my next protective style

i was sitting up late the other night for no reason, and had an epiphany: i think i'm ready to tackle weaves again. i spent forever agonizing over whether i was gonna go for curly or straight, then i remembered the massive bohyme brazilian thread on BHM. i had always wanted to try that hair, and now that it's getting warm and i'm in the cowash challenge, i figured this hair will let me cowash and experiment with curly styles to my heart's content. i will be able to bun, twistout, braidout, wet bun, and everything else i wanna do, making sure my hair underneath gets the most moisture but without sacrificing retention.

i found the hair on leebeauty.com for the best price, and i have heard from people on BHM that it's actually authentic bohyme for those prices. they have the 12" for 71.99 and the 14" for 79.99, so i think i will go with the 14". i went to a local bss to look at the colors since they say bohyme runs a little lighter than other brands, and i didn't want to buy the wrong color online and be screwed. i *think* i'll get the 2....it's pretty light, and the 4 may be too light.

the only thing i have to decide now is whether i will get my cousin to braid me up like she did before i installed my crochet braids and sew it in myself, or if i will pay someone to do it. i don't really trust other people with my hair, but i figure it won't be bad, as long as i don't let her braid too tight. i have a bit of time to decide, since i won't be doing anything until i get my tax return. for now, it's back to reading that huge thread -- only 140 pages till i'm done!

who woulda thought?

so i bought this container of indian healing clay for my face a while back, when i was on retin-a micro, because i had heard good things about its deep cleaning abilities. long story short, i like my queen helene mint julep mask much better -- i still get that deep cleaning feeling without my face feeling raw. i found a thread on lhcf where a girl had used her bentonite clay on her hair, and of course i was interested -- clean hair without shampoo AND curl definition is right up my alley! i decided to give it a whirl today, since i was ready to wash my hair after almost 3 weeks of wearing it straight. here's what i did:

*prepooed overnight with coconut/olive/castor oil*bentonite clay treatment (added warm water to clay till it was a little thicker than pudding; left in for 20 min)
*cowashed with HE hello hydration
*added a bit of VO5 strawberries and creme, then the last of my MJ baby buttercreme and some curly pudding mixed with aloe vera gel

i must admit, at first i was kind of scared when i was under the showerhead (with my new filter) and my hair felt really dry....then i rinsed it all out and got rid of that residue. things immediately got better right before i added my HH; my hair felt really clean but wasn't tangled like it is when i shampoo it. i then added my conditioner, put my hair in one big twist, and let it sit for about 5 min while i showered. i couldn't stop smiling once i removed the t-shirt from my hair and saw all those curls that i've been hiding for so long!! my hair is sitting right on my shoulders, which means i am finally almost SL unstretched. APL unstretched is gonna be a beast if i ever get there, that's for sure!

here's how i wore my hair today. tonight i will put it in two french braids, and tomorrow i will spray it with conditioner and water in the AM and bun.

me vs the avocado

the other day, i bought an avocado and decided to try to make a natural hair mask with it using a recipe i found on LHCF. the recipe called for one avocado, a bit of honey, and some water, but i decided to add some melted shea butter and a little coconut and olive oil to it as well. long story short, i think i'll stick to avocado butter and oil -- i wasn't able to get it down to a guacamole-like consistency and ended up with chunks of avocado stuck in my hair. let's not even get started on the smell -- i smelled avocado for about 12 hours after i rinsed!! speaking of which, after i rinsed, i added some oils (coconut, olive and castor) to my hair as a pre-poo before hitting the dominican salon that afternoon. the guy at the shampoo bowl had a pretty funny reaction; he just kept talking about all the oil in my hair and ended up shampooing it about three times trying to get it all out. i was a little peeved (although it may just have been him in general) but didn't let it bother me. it WAS kind of funny when he pleaded with me "no mucho oy-jul", trying to say i had too much oil in my hair. all i did was smirk and say ok -- i'll definitely keep pre-pooing, because Lord knows all that oil in my hair is what kept it from going down the sink with all those sulfates he put in it!

