What's in your spray bottle?

If you're leaving twists in your hair for days, or weeks, at a time, it's important to add moisture daily. Lots of Curlies mist their hair with a DIY leave-in conditioner. Recipes vary, I change mine depending on what I have on hand. This is my current mix:

6 oz. spray bottle
squirt of fave conditioner
squirt of Taliah Waajid Protective Mist Bodifier
squirt of aloe vera gel
a few drops of rich oil (avocado, olive, castor)
a few drops of fave e.o (tea tree, lavender, rosemary)
water

The ratio is roughly 70/30, with the majority being water. I spray my hair with this 2x/day, and seal with an oil at night. Let's water our garden, ladies! Until next time....

Update: Hair Routine

Check the "routine" tag in the sidebar. I've just been playing around with a few ingredients and made a few tweaks. 

twist-out

wearing 2x twists

• Scalp massage on wash day using avocado oil, Auromere oil and blend of  rosemary, tea tree, peppermint e.o
• Pre-poo with hair in 2x twists with Auromere oil, or conditioner under hooded dryer for 20 min. This helps with detangling since hair has been in twists 7-14 days.
• I pre-poo on DRY hair with a combo of 3-5 of my fave conditioners and seal with oil. Pop on a plastic cap, wrap a towel or scarf around that, and wear as long as I can stand it, sometimes overnight. My current pre-poo conditioners:
• Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose
• Burt's Bees Shea & Grapefruit Deep Conditoner
• Desert Essence Jojoba Conditioner (vitacost.com)
• Inecto Pure Coconut Oil Conditioner (Ulta)
• Coconut Oil to seal
• Finger detangle twists after pre-poo, then wash.
• This is key: Deep condition under hooded dryer for 30-45 minutes, then detangle with shower comb and paddle brush. No more detangling in the shower for me. Rinse and apply leave-in.
  
• Nature's Blessing hair dressing on scalp while twisting with Shea-Aloe. Seal with coconut oil, aloe vera gel mixed in palm of hands.
  
• Refresh twists daily with leave-in spray and seal with oil
• Set twists on rollers (sponge removed) on Saturday night for church
• Twist- out Sunday, detangle with fingers and paddle brush, moisturize  and re-twist Sunday night. This is the key to fewer tangles on the next wash day.
  
• Day before washing, saturate dry hair with fave conditioner and finger detangle
• Wash day and repeat

Best of 2009!

Happy New Year, Curlies! Better late, than never, right?

I still love you, I just want to make sure I'm giving you the best information I can, so I write when there's something exciting to write about. 2010 will be full of new product reviews, updates, beauty, skincare, videos and more! Before we jump into the new, let's recap some of the best products of 2009. Here we go......

Overall Hair Care: Curly Girl Method, "Baggy", and Sealing

Eliminating sulfates and -cones in my hair products has been the single best thing I've done for my hair in 2009. It retains moisture better, it's softer, shinier, and it simply looks healthy. For more info, check the tags in the side bar.

Shampoo: Aubrey Organics White Camelia

This cleanser is sulfate-free, but still does a great job cleaning my hair and scalp. I only use this product once every 2 weeks, focusing mainly on my scalp.

Co-Wash Conditioner: Trader Joe's Nourish Spa

Deep Conditioner: Aubrey Organics Honey Suckle Rose

I get much better results with a damp washcloth over my hair, plastic cap, and a hooded dryer for 30-45 minutes. Makes detangling a breeze!

Leave-In Conditioner: Desert Essence Jojoba Conditioner and Taliah Waajid Protective Mist Bodifier

Moisturizer: Shea-Aloe (with a KinkyCurly Twist)

Follow the recipe for basic Shea-Aloe. Once the oils have cooled, add 1/4 C of conditioner (must be silicone and protein free) and 1/4 C Taliah Waajid Bodifier. Mix until creamy

Oil(s): Auromere Pre-Shampoo Conditioner

This Ayurvedic oil is a blend of Indian herbs, coconut, and wheat germ oils. It gives my hair nourishment and amazing shine. For an amazing hot oil treatment- saturate hair with oil, pop on a plastic cap, and sit under a hooded dryer for 20 minutes. Wash and style as usual.

Styling Product: Taliah Waajid  Lock It Up "gel"

This product defines curls like a traditional gel, without the drying alcohol. It's also made with nettle, hemp, and Taliah's Black Earth formula.

