Another attempt at 2-strand twists

I made my next attempt with 2-strand twists, this time using lock and twist gel as well as rollers for it.

Products used:
1. Garnier Fructis Moisture Works conditioner
2. Cantu Shea Butter leave-in conditioner repair cream
3. Organic Root Stimulator: Lock & Twist Gel
4. Metal Double Prong Clips
5. Straight slotted rods (rollers)

I did a co-wash with just the conditioner. With it still wet I detangled it and then I separated my hair into sections. For each individual twist, i used the Cantu conditioner and the Lock & Twist gel. I used the metal clips to hold the ends of my hair until I got enough twists (about 3 or 4) to put one roller in. This took me about 3-4 hours (I didn't time it this time, but I know I watched several episodes of a Flash Foward on hulu while doing it). I think put on a scarf, and a satin bonnet and let it dry while I slept.

This is the finished result in the morning, I rather like how it turned out :-)





I tried putting the rollers in every night to keep the curls, but since they have tiny combs in them, it acutally pulled out my twists! So i tried using my cotton rollers, but they were to bulky and didn't really curl it . So I think I'm going to have to go old school with good old pink hair rollers, and hope they don't pull out my hair! We shall see!
~Lista~

Standards on Black Hair

Hello Fellow Hair Bloggers,

Over that past couple weeks I have been having a struggle with dealing with my natural hair as the weather has been getting colder. I don't know if I said before, but I am a college student (actually, i graduate December 19th from Undergrad and I can't believe it's coming so soon!) But that being said, I have a ridiculously hectic schedule. I work about 19 hours a week, i have 13 hours of classes a week, and trying to fit in study time, friend time, and fun time has just been ridiculous. And let's not talk about trying to do my hair!

So as I showed in my last post, i was trying to rock the 2-strand twists. I still haven't perfected that, but I went and bought some rollers and some twist/lock gel, that will hopefully be helpful during my next try. With my past week being so busy, I have not had time to twist my hair. Which has been kind of rough because I had a decision to make: Wake up early every morning to condition my hair in the shower AND dry it (since I really should not be walking around with wet hair every morning) or stay up extra late/wake up extra early sometime this week to twist my hair.

I actually ended up doing neither. PLD (Poor life decision) on my part. I haven't really taken good care of my hair this week, and my hair is screaming in protest. I have put in a leave-in conditioner every day, and a scarf on it every night, but I have not been making sure that it was not getting tangled and matted. So it looks kind of a hot mess.

Here is the time where I take a moment to evaluate:
Does my hair really look like a "hot mess?"
Because it's not looking particularly curly, or one texture does that mean it is not still beautiful?

Of course, I really should have been taking better care of my hair, but because it's not in perfect curls, does that mean my hair looks "bad?"

I actually haven't decided on that yet. The first half of the week i thought my hair looked somewhat decent. But by Wednesday (the one day I don't work at the front desk at my job and can actually bum it for a day) I was quick to put a scarf on my head, I just wanted to cover my hair up!

I started to realize that I was once again deciding if I looked good/presentable on everyone else's standards of how Black hair should be: smooth, shiny, every hair in place, relaxed... not what my hair is at all right now. It's a curly, frizzy, coily low-mid sized afro. All of my relaxed hair is not grown/cut off yet. It looks like it's confused. Is it ugly though?

That is something I still need to work through. My perceptions of myself, and whether or not I will let societies perceptions sway me.

Thoughts for next blog:
-Why do I have to straighten my hair to do job interviews (and my experiences from my interviews last month)
-Considering just doing "The Big Chop" (I kind of want to do it before December rather than transitioning from relaxed to natural. But I still haven't decided.)
-Pics of my before-to-now hair

Until then Blogosphere,
~Lista~

Hair experiments

So this is what my hair looks like on a curly day, one of my first tries at twists, and my first twist-outs :-)

My choice to go Natural

As I've been reading blogs lately, and just doing research in general about natural hair, I've been thinking about my real reason behind going natural.

I decided to go natural at the beginning of this year. I remember just being generally frustrated with my hair. In 2007, my hair had grown out pretty long in the years I had been in college (from the back of my neck to just below the shoulders, hopefully I can put up the pics later.) Anyway, it had grown long, but I had been pressing it far to often, and my hair became very damaged. It began breaking off, and eventually I just had to cut it because it was soo uneven. My shortest hair was to the nape of my neck, so I just got a very short cut in March of 2008, right before I went on spring break.

As it started growing out I reached the awkward stage that I couldn't do anything with it. I pretty much just wore it up in a clip all the time because everything else looked ruff.

I finally decided to try something new, wearing it with krinkles. I was able to achieve this by braiding it to the scalp right after I washed it, and let it dry overnight, and un-braiding it in the morning. This was cute for awhile until it got annoying and too time consuming to braid it all the time. So I once again had no idea what to do with it.

I knew that my hair was curly when it was wet, but never actually tried wearing it that way. I'd been combing it out after I washed it since I was little. So I tried experimenting with that. After getting a few tips, I realized I could wear it curly and natural.

It's been really liberating to just wear my hair and be me. I've been getting my hair permed since I can remember. When I was young, my hair was long and thick. By the time I started doing my own hair, I started damaging it, and it was breaking off all the time. I never could handle my hair without a perm. I hated my natural hair.

But in all honesty, I didn't even KNOW my natural hair. I knew my new growth, i knew what an inch or two of roots looked like. But I did not know my natural hair.

Now that I have embraced it, I love my natural hair. So far I've been in the process of growing out my permed hair. I haven't decided what all I will do next. I want to figure out the best way to manage it when its curly. I want to learn how to straighten it without having to use a perm. I want to learn how to put my hair in kinky twists (i've been experimenting for the past two weeks, it looks ok, and I will put up some pics soon, but I need to do some more tutorials). And eventually, if i get the guts to do it, I might go ahead and get dreads or sisterlocks. Only time will tell.

until next time,
~Lista~

The Curly-Hair Journey Begins

I have finally decided to go all natural. I actually started a couple months ago, but was alerted that I should definitely do my research so I can get the healthiest hair possible. So here I am, looking for blogs, websites, etc... on how to get my hair to its healthiest.

:-)

~Lista~