I'm Back (UpDaTe)

Hi,

So, I've been away for some time. I actually just got back on Saturday (but I was just away from the 18th till then to be honest. Before then, I just kept forgetting to put on here what I wanted to).
Okay! So, right now, I'm in school and well, okay! so I don't care what some of the people on here think about me having a natural hair blog so I'll just continue typing right now.
First, please, please pray for one of my natural hair role models. She's WAY younger than me, but still one of my hair role models and she needs all your prayers. Here's an article to let you know what I want you to pray about: http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/03/half-up-half-down-banded-natural-hair.html

Now....what have I done with my hair so far...
I couldn't redo my minitwists and because my mum put off going to the salon for a while, she got my hair done for me (she did it). There's something about a certain hairstyle or braiding style that my hair and scalp doesn't like. Whenever I have it in for 2 weeks or a week, then redo it during the second week, I get some crazy sharp pain on my scalp. I mean, I've never felt pain like that before. It's terrible. So, on he 18th, I finally went to a hair salon again just to find out that the one person who was good with my hair there left and I hadn't gotten her number yet so I can't even call her to find out where she works now or whatever.Okay! So, I got my hair braided to a certain extent then twisted and I had two-strand twists everywhere else at the back. I held it up to protect the ends (as usual :)). I had that in all through bootcamp (yup! that's the reason I was away for a while :) ).
Bootcamp:
Bootcamp was stressful, I got sand in my hair during the activities and drills, I was sweating like crazy, it was SO SO humid and hot. Gaaah! Okay, so the day I was packing, I slipped my jar of shea butter into my bag (hehe :) ) On the first day whene I got my hair sanded-out, I rinsed it out thoroughly in the shower then rubbed some shea butter between my palms then applied it to my hair. Also, I took my satin hair wrap stuff with me (I am so into this!). People wear like, "what is that?" "you sleep with that on every night?" and I didn't care. Luckily, my roommates got used to seeing it quickly. So, I had the shea butter on my hair that day and till my Friday, I never really had the time to get shea butter on my hair again (even after showering).  However, my hair did get sanded-out everyday and I was always sweating so much from all the work so I always rinsed my hair thoroughly when I showered and I always let it air dry (in my room! Outside was WAY too dusty and I didn't want dust clinging to my hair). Okay! SOoooo, on Friday, I took my hair down and finger detangled it out then I got wet hands into my hair, got some shea butter with a lil water and rubbed it in between my palms then got them into my hair and thoroughly detangled (fingers only! :)). I had my hair all out and big and I left it like that till I had to get some sleep. The thing is, some girls had an issue with their room door and I didn't feel comfortable going to bed knowing that they were locked out of their room. I walked down the hallway and all with BIG hair and people were just staring at it, it shrunk, not so much, but it was obvious and when I held my hair a bit and pulled it down at some point, my roommate was like, "yeah, your hair shrunk." Okay! So, one of the girls (room, locked out) looked at my hair and was like, "you're so crazy," I was like, "what do you mean?" and she was like, "have you seen your hair?" I wasn't sure how exactly my hair looked then, but I didn't really care. Later on, I went to my room (when their door had been broken down and they could get their stuff and get some sleep) and yeah, I looked in the mirror and my  hair was perfectly fine. Well, I guess it was just that "image of beauty" that was going through her mind when she thought I was crazy because of my hair (she's got a relaxer).
Okay! so, this girl couldn't sleep with her hair out like that. I started puffy twisting (big twists) my hair, but I had a bit of a problem at the back of my hair (couldn't do it). Luckily, my last roommate walked into the room just then and she helped me twist up the untwisted bits at the back. I then got a bit more shea butter on my hair (with a bit of water in the sheaB) and then put a shower cap on and tied a scarf over my hair. By the next morning, wait! rewind! Okay! so when I took my hair down and detangled it did I tell you that it felt SO gorgeous!! Gaaah! okay! fastforward! When I took of the shower cap and did whatever I needed to do, my hair felt GOR-GE-OUS! It also had a soft wave to it that didn't go even after my hair got wet. I loved it. Someone touched part of my hair, I'm guessing because he asked, "why do you have such cotton-y extensions in your hair," while we were on the bus ride back to civilisation.
One more thing! I drank more water, craved more water than I ever have/had at the bootcamp. AND the only thing I used on my hair while I was there was water and shea butter. Worked wonders for me, I guess.

Okay! So, now, yeah, I didn't have the time to make a quickie conditioner and quickly condition my hair when I got home so I just tried rinsing it out thoroughly before my mum braided my hair in 10 cornrows (which I'm rocking right now :) )

I'm going to make a pet peeve post after this (I need to mention something having to do with cornrows and school)

I think I might try mini braiding my hair some time soon. I know I have been against braids for some time now, but well, I'll go get this done at a salon (even though I don't like the only lady that would agree to touch my hair there. She always brings out her rat tail combs to comb my hair with and she always argues with my when I say my hair's fully detangled and slide my finger through it and they come out easily and well, she's like, "nothing would happen to your hair!" and tries combing it from the roots TO THE ENDS!!!! GAAH! Next time she argues with me, I'll go find someone else to get my hair done. I know I'm just a teen, but my hair means so much to me and I don't joke around with how my hair's managed and taken care of).

Okay! So here's what I'm going to do with my hair when I get my mini/box braids done:

Gotten from BeadsBraidsandBeyond (pic from someone named Aisha). I do not in any way own this picture.

So, what do you think?

Sorry, for the really long post, it's just been too too long and well, I'm in school, FUN, right?

Talk to you guys later.

