Staple Products - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

STAYING
Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner

Giovanni Direct Leave in Conditioner

Giovanni Triple Treat Conditioner

Afro Shampoo Bar - By Shea Butter Cottage (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE)

Twisted Mango Custard 9for twists and braids) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Moisture Lotion (daily moisturiser) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Sea Curls (curl defining gel) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Conditioning Cream (softens & conditions) - BeUNIQUE Hair Care

Natural oils (to many to mention but my hair loves Avocado Oil & Grapeseed Oil these to oils also have a high resistance to heat so good to use when blow drying the hair)

Shine moisture spritz - my own concoction (not perfected yet!)

Herbal decoctions and infusions

Bentonite Clay


NEW
Dr. Organics Vitamin E Conditioner - Really like, and nice to mix with Giovanni Smooth as Silk Conditioner

Biotin Conditioner - Mill Creek Botanicals - Still unsure, but still good enough to keep using and also try other products in the range (Bought from Sheel Pharmacy in Lewisham near the bus garage)

GOING
Aubrey Organics White Camellia Ultra-Smooth Conditioner

Garnier Fructis Repair and Shine Conditioner

Faith in Nature Conditioners

Dr Bronners Castile Soap

'Fro Hawk

While going through the early stages of my natural hair journey one of my goals was to get my hair long enough so that I could rock a 'fro hawk and yes, I've done it! I went out clubbing with a friend at the weekend and I decided that this was going to be the weekend that I would rock my dream style, I knew that to get the volume I wanted I would have to blow dry my hair, I used avocado and grapeseed oil as heat protectants. My results are pictured below, I include a picture of when I got home, sweat and heat in the club made my twist out expand! I also include a picture of day 3 hair achieved by just re-twisting. 

Not such a bad hair day

Last night it got to 6pm and I was like, damn, I haven't washed my hair, I hate washing my hair that late but I have to wash it once a week. I shampooed my hair with a Rhassoul Shampoo Bar by Shea Butter Cottage, it was a different experience from using the Afro Shampoo Bar , it didn't pop my curls like the Afro Shampoo bar, but my hair felt squeaky clean without feeling dry, which was good as I had quite a bit of gel in my hair. I then used the new conditioner that I had brought earlier in the week Dr. Organic Vitamin E conditioner, I think I like this conditioner although, as with any hair product you can not provide a fair assessment after just one week. What I can say is, that it's thick and foams up a treat, and I used it to detangle using my Denman D4 brush, it smells a little medicinal but I think it did moisturise my hair. I left it on for about 40mins with a plastic cap.

While the conditioner was in my hair I went to the kitchen to create two new products I made a leave-in conditioner and a hair styling lotion with added flax seed gel so that I could twist my hair. I rinsed my hair put in the leave-in and two strand twist my hair with the styling lotion, I did the twists larger than usual due to the time and put some flat twists in the front and went to bed with my hair wet (shock, horror).

This morning I used the hair dryer to dry my hair a little bit more with the intention of doing a twist out as I really didn't like the look of the twists as they were. I started to undo the twists and I really didn't like the look of it, it looked too chunky, I put some grapeseed oil on my hands and split them up some more, I ended up looking like I'd been electrocuted. So I smoothed the back of my hair with some moisturising lotion and also used some of the styling lotion and put my hair in a puff, and it looked really good.

But why did I give this post the title 'not such a bad hair day'? because my hair can tend to get dry when the ends are left out, but it feels moisturised, smooth and silky and not greasy. Now I don't know if it's the combination of products that had that effect or just one, but I will use Dr. Organics again and my leave-in.

See you next week!

Dr. Organic @ Holland & Barrett

Was out with my Mum the other day and she dragged me in to Holland & Barrett, and I ended up buying some hair conditioner, I'm not usually one to impulse buy, but the display looked so inviting, yeah I'm weak. Anyhow the display was of a new brand on the scene Dr. Organic, they make skin care and hair care products. The conditioners that I looked at were Aloe Vera, Manuka Honey, Lavender, Vitamin E and Pomegranate, they also do Green Tea. I chose to purchase the Vitamin E conditioner, because it said it was moisturising, it cost £5.25 for 250ml, which I think is a fair price, and at the moment Holland Barrett are offering buy one get one half price on anything in store. It has a slight fragrance to it and is a thick consistency, I haven't tried it yet, I just wanted to share, but I'll be sure to do a review when I do try it.

What the website says:

A nourishing conditioner suitable for all hair types formulated with Organic Vitamin E, Aloe Vera, Shea butter, Hydrolyzed milk protein, Panthenol and Sunflower oil. A deeply soothing and effective conditioner formulated to lock in moisture, which restores natural condition by penetrating and coating the hair’s external fibres and cellular keratin matrix, promoting rehydration and restoring the hair into beautiful and manageable condition. See picture below, he colour isn't right my conditioner is rich golden colour.



