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)

Caring For My Mini Twists.

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Hey!

So, I've had my twists in for a week and a day now and I thought I should just talk about what I'm doing with it.

People tend to neglect their hair once it's in a protective style like this especially when done with extensions. I do not have extensions in. This is because they believe that they don't have to do as much as they would normally do to their hair and as the name says, it's protective.

Mini twists are protective, but in order for them to actually be a good protective style, they have to be properly cared for. They have to be moisturised and it's best for them to be stretched.

I moisturise my twists every morning and evening with my new homemade product (which I love to bits). I'm not putting its recipe up because I plan on selling the product in the near future. I usually use the products on my twists after a shower (with my twists held up) or after running damp hands through my hair. I can use the product without doing any of those though. So, I work it in in a "praying" motion - moving my hands downwards with the twists between my palms. This keeps the hair in a pretty good shape. Remember, moisture is like one of the main keys to healthy hair growth.

I stretched my twists immediately after they were installed because my hair got reverted at the salon. I held all the twists together at the top of my head with a metal-free ponytail holder and secured the sides bobby pins so all my twists are properly stretched. I had my hair up like that till Monday. Now, I take it down at day time and style it in a low ponytail, do twist outs on my twists, do a tuck, roll and pin, et cetera, BUT every night, my hair goes back up to keep in stretched.

Many of us dread wash 'n' goes or simply just wearing our hair out in afros or puffs. Why? Tangles. Due to the elements our hair shrinks and because of the fact that our curls curl up without thinking 'bout the curl beside it, our hair tangles and excessive tangling can lead to huge knots that have to be cut out or simply just breakage. We keep our hair stretched usually to reduce the amount of tangles we get. So, by keeping your twists stretched at all times, you are preventing the hair twisted up from tangling and being a horror to take down.

I haven't washed my twists yet, but I might some day soon. I have washed my hair with twists in (With extensions) before so I'll tell you how I did that 'cause that'll be the same way I'll do it. I lightly braid sections of my twists and secure the ends of the braids with pony tail holders or rubber bands (rubber bands only if I have extensions in that are longer than my hair length). I dilute some shampoo mixed with olive oil and a bit of a conditioner with water in a bottle and shake it all up then get some of it on my fingers and work it on my scalp. I leave it on for about a minute and rinse out thoroughly then get conditioner in my hands and scrunch it into the braids I created. I leave it in for a few minutes then rinse it out. Use an old cotton shirt to scrunch out excess water and leave my hair in the braids till it dries fully (or till it's at least 80% dry). Gotta keep your scalp clean and be able to breath and let out its sebum.

Okay! So, that's it for now. I'll talk more about my twists after I take them down (dunno when that's going to happen).

~Samantha

Shrinkage & Stretching (REVIEW!!!! = various stretching methods)

Gaah! January's already almost over? Just 1 day to go till February? Wow!

Anyways, hey everyone!
Today (well, yesterday), I decided to talk to you guys about stretching, stretching your hair/curls (not the err...exercise stretching thingy). Okay! so,  so far, I've tried stretching my hair by doing two strand twists (and three-strand twists), African threading (aka Ghana Plaits), basic braids (box braids), bantu knots, scarf&ponytail holder and setting rollers (there's another name for those, but I can seem to remember it right now.

My hair shrinks like A LOT! There have been some days that I go out rocking a beautiful afro, but by the next few hours, my hair's a frizzy mess or should I just say a shrunken frizzy mess. Someone once asked me, "did you cut your hair?" and I was like, "no." The same person then asked, "then why does it look way shorter," and I was like, "because it shrunk." I then held part of my hair and pulled it downwards to show it's actual length and that I didn't cut it and the person I was talking to was like, "oh, wow!" Some people just kept staring at my hair for a while after that. The person I was talking to has natural curls too, but a different curl type/pattern, plus, she doesn't have to deal with so much shrinkage (it's hard to notice if she even gets shrinkage). Anyways, so this led me to start trying to stretch out my curls. Here's a brief review on the following methods I tried:

