This oil smells very nice. And that is the best thing that I can say about it. My hair didn't like it at all. It left my hair feeling greasy and attracted dust and dirt like crazy. I tried using it to oil my scalp and still had the greasy feeling. I ended up giving it to my mom, who liked it.
Plaited Glory: For Colored Girls Who've Considered Braids, Locks, and Twists by Lonnice Brittenum Bonner
This was my first natural hair book. It is a good book for those who are just making the decision to go natural and want to learn about what they can do with their hair. As I have been natural on and off for years, it didn't give me the information that I needed. As the title suggests, it focuses primarily upon braids, locs and twists and as such is very limited in styles.
As the weather gets warmer and more humid and I've prety much figured out what my hair does and does not like, I can talk about my routine.
Daily:
Spritz my hair with either a water and conditioner mix (very little conditioner) or just water. If I'm just using water, I dab on a little Carol's Daughter Hair Milk, mainly on the back and sides of my head and the ends of my hair. At night, I just tie on my scarf and go to bed.
Twice a week:
I'm currently trying out the no poo method. This is fo a couple of reasons. I want to cut down on the amount of product I am using o my hair and no pooing is a good way to do that. So far the results have been very good. I wash my hair with conditioner twice a week. As my scalp tends to be dry and itchy, I use Nature's Gate Rainwater Tea Tree Oil Conditioner once a week and either Nature's Gate Original Herbal Conditioner or Nature's Gate Jojoba Conditioner for the other wash. I'm sure I will start washing more often as it gets hotter and I start spending more time at the pool or the beach. I don't alternate for any particular reason.
After I wash my hair, I dab a bit of Carol's Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey and some Hair Milk and twist or cornrow my hair.
Monthly:
I wash my hair with Nature's Gate Jojoba Shampoo (no I'm not completely off of shampoo) and condition with Suave Two Minute Deep Conditioner.
Every 2-3 Months:
I use a clarifying shampoo. This will also probably step up in the summer and I am looking for something less harsh than the Suave clarifying shampoo that I use now.
That's it. It may seem like a lot, but it really isn't. I did a lot more with my hair when it was relaxed and a litle bit less when it was braided. I'll talk about the products I use and why I do or don't use certain products in the product reviews.
I have written a lot for this website. Unfortunately, most of it is in a little black notebook. Eventually, I am going to post all of it here.
As it stands, I am going to post product reviews every week and book reviews every month or so (since I have many fewer books than products to talk about). Eventually I will get my FAQ and About Me pages up too.
Nature's Gate Herbal Natural Jojoba Conditioner
Let start by saying, I love Nature's Gate products. I started using them fairly recently and I love the way that that make my hair and feel. They are not pricy, considering the quantity, but very good quality.
Which brings me to the Jojoba conditioner. This is one of my staple "no poo" conditioners. It leaves my hair feelings very clean, detangled, easy to comb, and best of all it has done wonders for reducing my breakage. It leaves very little build up and rinses off very well. I don't need a leave in conditioner when I use it, just a little bit of hair milk is enough. It also has a very nice, light scent.
Last year, I spent a lot of time thinking about locing my hair. I looked at books websites and talked to people. In the end I decided that locs weren't for me.
Along the way, I decided to look into what could be done with unrelaxed, unpressed, unweaved, unloced, unbraided hair, ie. my hair in its natural and unrestrained state. And I found that there weren't a whole lot of resources in that direction.
But things have changed since I first decided to stop perming my hair for good in October of 2001. Over the last 4 years or so, I drifted. I didn't know how to take care of my hair and I went back and forth between braiding and pressing my hair. In the process, I did a lot of damage to my hair. In the last year, I started doing research and completely changed my routine. Now my hair is healthier and stronger than it has ever been.
Along the way (the 26 years leading up to today), I have had to navigate the politics, biases, and stereotypes that go along with African American hair.
This site is for all of it. The practical hair care stuff, the ranting, the social commentary, the OMGWTF am I going to do with this stuff on my head. Everything.
Carol's Daughter Healthy Hair Butter
This is a good moisturizing cream. It is rather heavy and tends to attract dust, so I don't use it more than a couple of times a month . It has a light fragrant scent, but it does carry a time limit of about six months. I probably won't buy any more after I finish this jar because now that I am no pooing, I am phasing out all heavy products that I currently use on my hair.
