So, I’m back and have, of course (heh. heh.) MORE PICTURES!  As I stated in my Fairy Knot Horror Movie blog in May (which I just posted up today but put it for the May month), I had to cut some more hair.  I’ve been doing the Mayonaise and Leave-In Conditioning every weekend and it’s making my hair very soft and manageable. However, I had to cut a bit more hair every weekend as well. But I think I’m done now… I think.

Ayway, I also bought this brush to help keep my roots for twisting and help with detangling. I really, really like this brush. It make my roots puffy though, but that’s what my natural hair is turning into and what I will start accepting as my hair. My new growth of natural hair is not like the natural hair I’ve seen in other videos, and I remember one video stating not to make the mistake that YOUR hair is going to look like HER hair. It’s VERY different from what I was expecting.

So here’s my 8th month transition pictures.

At this point, I can feel the natural hair, and I also see the stringy permed hair when it’s wet. It looks funny.

     

But on some good days, like below, I can get the twists just right.

I’m hanging in there, despite all the mishaps. I’m really gonna keep going

My husband keeps asking me, “Uh, so how is this easier than what you were doing before?”  LOL!  It’s NOT because I’m still learning what I need to do and every month it keeps changing. For instance, in Month 7 & 8, my flat twists stopped working and I had to go back to just twist outs. Then that stopped working and I went back to my flat twists. Go figure. I don’t know why. Something to do with the new growth…WHICH I CAN FEEL NOW!

Month 7 didn’t look much different than month 5, but after I started my conditioning and cut out that bad hair, month 8 is a big difference in my roots growth. And I’m so looking forward to it being longer again…which would be another year or two.

Until Next Time! 🙂

Okay, this of way off topic, but I had to share this.  Please note, that the below might seem a bit graphic to some, but hey, we’re all women and have this every month so why can’t it be discussed! It’s something that happens EVERY MONTH, which is weird that it’s such a hush, hush topic. Every month? It should be the talk of the day!

So here I go….

Yes, there is a home remedy for extremely excessive menstrual bleeding, and the golden, wonderful, beautiful, unbelievable, magnificent, incredible item is…

It’s one (1) bottle, for those who don’t know, not two separate things; and you can find it in your grocery store where they sale the regular vinegar. I’ll give you the ingredients on how to use it and then I’ll tell you my story.

2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar

12 ounces of very warm water

1-2 Tablespoons of Honey

How To Take it: Once a day during your menstrual bleeding. If you can take it a few days before you start, it would provide more additional help. BUT DON’T MISS A DAY, and take it the around the same time every day during those 4-7 days during your flow or it will really come down the next day. Start taking it the very first day you start your flow and continue until it stops.

NOTE: Some people take it three (3) times a day, but I found once a day is good enough to me. I don’t want to use it excessively since, it is vinegar, you know, and I don’t want my stomach or kidneys to get upset. However, on really heavy days, I might take another dose before bedtime, making a double-dose, for only 2 days out of my 7 day flow period.

It tastes awful, believe me, NASTY! But the Honey helps a bit (just a bit). The very, warm water helps to melt the honey. And that awful taste is just really, really, really, really worth it.

SIDE NOTE: NO, I’m not a doctor, opinion only so this is not a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment…you know the drill.

MY STORY

Here’s my history.  I have fibriods gallor…EVERYWHERE in my uterus. It bothers my bowel movements, it makes me anemic, and it causes really, really, really, really painful cramps!

I’ve had surgery to have them remove in 2000, 2008, and 2009 (the last time was during my daughters birth during the circumcision because they grew while she was in there and they had to remove them in order to close me back up (otherwise it was pretty hard for them to close me up).  That’s how bad my fibroids are.

As for my menstrual flow…a lot of women can’t believe how much I bleed. They think I’m making it all up. One would think I was hemorrhaging. Sometimes I had to run to the bathroom and stand in the tub to allow the flow to come down. I messed up the office chair and rug at work, which told me that I had to start wearing depends.  Then even with the depends, I wore five (5)…yes FIVE Overnight Always-with-wings sanitary napkins, which I had to change every two hours (Yep…always 2 hours on the dot).

