Oyin Handmade Review

I've had my Oyin Handmade products for a week now. I think it's time for an official review. I purchased four products from Oyin on March 28. I ordered Greg Juice, Juices and Berries, Honey Hemp Conditioner, and Shine and Define. Before I go any further with specifics, I must say that each one of these products gets top billing in my book! They are all spectacular!

Honey Hemp Conditioner - This conditioner is not only reminiscent of lemony honey goodness, but it's light and provides excellent condtioning. After just one use, I was able to IMMEDIATELY and completely comb through my hair! This is a first, as my hair is very thick and coily. Honey Hemp left my hair very soft, moist, and extremely shiny. Perhaps the only thing I don't like about this conditioner is the fact that I have to use so much for my 5 inches of thick hair. I would love to keep using this conditioner, but WHEN my hair gets longer, I may have to use half of the bottle for one use! At $18 for the 16 oz. bottle, I suppose that's a little steep to have to use so much, but for the quality, I'm very willing to purchase this again (and again!).

Greg Juice/Juices and Berries - These leave-ins are the best ever! They alone provide the moisturization that I've been looking for. The scent of these product is phenomenal as well. I'm slightly partial to the scent of the Juices and Berries; however, each product provides the exact same moisturization for my hair. When I use this product with my Ojon Restorative leave-in, the softness, shine, and moisturization are unprecedented! LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, :-)

Shine and Define - This product works wonders by itself or with other products. It can slick down those unruly edges, tame those frizzies, make the little curlies and coils pop, and give a mean shine to dull hair! I normally use this products with my IC Fantasia Gel, and together.....I've found NOTHING better for defining my curls. This week has been my best curlie week ever!

All of these products can be found at oyinhandmade.com. There are a couple of other online retailers that sell these products, but I prefer the original website because of their excellent customer service. Beware that it can take their products up to three weeks (or more) to get to your doorstep. Never fret, these products are made fresh upon your order's place in the queue. This is actually a good thing! Fresh and great quality. Thanks Oyin Handmade! Check out ScandalousBeauty and her review of Oyin! (Click here for video.)

8th month Nappyversary

Today is my 8th month Nappyversary! Yay me! This is by far the longest I have ever kept my natural hair. I'm loving it! All of the hair forums, blogs, Fotki.com photos, and Youtube videos have been extremely helpful. Kudos! A year will be here in no time.

Mik

Straightening Experiment

After reviewing my list of hair products, I realized that I had left some things off. I forgot to mention Carol’s Daughter’s Hair Milk, Miss Jessie’s Curly Buttercreme, and Kinky Curly’s gloss pomade. I had stopped using the Hair Milk, but I recently made it work very well for my hair. Yay me!

Today, I attempted something new since I’ve been natural. I attempted to straighten my hair! It really wasn’t so bad, but I think it will be better if my hair were a little longer. I started out the process by washing my hair as always with Dr. Bronner’s magic soap (peppermint), then I proceeded to condition and sit under the dryer with Oyin Handmade’s Honey Hemp Conditioner. This product alone is my new FAVORITE product! My hair is very thick, and after rinsing the conditioner out, I could immediately comb through my hair with absolutely no problems. This was great! I sectioned my hair and blow dried it with Joico Silk Elements blow drying cream, and Chi Silk Infusion. Then I went on to flat iron it with Sally’s Ion Anti-Frizz Ceramic-Tourmaline flat iron. It did a really great job. After I made the decision that it needed to be longer, I dusted my ends. Then I shampooed it very lightly with a diluted natural shampoo, re-conditioned and started over.

I finally got a chance to use the rest of my new Oyin Handmade products. But I still kept it simple by misting my hair with Greg Juice and adding a little Ojon Restorative leave in.I had to go back to my staple product and favorite styler, IC Fantasia Hair polishing styling gel. I mixed it with some Oyin Handmade Shine and Define, and that’s it! The perfect wash-n-go curly fro! Until next time.

Mik

Amazing Grace!

As I sit here with just a couple of hours left during Resurrection Day 2009, I ponder what Jesus' resurrection actually means to me. First of all, I know that there are those who may be reading this that don't believe or care to read what I have to say, but as a child of God, I am compelled to SHARE the good news of Jesus Christ.

With as many shortcomings as I have, His dying and rising again means that I am FREE from the penalty of sin. He is a forgiving God, and I know that His blood washes me as white as snow! I am blessed to know that I have a home with Him in eternity. Thank You for Your blood!

I'm a Product Junkie!

