Detangling

Picture from GlobalCoutureBlog.net

I am here to give you hope about detangling.

Okay! So, I am still in a protective style at the moment, but I am going to talk about my experiences each time I took down my protective style (especially the last one).

As your hair gets longer, detangling gets easier. Like whaaaaat?! I never believed this till I experienced it. Okay! So, it's easy to detangle when you wear your hair short and then it's harder during that in-between stage (between long and short hair) and then it's easy again!

Last I knew, my hair was just a little past APL length. I took down a protective style (after protective styling for 4 months straight (I washed my hair while it was still in the protective style, don't worry) and like, I just needed a spray bottle with some ACV and water, my fingers and a shower comb to take out the tangles on the first day I washed my hair with the protective style out to detangle and then like, skip to the next time I washed it. Imagine super tangled hair that has been worn in all sorts of styles and has reverted and become all shrunken due to the ever present drizzle here in England. Yup! That was my hair. Guess what? I just sectioned my hair into 4 sections, got in the shower, turned the water on and as it went onto each loose section, I would hold my hair out gently (stretching it) and then run my hands down it with my thumb pressed into the section and my tangles are gone! Like, I just have to do the whole hand-thumb thing to get out shed hair! I don't need tools to get my hair 100% detangled anymore!

Okay! So, like I said, I'm just posting this to give you guys hope! The struggle will soon be over. I am glad that I do not have to spend 1.5hours detangling my hair anymore! :)

Can't wait till my hair is even longer! (I do see some new growth under my protective style, though :) )

Being real with you

Hey,

Sorry for not posting in a while.

Okay, so I am going to be real with you guys. I am not going to give the impression that I have everything under control and that my hair is 100% healthy and moisturised because honestly, it's not. Well, I can get it there though. You see, I haven't really bothered with my hair in a while. I have been focussing more on work and working out and well, those are important especially the work bit as I teach a class at a prep school starting from 8am on Thursdays and Fridays, I've been made a charity representative so I plan a lot of charity events and host many of them, I have tonnes of school work as this is my last year of college, I recently took up a job in a place not so far from my school, I perform often, I have rehearsals twice a week till night for a musical I auditioned for a while back, I have rehearsals for other things too and my vocal coach recently signed me up for 3/4 competitions. I'm also ensuring my health stays up as for once, I am healthy. So, yeah, I've been neglecting my hair a little too much.

My hair is dry, I snap knots I feel in it some times, I fiddle with it a little too much at times and well it is growing, I have about an inch of new growth, but the health of my hair has deteriorated as I only have time for it during the holidays now.

So, this is me telling you all that I don't always have everything under control. I am not some superhuman natural hair blogger. I'm just like you, sometimes, I have everything down, other times, I don't.

I am going to nurse my hair back to health once everything settles down a bit (and I take down my protective style) and yeah, I will be happy with the condition of my hair once again.

I don't like neglecting my hair, but I'm not going to lie to you all or  deceive you and make you think that I never neglect my hair because I do at times.

This is me being real.
~Sammy

Midas Naturals Product Reviews!

Picture gotten from MidasNaturals.com

Yes! I've finally gotten the review up!

So, I didn't use all the products in the pic above. I just used the hydrating mist, whipped shea butter and conditioner so that's all I'm going to review (but I'll do a shampoo review once I receive the shampoo).

Overall Review:
I like these products because their ingredients lists are awesome. All-natural ingredients, amazing right? (the ingredients that don't look natural are naturally-derived (derived from plants) I also like that they did not leave my hair feeling weird or stripped both during and after application and please don't say, "oh, Sammy, a conditioner, hydrating mist and whipped shea butter can never leave your hair feeling weird or stripped," because I have used a conditioner that has left my hair feeling weird and stripped before.
I would SO be willing to try other products from MidasNaturals! :)

Individual Review:

Shine Conditioner
Price: £10.39 for the next 5 days (then it's back up to £12.99) for a 250ml jar.

Ingredients -  Aqua, organic shea butter (butyrosperumum parkii), avocado (persea gratissima), emulsifying wax NF, sweet almond oil (prunus dulcis amara), potassium oleate, potassium cocoate, potassium citrate, palm free vegetable glycerin, coconut oil (cocos nucifera), keratin amino acid, phenoxyethanol, anthem gum. PH balanced. Free from: paragons, silicones, sulphates, DEA, petrolatum, mineral oils, pthalates, gluten, fragrance

When I received this conditioner, I thought it was simply just a rinsing conditioner, but it's even more.