The only thing that could control the bleeding was birth control pills. I have taken them for eight years, but when you’re trying to reproduce (i.e. pregnancy, babies), you can’t be on the pill. So, I had to work with my job to stay at home at least 2-3 days every month.

Thank Goodness, I got pregnant quickly so I didn’t have to do this for too long.  I had hoped that the pregnancy would help with the fibroids–sometimes they do. But unfortunately, not in my case.

I had to get back on the birth control pill. AND I HATE THE PILL! It makes my body feel…restricted, and there’s always something going on with the pill that may give me headaches or cause me to gain weight. And yes, I did the whole thing of having my doctor give me new pills. To be honest, I didn’t have this much problem with the pill during my younger years 1990-1998. It was around 2007 that I started having the massive bleeding problems, and it kept increasing until I had to have the surgery again in 2008, but it didn’t fix the problem.

So, here I am again, wanting to reproduce, and hoping I can do it again (the first time was a miracle in itself) and needing to get off the pill and deal with the bleeding. And I didn’t, DID NOT, DON’T WANNA have to deal with taking off work and dealing with this bleeding again! I mean, you know work, the first time, they don’t mind working with you, and when the months started dragging on…I mean, how long can you keep taking a few days off work…and every month? Fortunately for me, I could also work from home, but I could feel the frowns. Honestly, trying to get pregnant could take years.

Yeah. Stressful times.

Fortunately for me, it took just 4 months after my wedding. And now I want to try again, but the taking off work thing…. it was going to be an issue.

I then went online hoping I could find someone who had someway, somehow, anything, natural I could do to keep this bleeding down.  And TA-DAH! 

Like many women online, I was skeptical. It couldn’t, COULD NOT, be that easy. But then, I remembered something. Being a woman, you sometimes get UTIs (urinary tract infections), and online said to take some Apple Cider Vinegar to help until I got to the doctor. I didn’t see much difference with taking it along with and Cranberry juice and drinking 8 ounces of water every hour. But I did notice that month, which I was taking the birth control pill, that my period was practically non-existent. I mean, I didn’t hardly have to use any of my overnight pads. I figured it was just a funky month, because the next month, it poured down hard, as usual, but not as much as when I was off the pill.

I then decided that, perhaps there might be some truth to it. I tried it. And being that I had just recently got off the pill, just the month before, I figured the lighter amount of menstrual flow had something to do with some remnants of the pill. But then I skipped a day of taking the Apple Cider Vinegar, and BOY did I see a difference!

This is now my Fifth month of doing the Apple Cider Vinegar, and I still haven’t had to go back to the FIVE Overnight pads with depends. I’m down to TWO overnight pads and depends during work, and at bedtime, I can wear just my TWO overnight with underwear.

It’s not taking it ALL away, but it’s taken it enough so that I can go to work and don’t have to worry about the Mt Rushmore of blood flowing. It is now manageable

So, there you have it. That’s my story. And please Comment and share if you have experienced the same thing.

SIDE NOTE: Someone also said it works with Menapause, but since I’m not of that age
yet (and I only experienced Menopause symptoms when I was on the Lupron shot, which sometimes have to take before the surgeries to remove the fibroids), so, I can’t tell you much about that. Then again, I honestly wouldn’t want to take this stuff EVERY SINGLE DAY. Doing it for Seven Days is a lot for me. However, if the Menapause was causing me a lot of problems, I would do what a woman has to do.

Apple Cider Vinegar can also be used for warts and acne (be careful because it may irritate the skin, so use a bit of Vaseline on the skin and only put the Apple Cider Vinegar directly on the warts and acne).  Look it up online, you’ll see all the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar.

That’s about it for me. I hope this is beneficial to those who need a little more help during those moon times 🙂

Later!!

It started with just one knot here and there past my month 5 of transitioning. Then it was two knots. Then three knots.