• Two-strand (and 3 strand) twists: I did this while my hair was damp (you can find vids on how to two-strand twist and three-strand twist on YouTube). When it was dry and I had to leave the house, I took the twists down. I have to say, I liked the twist-out look it gave, but like when it comes to stretching and shrinkage, after a couple of hours, my hair shrunk. On a different day, I was bored so I decided to two-strand twist my hair. I didn't wet my hair before doing this because I felt kind of lazy and well, I wasn't planning on combing my hair (it was already detangled). When I needed to take out the twists, I took them out (obviously) and like it gave me that twist out look too, and my hair did seem a bit more stretched than when I did the twists with damp hair. Unfortunately, after a few hours, my hair shrunk (but not so much). When it comes to stretching my hair, I don't think twists would be my go-to method. They are good, but it takes quite some time for me to two-strand twist my whole hair.
• African Threading (aka Ghana Plaits): I have tried African Threading my hair with both wool and weave thread (not at the same time!). You can find vids on how to African Thread hair on YouTube (I recommend checking out the one on youtube.com/GirlsLoveYourCurls). I have to say that this is one of my go-to styles when it comes to stretching my hair. I love the soft waves/look it gives my hair, I like how my hair feels when I take them out, there are various ways to African thread and like some times, people think I have extensions in or I have some sort of weave when I do certain forms of African threading (with weave thread). When I African Thread my hair, it stays stretched way longer than when I two-strand twist my hair. The last time I African threaded my hair, I had it like that for a week before I took it out and I did it on damp (almost dry though, but still damp) hair.
• Basic Braids (box braids): I love the braid out look when I take basic/box braids down :) I always braid my hair wet and then let it air dry/dry naturally. Basic braids have helped stretch my curls and kinks each time I've done them, but, well, after some time (hours), my hair shrinks. I must say, I think basic braiding stretches my hair to about the same length two-strand twists do or sometimes, it stretched my hair more than twists. You can find vids on how to basic braid on YouTube (check out the one on youtube.com/GirlsLoveYourCurls)
• Bantu Knots: I'm not a huge fan of bantu knots and bantu knot outs, but I can do them. Bantu knots do stretch my hair, but my hair still shrinks after some time. At some point, bantu knots gave me sort of a curled-relaxed hair look. I didn't really like it, but it wasn't so bad. I have tried a combination of two-strand twists and bantu knots (twisted my hair then bantu knotted that twisted hair). The -out look it gave looked kinda nice, but it's not a look that'll be like my go-to style. Also, bantu knots are not my go-to method for stretching my hair, but it works wonders for some people.
• Scarf&Ponytail Holder: First, I'll explain how this is done. You hold your hair up with a ponytail holder while still damp (or wet, it's your choice) and if you get worried about your frontal hair/frontal edges, you leave out a bit of the hair there and flat twist of flat braid it. Next, you tie a scarf over the hair that's held up my the ponytail holder (make sure you don't get the scarf over the flat twist/braid). Do whatever you need to do till you need to take this down (your hair has to be fully dry when taking it down, by the way). This method was my go-to style at some point last year. I don't do it anymore because right now, I'm not a fan of holding my hair up (edges...plus, I want to grow out my hair a bit more before I hold it up like that again.
• Setting Rollers: Tried this method out yesterday when my mum found her rollers from the 90s :) (oh! and I soaked, washed and so on, the rollers before I used them on my hair because they hadn't been used in about a decade). So, how I did it: I got random bits of my hair and got some of my moisturising conditioner mix (made up of John Frieda Friss-Ease: Curl Activating Daily Conditioner, some rosemary oil, some canola oil, a bit of my pH balanced leave in condition mix and a tad bit of water. I eyeballed all the ingredients. I love how this makes my hair feel! :) ). So, after I got the conditioner mix onto my hair, I finger combed a bit then slid a Denman Brush through (to make sure I had no tangles) then I hand stretched my hair (pulling) and wrapped the ends round the roller then I rolled it up holding my hair so it's stretched then pinned it up. I did this to every bit of hair on my head and I had my hair like that for...hours (I was moving house so, I just tied a scarf over it while shuffling between houses and moving). When I took the rollers down, my hair felt so good (from my mix :)), smelt so good (mix too!), it had that professional salon-set hair look that can be combed out into a bob or something, but what I was looking for was what I found - stretched hair! This is a go-to method for stretching my hair now! :)

Okay! so, I'm planning on trying out 'banding' as a new method for stretching my hair. I believe it might work, but well, let's wait and see! :)

Thanks for reading! :)

~Sam

My go-to stretching methods: African threading and, setting rollers.