Okay! So, on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is "terrible" and 5 is "totally amazing!" I will rate this product on the following things:

• As a detangler - 2
• As a rinsing conditioner - 5
• As a deep conditioner - 5

The smell of this product is light and not bad, at all.

Applying the product is easy and most definitely not messy and unlike some products that drip uncontrollably from your hair, this product does not drip.

It's consistency is slightly thick which is good not just for application purposes but also because for my hair, it's perfect. Things that are too light basically do nothing noticeable for my hair and things that are too heavy....lets just say that both my hair and I hate them.

Oh! oh! Although my hair looks shiny often, on wash day (after washing), it doesn't look that shiny, but today, it did :)

*Would I buy this product: YES!

*Would I recommend this product: Heck, yeah!

Whipped Shea Hair Butter

Price: £10.79 for the next 5 days (then it's back up to £13.49) for a 250ml jar.

Ingredients -  Aqua, organic shea butter (butyrospermum parkii), avocado oil (persea gratissima), coconut oil (cocos nucifera), emulsifying wax NF (cetearyl alchohol & polysorbate 60), olive oil (olea europaea), argan oil, crambe seed oil (abyssinica), organic palm oil (elaeis guineesis), stearic acid, xantham gum, phenoxyethanol, vanilla cream fragrance oil. PH balanced. Free from: parabens, silicones, sulphates, DEA, petrolatum, mineral oils, pthalates, gluten

I first tried this while I still had my crochet braids in. I used it on my edges and liked it so, I couldn't wait to use it on the rest of my hair.

On a scale of 1-5 where 1 is "terrible" and 5 is "totally amazing!" I will rate this product on the following things:

• As a styling product - 4
• As a sealant - 5

Although the product description refers to the butter as, "thick," I don't consider it to be thick because I have a jar of shea butter my grandmother sent over to me from Africa and that thing is THICK! I would describe this product's texture as nice and fluffy, not too thick and not light.

It's smell is light and nice.

Application is easy, HOWEVER, it is hard to get the whiteness off like to work it into your hair fully. However, if your hair was damp during application and you worked it in till you decided to just let it be, the whiteness will go once your hair dries (or is 90% dry).

*Would I buy this product: Yes

*Would I recommend this product: Yes

Hydrating Hair Mist

Price: £9.99 for the next 5 days (then it's back to £12.49) for a 250ml bottle.

Ingredients - Organic aloe vera leaf juice (Aloe Barbadensis), solubizer, blackberry extract (rubus fructicosus), rich vanilla cream fragrance PH balanced. Free from: parabens, silicones, sulphates, DEA, petrolatum, mineral oils, pthalates, gluten

I will start by saying that I love that this comes out like a mist and not like the Niagara Falls. There are many times I have expected something to come out as a mist and instead it's like I'm being fired with water pistols that let out quite a lot of water, but this isn't like that.

I first tried this while I had my crochet braids in too and when my edges felt dry, I used this to hydrate it especially if I'm in a rush. I can't remember if I ever used this alone (I think I always quickly followed up with the whipped shea butter after working this in).

Anyways, on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is "terrible" and 5 is "totally amazing!" I will rate this product on the following things:

• As a hydrator - 4
• Balancing your hair's natural pH value - 5

This product smells okay.

Water is said to be the best hydrator however, I wash my face with just water and my face goes right back to peeling if I don't get some oil or something on it quickly. Water sometimes, makes my hair feel hydrated and moisturised, but I think this does a bit of a better job than the water that comes out of the taps and showers here.

I like that using this, my hair does not really revert even though this product is in the form of a liquid. Like, the other day, I was remoisturising my hair (I had it stretched out using threads) and this mist barely did a thing to revert my hair while a tad bit of my conditioner (not by MidasNaturals) made it revert a whole lot and that wasn't even a leave-in conditioner!

I like that most of the product is aloe vera juice because my hair just adores anything from the aloe vera leaf!

This product does not drip off of your hair after application.

*Would I buy this product: Yup

*Would I recommend this product: Mmh-hmm

En Fin

Like I said at the start of this, I would love to try other products by MidasNaturals and there is a high chance that I'll purchase these products the next time I'm restocking on hair products. There is a higher chance that I'll buy the Shine Conditioner than I will the other products (no particular reason).

I love these products!

To any company manufacturing and selling natural hair products, I am willing to review your products and if your products has all-natural ingredients, there is a high chance I would not use it on just a small portion of hair on the back of my head, but on my entire head of hair (just being honest). Contact my via the email address on my Contacts page on this blog if your would like me to review your products.

I will not purchase your products to review if you ask me to review them as there is always the possibility that my hair might dislike them so, please, if you would like me to review your products, send me a trial-size/sample bottle or container of them.

