New Hair Year Resolution: Where Yo' Hair At??

End of 2012 shot of my hair...

Hello there readers!

Before I begin, I'd like to thank you for reading this here ole' blog. I hope you enjoy this post- whatever it ends up being x

I'm beginning to become obsessed with my hair. Wait, beginning? I've always been obsessed with hair but I think my obsession is borderline unhealthy. Actually, tell a lie, I've always been obsessed with hair, but now I'm obsessed with my hair. So this feeling of supreme flyness is new to me. I mean it's like when you get a new shiny piece of jewellery (like the necklace my awesome sister got me for Christmas), you look at it all the time, catch glimpses of it in the mirror, that kinda thing. That's normal right? It's normal for me to constantly look at pictures of my hair and sing "Oh my hair, Why you so fly? Why you so fly? Like a birdie in the sky..." true story lol.

My two year old stash lol

Anyways, I think a benefit of this obsession is I always know where my hair is at. As in "Where yo' hair at?" (because people actually go round asking people that ¬¬ ) And right now my hair is in an ok place, a good place, but it could be better. So this new hair year ima be working on aesthetics but more importantly- how it feels. Cue D'Angelo: "How does it feeeeel?" See I have two main textures on my head one is super curly/coily and rough and the other is mega curly/coily and super rough. The first texture is currently kinda under control with the new changes in my kinda regimen but the second texture is rebelling. It needs a firmer hand. In an effort to up my game without spending a gajillion pounds, I'm going to be revisiting ayurvedic powders.

back in '10 when my ayurveda game was on point

I used to use them back in '10 when I first started my hair journey. And my hair always looked really vibrant so I'm curious to see what they'll do to my hair now that I'm on top of my hair care practices. Plus I've got a two year old box of powders that needs to be used up because I hate wasting things I spent money on.

So yeah, here's hoping this new addition to my kinda regimen makes a difference to my hair. I'll keep you updated.

What about you? Any plans to change up your regimens? Have any of you tried ayurvedic powders? In others words: Where yo' hair at? hehe ok, I'll stop.

Rella x

Hair Update...

Hey there readers,

This is another one of those posts where I don't really know what I'm going to write about. But i'm trying to post more so here I am, posting. That love affair that started with my hair in that 'I Love My Hair' post is on-going and more passionate than ever (lol). I'm really excited about the New (Hair) Year that we're about to enter into. Is that strange? New Hair Year? I mean sure, I'm excited about the new year, but the new hair year has got me all abuzz. I feel like I made some real progress with my hair this past year and after like three setbacks I feel so prepared for managing my hair. 

I think I cut off a total of like 4-5 inches of hair over the course of this year so you can't see a really see a massive difference in length but I've achieved so much health-wise, it's cray. 

For one, since I gave up using combs I nolonger get those multiple splits. Do you know the ones I'm talking about? 5, 6 splits crawling up the same hair strand like a ladder? Yuk. No more, no more! I mean I still get normal splits every now and again, as is the nature of hair, but those buggers? No siree! Finger detangling successfully has really made a difference!

I used to complain alot about how my hair felt. I'm talking about the texture, but not the natural texture. Like you know the whole Nature, Nurture thing? So if my natural texture is defined by my genetics then the nuture-ish texture is determined by everything I do to it. And prior to now my hair has never felt nice. It's always felt rough and dry and I dunno, just not nice. But now? My hair feels AWESOME. I mean so soft, I can't believe it's my hair. And it's all down to my love: Faith In Nature and effective sealing. My hair even behaves differently now and it feels awesome! 

finger detangled, moisturised, sealed and ready to go!

This year brought a real learning curve when it comes to sealing. I experimented with lots of different oils and I now know what absodefolutely works for me. See I discovered castor oil which was a vast improvement from olive oil for sealing but it's viscosity rendered it ineffective. 

I mean it doesn't matter how great a sealant is if I can't spread it right!? But then I started cutting it. First I tried sunflower oil which made a real change. For the first time my hair dried soft after washing. It even maintained it's moisture for a full day and a half. But sunflower oil is abit too light for me. So then in a moment of pure genius, I tried rapeseed oil (the only other oil we have lying around the house) and Eu-freaking-reka. A match made in hair heaven.