~Sam :)

My Hair Regimen thingy

Okay! so, I’ve never called this a hair regimen/routine or whatever, but here it goes:

Friday night till Saturday morning/afternoon:

1. Done on Friday: Deep condition (with my homemade all natural deep conditioner. DC made has to do with how my hair feels. If really dry, an avocado (and other things) DC, a 100% natural palm oil DC (gosh! that stuff works wonders and leaves my hair feeling so soft, but it’s hard to wash out) or a shea butter based DC. I have protein DCs and other stuff, but it all depends on how my hair feels). Sleep with deep conditioner in my hair and a plastic cap and scarf over it.
2. Wash hair with shampoo, focus on just the scalp (once a month or two if it’s not been up to a month yet, shampoo’s not touching my hair).
3. Co-wash thoroughly
4. Detangle while conditioner’s in hair/during co-wash
5. Get natural oils (like my homemade rosemary oil, canola oil, olive oil etc) into hair
6. Air dry (I never use a blow drier/hood or anything heat related)

Weekly protective style:

1. On either a Saturday or Sunday, I usually get my hair braided (both flat braids and well, box-braid kinda braids) or two-strand twisted. My hair is braided or twisted wet (and as it dries, it’s re-wetted, if my hair’s not been fully braided). I usually keep this in for about a week or two. I used to do it with hair extensions, but nowadays, just my hair. (Optional: get natural aloe vera gel and shea butter onto hair)
2. Get all the ends of my braided or twisted hair together using a pony tail holder or something like that, fold the ends and hold them in a way that they can stay under my hair and not brush on my shirt or neck.
3.  Get natural oils into my hair (I love using rosemary oil because my hair loves that and it also prevents dryness, dandruff and itchy scalp). *I only get oils on my hair at night because I believe they can attract dust or lint at day (when I’m out and about).
4. Sleep with a scarf on every night.

Weekly routine (when I don’t braid/twist my hair):

*The no hair touching method:

1. Fully detangle and get oils into hair when wet
2. Braid end of hair together round the whole head ending at the back.
3. Tie a clean head scarf or wrap over it neatly.
4. Keep the scarf on and change scarves every night (I have a scarf I use at night and one I use at day).
5. Try not to take off the scarf and when I do take it off to change scarves, I don’t touch my hair or at least, I lightly get something like canola oil onto it and then my hair’s in a scarf again.

*don’t do this for more than a week in a row.

*The hidden ends method:

1. Make a mix of organic leave-in hair conditioners, water and oils. Shake it up.
2. Get mix into bits of your hair just before you detangle.
3. Section hair with a bit from the middle to whichever chosen side of my hair as a fringe (kinda thing) and clip it away, braid it away or something.
4. Get a head band on, but keep it round my neck while I comb out the other part of my hair upwards (starting from ends to roots).
5. Get the headband up in a way that it holds down my edges and it’s right above the fringe section (it usually slants).
6. Take hair back, or most of it, braid the ends together and tuck the braid under the hair band.
7. Take hair from the sides or hair that didn’t stay with the braid and tuck them under the hair band to cover up the hair band (only the bit of the hair band above the fringe is left to show).
8. Unravel the fringe, get some of the mix on it, finger comb (or comb with a wide tooth comb) and braid/twist the ends of the hair together, like a flat braid/twist only that you’re joining the ends of the hair together and then braiding/twisting away from the scalp area (wish I had explanatory pics). Braid/twist till no more hair is left to add to it and then just braid it down to the end.
9. Get some shea butter mix (mine has shea butter (duuh) and rosemary oil in it), rub it between palms and smooth over hair to keep it in place and help it set like that well so there are no flyaways or anything like that.

* Flat twist outs:

1. Fully detangle hair when wet
2. Get random sections or section out hair neatly and flat twist (make as many as you want, but the final product will according to how big/small your flat twist sections were).
3. Get a bit of shea butter onto hair (because of no. 4)
4. Get 100% natural aloe vera gel (straight from the plant) and smooth over hair for definition and light gel hold.
5. Best to do the above (and tie a scarf over) the night before you want the "out." You can repeat the aloe the next morning then undo the twists carefully and style however you want.

*There are other styles I can do (way better than these, plus this is being worked on a little bellow collar bone length hair (when stretched)), but I can’t type ‘em all now. *sigh* But, one thing is, it’s better to get your hair braided or twisted that these ones. I believe it’s healthier.

Stretching:

Options:
1. Bantu knots
2. Twists
3. Twists that are turned into bantu knots
4. African threading/Ghana plaits (real easy to do)
5. Flat twists

After swimming (in a chlorinated pool esp. without a swim cap):

1. Rinse out hair thoroughly (if you have shampoo or conditioner on you, wash/co-wash your hair well)
2. Get some oils or butters into your hair (making sure your hair’s not so greasy or oily it can’t be touched.

Moisture (sorta tightlycurly way):

1. In a bowl, mix up a combing conditioner (you should be able to find some good combing conditioners on tightlycurly.com), a bit of water, organic leave-in conditioners and oils (rosemary preferably, but I usually have canola in too).
2. Apply to hair and detangle or just comb out. *do not use a lot!

*OR! Most of the time, I just use plain water only!

Products used:

DC: All homemade
Shampoo: John Frieda Frizz-Ease Curl Around Style Activating… (I’m planning on changing this)
Conditioner: John Frieda Frizz-Ease Curl Around Style Activating (not sure if I’ll change this)
Oils: Extra Virgin Olive oil, Canola oil, Homemade Rosemary Oil (hoping to add jojoba, coconut and castor oils to the list soon)

Can’t remember what else to say…*sigh* First time I typing these.
Hope this helps somebody