it. Whatever works.

After that, I need to figure out what I'll do with my hair daily till October and then till December. I guess I'll switch it up with a tuck 'n' pin, puff and some other simple style (I might make two flat braids some time) and then in October, I might get mini twists done again. I'm not sure about mini-braids 'cause I'm more likely to loose hair at my ends with that and I'm trying to avoid that, plus, it'll take longer to take down. If I could get some Marley or Havana hair, don't know where to get those in England, I'll install big twists in my hair and keep them in till January when I'm getting my first weave in the past almost 6 years (Heat-Free Hair Movement).

Anyways, that's all for now.

Interview with the beautiful, Daniele Watts (from Django) coming up soon, look out for it! :)

~Sammy

Mini Twist (wash, maintain....A-Z)

So, I've had mini twists for a week now and I'm keeping them in for 3 more weeks (a total of 4 weeks).
Okay! So here are the basics:

Deep Conditioning (DC):  This is most definitely possible with your twists in. I think it's easier and safer to DC with oils like coconut oil, however, I've only DCed with an avocado-mayo-honey DC with my mini twists in. had like 4 sections of my mini twists separated. I had a ball of yarn nearby. So, I got the DC mix onto my mini twists in semi scrunching motions moving down my twists and not rubbing, smoothing or whatever. When I was done with a section, I sorta African threaded it leaving a lot of space between rolls and then I rolled the remainder of the yarn, that was cut out for that section, round the root area of the minitwists so it was sorta like a bantu knot. I did that for each section to prevent my twists unravelling. Next, I put a plastic cap on then tied a scarf over it, I then rolled some yarn round the bottom of the scarf (the bit close to my forehead) and tied it then I tied a piece of scrap material like another scarf round those then I tied a bigger scarf round those to keep it secure, trap in body heat, get a better DC effect and so on.

Wash: I don't use shampoo (CG). However, I didn't co-wash today, because I had an inkling about my homemade conditioner/co-wash. I need to change a lot of things in it as some of them don't work well with my hair and some other things. So, I washed my hair with my homemade Herbal Hair Cleanser (you can request a copy of my recipe. I like this cleanser. I love it's smell, what it does, it's ingredients....). I used my overhead shower (fixed shower) for this. I first turned it on and took the yarn off one section then I slid my fingers under that section and let the water run through then I did the semi-scrunching motion thing and then I rinsed out that section carefully, but thoroughly (don't want my hair smelling like bad food). I did that for all sections then I rinsed my mini twists as a whole to make sure my whole hair was thoroughly rinsed out. Next, I got my homemade herbal hair cleanser (I'll call it HHHC now) onto my hair and scalp. Worked a lil magic (gently and carefully cleaning my scalp even though there was no buildup and also doing a bit of the scrunching thing to the twists. After that, I turned the water back on and rinsed out my hair well.
I'm going to try washing with a sock cap next time to see how it works out.

Drying: I don't use heat on my hair (air dry). So, I also don't use normal towels on my hair, I only use shirts on it for now (need to find a good microfibre towel). However, I didn't use a shirt on my twists, I just let them be, like totally dry by themselves.

Moisture: I got a towel round my shoulder (note that I did this right after washing my hair, my hair wasn't even a tad bit dry) then I got some olive oil, homemade rosemary oil and some shea butter onto the twists in a semi-scrunching motion moving downwards (from roots to ends). I used the EVOO first then the rosemary oil next and finally, the shea butter, to lock in the moisture.

Styling: I'm in a really weird school lol. It's a good school, I might add, but when it comes to hair, and some other things, really weird. I say this because unless you're a full white, you have to get your hair braided or twisted, 'out' styles aren't allowed, your hair must go backwards (*cough* *cough* receding hairline, traction alopecia cause-r), many styles aren't allowed and braided extensions are banned. So... yeah. All I do is section my hair unevenly in 2 ( in this --> direction) then I used banding hair bands to hold each section and tuck in the ends to prevent them from brushing on my shirts or neck. This style actually looks pretty cute on me :) though really simple.

Sleep: I sleep with a scarf tied round my twists (without taking out the style) and I sleep on a pillow wrapped with satin PJ bottoms (haven't found a satin pillow case yet).

Maintenance (frizz, fly-aways, set style...): Now, I use a product (that's not homemade, for now). I use my OLTG (I mentioned in my last post that I'll start calling it that instead of, "Organics Lock&Twist Gel"). If needed, though usually not, I take off the bands on my hair and scrunch some OLTG onto my twists in random sections, if I don't need to take out the band, I'll just get some OLTG on the front bit of my hair then tie a scarf over it. I do this once I get home from school and keep the scarf on till I leave for school the next day, Trust me, this works in making you hair frizz-free, fly-away free and keeping the style you choose to keep your hair in, in place. It just might help with giving a good "out" look too :)

Stretching: I don't really need to do this, but banding your mini twists work or you can wrap you mini twists round your head using bobby pins like you might have with relaxed hair and tie a scarf over it (sleep with the scarf on or with the bands in, take them out in the morning and..voila!)

What else do you need to know? Comment and let me know, okay? It's like 1:11AM here now so, I've got to catch some zzzs for now.

Hope everything above helps somebody (or people)
~Sam