Deana Zhollis

18 Month Transition-- Actually THE END

May 6, 2012 11:13 AM | No Comments

Here we are again, with lots and lots of pictures!! These actually are for APRIL 2012, but I'm just now loading them up in May.

I've been on medical leave and put my hair up in twists for 6-weeks, using only hats whenever I went out. I only took it down twice during that time to wash and trim and get the excess shedding hair out. Here are the pictures for the second washing of that.

First, I took my hair down after spraying it A LOT with water.

Then I section my hair so that I can then put in my mayonnaise. I ran out of those clips with teeth on one side, so I used normal long clips on the other side. Also, I only used the teeth clips because I also did my mayonnaise/egg combination (2 eggs, 3 tablespoon of mayonnaise). Sorry, the fourth picture is very blurry, but it has the mayonnaise in it.

When I do the mayonnaise/egg protein conditioning, I make use of stuff...like my daughter's food mat. Yeah! I really like this idea because I can still sit in the living room and make a mess without messing up the carpet. Pictures below is her Winnie The Pooh food mat, which, being now 2 1/2 years old, she no longer needs. So, Mommy's using it!

Starting from Left to Right for the picture below are all the items I use for my mayonnaise/egg and then conditioner routine. I made some closer images of the items as well.

Scissors for trimming
Hair clips
Plastic gloves for applying the messy mayonnaise/egg mixture
The mayonnaise/egg mixture in bowl
Shea Butter Mix with Almond, Jojobo, and Coconut Oil
Ouchless hair ties
More hair clips
Wide-tooth comb
Rollers (flexi rods or ) to hold the 3-strand twists
Two plastic hair caps to cover over the clips
Vo5 Passion Fruit Conditioner
Almond Oil
Jojoba Oil
Hand towel to wipe up drips

After rinsing out the mayonnaise in the sink, I then put the conditioner in and rinse that out in the shower. I applied the oils and then, when twisting, I used my Shea-butter mixture. Below is the bags on my head for when I had the conditioner sit in my head for awhile.

Here is the hair shedding and trimming starting from left to right.

Hair that came out when I applied just water and while sectioning hair
Hair that came out after the mayonnaise/egg rinse
Hair that came out while putting in the conditioner
Hair that I trimmed (that's in the bag)

This was the final trim of getting out the last bits of permed hair. Most of the hair was cute little, natural curls.

Here's the result at work after all of the hard work. It's the first time I had it out after six weeks of being in flat twists.

I must say, I do love the little afro puffs when I section out my hair, and now, my hair is so much easier to deal with, especially without the bits of perms ends.

Though, I will still complain that this is A LOT of work!!.... I'm still enjoying the adventure

Until Next Time!!

17 Month Transition

March 20, 2012 5:01 PM | No Comments

Almost to a 1 1/2 of transitioning and being natural! I didn't do any trimming, so a few of my ends are still a wee bit permed. I'm just sharing some pictures on how my hair looks at its 17 month mark.

I needed to do something with my hair for my recovery time during my medical leave. I twisted my hair ithout looking in a mirror. I'm not the best at doing hair, so it's not some decor to look at. LOL! I was waiting for surgery when these pictures were taken. This was actually end of February. I rolled the ends up with rollers and took the rollers out in the front.

They were two-stand, flat twists, and they actually held up for 3 weeks until I took it down to take the below pictures. My hair is a wee damp so that I could handle it. I just sprayed the twists with water before unraveling them. I put them up in individual sections, put my conditioner one each section, and rinse them out. That's my washing routine now.

My hair actually looked more like an Afro--like in the seventies! Pretty cool! I think it's grown more since I last saw it before the twist. Hmmmm.

Next month, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my hair since I'm going to retwist it back up until I go back to work. As for going out, I'm not doing much of that lately, but if I need to, I just put my hat on.

Until Next Time!

The End?

February 21, 2012 5:08 PM | No Comments

So, here we are at the end of the month again, and again I've cut my ends. This time I noticed that there were more natural curls than straight, stringy hair...the perm ends. I'm not sure if I got everything, but maybe. I won't know until another 4-6 weeks when I cut my ends again.