I would just use oil and carefully unraveling the knots and take them out. Then they weren’t easy to untangle anymore, and they just pulled out. Then, they started to breed and multiply and I ended up with like 5 to 8 of those things, especially after washing my hair with conditioner. I had  A LOT OF FAIRY KNOTS!!! EVERYDAY!!!

What I learned? I hadn’t trimmed! DUH!! I had stopped trimming my hair. I was so caught up with all my hours of working and projects that I wasn’t keeping track of time. I still don’t remember when the last time I actually did a trim. So now what? I’ve now had to trim more hair than I would have liked and my hair is now much shorter than I would have liked.

To be honest, I really need not to trim but CUT because I can see the split ends EVERYWHERE! It’s rough at those ends, and I was just thinking I had to keep up with putting the CocoNut Oil on the ends of my hair every night before I put my hair in Flat Twists and they would go away. I could see how dry and frizzy the ends were, but I didn’t think that it was SPLIT ENDS. DUH! I was still in the mindset of my permed hair and not having to cut my ends that much. I remembered the trick that tells you if you need to trim the ends and to see the splits. So I did it, where you just twist the hair (not two-strand twist, just twisting the hair as if tightening it) and look to see if pieces were sticking out.  Well, there was A LOT of pieces sticking out all over the place–half way up to the joint where my natural and permed hair connected. Buuuuttt… I figured I could still get by and do the trim later. And later became later again. And later. I still had time, right?

NOPE.

I waited too late. The “trim” didn’t take. I had to cut the ends one weekend and then had to do some more cutting the next weekend until my hair was just a bit past my ears…when wet. Then I had to cut more, then more, to get the knots out that came every time I washed my hair. 

What I was missing? My Protein Conditioning, which I hadn’t done in over two (2) months. I did it with Mayonnaise and followed that up with a moisturizing conditioner (a leave-in conditioner which I put a bag over and sat for 20 minutes because the Mayonnaise makes my hair hard and the moisturizing conditioning softens it back up). And then had to detangle and cut more knots out of my hair. I had to go back to combing my hair to keep it from tangling up.

I wanted to maintain my length of hair so I could transition easily and I messed up with not trimming my hair. Now, at my 7th Month it’s shorter than ever!

Here is my new do. It’s actually more manageable being shorter, but I missed the length.

I might need to cut more next weekend if the ends can’t deal with what I’ve already cut.

   

Here is my 7th Month Natural growth. Not much difference from 5th month, as I’ve stated before. With the Fairy Knots, it probably cut down on the growth. It should be 3.5 inches now (remember .5 inches of growth every month), but it’s a bit under 3 inches.

Until next time!

The 5th month transition was Hell! All of the measuring and conditioning I was doing with the oils, seemed to no longer work. My hair wasn’t as soft and manageable as before because of my curly naps.

So, I stopped.  It was a good beginning and a good start though. And I missed those days. Things seemed easier then.

I’ve now gone to just using conditioner (co-wash) once a week and only using shampoo if I feel a build up of gunk in my hair.  I put a quarter-coin-size of Almond Oil in my hand and put it all over my hair. Then I do that again. Then I take the JoJoba oil and do the same thing. Just twice per oil, and only the size of a quarter squirt in the hand. Any more than those four squirts and your hair will be really, really oily the next day.

As for deep conditioning and moisturizing, I’ve used the yogurt for the protein, but since I don’t eat yogurt, I only did it a few times. So now I’m going to try mayonnaise and eggs since I’ve got plenty of that stuff in the refrigerator. And I’ll do that at least once a month. As for as following up with a moisturizing conditioner…well, I’ve stopped that. Just didn’t have the time.

I’m still using the spray bottle of the JoJoba Oil and water every night and I still put my hair up in twists every night as well with the Flexi Rods (or RimRods). I live in Houston, Texas, so wearing my hair out all the time…I can do that. 

I’ve stopped using a comb. I simply separate it with my hands and I bought two Tail Combs to make the parts in my hair. I’ve found that I can no longer just use a regular comb to part my hair because it’s just too thick. But the Tail Combs make REALLY straight lines, and I carefully pull the hair apart to reveal the line. I’ve never used one before, and I LIKES IT!