Do you remember when I wrote about all the problems I'm having with my hair? If you exclude single strand knots, all these issues have officially been overcome. How insane is that. I remember how hopeless I felt and how frustrated I was with my hair then. 8 months later and I'm so freaking satisfied. 

So yeah, I don't care how strange it sounds. Bring on the New Hair Year. I'm so excited about my hair in 2013. I feel equipped. 

Time to throw it to you, what have you learnt about your hair this year? 

Detangling: My Happy Place lol

freshly finger detangled...

I've been meaning to write about detangling for ages. Getting to my detangling happy place has been a struggle. Struggle doesn't even sound difficult enough, It's been a battle, a war. That's better. For YEARS detangling was a war between my dense splitty hair and me. I always lost lol.

I tried so many different things... inside the shower detangling, detangling with oil, wide tooth detangling, denman brush detangling, dry detangling, nothing worked. Or it would work but also shred my hair in the process. And remember how prone my hair is to split ends? Once I realised I was loosing so much hair to combing I stopped using combs and started finger detangling. But because my hair is so dense and irregular in its curl/coilness, my hair would never get fully detangled and sessions would last like 4 hours plus *sigh*

But now? I have my detangling game on lock. As in, detangling is a breeze. I am officially in my detangling happy place. Everything changed for me when I started using my beloved Faith In Nature Chocolate Conditioner. I have spoken about it so many times and after 9 months we are still in love.

So how do I finger detangle? 

I detangle on dry hair. Wetting my hair when it's tangled just makes things worse. If my hair is a ratty mess I use the FIN Chocolate Conditioner which I call 'slip on steroids'. I'll take a section of hair, rub some condish on my fingertips, and then stroke it into my hair using both hands. I'll start midway down my hair and then stroke down to the ends, then run down the full length- root to tip. Finally i'll put some more condish on my fingertips and work that into my dense roots. As I stroke my hair I remove all the shed hair and work apart any tangles. Since the FINC condish is sooo slippy this is so easy. After all of this my strands are completely separated and tangle free. 

Another reason why I love the FINC condish is because it doubles as my moisturiser. Seriously, NOTHING moisturises my hair like this stuff does.

Finally i'll add whatever oil mix i'm using (currently rapeseed and castor oil) and twist that section. After I'm done my hair is butter soft. Is butter even soft? It dries soft and moisturised, and it's soo easy to manage and style. Happy place, happy place, happy place!

If my hair just needs some light detangling i'll use one of the other 5 FIN conditioners that I have. Yes, 5. LOL, after I bought the Chocolate and saw how well that worked I had to try some of their other flavours! Currently i'm using the Ginkgo Biloba, before that it was the Seaweed and before that the Aloe Vera. Since my hair isn't that tangled i'll detangle in much larger sections. 

My hair is seriously thriving guys. It's crazy! 

Before I leave I just wanted to say how humbled and excited I am to have been featured on One Young Traveller, Hairscapades and then reposted on CurlyNikki. 

I am so humbled that other people read what little ole me has to say, seriously, I'm all abuzz guys. A-freaking-buzz!!! I've been having some serious "They like me, They really like me" moments lol! Ok I need to calm down before I make a fool of myself. 

Has anybody out there tried any Faith In Nature products? 

Have you reached your Detangling Happy Place?

Talk to me! :)

Faith In Nature Jojoba Conditioner

nearly finished :(

Ok so I was wrong, I have no problem admitting that. See when I bought my beloved FIN Chocolate Conditioner I also bought the FIN Jojoba Conditioner because I know jojoba to be nourishing for the hair but i've never been able to justify spending money on jojoba oil. I'z a student. So I tried it as a conditioner and it was aite, nothing spesh, and so I ruled it out. Deemed it forgettable. Unimportant. Then the other day I was replying to a comment left by The Simple Thing on my post about my beloved and I reiterated my feelings. It does nothing for me, the chocolate condish is the star!
But then it came time for me to do my hair for a vid I needed to make. I was running low on the chocolate condish and didn't want to waste it on a few twists and then I remember the jojoba. So I took it, used it, and now here I am. I was wrong.

used the jojoba to put these
quick twists in to shoot a vid

See, remember how I tried the chocolate on dry hair and saw it for the gem that it was? I didn't do that for the jojoba, I just went with how I felt about it on wet hair. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's no chocolate conditioner, but it doesn't need to be! My Faith in Nature Chocolate Conditioner is my heavy duty detangler, it is slip on steroids. But the Faith In Nature Jojoba Conditioner? It's subtle slip, my everyday styler, for those few times when my hair isn't a ratty mess. Both are moisturising and both enable me to style my hair without wetting it.