Ok, i'm officially a product junkie. I was actually a product junkie before I decided to go natural, but the 'j' in me has taken a turn for the worse. During my springbreak I decided I would rid myself of unnecessary products and things I don't use. Well, as I sit here and gaze at the myriad of hair, bath, and body products, I realize that I truly have my work cut out for me. I NEED HELP. I think it might help if I categorize my products and then rank them according to their effectiveness on my hair. Then I will have to decide if they're keepers or not. I'll start with shampoo. (The lower the number, the more effective it is for my hair.)

Shampoo

3. Carol's Daughter Tui Herbal Shampoo

4. Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk Shampoo

2. Naked Naturals Awapuhi and Lavender shampoo (no sulfates)

1. 1. Dr. Bronner's 18-n-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure Castile Soap

Conditioners (instant and deep)

1. 1. Ojon Restorative Hair Treatment

2. 2. Carol's Daughter Tui Hair Smoothie

5. Tigi Bedhead Moisture Maniac

3. 4. Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk Conditioner

4. 3. Cantu Shea Butter Moisturizer Rinse Out Conditioner

**Oyinhandmade Honey Hemp Conditioner (in the mail!)

Leave in conditioners

1. Kinky Curly Knot Today (Best for Wash-n-Go)

2. Ellin Lavar Textures Detangle Mist (Best for Coils and Twists)

**Oyinhandmade Greg Juice (in the mail!)

**Oyinhandmade Juices-n-Berries (in the mail!)

Oils (I mix these so they are all pretty much the same for me.)

Carol's Daughter Tui Oil

Jojoba Oil

Sweet Almond Oil

Coconut Oil (More partial to this one.)

Lavender (eo)

Ylang Ylang (eo)

Vanilla (eo)

Stylers

1. IC fantasia hair polished styling gel

Miss jessie's curly pudding (just don't like)

Miss jessie's curly meringue (just don't like)

Miss jessie's stretch silkening cream (really, really don't like)

2. Kinky curly curling custard

Kinky curly spiral spritz

5. Jamaican mango and lime locking gel

4. Jamaican mango and lime locking gel (resistant formula)

4. Jamaican mango and lime locking wax (I know this is bad for me but my coils and twists are perfect with this!)

3. Organic root simulator lock and twist gel

**Oyinhandmade shine and define (in the mail!)

After this realization, it is time for some purging! Also, with this economy, I should be wiser with my money. Oh well, until next time.

Mik

Pictures of my Journey

The Natural Hair Journey Begins

August 20, 2008 began my final natural hair journey. I say this because I've started this journey before only to fall back into the world of "creamy crack" aka RELAXERS! I remember 8/20/08 like it was yesterday (as if I'm talking about 20 years ago!!). A couple of days before this, I decided that I wanted to dye my hair. Having had allergic reactions to darker hair dyes in the past, I decided that I would go a little lighter. Some lighter colors have actually worked for me without affecting my scalp. But not this time. My scalp was a hot mess...raw! I did the best I could to my hair the next morning before work. I was taking bathroom breaks at work all day just to go to see if my hair was still presentable. What I found was a swollen scalp! We had P.T.O. that night at school so I couldn't get home to take care of my head. But as soon as P.T.O. was over, I headed home to get the scissors! I took a couple of anti-inflammatory pills and commenced to BIG CHOP! It was the chemical hair color this time that led to me deciding to become natural. Well, I had to really be gentle with my scalp for the next few days so that it would heal, but in the meantime, my natural journey had started!

Facebook and Twitter

Is it just me or are sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace simply addictive? I started with MySpace. I had really gotten into it with the layouts, backgrounds, slide shows, and other random MySpace stuff. Soon, I got really annoyed by the whole site. I can't begin to count how many times I was locked out of the site. The last straw was when I got locked out and they wanted me to take some picture with my user name or some other crap. That's when I ventured over to Facebook. With Facebook, there was no layout or background "pimpin". Just stuff about you. I could handle that. Facebook is better catered to the older crowd, like myself. Youngins can get in on the fun too! I found so many of my classmates from high school and college on this site. It has been a great networking tool as far as my sorority is concerned. I love this social networking site so much until it's like the first thing I do when I get up in the morning. And let's not talk about twitter. Lots of people don't like it because it's a site about nothing....just posting what you are doing at any given time. I wish my bestest friends would jump on the bandwagon. Oh well.....I like it!

My First Time Blogging!

I've been wanting to blog for awhile now. I read blogs all of the time, whether it's about natural hair, beauty products, entertainment gossip, etc. It's fun, so why not try it! I chose the name "Natural Hair and Other Stuff!!" because I recently started my natural hair journey, but there are just SOOOO many other things that I'm interested in. Oh well, I'm excited! Time to get started!