Here's what I cut (below). I cut A LOT. But I haven't had any, ANY, fairy knot problems. I've noticed that if I keep the hair in sections, twisted and rinse off each section at a time, I don't have problems with knots...at all! If I try just washing my hair like I did when I had perm hair, just mush it all up, scrubbing and washing...I get knots Galor! I might have mentioned that before, but I decided to state it again. The section-hair-washing-thing has greatly kept my knots away.

So, here's what it now looks like at work after the hair cut.

Looks like I went backwards and not have the length I wanted, but it might just be the End of the Permed hair. Like I said, I'll know for sure at the next hair cut. Sorry, I look so pitiful in my picture. Haven't been my happy self lately :)

Until Next Time?

Almost Ending Transition - 15 Month

January 21, 2012 11:13 PM | No Comments

I cut more of my ends off this past weekend (Jan 14), and the ends are even better to manage than ever. I think there's still a wee bit of perm left though.

I tried washing my hair the normal way again without sectioning, but that just causes knots again. So, I'm back to washing my hair in sections, and putting the conditioner on first and rinsing out each section separately--once a week. I do the three-strand twist with the leave-in conditioner, holding them with the Flexi-Rods, and go to bed.

However, I just watched a YouTube video where they leave their twists in and rinse out the conditioner and says it works fine without unraveling the twist.

Hmmm... I don't know how THAT would work, but I might just try it.

Here's all the hair after it's been cut.

And here's the finished product with the hair cut...

I definitely need the hubby to shave the back of my neck. Heh. Heh.

I'm still using the 100% Aloe Vera Gel and water, and then tying it down with a scarf to keep the sides down. Well, I actually just use the Lady DURAG #141 Black, keeping it together and tying it with a big knot in the back leaving the top open. I LOVE that Durag!

That's about it for this month.

Until Next Time.

13 Months...Almost Completely Natural

December 26, 2011 4:50 PM | No Comments

So.... Remember when I said I won't be cutting my ends anytime soon? Well.... That didn't happen.

Heh. Heh.

I ended up cutting the majority of the permed ends because I was so tired of the limpies...the limps, the limpy.

I figured that keeping my hair moist would work better without having to deal with the ends that won't stay curled. And it did. Cuting the ends made things SOOOO much easier.

Of course, my hair is much shorter than I wanted it to be (just like when I had to cut off a lot due to the fairy knots), but it's extremely more manageable. It seems that the more natural hair growth I get, the easier it gets.

Here's the Second cut of trimmings of my ends. The first amount of trims looked just like this.

And here's what it looks like now with my pulled-back hairdo. It doesn't look too much different.

I'm continuing on with my journey along with finding a WONDERFUL hat that I can use whenever I just don't have my hair did: Women's Throwback Knit Beret with Brim. I found it on my favorite site, Amazon! I actually bought three different types of hats, but this one was my favorite. Even my Mom wanted one, so I bought her one too. Underneath this hat is my wet hair, with plastic cap and satin bonnet. It was, again, one of those days where I just washed my hair and I needed to go out really fast.

Awesome Hat! Until Next Time!

Another Cover Up HairDo

December 7, 2011 10:43 AM | No Comments

Got caught again. I washed my hair and now I have to go out to a restaurant to eat.

I had some snoods, but both had unravelled! I decided not to get another one. I then find this thing at a flee market. Someone crochet it and it was pretty solid.

I want more and decided to research HATS FOR NATURAL HAIR.

I ran into several words for the types of hats I wanted: "tams" and/or "beanie" and/or "slouchy"

I put in an order on my favorite place, Amazon, for two of these. I'll see how it comes out.

In the mean time, back to my story. So, my hair is soaking wet, right, and in the elastic twists.

There was nothing I can do about it.

I toweled dried it. Stuck a plastic cap on to cover the wetness. Then put on my nap/sleepy time satin bonnet, and put my beanie on or my favorite Women's Throwback Knit Beret with Brim (from Amazon, but they're currently not there anymore darn! Hopefully it comes back. 4th picture below). The satin bonnet was to just cover up the plastic so it didn't show through the holes of the beanie or beret.

