New beginning

As I am sure you can tell, this blog has been stagnant.  But I have so much going on in my life, and no where to write about.  So enter my new blog - The Almost Life of Elisa.  I am no way abandoning this blog; it's my baby. Just creating another outlet for me to talk about everything going on in my life.  So please, follow along and let me know what you think!

Please help us win the Crate & Barrel 2011 Ultimate Wedding Contest!!!

Lovelies!

My fiancé and I are trying to win a $100,000 wedding of a lifetime from Crate & Barrel's 2011 Ultimate Wedding contest!  Please follow this link and help us out by voting!  Thank you!

PS - Spread the love... we need all the help we can get!

I Miss Y'all!

Happy New Year, Lovelies!


So let's see if I can catch y'all up on what's going on in my life; hair and non-hair related.  I'm still rocking the weave and plan to for a while.  My hair seems to be growing well and I rather keep it "safe" rather than neglect it and not care for it properly due to my crazy schedule.  Lord knows I miss my curls, but I just don't have the time that I used to.  My goal is to continue growing my hair in both a natural and healthy way.  The wedding is in 2012 and I would love to wear my natural hair either pressed with tracks (something like a Malaysian weave) or big and curly - who knows.


I started the South Beach diet a little under 2 weeks ago and I am seeing great results.  Phase 1 has been tough, but I have definitely lost inches around my midsection.  I am set to start Phase 2 on Wednesday, but I may do more of a Phase 1/Phase 2 mix to keep losing as much weight as possible.  My doctor actually highly recommended the South Beach diet.  She says that everyone should be eating this way; so give it a try if you are trying to lose weight and adopt a healthy way of eating.  I really like it so far because there is no measuring involved and I am never hungry (3 meals and 2 snacks - you have to eat dessert)!  I will admit, if you are a "carb fiend" like me, the first couple of days will suck... bad.  But you kind of get used to it.


School is going well.  My first semester was hard but taught me a lot about what I am really capable of doing when pushed to the limit.  This semester is going to be just as busy, but I am taking mostly Marketing classes, which have been pretty cool thus far.


So I guess I should get back to work.  Miss you all dearly!

Closure

So I got the results back from my doctor a few weeks ago.  I do in fact have Central Scarring Alopecia.  I am happy to finally have closure on this but now it is definitely real.  


She put me on antibiotics twice a day, which is good.  The downside is that they make me nauseous and I have be very careful about what I eat before and after I take the medicine.  I have been on them for almost a month I wasn't sure if they were "working" or not since I am still wearing a weave.  I just got home for break and it was time to get my weave redone.  I was dreading taking out my braids and combing through my hair.  But to my surprise, I didn't lose that much hair and I really think that the medicine is working. My scalp hasn't been sore or itchy either, so I am feeling good about the prospect of not losing anymore hair.


So my plan is to keep wearing this protective style in hopes of giving my natural hair a rest.  It has grown a lot and I hope to continue keeping it "safe" for a little longer.  I figure the longer my hair is, the easier it will be to hide my bald spots.


Once again, the Marcella Ellis Salon did a fantastic job and I opted for something a little shorter this time.  All in all things are well and I will keep you all updated on my hair health.

The Waiting Game...

So things with me are pretty good.  I go home for Thanksgiving Break next week and I have been doing well with my coursework.  But my hair woes still continue.  Last week I finally got to see the dermatologist.  I had to wait months to get an appointment; literally months - I called to make an appointment when I got to school in August, and they couldn't see me until November.  I'm not sure if it's because I have crappy student health insurance, or if there is just one dermatologist in Ithaca, or a combination of the two.

Well the doctor was definitely worth the wait.  She was fantastic and I immediately felt more comfortable under her care than I have previously with my doctor back in DC.  To my surprise, she wanted to do a scalp biopsy.  Mind you... I just put this weave in and it cost a pretty penny.  To my surprise, she was hip on her weave knowledge and she promised me that she wouldn't completely destroy my masterpiece :).  She cut about a 1/2 inch square of the net, so my scalp was exposed and the rest...I wasn't prepared for.