The only difference is the chocolate condish gives more slip and the jojoba condish has a tad bit of curl activator-ness going on.
I think the chocolate has more slip because it has more centrimonium chloride in it but don't quote me on that because chemist I am not.

So yeah, I love both of them, both of them are nearly finished, and now I know they both work I have no choice but to go and buy every other faith in nature conditioner there is *hides face*

"I tried to get out but they just keep pulling me back in"

Faith In Nature Chocolate Conditioner aka Miracle in a bottle!

Guys it has finally happened. I have finally found a holy grail product. Something I cannot live without. Something I will go all out and claim as being a miracle in a bottle. It's that serious.

It all started about five months ago. Remember in the I Love My Hair!! post, how I spoke about that new conditioner that I used that actually made a difference to my hair? This is what I was talking about. So the long and the short of it was that I'd been looking for some accessible products. I stumbled across the Faith In Nature brand and bought the chocolate set (shower gel, shampoo and conditioner). They have so many different products to choose from and so I settled Chocolate because it is advertised as 'For Dark Hair'. I love that btw, It's nice to have a break from the 'for curly hair' or 'for afro hair' that I normally see.

So my new products arrive, I use them as intended and for the most part I was unaffected. Actually that's a bit harsh. I saw a result but nothing to write home about. So what are you writing home about? you ask.

A couple of months ago I had a performance, and for this performance I decided to do a flat twist out (vid coming soon). See as i've said before I have my twist out game on lock but my post twist out protocol sucks. When I got back home I haphazardly twisted my hair and went to bed. The next day my twist out was dead and I had somewhere to be so I pulled the twists into a bun, added and scarf and then went about my business. Somehow, over the course of two weeks, my hair went from being a chexy twist out to a ratty hot mess.

And when I say hot mess I mean random clumps of tangles, dreads, can this even be called hair anymore-ness. Seriously. It got to the point where I couldn't avoid it anymore and so I set out to detangle. So i'm detangling and getting somewhere and nowhere at the same time. It's taking me days. One night i'm trying to think about how to get everything done faster. I can't add water because that will make everything tangle more and oil does nothing for my hair... What can I put to stop this snap crackle and popping thats going on??

What's that saying? Necessity breeds invention. I needed to moisten my hair without 'activating' my tiny curls. I look around my room and see the FIN Chocolate Conditioner and remember that it was quite liquidy. So I put some on my fingertips and smooth it into a section of hair and then Eu-freaking-reka!!
Somewhere in the world a lightbulb went off and an apple fell on somebody's head.
Yep it was like discovering gravity. The dreads unravelled and the tangles melted away, it was a hairvolution! I'm not even exaggerating. I did it again and again and again to make sure I wasn't imagining things. I even tried again the next day to make sure the sleep deprivation due to detangling wasn't causing hallucinations.

Finger detangling is now a breeze guys. What used to take me 4 hours now takes 30 minutes. And my hair is actually detangled. Not that kinda detangled I used to get. Styling is soooo much easier. In fact everything is easier.

Since this has been kinda long (and i'm not sure how much of you are still with me) i'm gonna end it here and come back later with the details on how I use it.

You heard it here first folks: Faith In Nature Chocolate Conditioner is the truth dot com when it comes to detangling. Slip for days my friends. Slip for days.

¡Viva la hairvolution!

Video- Another Twisted Bun

Hey Guys!

Not only are exams over but I'm finally done with school for the year!! WOOOO!!
So i'm back! and I finally finished editing my bun video!! So here it is, hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think x x

Random Musings...Intimate moments with my hair

Ok I'm in the mood to write.

I don't know what about yet but we'll see where this goes...
I've had a full 6 days now to recover from the prison that was exams and even though those days weren't spent in rest but in rehearsal and performance, I still feel like my brain is back.