march 9th blowout

i removed my crochet braids this past tuesday and rewarded myself for keeping my hair under wraps so long by getting a dominican blowout. it went great (minus the guy wandering around the shop who ended up washing my hair and soaking me when he dropped the hose), and i got to ask my girl her opinion about the lacio lacio that my friend gave me. she used baba de caracol on my hair, and when i asked her where i could get that, she told me lacio was good, so i was alright with what i already have. she didn't ask if i wanted a trim, which i found unusual, and i didn't check my ends till i got home....so now i have a serious dilemma. my sister measured for me, and while i am kinda scraping BSB (almost, anyway....definitely a half an inch or less) i have an inch till i am full BSL -- basically, the top of the yellow shirt is what i will consider BSL and the bottom of my bra, since i wear them low, will be my MBL. i can definitely get an inch before my 2 year curly kinkyversary in june, but i need to take off about an inch to fix the "situation" i have going on with my ends. i'm now stuck figuring out whether i'll trim, since i won't be wearing my hair straight again for at least 3 months but want to avoid it getting any worse. more than likely, what i'll end up doing is either going back to get that trim or buying some shears and learning how to search and destroy. i'm happy with my growth since this is officially theeeee longest my hair has ever been, but i am severely hair anorexic -- i never understood that till it happened to me. i'm pretty sure that what it is is my hair growing so slowly as opposed to the drastic change in length that comes with a wig or sew-in, so i don't notice that my hair is longer until i do something like get it straightened and suddenly feel it on my back, or see a picture. even with the pictures, i feel kinda jaded by the length, until i see someone with shorter hair and think "wow, her hair is really long" and realize my hair's longer. i also believe it has something to do with the fact that it's not uberthick like my sister's, so i feel like i have to have ridiculously long -- as in WL or longer -- hair in order to overcome the thickness thing. ah well, at least for once i feel like WL is in my reach, something i NEVER thought possible before two years ago. i'm so excited to see what this summer will bring!

i've decided...

i was up this morning doing some thinking about my hair...for no reason, really, but i was. i'm currently reading through the MBL 2010 thread on LHCF (a challenge that i officially joined this morning) and i realized something: i am probably about a year away from realizing a hair goal that i never, EVER thought possible. heck, i'm already the proud owner of a beautiful head of strands longer and healthier than they have ever been in my life. this made me realize that while i am still aiming for certain goals (BSL by june 13, MBL by my birthday on october 13, WL by 6/13/2011), i should enjoy every second of this journey. translation: i will NOT be forcing myself to do something that i don't want to do for the sake of reaching a goal that frankly, i have the rest of my life to get to. that is one thing i never understood about people who bun consistently or something like that and get sick of it, but keep going just to reach some silly length goal: i want to always be HAPPY with my hair! my hair has been hidden for almost three straight months, and i have no idea where i am in terms of reaching my BSL goal. i don't think i have ever gone this long without knowing how my hair looks, and i simply can't take the suspense anymore...i want to do a length check.

thus, when these crochet braids come out (i am 2.5 weeks in, so i will take them out on tuesday, march 9, making them exactly 3 weeks old) i will be getting a dominican blowout and making a length check tee so i can do some update photos. that will put me at the halfway point of my 6 month HYH challenge. i won't consider this failing my challenge...hell, it's a personal challenge...and after i wash out that blowout, i will go right back to hiding my hair until i hit two years natural. this will let me enjoy my hair for just enough time to get sick of it again, and also satisfy my need to see where i am with my progress. i mean, there are plenty of times i have wanted to straighten my hair and was either too broke to do it or too afraid of a setback, but now i not only am making money from a passion of mine, but i also have a favorite hairstylist who herself is the owner of a lush mane of hair. i'm so excited...all this talk about not being happy though....i am itching to take these braids out so i can cowash, but THAT i won't do. yet, anyway!