Next she whips out a needle and then asks me, "Are you good with needles?"  I mean I am but I wasn't prepared for all of this!  I thought she was just going to look at my scalp and go from there.  So she numbs the area of my scalp and literally takes a piece of my scalp and prepares it for the lab.  A hair specialist is as we speak analyzing my scalp and trying to figure out if indeed have Central Scarring Alopecia.  The doctor thinks that I do and she asked me how aggressively I want to try and treat this, if this is in fact the case.  I told her I am willing to try anything within reason.  There are some oral medications that we may be able to try, but I am waiting to hear back from her, before I think about that.

I miss my natural poof.

I'm sorry that I don't have more to say on "natural hair" at the moment, but I hope sharing my story helps others.  More to come soon.

Weave-a-licious

So the doctors are still trying to figure out if I truly have Alopecia or if something else is going on.  In the mean time, it was getting harder and harder for me to conceal the bald/thin spots so I opted for a full weave.  I used to rock weaves when I had a relaxer, but hadn't really considered getting one once I was natural, until now.

I found a salon in the DC area that specializes in weaves for women with scalp and hair issues.  Marcella Ellis hair salon is located in Greenbelt, MD and was worth the money and the drive!  I will definitely be going back.  Her staff was gentle with my hair and put me at ease.

When I used to get weaves, I ordered my hair from Adorable Hair-Do, but I didn't have enough advance notice this time (they are located in NYC and they actually overnight the hair to you).  I'm actually glad that I didn't, because the salon had virgin Indian Remy hair that I absolutely love!  It is very good quality and I will be able to use it multiple times, just like the hair from Adorable.

Happy Engagement to Me!

A few days ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find a package at my door.  Turns out it was an engagement gift from NaturallyCurly.com!  The box of hair goodies included (in addition to the list, I got some trial sizes of some other great stuff):

• Mizani True Textures Curl Replenish
• Mizani True Textures Moisture Stretch
• Mizani True Textures Perfect Curl
• Cutler Specialist Molding Putty
• Max Green Alchemy Scalp Rescue Pomade (this stuffs smells AMAZING)

So first things first, I must try something!  I just took a midterm today (I started writing this yesterday, so yes, I had a midterm on a SUNDAY!) so this is my treat to myself - some good old hair time.

I washed my hair with my medicated shampoo and KC Come Clean.  Instead of my normal deep conditioner (Redken Butter Treat), I used the Curl Replenish moisturizing masque.  My initial thought was, "Hmmm, why did I have to use half of the container for one treatment?"  So after detangling with KC Knot Today, I used a mixture of Moisture Stretch and Perfect Curl to two-strand twist.  Now before you ask me... yes, the ingredient list kind of sucks (for starters there is Mineral Oil in the Moisture Stretch).  After I sat under the dryer for a total of an hour, my hair felt super soft.

So fast forward to this morning.  I untwisted my hair and thought it felt very soft.  But as I was sitting in class and touching my hair... it felt kinda greasy.  Yuck.  So as of right now: 1 point for Curl Replenish and 0 for Moisture Stretch.  I won't pass judgement on Perfect Curl quite yet.

Regardless, my hair looks cute.

Afro Glitz Web Awards 2010 Finalist

Lovelies - I am now a finalist in the "Best Hair Blog" category for the 2010 Afro Glitz Web Awards!!!  I am so excited and want to thank you all for nominating me.  I am working on a post about some new products I tried last night.  I will post ASAP.  Hugs!

Still going strong... I think

So Ithaca is treating me well, I am just busy beyond belief.  And for that reason, I haven't really experimented with any new styles or products.  I have been sticking to my "go to" look - the wet twist out using KCC. The summer weather has been beautiful up here - nice dry air.  But summer will soon be gone and the horrid winter weather will be moving in.

I have done two henna treatments since I have been here and I hope that I can keep doing them once every few weeks.  The problem is finding the time to devote to doing the treatments.

I can't tell if I am still losing my hair due to the Alopecia.  Some days I am super paranoid and think that I am, and other days I feel like it looks the same.  So I am trying to keep up with my vitamins and using my ointments.  Getting an appointment with a dermatologist is ridiculously hard up here (I think there is only one lol).

School has started + Big news!

So my blog posts will be sporadic for the next few months!  The first semester of school will be no joke, but I hope to find time to update you all on my hair joys and woes.

But in huge news... I'm engaged!  So now I am ever more focused on growing long, healthy hair, so I can blow it out for the wedding (and add a few tracks lol).

More to come, but I just wanted to post a quick update.  Miss y'all!