Garnier Fructis £1 @ ASDA

I went grocery shopping yesterday and picked up some Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine for £1

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY...

...or rather lack of it, not sure if I spoke about this before but it's my blog so I write what I want. Feeling a little frustrated I sat down this morning and worked out that I have 7 products that I want to market. The problem is having the finance to get the business off the ground. At the moment costs include; safety assessments and challenge testing at £180 per product! Then having to pay for labels, each jar needing 2 labels each, and then actually paying for the jars to put the product in AND having enough stock of the ingredients to have enough of each product to actually start selling. So it's seeming like I need to win the lottery or have a very generous friend to get this project off the ground. *sad face*. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to market at least one product from my potential range. All the products I'm creating are for styling a maintenance I only created one deep conditioner. Reason being I'm happy using Shea Butter Cottage shampoo bars, Giovanni conditioners and Garnier Fructis conditioners.

Hair Journal

Can I remind anyone reading this record is more for me to remember what I do rather then me giving advice, so apologises for any vagueness, but I do welcome questions or comments.

This weekend I did a deep treatment I'm going to do this every week, I used a hot oil mixture on my hair and layered on top of this my own deep treatment mix, I put a plastic bag on my head, and then sat under a heat cap for 1 hour. I washed it off using Afro Shampoo Bar from Shea Butter Cottage (I always use this to shampoo in my hair, and would only use Shea Butter products to shampoo my hair), I then detangled using Giovanni Smooth as Silk. I detangled my hair in 4 sections using my brand new Denman D4 brush which I purchased from Boots and I'm in love with it, and yes, I know, some of you may be thinking I'm a bit late, but I just didn't believe the hype, (although I did have a D14 when I had  TWA), I thought I'd try it because I felt that my detangling comb was causing too much stress to my hair.

After detangling I rinsed my hair undoing one section, rinsing tying that section back up and moving on to the next. Just to digress a little, I don't believe there is anything such as a 'snag free' hair band my hair still snags on those supposedly 'snag free' hair bands, so I'll have to invest in some large hair grips. So any way rinsed my hair then sprayed with a watered down leave in (Giovanni Direct Leave-in and a decotion of marshmallow and comfrey root). I then sealed in moisture using a mix of oils, and layered on top my own moisture cream.

My mum canerowed the front of my hair using Twisted Mango Custard and I 2 strand twisted the back. My intention was to have a twist out this didn't work too well so I pulled it back, then that in the week fro'ed it out.

Hair Journal

I've decided that its time that I try my best to keep a hair journal, mainly because there are times when I love my hair and it feels really moisturised and soft, and there are other times when it's dry and I think WHAT DID I DO?! It can be hard for me to remember because I do make my own products and sometimes I use remnants of something that just happens to be left in the bathroom and  forget what's in it. I have now got to the stage in my kitchen experiments where I have been able to recreate a handful of products with great success. So now I want to start using them on a regular basis so that I can see how good my creations really are. This is probably an apt time for me to start doing this as my camera was stolen and I can't make any YouTube videos at the moment.

So last week every morning my hair only took 5 minutes to do! Let me tell you what I did. Wash day: I used a Bentonite Deep treatment mask, this was mixed up the week before but I had some left over so I mixed in some preservative so it would last and it worked great. I then mixed a marshmallow and comfrey decotion with Giovanni leave in conditioner in a spray bottle and used that to detangle, I then sealed my ends with a mixture of natural oils and used a new product that I'm working on (it hasn't got a name yet), it's a mixture of butters and conditioner and helps to soften and moisturise the hair. I then used my favourite creation so far Sea Curls, a curl defining gel that I've created. Then every morning after I sprayed with water shook my hair and I was out the door. I didn't touch a single hair on my head until next wash day, and when I did I couldn't believe how moisturised and soft my hair felt.

BeUNIQUEhaircare.co.uk is now trading!

I've taken the first step of many, the BeUNIQUE website is now up and running and trading, we're selling herbs and powders, including Bentonite Clay and Marshmallow Root Powder that you can use to make deep conditioners, and final rinses, as well as moisturising spritz for your hair. So go along to http://www.beuniquehaircare.co.uk/ and take a look at what's on offer.

Who's your hairspiration?

I was just reading Angel's new post on http://www.thenaturallounge.com/ about Mahogany Boisseau and I felt so inspired to see a beautiful black woman with beautiful long hair the kind of hair that, in the past, I thought, was only achievable if you had a relaxer. I kind of decided this month that I was going to do my own mini growth challenge, but now I am inspired even more to want to look after my hair and grow healthy, long, natural hair.

WHO'S YOUR HAIRSPIRATION?

(please answer via posting comments)