I have some ideas for some posts that will be coming to you soon but I don't want to write any of those right now but I want to write.

You know, I love natural hair. Yes this isn't news, and if I didn't I'm defs in the wrong place but I think that alot of the time, (and correct me if I'm wrong) we get caught up in the difficulties and forget how awesome our hair is.

I mean if you read this blog often you'd know by now that I can go ON about my hatred of single strand knots and how much of a trial detangling is... But you don't know that sometimes I'll catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My hair is probably in fat braids/twists air drying after a wash, nothing to write home about, but I get these waves...At the root, you know the poofy bit? Before the braid starts? Deep seated waves. and i'll just stare at them, and this whimsical smile creeps unto my face and it's like i'm looking at art. Or the 9th wonder of the world.

You know those unexpected, quiet beautiful things? Hand holding, a shared glance confirming a secret, a private joke, call me a romantic but that same warmth is what I get when I see those waves.

And baby, I got waves for days...lol!

I guess I wanted to take a moment to encourage whoever is reading this. Or for those of you who aren't in need of encouragement; I wanted to take a moment to agree with you. I love natural hair. It is awesome, unique and OURS

Rels x

Everyday Hair...

yup, got this twist out game
on lock! lol.

When I first decided to start taking care of my hair I was amazed by all the 'out' styles. The twist outs, braid outs, bantu knot outs... I wanted to learn how to do them and when I mastered them I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

But personally I only wear them when i'm performing, or for other special occasions. What about when I want a more casual look? Or a style that lasts longer than two days? I'm talking about everyday hair. For alot of naturals this could be a wash and go or bun etc but due to the limitations uniqueness of my hair texture I needed other options.

I used to watch YT vids and read NHCB's and see all these really extravagant styles and think but what do you do between that? How do you take care of your hair on a daily basis?
I wanted everyday hair styles that didn't take long to do, looked good and were suitable for my hair type (protective). I don't ask for much lol. But I never had/took the time to create them but after my last post I was determined to keep up the positive momentum and spend time styling my hair instead of falling back on twists and scarves.

So in the four weeks since I Love My Hair here's how I've worn my hair.

Week 1: I wore the I Love My Hair hairstyle for the whole week. I took it down to moisturise and seal then put it back up half way through.
Week 2: Began with a wash since it had been two weeks since my last. I left the braids that I used to dry my hair in and wore headscarves
Week 3: Determined to do something with my hair I took down the braids and wore an improvised up do (see vid)
Week 4 aka now: I am currently wearing the flyest twisted bun ever. Video and post coming soon :)

So thats it. I'm going to be taking a more proactive and involved approach to my hair. The best thing I've done for my hair this past month is actually spend time with it. Sorry it's been so long since my last post i've been in exam HELL. But things have finally quieted down and so you'll be hearing from me more.

I guess i'll end with a question? What does your day to day styling routine look like?

Hope this finds you well :)
Rels x

I Love My Hair!!

For those of you who don't know i've had natural hair all my life. Two years ago I decided to stop hiding it away and embrace it fully. It hasn't been easy. The increase of Natural Hair Care Blogs (NHCBs) and youtubers has helped but at the same time hasn't. What do I mean, all of a sudden there was all this beautiful hair to look at and then there was me. 

I'm going to be real here, for a long time I felt like I drew the short straw when it came to my hair. I do not have wash and go hair, I do not have defined, organised curls. My hair is dense, unruly and sometimes a burden. Combs shred my ends and result in splits upon splits upon splits and then there are those pesky single strand knots (ssks) that seem to exist just to make me unhappy.

Don't get me started on products and how nothing seemed to work for me. Despite all of this I still had hope. I still wanted to make things work. I knew that my hair will never be silky and easy to manage and I settled. I settled for only feeling like I had beautiful hair when I did a flat twist out or some other out style that resulted in curls that I could wear loose. 

This Friday all of that changed. I told you all recently that I was going to be cutting my hair and I did. Over the course of a week I'd take down an old twist, finger detangle and cut. Sometimes half an inch sometime three. But when I was finally done I felt like I had a chance at a fresh chance. 

I had also been on the search for a new shampoo and conditioner, the ones i'd been using were on the verge of running out and I didn't know whether to repurchase or not. Before I did I wanted to try something new, something cheaper and more accessible so I did some hunting took a chance.