In the 5th month, I found out that the Twist-Outs were no longer working and by my 7th month I was getting Fairy Knots GALLOR!

I’m going to write a separate posting on those issues.

I learned that I needed to make sure not to get to oil happy. Too much oil would affect my twist-outs. I also learned that I need my hair a bit damp before I twisted it–dry twists didn’t cut it. They didn’t hold and they didn’t curl when I untwisted them. So, I would use the spray of oil and water for each section of the hair I would twists.

Also I learned that however my wash and conditioning went for the weekend, that would affect my twists for the rest of the week. I can sometimes get them back up and running by Wednesday if the problem was too much oil, but not as good as I would have liked. So, the weekend was the key starting point–clean hair, good conditioned hair, and the right amount of oil.

Then month 5 came along….

In the 5th month of my transition, I found out that the Twist-Outs were no longer working.

Remember the days when people had jerry curls and those who didn’t get them retouched, had all this nappy, naps at their roots? That’s how my twist-outs were. I couldn’t get the curls close enough to my head. One solution was to add more twist-outs and have them at the top and bottom of my head. I didn’t have that much time at night, and they just didn’t look right.

Then I remembered a YouTube video where a woman had really nice curls, but she had Flat Twists, starting from the front of her head and placed them in rows to the back of her head.  I don’t have that type of skills to keep twists going from the front to the back, so I decided to have them go down the sides of my head instead.

The roots still showed, but they looked much better than the twist-outs. Below are my flat twists with flexi rods to hold the permed ends together. And the second picture is the results. I do these now without using a comb. I just use the Tail-Comg to make a part and I use my fingers and hands to do the rest.  By this time, the wide-tooth comb felt as if it was pulling, and I remembered not to handle my hair too much while transitioning, so I stopped coming and just use my fingers.

   

Here’s a picture of what my 5th month’s of natural hair growth looks like…

And when my Twists just don’t come out at all, or the weather decides to do a tango on my head, I do a two-stand flat-twists on the sides at work at my desk.

So, there you go. That’s my Month 5 picture for new growth hair.  Month 7 looks just like this. Not much changed. Mainly because of the darn fairy knots I think that I had to deal with.

Until next time 🙂

  

I also will twist the side when my hair is soaking wet and I need to run out the house really quick, and pin the hair under in the back. These pictures are in February 2011

    

On a good day, my twist-outs work well for the office. This was taking in January 2011

1) Having my hair very damp before twists make for better twists

Heck yeah it’s expensive! Unless you’re an Ole Cheapo like me and figure out a way for it to cost less. I said it once before in this blog and I’m saying it again. Everything I researched, and listening to my sister, I hear of all the bottles that are thrown away because: “they just didn’t work for my hair type”. So, for me, I “just didn’t want to spend all the money.”

Also, I don’t want to read labels. It’s a big thing these days to look at the ingredients of stuff that you buy for your beauty health care and to know what’s inside the container.  I, for one, don’t understand big chemical and scientific data. I DON’T WANT TO READ THE BOTTLE.  I don’t want to spend any more extra time. I just want to go to the store and pick the container up and use it.

And I don’t like shopping. Nope. Sure don’t. Not at brick and mortar stores. I like to surf the net and have it end up on my doorstop when I get home. The only place I “need” to go to is the grocery store. (Side Note: I go to JCPenny’s once every 18-24 months when I need cloths).

So, doing the “products” thing to manage my hair, while I transitioned from relaxed to natural, “just wasn’t going to do”

And, I decided I wasn’t, was not, going to go natural because it was just too much money!  I’m a Cheapo. I haven’t been to a hair dresser in YEARS! Because I couldn’t stand the hours in the shop and I couldn’t stand dishing out all those Hundreds.  I even figured out how to do my own hair for my own wedding (and yes, that’s me on the website). 

So nope. Doing the “products” thang and Going Natural was not Cost Effective for me.

