Loc Log #16: Happy 1 Year Locversary to my Locs!

May 23, 2010 is the day that my locs turned 1 year old! Wow, who would have thought that I could basically keep one hairstyle for 1 year and looking forward to many more. But I suppose it's much more than a hairstyle, it's a hair lifestyle. Going natural and deciding to loc my hair are the single best hair decisions I have ever made. My how time flies! My natural hair two year anniversary will be here before you know it........August 20. I'm getting some anniversary pics together, so in the mean time here is my anniversary loc routine.

1. Gave myself an Ojon Restorative Treatment. Allow this to remain in hair until shampoo time.

2. I latched or interlocked my new growth with my hair pin tool. This pretty much took all day with a long nap in the middle. :-)

3. During shampoo time, I initially rinsed my hair really well then proceeding to do an ACV rinse. I allowed this to sit for awhile.

4. Next, I shampooed my hair three times with my Chagrin Valley Cafe Moreno shampoo bar. I love the way this stuff smells. Cloves!

5. Normally I would have oiled my scalp, but this time I just sprayed Taliah Waajid protective mist bodifier on my locs and sat under the dryer for a while.

My hair dried a bit, just enough to barely feel the dampness. Before bed, I'll spray them with my jojoba/sweet almond oil and aloe vera juice spray and wrap them for the night.

Pictures are coming!

Mik

Braid Out Gone Bad!

So yesterday I decided that I wanted to try a braid out. I've done twist and coil outs before but never a braid out. I shampooed my hair with my diluted Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Shampoo and then conditioned with Oyin's Honey Hemp Conditioner. After that I putin my leave-in concoction of Ojon restorative leave in and Cantu Shea Butter leave in. Then I proceeded to braid it with Aloe Vera Gel. I think that was the problem. The Aloe Vera gel by itself doesn't have enough holding/setting power. When I took down the braids this morning, it was a Hot Stretched Out Mess! Never fear, my head bands are ALWAYS close by. I put a little IC styling gel on the front and in the "kitchen" and made a puff. This was the biggest, fluffiest puff I've gotten since going natural. (Sorry that I don't have a pic of the back.) My hair is really growing! Thanks bad braid out for giving me the best puff ever!

On another note.......I received my nappylocs biz in a box yesterday! I'm so excited about starting my locks. The book suggests that you do test locks before actually locking your hair. I'll do that later this week. Hopefully, I'll take some pictures of the test locks. The process of locking using this tool is really going to be a long one. I realized yesterday and this morning (bad braid out) just how much hair I have. I suppose I'll be calling on my skillful niece for help with this endeavor! More on that later.

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