So there I was, almost damage free with a new shampoo and conditioner at hand, desperately needing a wash. I prepooed over night with condish, honey and oil. Nothing special. Then the next morning it was time. Time to see if this hair thing could work for me. I went all out. Shampooed in twists and actually took down each section to condition. I was thorough and determined. After I got out the shower I applied the leave in, sealed with castor oil and braided it all up to dry while I went to uni. 

I get back from my 4 hour lab and my hair still isn't dry. I refused to let the fact that I had somewhere really important to be panic me. I restyled the braids, packed my stuff and began my two hour journey back to London. Once I arrived at my family home I went to the bathroom and proceeded to take down the plaits. My hair was about 20% damp but it didn't matter, it was going to get styled whether it liked it or not. 

I split it in half, and left hair for a bang or pomp then put the top half in a ponytail. I braided the end then put the bottom half in a ponytail aswell. This time I gathered the tail together and folded the hair back up, I twirled the ends and pinned them so I had a kind of bun. Finally I loosely flat twisted the front and added a clip to the bun. And in less than ten minutes I was transformed. 

My hair was the smoothest it has ever been thanks to the conditioner and the cut just gave my hair life. I look at these pictures and feel so at peace with my hair it's ridiculous. I drool over the texture. I feel special. In that moment I felt so beautiful. I felt regal. Do you know what I mean? I never thought I could get to this place where I fully embrace, accept and celebrate my texture. I nolonger feel like the uglier hair type, I don't feel inferior or unfortunate. I fully and wholeheartedly love my hair in all of it's forms.

I love that I can say that.

I hope this finds you well,

Rels

Superscarf to the rescue!!

Hey Guys!!

I just wanted to quickly come and share this quick hair story with you. So a bit over a week ago I woke up in a musical mood. I'd been meaning to record some new videos but generally laziness had been preventing me, but this morning was different. I was practically buzzing with musical energy! So I get up and grab my guitar and camera but then I remember that my hair was a mess. A hot mess. My twists were well past their sell by date smh so i'm like "what am I going to do?" I didn't want to take out all of my twists and style my hair only to put them back in an hour later but there was no way those twists- if I could even still call them that- were seeing the light of day.

Then suddenly, Eureka! My scarf, my lifesaver of a scarf, the new love of my life. I took out the four twists that made up the front row of my hair, separated and then separated some more and played with the shaping till I liked the way the bangs fell. Finally I donned the scarf and all was right in the world.

Here's how it turned out.

Now I don't know who reads this but get at me guys?
Has a scarf ever completely saved your hair day?

As usual I hope this finds you well :)
Rels x

Hair Talk...

Hey guys,

I've had a very hair filled morning! I've literally spent maybe three hours surfing the hair web *hides face*. Why, you ask? Recently i've grown increasingly frustrated with my hair. The thickness, tangle prone-ness, dryness, single strand knotted-ness all of these -nesses came together to make one defeated feeling Rella. I was ready to call it quits, I felt like nothing I was doing was working and it just wasn't worth the time and effort. At my worst I was ready to cut it all off, the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I haven't found solutions to my hair problems yet and why cut it off when it's likely to grow back in the same crappy condition it's currently in.

Ok to be fair it's not that bad. Anyway this morning I woke up and was ready to make a plan to deal with all this hair ish so here are the problems.

• single strand knots
• splits ends, mid shaft splits, looks like a tree branch splits
• dryness
• detangling time/ tangle prone nature
• products...

The Plan

1. Single Strand Knots and Splits

Trim Trim Trim. Seriously I'm cutting my hair, not that sugar coated 'tip of each twist' business. I'm going through it all and chopping all the damage out thoroughly until all the knots and splits are gone. Section by section. I don't care how much hair it takes I want to be damage free. Next I'm going to monitor the condition of my hair over the next month to see if they return and why. Was it after combing? after a particular style? 

Speaking of combing, a while back, maybe last year I stopped using combs and solely finger detangled. I don't know what happened to make me go back... I think one day finger detangling stopped working on my ends so I went back to the comb. But in hindsight I think that had more to do with the state of my ends than the effectiveness of finger detangling. This time round my ends will be on point so I'm going to make a real effort and see if I can seriously cut down on comb usage.