my sister's trip to the salon

my sister took out her kinky twists on february 25th. they lasted about 6 weeks, which is typical for her. she had about an inch of new growth when they came out...this is what they looked like the day i installed them.
she actually asked me if she could wear her hair out for a few days before getting it braided back up, and i was SHOCKED! this is coming from my sister, who is deathly allergic to heat on her hair, as you may recall. in fact, her hair has only been straightened ONCE since she's been natural, and that was right around new years before this last set of kinky twists was installed. i guess she liked it so much (or got so many compliments, haha) that she wanted it done again. however, i didn't really feel like straightening her hair since i'm not so good at getting my own straight, and hers is wayyyy thicker than mine...so i told her as a reward for doing so well in school last semester, i would pay for her to go to the dominican salon and get a blowout. of course she shuddered when she heard this, having heard my mother and i talk about that hot blow dryer, but i reminded her that that was all before i discovered "my new girl" (i really, REALLY have to learn her name) and i reassured her she would leave with her hair swinging and her scalp intact. on thursday the 25th, i took her after school (with deep conditioner already in her hair) for what would promise to be an interesting afternoon.

after driving all the way to the larger salon 30 minutes from here, i was told that my favorite girl was actually at the salon 10 minutes from my house. all i could do was laugh, since that's pretty much how i expected my luck to play out. we hopped back in the car and got there just in time -- there were only 2 customers, and it was AFTER my sister sat down that everyone rushed into the salon after work. there were only two people working there, a light skinned larger girl with WL straightish hair, and my girl, who has BSL jet black hair with red highlights. the light skinned girl took one look at my sister's hair and added $20 to the price of a standard blowout. i wasn't shocked for some reason (maybe because mine is $10 more, supposedly because i am natural), so i just shook my head and agreed to it. she started talking to the other girl, whom i have noticed doesn't speak much english, and led my sister to the shampoo bowl. she picked up a small toothed comb while i watched in horror -- and then my girl came over with a large shower-sized bone comb and pushed the other girl out of the way. see, this is why she is my favorite!! she washed my sister's hair, gently detangling it, then sat her in the chair to get prepped for the dryer. the light skinned girl reached for the magnetic rollers, and i perked up to see how this was going to go, since i couldn't imagine rollers getting my sister's hair anything near straight. i was right, though -- my girl came over and again pushed the other stylist out of the way, and instead put my sister's hair in about 20 bantu knots before sitting her under the dryer. pleased, i made small talk with my mom, who had arrived by then to get her own blowout. the flat iron job i had done earlier in the week turned out less than stellar, to say the least, and she just couldn't let my sister get her hair done without seeing it with her own eyes! while my sister was under the dryer, both stylists started talking about my hair before asking me if it was a weave. i told them no, and parted my hair to show them the cornrows under my crochet braids. i heard them both say "ahhh", then felt two pairs of hands in my head! all i could do was laugh while they checked out my handiwork, almost in disbelief that i had done it myself. the light skinned one then asked if i do hair, and i simply said yes. =) she asked my advice on getting two strand twists, and we talked a bit about the type of hair in my head before my mom and sister's time was up under the dryer.

while my sister was under the dryer, in came a woman and her daughter to get blowouts of their own. i would estimate that the girl was maybe 12 or so, and i couldn't keep my eyes off of her...not because i couldn't believe she was so young and looked so used to getting her hair done, but because she had the most BEAUTIFUL hair! her WL/TL hair (my estimation anyway) was pulled up into a ponytail that hung to her waist, and it was in a bouncy braidout. it was right then and there that i decided that i wanted a ponytail just like that one. i have always pretty much thought of hair that length as stereotypically boring and just plain TOO MUCH, but it looked really great on her and not boring at all. i mean, just thinking of the beautiful spiral curls that would have resulted from her rollerset almost had me drooling! i tried hard not to stare, but i couldn't resist taking a picture. i wish i could have been there to see the outcome!

after getting up, my sister was led to the chair...and my mom and i both watched intently as my girl pulled out the blow dryer. we were right in the sense that my sister made THEE most hilarious faces at first, but she seemed to hold it together as my mom and i took bets as to whether she would ever return. after getting her hair blown out, it was flat ironed for extra sleekness. i was so glad i had brought my huge bottle of chi silk infusion, since this was more heat than she had probably ever had on her hair, natural or relaxed! they then gave her a small trim (my girl's other specialty) and wrapped it. she left grinning like a cheshire cat, letting me know that even though it was a bit painful at first, she thought her hair looked great. i feel like although she will still be conscious of what she is letting happen to her hair, she's no longer afraid of heat...occasionally, anyway.