Friday, September 26, 2008

And then there was... brown?

Hello all of my beautiful and nappy (or soon to be nappy) folks!  As I am sitting here getting ready to watch the much anticipated presidential debate, I thought I would whip up an update post.  Well as yall have probably figured out (if you didn't already know this about me), I am random and may change at the drop of a dime.  So after a couple months of the red, I opted for a dark brown rinse to tone down the red.  Why?  Because I felt like it.  Hell, I was PMSing - nuff said.  So in the sunlight my hair still has a lot of red shining through, but in normal light, my hair is a nice deep brown.

I'm digging the dark brown.

I haven't had any issues with my hair being dry.  I am still cowashing it about once a week, maybe twice a week.  As the cold weather comes along, I may have to opt for some heavy duty conditioners as my hair tends to get dryer in the fall and winter months.

I am sure that I am due for a trim soon, so I'm going to start thinking about that sooner rather than later.  But all in all I really can't complain.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

It's official - I am awful at getting my hair straight!

So I had this great idea to straighten my hair since it's not as humid anymore - boy was I wrong.  So I washed my hair with Hello Hydration shampoo by Herbal Essences (it was on sale and I had a coupon - as far as shampoos go, it's pretty gentle).  I conditioned my hair using my BioSilk conditioner and combed through my hair with the Knot Today detangler/leave in.  I heard great things about Paul Mitchell's Straight Works which is like a gel that helps keep wavy and curly hair straight, longer.  So I used about a quarter size of the gel and blew my hair dry on the warm setting.  So far so good - my hair feels nice and soft.

Next step - the straightening comb (calm down, it's an electric one).  So I took small sections and sprayed on a heat protectant by Motions.  I actually like their heat protectant.  It smells great and my hair was super soft.  I find that a lot of heat protectants leave you hair crunchy.  So below are some pictures of my hair only after the straigtening comb.
 
As you can see my hair still is pretty poofy.  So next step - the Chi flat iron.  I sprayed a little more of the heat protectant and then flat ironed each section.  Mind you it is around 12 a.m. at this point.  Below is the result of the flat ironing.
I still wasn't thrilled, but I told myself I would add some Baby Buttercreme and then wrap it and see what I ended up with in the morning.  So the next morning, I bumped the ends and got the below result.
 
It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look great lol.  So it's official - I am awful at straightening my own hair and I will leave it to the professionals!!!!  I clipped some of it up before I went to work, because as soon as I went outside, all hell broke loose!  So that night, I braid my hair in 3 big cornrows and this morning I just wore it big and kinda wavy.  Now I just have to find someone inexpensive to straighten my hair for me.  HELP! :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Time to be straight?

So one of my favorite people convinced me to try and straighten my hair. She has a gorgeous hair full of natural hair that she straights every one and a half weeks. Please pray my hair turns out okay. I will be mad if I spend 2 hours trying to get it straight and it looks like poo tomorrow.

Any advice from anyone? I already have gotten some good tips but I need more. Her hair is trained so she can get it straight with a blow dryer and flat iron. I think I will need to use my electric comb because I swear my hair won't want to go straight!

Wish me luck! I have much to catch you guys up on! Pictures of the straight hair will follow soon!

Update: This was a big mistake. I feel like one big, red, poofy, hot mess! I will try to blog about this experience tonight or tomorrow. I hate humidity. Before I left my house, my hair looked great! The minute I stepped outside - POOF!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Roots already!

So after 3 weeks I already have roots. Granted no one else can see them, but I know they are there! I tried to take a picture, but I couldn't even get a good picture of my roots, so maybe I'm trippin! Days like this I am glad to be natural. Since my hair is so big, no one can really see what is going on with my roots! But before I get it straightened in the fall I'll have to take care of that. Ugh! Color is definitely high maintenance - so anyone thinking about taking the color plunge please be ready for some extra work. This weekend I am thinking about putting in a rinse just to liven up the color. Red is the hardest color to keep from fading, so until I color it again, rinses will have to do! Jazzing has two colors called Spiced Cognac and Red Hot. I've used Red Hot before and it's definitely red hot, so we'll see. I need something to brighten it back up. As always I will post pictures this weekend.