Just add some large hoop earrings and I was okay to go. My hair got the moisture it needed for the day, and I was somewhat decent for the public.

Life was good.

I just need something that looks a bit stylish, and so off to the online store to find them. I'll take pictures at a later date to show how they look.

Until Next Time!

Simple Hair Wash Routine for Natural Hair

November 13, 2011 8:24 AM | No Comments

I just love the internet! People share their neat ideas and they're WONDERFUL!!

I've started a new way of washing my hair, and it's SO MUCH EASIER to do.

I got the instructions from Naptural85 two YouTube videos:

Washing "Natural Hair" Easy Method

DIY Homemade Natural Shine Enhancing

It saves me water being in the shower AND it detangles all at the same time!!

The bottom line is to:

STEP 1) Spray your hair generously with water.

(I sprayed to the point where it's not quite dripping, but enough to maneuver around.)

STEP 2) Section hair and put them up in elastic bands -- I made about 8 or 9 sections. Below is the wet sectioned hair.

(I used Goody Ouchless...stole them from my daughter's stash. I know. Bad Mommy. Heh. heh.)

STEP 3) Take each section and coat it with your conditioner. Twist it and put it back up in the elastic band.

Below is the hair with conditioning--I use Alberto Vo5 Moisture Milks Passion Fruit. This also Helps Detangle!!!

(I have to work with how much conditioner to use. I think I've been using too much which will make me run out quicker)

STEP 4) Go to the shower and rinse each section out, starting with the top, and twist it together again and put the elastic back on it. Rinsing in the shower also keeps the hair from detangling from the downward water motion. And twisting it back up helps it keep from tangling up too.

STEP 5) Place towel around the hair to dry. MAKE SURE to squeeze each twist really good, because it hold a lot of water.

STEP 6) Take down each section of your hair, apply your Leave in Conditioner on each section, and let air dry leaving the elastic band off and untwisted

STEP 7) When 90% dry, section hair again and apply your oil(s)

(I use Coconut Oil and then put in my Three-Strand Twist--8-9 sections)

And you're DONE! I've been doing this for the past few weekends and it's been working great!

I also did this with my Protein Conditioning: 2 Eggs, 4 spoons of Mayonnaise, 2 Tablespoons of Honey.

But you have to get into the shower TWICE--1) to rinse out Mayo and 2) Rinse out Conditioner. I'll try this again with my sprayer in the sink to rinse out each section of Mayo hair, and then putting conditioner on the sections and then go and rinse it out in the shower.

When Twist Out's Don't Work--Three Strands do!!

November 3, 2011 8:00 AM | No Comments

So yeah, my twist-outs with the normal Two-Strands just don't work anymore. I don't know whyyyyeee (I'm whining here).

You know how it goes with natural hair. It's natural, alright, naturally free to do what the heck it chooses to do. It can't make up it's mind... it keeps changing what it wants to do....it wants to do one thing, on one day, and the next day, it wants to do something else.... Just like a darn woman, I tell ya! :)

I found out that my hair liked the Three Strand Twists instead. I kept wondering how the women on the YouTube videos and other pictures have these twisted braids that look so thick and shiny. I kept thinking maybe it was because my hair was not completely natural so it wouldn't create thick, pretty twists. But now I'm thinking their Twist Outs were created with the Three-Strand twist. They just say "Twist" so maybe it's Three. That's what it looks like.

I know I said I wouldn't be doing the Three Strand anymore, but the darn hair stated otherwise. It was hard to do...at first. Now that I've been doing them for a few weeks, yeah it's a bit slower than the Two-Strands, but it looks a lot better. You can take a looksie at my 1 year Transition pictures to see.

But yeah, the Three Strands Works better than the Two-Strands, so if you're having a bit of time, I would give it a try out...

Make sure your hair is damp and the ends coated with Coconut Oil.
Starting with Three strands of hair, always take the outer strand and wrap around the two other strands.