My hair post-crochet braids takedown

Picture gotten from HerCampus

So, I took my hair down a week ago, on Monday, and got too lazy to wash it so I detangled it the next morning finger detangling first then spritzing with apple cider vinegar, working some coconut oil in and running a comb through working in small sections and holding my hair in a stretched position. It was a pretty easy detangle. I've never had a detangling experience that good! I washed it immediately after using my BeeMine Botanicals Shampoo and then conditioned it with my BeeMine BeeLovely Conditioner followed by my Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner then I deep conditioned with my Terressentials Mud Wash (hehe ;) ) and worked out while deep conditioning to ensure some "steam" goes on in that plastic bag. I rinsed out the mud and reconditioned using a little of my Shea Moisture Restorative Conditioner. I worked in small sections throughout and always retwisted and bantu knotted after working on each section to keep my hair stretched and make it easier to work with my hair.

Okay! So my mum African threaded my hair that night and I was too lazy to take out the threads the next day or to redo it for a "super-stretched" look so I left the threads in for two days and then took them down on Saturday, combed out my hair which was hanging down my back already and left it like that. However, my hair got big, like REALLY BIG and looked like a gigantic afro within a few hours. It looked pretty awesome and pretty cool and I'm pretty glad it retained its stretch even after doing that.

That night, I put my hair in random braids to retain the stretch, donned on a satin scarf and went to bed. This morning, I combed it out and held it up in a puff with some bangs and tried slicking down my edges. My puff looked pretty good. It was HUGE!

I love my hair!! :)
Gaah! :)

~Sammy

p.s Going to try out the product sent to me by Midas Naturals this coming weekend! :) SO EXCITED!!!! :)

Beauty Vlogger Donates Her Hair To ‘Locks Of Love’ Before Cancer Treatment [VIDEO]

Written by Ty Alexander of HelloBeautiful

I’ve always admired beauty vlogger, Meechy Monroe. She started blogging in 2010 and has managed to turn what most call a hobby into a lucrative business that has her traveling the world to talk about her natural hair story. But recently, that story took a drastic change that she could have never expected.

I sat and admired Meechy’s pictures for hours this morning. I read her blog post over and over again. Then I watched a tearful yet fearless video that she posted on her Youtube channel. The flood gates opened, I cried uncontrollably. Instagram is literally going bonkers, and rightfully so, surrounding the hashtag#GetWellMeechy. After being absent from her blog and social media for months, Meechy announced that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer.

It all started with a mysterious life-changing stroke which led to two brain surgeries, radiation and chemo therapy. This also left Meechy with Aphasia, a disturbance of the delivery of language not linked to a loss of intelligence.

But what happens next is selfless, courageous and speaks volumes to the meaning of humanity.

Putting aside her own needs and feelings, she managed to think about the millions of other individuals plagued with cancer. Meechy carefully shaved her gorgeous tresses, which made her a popular Youtube sensation, and donated them to “Locks Of Love.”

Most of us never think we could ever survive an unthinkable experience like Meechy’s. We assume that we’re never strong enough to go through something like this. But if you’re like me and you believe in the power of human connection than you know we are all capable of the unthinkable with the helping hands of our friends, family, and even strangers. Even from afar we can all support Meechy and let her and her family know that she is not alone.

SO, HOW CAN YOU HELP MEECHY:

• You can help support by donating here  http://bit.ly/donate-meechy-monroe
• You can also send her encouraging notes and letters using this email address:GetWellMeechy@gmail.com
• You may send tokens of sympathy or written letters to: P.O. Box 286621, Chicago IL 60628.

#TeamBeautiful sends our well wishes to the Monroe family.

Meechy's Medical Expense Fund

Hey naturals,

So, incase you don't know Meechy, she's a natural hair and beauty YouTuber and so happens to be MsVaughnTV's sister.

Meechy has been sick for some time now and a couple of months ago, it was discovered that she has a rare form of brain cancer.

So, readers, please, please keep Meechy in your prayers.

Also, if you can make a donation on her GiveForward page, please do and if you can't please pass the link on to others.

Thank you.

~Sammy

Curly Men

         
           

Hey,

Ladies, we are the only one in the limelight (or we're mainly the ones in it). I don't think we've ever stopped to realise that some guys have really amazing curls and kinks, though! I mean, most guys are natural, but most of them also don't give a hoot about their hair's health. Let's celebrate the ones that do. Let's celebrate the ones that are putting themselves out there. Let's not just celebrate our heads of hair, but theirs too! :)

So, I'm going to feature some curly guys on my blog this summer! So excited! Eeep!! :)

~SammyWithTheBigHair