Then, while researching one day, I found an answer!  TADA!!  FOOD!!!  Yep, Food!  

If I can’t eat it, or wear it, I’m not using it. Yep, that’s right. Going Natural using Homemade Products and Recipes. So what does that mean? What kind of “products” are those?  Well, here’s a list.

• Coconut Oil
• Baking Soda
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Honey
• Aloe Vera Gel (Can’t eat but I can put it on my skin)
• Almond Oil (Optional)
• Jojoba Oil (Optional)

So, yeah, I can cook with Coconut Oil, and Baking Soda has all kinds of usages such as brushing my teeth, and soaking up odors in the refrigerator or washing cloths. And Apple Cider Vinegar I use on warts/moles, and to clean out my biological system. Honey I can put in my tea or on some bread rolls. And Aloe Vera, I can put on my rough feet. Almond OIl can be used to remove those dark circles under my eyes and a substitute for Olive Oil for salad dressings and also for cooking stuff. Jojoba Oil I can use on my rough skin too, especially as a Lip Balm. And lastly there’s Olive Oil. Olive OIl I put on the bottom of a pot, add some popcorn kernels, and shake that bad boy — Popcorn Night for my Netflix Nights!!

Uh huh. Yep. If the “product” didn’t work, then I could use it for something else.

SIDE NOTE: I couldn’t find Almond Oil or Jojoba Oil in Wal-Mart, and I only bought them because my husband and I happened to have a 30 minute wait for a restaurant we wanted to eat at and GNC (a nutritional supplement store) was next door and we went in. Everything else, I got at Wal-Mart down the cake/cooking aisle and at a Beauty Supply Store around the corner. And here’s where the only $$$ signs popped up: Almond Oil and, especially Jojoba Oil, was expensive!  But I got it because I found out that when I use Olive OIl as a Spritz with water, I broke out in a rash all over my chest and back (but not in my hair). I could just cover up and still use the Olive OIl, but I’m too lazy to do all that. Now I use JoJoba OIl and water Spritz (3 part water, 1 part Oil)–well very little oil for the JoJoba because that bottle only has 4 oz and it was the same price as the Almond OIl that was 16 oz.

For me, I already had half of the items above.  The only other things I had to add to it was: 1) a spray bottle (from Wal-Mart), 2) the perm rod rollers (which my Mom gave to me because she no longer using them), and 3) the Wide Tooth Comb (from the Beauty Supply Store around the corner).

Here’s a list of the items I’m using to transition my hair from relaxed to natural.

1. Baking Soda
2. Apple Cider Vinegar (For those who don’t know, it’s not two separate containers; it is an actually bottle that says “Apple Cider Vinegar”)
3. Honey (Yep, the Honey bee stuff)
4. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
5. Coconut Oil (or Extra Virgin Coconut Oil — I got the regular stuff LouAna)
6. Aloe Vera Gel (e.g. 12 oz Fruit Of The Earth Aloe Vera Gel)
7. Almond Oil (16 oz Optional)
8. Jojoba Oil (4 oz Optional)
9. 2 bowls (that can hold 2 cups of water)
10. 2 Water Bottles (Empty the water out of the water bottle like Osaka or Dasani for example)
11. Ice Pick, Dremel, or Reamer (Something to make a 4mm hole into plastic) and put a hole in each cap of the water bottles
12. 3/4 inch perm rod (12 rollers)
13. Shower Cap
14. Silk or Satin Bonnet or Scarf
15. Spray Bottle
16. Wide Tooth Comb (and I mean W I D E – like 0.5 inches Teeth Wide..I couldn’t find at Wal-Mart so this was at the Beauty Supply store around the corner)
17. Towel
18. Cheap Hair Conditioning (We’re not using any kind shampoo at all since it dries out the hair. So, if you already have some Hair Conditioning, just use that to wash your hair)

So there you have it, from Ole Cheapo herself.  Yeah, I have to do a little mixing, but it’s worth it.  

This is what’s been working for me and the $$$ is just fine! 🙂