Routine: Check these    posts

Skin Care (For my dry skin)

Cleanser: Oil Cleansing Method (All skin types)

100% African Black Soap

Moisturizer: I love experimenting with the ingredients that I have on hand. This winter, my skin has been loving shea butter, jojoba oil, and aloe vera gel mixed in the palm of my hand.

Exfoliator: Philosophy The Microdelivery Peel

Worth every penny! Vitamin C crystals and lactic/salicylic acid gel combine to exfoliate and resurface skin revealing glowing, just-had-a-facial skin. This will last months-a little goes a long way.

A quick hair update......

You all know my current cold-weather hair routine is 1 week of wearing twists, 1 week of a twist-out or puff, wash day every 2 weeks. That's the big picture. Let me hit you with the details:

• Scalp massage on wash day using avocado oil, rosemary e.o blend
• Nature's Blessing hair dressing on scalp while twisting
• Refresh twists daily with leave-in and seal with oil
• Set twists on rollers (sponge removed) on Saturday night for church
• Twist- out Sunday, detangle and re-twist Sunday night. This is the key to fewer tangles on the next wash day.
  
• Day before washing, saturate dry hair with fave conditioner and finger detangle
• Wash day and repeat

This has helped my hair stay knot-free, and combing on wash day is much easier. I can't stress enough the importance of a GREAT arsenal of conditioners to moisturize and manage  our hair. *NOTE: conditioners that contain -cones provide excellent slip and aid in detangling, but beware. They build up on hair over time, even when you rinse thoroughly, and leave hair dried out and hard to manage. Try rotating your conditioners once a month, and shampoo or clarify your hair once a month to remove -cones.

What are some of your fave conditioners? Let us know!

Until next time....

Vocab: Sealing

Straight from CurlyNikki herself, certified KinkyCurly Cutie and one of my natural hair inspirations.

What is sealing?

"Moisturize and Seal- Moisturize with a water-based product and seal with a heavier-oil laden one, or oil. I moisturize with my conditioner of the day (DevaCare One C, Oyin Honey Hemp) and seal with Shea. My hair is shiny, moisturized and happy. Oils don't moisturize they nourish. Only water based conditioners and moisturizers hydrate the hair."

Lately, my conditioner of the day has been Yes To Carrots. It's protein and silicone free, which is hard to find in a conditioner. I also just ordered TWO bottles of Aubrey Organics and Desert Essence Jojoba Conditioner from vitacost.com. My hair is super dry and I'm going to try using this as a leave-in. I seal with shea butter, avocado oil, Vatika, or castor oil.

Do It! Do It!

It's been a while dahlings, but I'm back. I've been trying new products, attending industry events, and mixin' it up in the lab (aka my kitchen).



Since going natural and adopting the CG Method, I've been scrambling to find products that work for my hair, and struggling to find a weekly routine I could stick to. Browsing the hair forums, I came across new methods like "baggying" and "sealing" that I had never done before to my hair. After reading hundreds of threads, I think I've found a weekly routine that I can stick to. It's work, I use way too many products, but my hair looks healthy, feels great and I'm worth it! In a perfect world, this is what I do weekly:

Pre-poo overnight with oil

Wash 1x monthly with shampoo

Co-wash with conditioner

Detangle out of the shower with wide tooth comb and paddle brush. Section hair into 4 sections

Leave sectioned hair in clips and rinse conditioner


Apply hair mask 1x month

Apply deep treatment to hair in sections



Sit under hooded dryer 30 minutes

Remove clips and rinse DT

Moisturize with Qhemet Biologics Detangling Ghee and Taliah Waajid Protective Mist Bodifier. Comb through

Apply Trader Joe's Nourish Spa conditioner as a leave-in

Apply shea butter

Seal with oil

At this point, my hair is cleansed, soft, detangled and full of moisture. I can style it any number of ways, usually in 2x twists.

Apply light oil to scalp. Massage

Spray each day with a mix of water, conditioner and oil in a spray bottle. Spray again at night and baggy.

The Vocab:

Sealing- Applying an oil to well moisturised and conditioned hair to lock in moisture

Baggy- Applying moisturizing product to hair and applying a plastic cap and leaving over night

Pre-poo- Saturating hair in oil and leaving overnight. Shampoo in the morning

Word to the wise: Do your research. What works for one kinky girl may not work for another. Experimenting is the fun part of this natural journey. Good luck, dahlings! Until next time.....