2. Dryness

I am lazy. I won't lie. The idea of moisturising my hair, all of my hair, everyday is impossible. I just can't. Take a twist down, finger comb, spray with water, moisturise, seal and retwist everyday .0_o, Not gonna happen. But I am going to up my moisturising game, even if it's something as simple as running my hair under the shower mid-week. 

3. Detangling time/ tangle proneness

4 hours is just too long and without a comb it's probably going to take even longer. This month i'm going to experiment with different detangling methods/ combinations to see if there is anything better than my current routine. I already know that detangling my hair in the shower loaded with conditioner does not work for me. Like at all. The spray bottle prepoo detangling method aka my current routine is aiight but I think my next step is to try dry detangling. I mean, my hair just outright misbehaves when it gets wet so I'm thinking eliminate the water all together and maybe just maybe i'll stand a chance.

4. Products

When you're using a product do you ever wonder if it's actually working? It's obvious when something doesn't work because hair protests but what if your hair just shrugs it's shoulders all the freaking time. Is it because the product is average and not worth repurchasing or is it because shoulder shruging is about as excited as my hair can get? At my next wash I'm going to establish a baseline. After washing I'm just going to seal with castor oil and see how it dries. That way I know how my hair feels with no product so if my hair still feels like that after adding product; that product has some 'splaining to do! 

I'm going to leave it there, I'll definitely be back with updates, reviews and all that jazz. I'm really excited, I feel like I've been at a hair standstill for sometime now and it seems like things are finally going to start moving!

As usual I hope this finds you well!!

Rels x x

Video- Quick Twisted Style

So here's the video that I mentioned in this post.

Let me know what you think of the style...

Rels x

Yoghurt Pre-poo and other hair shenanigans...

Prepoo: Greek Style Yoghurt, Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner, Honey, EVOO, Castor Oil and Coconut Oil. 

Shampoo: Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Conditioner: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner

Moisturiser: Crown Pride Naturals Organic Hair Milk

Sealant: Castor Oil 

So this wash day was not as successful as the last one which was disappointing because I finally felt like I was making progress in my mission to make managing my hair easier.
This sess. I wanted to experiment and try a yoghurt prepoo. I don't really do protein treatments mainly because my hair doesn't seem to need it, but I thought to myself: "Rels, it's been a nearly a year since your last protein treatment, surely you must need one". So I did it. *sigh*

My hair had been in the flat twisted bun for about two weeks so I knew my ends were gonna fight me when it came to detangling, but I was optimistic. I felt prepared, surely my stubborn ends were no match for the thick creaminess of the yoghurt. How naive I was. I took a section of hair, applied the mix and reached for the comb expecting a win. My hair LAUGHED at me. Like i'm sure I heard my strands saying: "Is this chick serious?? she thought *snigger*, she actually thought yoghurt would help her BWUHAHAHAAA".

It took 4 hours to detangle my hair that night guys. 4 whole hours. I felt so disheartened, exhausted and just generally fed up. I was like "hair shouldn't be a struggle", it's just not worth it. Afterwards I donned a plastic cap and went to bed.

The next morning I was NOT looking forward to washing my hair, I had no idea what the yoghurt had done to it and didn't really want to find out, but there were no other options. When I took off the plastic cap I was pleasantly surprised. My hair felt soft. It was as if my strands felt my pain and were like "you know what chick, we'll give you this one". I jumped in the shower, shampooed my scalp, rinsed, and then applied conditioner down the length of each twist. (Oh did I mention my hair was in twists? No? Sorry.) I flash rinsed with cold water and then wrung out my hair.

At this point it was like 8:45, I had a class at 10 and no idea what to do with my hair, the twists that I washed in were way too big to style in any way and I hadn't even moisturised yet but I was like one step at a time. I took a twist, untwisted, moisturised and sealed the hair with castor oil, and then split it in two and twisted again. I did that all over my hair and by 9:50 I was done. Still had no clue what to do with it though, but during the process I had put the front half of my hair in a loose bun to make accessing the back easier. When it came to styling I realised what I had done and was like hmm, this is kinda cute- which is strange because I never have my hair all the way back, I don't normally like the way it looks on me, but for some reason this time it worked. I did the same with the back half, pinned a few misbehaving sections and by 10 I was done.

