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?

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.

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!

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!

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.

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…AND GEL (or flaxseed gel). I kept wondering how the women on the YouTube videos and other pictures have these twisted braids that look so thick and shiny.  GEL (or flaxseed gel). 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…AND GEL (or flaxseed gel). 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…PLUS GEL (or flaxseed gel).

1. Make sure your hair is damp and the ends coated with Coconut Oil. ADD GEL TO THE HAIR.
2. Starting with Three strands of hair, always take the outer strand and wrap around the two other strands.

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…

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!

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 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.

And here’s my hairstyle that  didn’t work so good with the hair pins and twists.

So I had to put on a snood to cover it up. Mine you, it’s freshly washed and wet, but this worked just fine.

I put on some large, hoop, earrings, and we went out the door.

Wow. Lots of pictures this month, I know, but I had to make up for missing Month 10.

Until next time!

I just wanted to put up an entry for Month 10. I don’t have any pictures, but just to say Month 10 was the same as Month 9.

But I got LOTS of pictures for Month 11.

Just so that this month won’t be too brief…I wanted to put two things down.

In the past, I would read posts and watch videos of women stating not to do this or that…but they never give the reasons WHY? Like, one said not to keep transitioning past 1 year. Why? And other said not to wash your hair in the sink. WHY?

Well, I think I found the answers for those two statements…I think.

1) Statement: Stop transitioning after 1 year
Maybe Answer: Because everything keeps breaking off! LOL! You should have enough hair now to pull your hair back, and the line between the natural and the perm hair (the demarcation line) gets harder to deal with. I’m getting a lot of balls of hair just hanging and falling off.

2) Statement: Don’t wash your hair in the sink
Maybe Answer: I didn’t understand this one since I use a strainer for the hair if any comes out, but, someone else stated to wash your hair in the shower to avoid having to detangle so much. So, to wash your hair, you should not pile it up on top of your head and in a sink, it kind of does that and it gets a bit tangled.

Okay…NOW on to Month 11….

MONTH 9 (JULY)

So, my sister convinced me to make skinnier flat two-strand twists.  I don’t like doing it. In fact, I hate it. It takes me 30-40 minutes to do the darn things. I’m NOT a hair person. The picture below has 11 flat twists and that took me 35 minutes. My sister tells me that they still aren’t skinny enough, but they are skinny enough for me..any more twists and I’d be at it for an hour! She insists that I would get faster at it. It’s been a little over a week of doing this, and I’m not getting any faster. 5-10 minutes a night doing my hair is my thing. That’s what I’m used to. HOWEVER…taking the 30-40 minutes to do these twists (spraying each individual section of hair with my spritz of oil and water) actually is easier to detangle as I go. AND…I can do this one night, and simply roll the ends up the next night (3 minutes top) and wear the hairstyle again.  So far, I’ve only been able to do just every other night, so that’s actually not too, too bad. I spritz my hair in the morning (rollers still in or left still twisted), wait for the 20 minutes for it to dry, and take the twists out.

   

I have NOT had knots this month. HURRAY!!!  And I’m thinking the many cuts, the leave in conditioning (after washing my hair with conditioner) and mayonnaise (that you can eat on sandwiches… REAL Mayonnaise) for 5-6 weekends, did the trick.

I also bought a leave-in mayonnaise conditioner. Of course, as you know, I’m not a shopper and I don’t like products, so why did I get a leave-in mayonnaise conditioner? I was on vacation, visiting my sister who has been natural since the late 1990s, and she goes to the Beauty Supply Store. She was asking questions to the sales person, and since I was there, I asked for a leave-in conditioner and was suggested this: Africa’s Best Organincs Mayo Leave In Conditioner.  It’s just as good as my other leave-in conditioner, but I think it’s a bit better.

I had to get use to my FRO roots, which the leave-in conditioners seems to bring out even more (and also making it soft). so with skinnier twists, it’s getting the roots curled up as well and not having too much of a Afro-look at the roots for my twist-out curls.

My Routine for Month 9 (JULY) and the time it took for me

SATURDAY or SUNDAY

1) Wash hair every weekend with a conditioner — 10-15 minutes (in shower– 20-30 minutes)

2) Apply leave-in conditioner — 1 minute

3) Put one quarter size of oil in my hand, spread it around in my hair, and put another quarter size of oil — 2 minutes.

4) Wait for hair to air dry (I use my fingers to detangle as it air dries) — 20-30 minutes.

5) Spritz (jojoba, almond, coconut oil 1/3 and water 2/3 ) for each section of the hair before I flat-twist, and then curl the ends with flexi-rod, rim-rod, etc-type of roller — 20-30 minutes

MONDAY*, TUESDAY, THURSDAY NIGHTS– 30-40 minutes

1) Use fingers to section hair

) Use spritz on section hair

3) Flat twist hair 

SUNDAY*, MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY NIGHTS
1) Roll up ends of hair — 3-4 minutes

2) In morning, spritz hair and air dry — 20 minutes

3) Morning — Unravel twists, and then use finger tips, JUST AT THE ROOTS, to remove lines in hair by scratching/massaging them out — 5 minutes

4) Put on bonnet for drive to work or whatever destination (helps shape the hair as well)

(*) = If Washed hair on Saturday

As stated before, my routine seems to change as my hair changes…or if I goof up, like I did with month 3-4 and being lazy and get all the knots in my hair. This is definitely NOT something I signed up to do. It is taking A LOT more time now than before when I had permed hair. I NEVER spent this much time just working on my hair. If I did make-up (which I don’t…not even lipstick) then that would be more time taken away for all this womanly stuff. Ugh!

     

Though I don’t like the time doing this, what’s driving me is …. what is it going to look like? I’m just really, really curious about how my hair is going to look like in the end. That’s what’s keeping me on this path.

I’m finishing up Month 9 (July) and on to Month 10 (AUGUST).  Until next time 🙂