A over B and C
B over C and A
C over A and B
A over B and C again.

At first they would unravel at the roots, but I kept thinking "ROPE" and twisting all the hair tightly as I twisted the strands. That kept the roots from unraveling. Sometimes I use a clip close to the roots to help.

I'll be sticking with the Three-Strand Twists...until my hair "DECIDES" it wants to change next month....or next week. Heh.

Until Next Time!!

1 Year/12 Month Hair Transition!!!!

October 29, 2011 7:45 AM | No Comments

1 YEAR!! Really?!!! Did I finally make it!?? I guess I did. It's late October and that's when I last had my perm, so it's been...

ONE WHOLE YEAR

Am I going to cut off those ends yet? Nope. I still don't feel comfortable enough to have the shorter hair. It's actually at a nice length for me now, especially after having to cut so much around month 5-7 because of the fariy knots.

It's not much difference than Month 11, but below are some pictures of the hairdo I've been wearing lately.

I know I said I wasn't going to do that Three Strand Twists, but, I couldn't help it. It worked better! I'll make another blog on that.

So here's the hair. I know it's covered up with the scarf, which is actually kind of do-rag with long ends that split that I can twist in the back for a bun. I found it somewhere, but I don't remember where and I want another one! Don't you just hate that!

Anyway, here's the hair at 1-year Transition. You can stillsee the permed ends, but all the hair flat against my head is all natural.

I like the waves. Pretty cool. I just use water and 100% Aloe Vera Gel and wrap it down with a scarf over night. Sometimes I can just do it in the morning since I have a 45 minutes commute. It's flat by the time I get there.

That's it! I made it!

Funny that it's been a year and I was just going to TRY to do the natural thang...not making any promises if I'll continue. But so far...I'll just keep trying it out. Heh. Heh. :)

Until Next Time!

Hair Transitioning Month 11

September 26, 2011 3:17 PM | No Comments

Here I am! Almost up to a year! And still complaining. LOL!!

Man. I hate having to deal with this HAIR!! But here we are.

Month 11 has been a bit easier on me. It's appears to be more manageable. I now can feel the natural hair and actually SEE it. The perm hair looks even more odd than ever. But, I think I'll keep it in until I can't stand it anymore, or it all breaks off (which it appears to be doing anyway), which isn't very good, but it keeps happening.

I have more pictures for you. And a new style I began to work with. This month, I really couldn't do the twist-outs anymore..again. The ends just lay limp and I couldn't get it to work. I don't know why. It just stopped.

Then I decided to pull my hair back and do the THREE-STRAND TWISTS. You know, I kept wondering why some of the twists in the YouTube videos looked fuller. I kept thinking it was because they had all natural hair, but I'm beginning to think it's because of the Three-Strand Twist. I'm not very good at it and it took me too much time to do. But I kind of figure out how to do it.

Here's a diagram of how you take three strands of hair, and pull the furthest strand over the other two strands, and you keep doing that. I'm not an artist, so I couldn't draw how it looks all wrapped, but I did kind of draw out what it looks like when you do it. How to position your fingers and hands...I have no clue. I think, after awhile of doing it, you get to figure it out. As for me, I won't be doing them anytime soon again, because they took too long for me to learn.

Hope this helps you out on the "theory" of what to do.Just always take the outer strand over the center and other strand.

I've also just roll my twists up all the way to my head. I stopped trying to roll just the ends months ago. They kept coming out anyway. I think I did about 11-13 rollers. Sorry, I forgot to write down the number and then tried to figure it out in my picture.

In the morning, I use wet fingers to comb it all back, and my Tangle Teezer hair brush to pull back just the front and sides. Then I use the Aloe Vera 100% Gel and tied it down with a satin scarf. My commute is about 45 minutes, so it flattens down pretty good by the time I get to my destination...and it lasts all day.

I wanted to show you what happened with newly washed hair and then trying to rush out the door when the hubby wanted to go to a fancy restaurant at the last minute.

So, here's my hair all wet after washing it with VO5 Passion Fruit Conditioner and coating with the Hair Mayonnaise Leave In Conditioner.