Sure I was late to class but I didn't care. I had conquered. I felt like a champion. It didn't matter that I am yet to solve my ssk, mid shaft splits problem because that morning I styled my hair in under 5 minutes. I had the biggest smile on my face as I was walking to class.

Smell that guys? That is victory.

I'll post the vid for the style next.
Hope this finds you well,
Rels x

Flat Twisted Bun, How I love thee

This bun changed my life and refreshed a stagnating hair relationship. I don't even know where the idea came from for this, it was a complete eureka moment- light bulb and all.

My hair has been long enough to bun for a while now, and I love the look of buns but two things have stopped me from wearing them. 

1) because my hair is so dense, putting it in a normal ponytail results in a unbunnable stubby piece of hair. 

2) In the event that said stub is bunnable and a bun is created (either by twisting the stub and pinning the end or not taking the whole length of hair through the hair band) my ends run wild and i'm left with a SSK breeding ground. *sigh*

The bun started to become a fantasy, a myth something completely unattainable, then I had a revelation. "Why don't I flat twist the ends?" The idea became a reality and my life has never been the same since lol. 

So here's how I did it, I started on freshly washed dry hair and sectioned off the front for flat twisting. Once those were done I put the middle of my hair in a ponytail then brought the back of my hair up to the ponytail and made a new ponytail. Next it was time to see if my theory would work. I split the ponytail in half and then flat twisted each half. So let's take the left half for an example- While I flat twisted I drew the hair from the centre-y part of the ponytail (but still in the left section) and pulled it to the edge, so that way the flat twist leaned to the left. I did the same on the right and then pinned the ends round the bun. 

I can't believe it worked! I loved it, everything about it, finally I had a bun, a chunky, protective bun!! This is definitely going to become one of my go to protective styles.

As always, I hope this finds you well!

Rels x

Wash day!

I had a really good wash day(s) this week. I was surprised at how smoothly it all went because my hair was in a terrible state after a run in with a blow dryer. Never again smh.
Post traumatic blow dry encounter my hair had been in 4 flat twists (2 going across my head at the front with a side part, and two going back) for about 2 weeks. The style was actually really cute, I'll do a post on it the next time I do it again but my poor hair was in a tangled tangled state.
I had been putting off washing my hair but it was time to face the music so here's what I did.

Prepoo: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner, Honey, EVOO and Coconut Oil. 

Shampoo: Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Conditioner: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner

Moisturiser: Crown Pride Naturals Organic Hair Milk

my hair + the mix

The Method: I took a medium sized section of hair, briefly finger detangled and then spritzed with water. Then I smoothed the mix onto my hair; i'd apply the mix to the middle of the hair and then work it down to my ends and then I'd take a bit more, put it on the roots and then work it down to the ends again, then i'd go back and squeeze the section from roots to ends.

Next I finger detangled again and then went through the hair with my large wide toothed comb and then once more with my small wide toothed comb.

Finally I twisted the section and moved on.

By the time I finished my whole head it was late so I donned a plastic bag and called it a night. 

drying my hair- I actually
liked this bun...

The next morning I rinsed out the prepoo, shampooed my scalp and conditioned with the twists still in. When I got out the shower I wrung out my hair- literally lol- and then blotted with a t-shirt. I added some moisturiser, a bit of coconut oil and left my hair to dry in a bun.

My thoughts: Now I don't know whether it was the new condish or the honey or both but detangling my hair was so much easier. I couldn't believe it, I was fully expecting to have to cut yonks of my hair because of how tangled it was but the session went so smoothly!! 

Next i'm going to work on getting my hair to dry feeling moisturised as opposed to dry. So instead of adding my moisturiser straight after washing, next time i'll add it when my hair is like 80-90% dry and see if that makes a difference...

I guess that's it for now!

Just to let you know

I'm going to be posting more regularly as of...well- now.
And i'm thinking I might start posting some videos as well!
I have tons to tell you about
Like the castor oil challenge!
And my two week affair with some mini twists I did in January.
My blow out FAIL.
My favourite 10 minute protective style.
and much more!!

I should have a new post up at some point this week. If I don't I just might slap myself =/
So yeah, watch this space :)

x