"Textured Tresses" by Diane Da Costa

As many of you know, I have really become intrigued by my natural hair and hair care in general and I think that I am going to start doing more research. I decided to order the book Textured Tresses by Diane Da Costa - a celebrity stylist. I just stumbled across a Q & A she participated in on the Black Voices website back in 2007 and I can tell that she definitely knows her stuff. She also recommended the following books:

NO LYE by Tulani Kinard
Good Hair by Lonnice Brittenum Bonner
Kinky Kreations by Jena Renee Williams

Has anyone read these books?

I'll be sure to post about any new discoveries I read about in her book. Hopefully I'll have it in a couple of days.

Spotlight - Mia

Here is the first spotlight! Check out the beautiful Mia. As long as I have known her, I just found out a few months ago that she was natural! I have always envied her hair because it is beautiful as you can see.

I plan on asking everyone the same questions, but if that gets boring, I'll switch it up a bit. Enjoy!

1. How long have you been natural? I got my last perm in May 2007.
2. Why did you decide to go natural? I had been envying my friends who had the “guts” to go natural for quite some time. It seemed like everyone went natural my last year of college but I just was not brave enough to rock a short fro and I definitely knew that about myself. When I was pregnant I read that perms in the first trimester were a no-no. That is really what pushed me into the realm of the natural. After three months of a long overdue perm, I decided to just go for it (I was quite round and uncomfortable already! So why not!)
3. Were your friends and family supportive of your decision to go natural? The main person in my life most definitely was NOT! My boyfriend was scared to death that I was going to be “bald” or “nappy” or a slew of other terrible things that he associated with being natural (FYI he is now IN LOVE with my hair). My natural friends were very encouraging and I think my permed friends were just waiting to see what could be a disaster.
4. Do you think society’s perception of you has changed now that you are natural? I mainly wear my hair straightened. I received a ton of complements on my hair and how healthy it looks and I make sure to take the time to tell people that it is all natural. When I do wear my hair out, I do seriously get the sense that people think that I am somewhat of a different person. I feel like white people associate it with being very afro-centric and I get the feeling they are shocked that they never knew that about me before—like I have revealed my blackness by not straightening my hair.
5. Do you have any tips for those transitioning? KEEP THE FAITH!!!! Know that it IS hard in the beginning but it is so worth it.
6. How would you describe your hair vibe? I am not really sure what this means….lol. BUT—I like wearing my hair straight because it is easy. I have not taken the time to explore my texture and products (which is why I live vicariously through this blog and rely on it for my hair education). But I have just started wearing my hair out and I would describe it as “young and eager to discover itself”. The possibilities are so vast and I just love having options!
7. Which 3 hair products could you not live without? Miss Jessie’s Baby Buttercreme, Miss Jessie’s Curly Meringue and Tresseme Conditioner (I know I know—but it gets the job done!)
8. What is your favorite hair style? Flat ironed straight.
9. Are you completely satisfied with the state of your natural hair? If not, when will you be completely satisfied? I am 94% satisfied. I just want it to be longer I can’t wait to wear it out and have it be draping.
10. Do you ever think you will go back to relaxers or texturizers? NEVER
11. Last but not least, describe your daily routine and your wash routine? Generally I do a co-wash (thanks Elisa!), blow dry it straight and use my Chi to straighten it. I put a somewhat tight curl on the ends with the Chi and wrap it for about a week and a half at night, never having to put heat on it again until I wash. If I do wear it out, I co-wash and comb it out while the conditioner is in. Afterward, I just put some Curly Meringue throughout and pull it back into a ponytail.

Check me out!

Check me out on The Coil Review! I am the fourth from the top. This is a great site founded and owned by one of my sorors *skee-wee*. The Coil Review boasts many resources including a salon directory, stylists directory, natural tips and more! Take a peek! Thanks Kaeisha!

More Dry Twist Out Pictures + Spotlights

I hope everyone enjoyed their Turkey Day feasts! I know I enjoyed mine a bit too much and have swiftly gotten back into my normal gym routine! Well I wanted to post some more pictures of the dry twist out. This 'do is still from the first dry twist out I did on November 22 (I redid my hair on the Friday after Thanksgiving)! This style is so easy but it looks like I did something really time consuming and difficult. At night I just retwist and sometimes add some more Baby Buttercreme depending on how dry my hair feels. When I wake up, I pin it up and pick out the twists for volume.

Also, I am going to start spotlighting real natural women every. I am not sure of the schedule, but just stay tuned. I think it is important for women who are natural, transitioning or thinking about going natural, to see how real, every day women rock their styles. If you are interested in being featured, please contact me and I will give you more details.

Lovin' the dry twist out!

Let me say that I am lovin' this hair style and I am glad to add it to my hair repertoire. So I washed my hair with the Hair One cleanser and left it in as my leave in conditioner for about an hour. After I washed it out, I put a bit more of the cleanser in as a leave in and blew my hair out. I really focused on little sections so I could get it as straight as possible. Below is a picture of my blow out.

Next as took sections of my hair and smoothed on a little Baby Buttercreme and two strand twisted my whole head. Miss Jessie recommended using Curly Buttercreme, but the smell of that stuff makes me naseau. Below is a picture of my dry 2 strand twists. Please focus on the hair and now how bad I look lol.
So I sat under the dryer for about 45 minutes and was a little skeptical, but once I started taking out the twists and playing with my hair a little, I feel in love. Below are the results of my very first dry twist out! I will definitely be rockin' this 'do for a while and hopefully with some practice I will perfect the look. What do yall think?

End of the week...

I'm on my way out the door to the gym - but as I was getting ready I realized that w/o the Baby Buttercreme, 6 days after I last washed, my hair doesn't feel or look this healthy.  People sometimes ask me how my hair looks right before I wash it, so I thought I would upload a quick photo.  For the month and a half of so, when I didn't have anymore Baby Buttercreme, my poof was all shrunken and dry.  I really am glad I bit the bullet and ordered some more hair crack!

Saturday Hair Experiment

Miss Jessie's website has a great section on style "how to's" and I have frequented this section often, especially when I was newbie to the natural way of things.  Well she now has instructions for a dry twist out!  So this will be my Saturday hair experiment.  Since my hair isn't that long yet, when I do stuff to it wet and let it dry, it shrinks so much and I end up looking like a lil' poof ball.  So since I blow my hair out anyways, I might as well twist it up for some definition!  I am concerned because I am not very good at blowing my hair out, as I have mentioned before.  So I think the key to this style is getting it as straight as possible.  Wish me luck!  I will post pictures tomorrow (or Sunday).

I deserve a cookie (or two)!

So a certain someone *smile* strongly suggested that I do a thorough cleaning of my closet which meant that I needed to throw some hair products away!!! I was too embarrassed to take a "before" picture of my linen closet, but below is a picture of the trash bag full of hair products followed by the new and improved hair product sanctioned spot in my closet. My hair products will no longer take over my closet or my condo! I must admit that I still have a xerox box full of hair products that I couldn't yet part with at the bottom of my closest - baby steps people! Maybe this will provide some much needed motivation to someone else who definitely needs to do a hair product inventory and clean up.

I am also putting myself on a hair product hiatus. Unless I need to replenish a product I normally use, I won't buy it! Let's see how long I can keep this up! Wish me luck!

New Discoveries...

So as many of you remember, I at one point raved about Wen Hair Cleanser, but I wasn't raving about it's $30 price tag. Well I was in Sally's over the weekend (sadly, the people who work there know me) and to my surprise discovered they have their own version of Wen by Fiske Hair One in 4 varieties (normal hair, dry hair, color treated hair and dry scalp). Like any product junkie would do, I picked up the formula for dry hair (Olive Oil) for $11. When I got home I compared the ingredients between the Fiske Hair One version and Wen (I still have a smidgen left) and low and behold, they basically have the same ingredients. So I used it this weekend after I touched up my roots and I am quite pleased with the results. My hair was nice and soft and I used some as a leave in too. I can't find any differences between the Hair One cleanser and the Wen cleanser. I definitely recommend it as a much cheaper alternative to Wen.

I'm throwin' in the towel yall. I have given up on my search to find a cheaper alternative to Miss Jessie's Baby Buttercreme. I can't find a thing that keeps my hair soft and moisturized like the Baby Buttercreme does and all the money I have spent in trying to find an alternative, could have bought me a new container of it *sigh*. So I broke down this morning and went to Miss Jessie's site to order some more and low and behold they are having a buy 1 get 1 free special on EVERYTHING! So if you are a Miss Jessie's junkie, hop to it!

Photos to follow tonight. Hugs!

Update (11/18/08) - Here are some more morning hair shots :o).

Still straight :o)

Hello my lovelies!

I went to the salon again on Friday for another straight 'do.  This time I got a deep conditioner.  I don't know what they used, but it was great!  I will definitely have to ask the next time I go.  I was planning on going every 2 weeks, but I came to the realization that $100 a month for my hair is a bit much.  So I am going to stick to special occassions.

The hair dressers love my color but I have noticed that I have some serious roots.  I will have to take care of that.  I am finding that it is easier to keep my straight hair feeling moisturized compared to my natural 'do.  So needless to say I haven't found a really good fall/winter daily moiturizer.

As usual, I will keep you all posted!  Until then...