…And so it Continues

Just thought I’d add some hair inspiration. I love finding hair styles! It keeps my goal in mind. I try to find hairstyles that I feel are reasonable for me to attain within the next year or so, this way I don’t find myself trying to achieve the un-achievable.  What I mean by that is I don’t want to encourage myself to have hair down to the middle of my back with a 3a curl pattern when I know that is not possible.

~~> Find Your Hair Inspiration Here! <~~~

I like this style. I believe this is my curl pattern as well. Of course I won’t know for sure until I have BC’d

On another note:

I went to Jungle Jims (the best place to go all things natural and grocery PERIOD), GNC and an African Store I found to buy some products. I got Shea Butter (finally) and Coconut Oil from the African store for 3.00 total! That was a great buy because Coconut Oil alone is noramlly 10-13 bucks!

At GNC I purchased Whole Leaf Aloe Vera Juice and Jojoba oil.

Jungle Jims: Castor Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Avocado, Giovanni leave-in conditioner

I ended up making the leave in conditioner from Kimmaytube (see her link on my blog roll). She focuses on the pH of your hair and how it promotes hair growth. The girl is pretty dag on informative. The conditioner was pretty good too. I used the Giovanni leave-in instead of the Knot Today.

I styled my hair in a twist-out and when I took my hair out I used the shea butter. It made my hair very soft and shiny Where I saw frizz I put a little bit of coconut oil on my fingers and twisted my fingers around my curls to eliminated the frizz.

Set backs:

My hair is very dry in the front, so I find myself paying extra attention to my front sides. I sprayed it down with a water/vegetable glycerin mix then used a silk scarf as a headband to protect the edges and keep them moisturized.

I have to say I ❤ my hair and its fullness. I already see a difference and it has grown almost 2 inches since I have started. I know this is pretty rapid growth, but my hair is probably happy that I’m paying so much attention to it.

I will post my hair regimen in the next day or so. Til then stay happy to be nappy LOL!

take care,

NJoy 🙂

STOP!! Put that towel down and use a t-shirt!!

» About – CurlsLikeUs.

So until today I never realized how harsh terry cloth is for your hair.

—PAUSE—-

Until this past month, I never realized how fragile my hair actually was. If you look at it, it looks so strong. I can manipulate it into so many different styles. It feels like it’s tough….so it is, right?

Nope, I was shocked to find out that my texture hair is like glass. Easy to break so one must handle with care. I have not been doing that, I mean for the most part I do try to maintain healthy hair however, the way that I had been treating my hair was just outrageous now that I have been doing all of this research.  Now, I’m not going to the extreme on any of this because I want new transitioners especially to be able to walk through the transition with me. One step at a time.

There is so much good information out there but it gets tough to dig through it all.  That can become very overwhelming. Hey it took me two weeks just to figure out what products to try first.

With all of that being said…

—PLAY—

I didn’t realize that towel drying your hair could be rough on your curls. So, today when I washed my hair I used a t-shirt.  When I am completely natural, I am sure I will be doing more wash and go’s and will need a nice towel to dry my hair. So here is a link to Curls Like Us I am definitely going to try these towels next year.  I think that it is a great product and well thought out. During this transition period, I don’t think it’s worth it to buy and a t-shirt will suffice. July 2010 this will be one of my purchases 🙂

If anyone has tried it already, please let me know what you think!

Natural Resources

Man I have been doing a lot of surfing on the internet for hair care information. Here are some sites that I have come across that I absolutely love. These are for my benefit as well so I don’t forget! I have been to a few that I forgot to save and now I can’t find them 😦

The Coil Review
Nappturality
Long Hair Don’t Care forum
Newly Natural
Black Girl with Long Hair
Kimmaytube
Naturally Curly
The Follicle Chronicles
Curly Nikki
Natural Chica

Please check out my blog roll. I will continue to add to this list as I  find new blogs that I love. I know I have come across more than this,  I just cannot think of them right off. There are so many cool resources out there and I want to share all of the information that I get with everyone else because I can’t keep good finds a secret :O)

Hair Inspiration! Check it out

All of these women have beautiful hair. I would love to be able to have hair like this by this time next year. So here is my hair inspiration 🙂

Seriously…this is my last post of the day. I think I have been a little bit obsessed with it today….can’t help it! I’m so excited. Guess I’ll go do something to my hair now 🙂

Njoy 🙂

Understanding Natural Hair (via ~Back to Curly~)

I was just blog surfing and ran across this post. I absolutely love the video in the post so please if you have the opportunity check it out. Very inspirational.

I do not think the wonder and natural discovery of African American hair will ever quiet down. Last year, with the premier of Chris Rock's Good Hair film, and really just a quick uptake in the natural hair community over the past few years – it certainly looks more like the very beginnings of an on going movement to better understanding. I do not believe natural hair is a trend. I do not believe that if it is not talked about, or the media decide … Read More

via ~Back to Curly~

Hair Convo

So I had a conversation with JR today about black girls and hair. He seems to think any black girl with hair pass their shoulder is wearing weave unless they are mixed with another race! HOW RUDE!  So, I do have something to prove to him. I bet him $100 that my hair would be armpit length August 2012! I will be holding him to it.

Hair Itches! :( What to do…what to do?!

Check out my fotki 🙂

http://members.fotki.com/NaturallyNjoyable

The Ticker :)

I’m almost there…2 days away from my two month mark.  The last week I had the urge to cut it all off. I don’t know why. Maybe because I just feel like I want to see what my natural hair looks like. There is about an inch 1/2 of new growth.

I don’t know where the sudden urge to BC  is coming from, but I don’t want to do anything off of impulse because I might be upset about it later.  So, I have decided to get a little ticker to help count down the days until my BC.

Product Wish List

This month I have been using the following products to wash, condition and style my hair :

1. Kinky Curly Curling Custard (fabulous for styling wet hair)
2. ACV Rinse to wash my hair
3. Avalon Organics Clarifying conditioner for no-poos
4. IC hair polisher styling gel
5. Doo Gro Mega Thick growth oil
6. African Pride Olive and Rosemary Conditioner (for  my leave-in)
7. Shea Butter Mega Moisture Fine Mist (oil sheen)
8. Ojon Hair (sealant) never did get any natural shea butter, but from what I can tell, this does a pretty good job as well. I think it smells wonderful you can get it from sephora.

That seems like a lot of product. It is. I believe before I would pretty much use shampoo, conditioner, a silicone product and a whole lot of heat. Anyway, all of it works for me, but this time I want to try a couple of new products in my hair and change up my routine just a little bit, not much.

On that list is the following:

1. Castor oil
2. Jojoba oil
3. Mixed Chicks deep conditioner
4. Hair Milk (Carol’s Daughter)
5. Yes to Carrots and Cucumbers detanglers
6. Deva Curl One condtioner
7. Aloe vera
8. Kinky Curly Knot Today
9. pH strips
10. Henna (in a year or so)
11. Hand Dry hair gloves
12. Denman Brush
13. Huetiful Steamer
14. Miss Jessie’s Curls
15. Bentonite clay

I’m not tryng to be a PJ (product junky) it’s too expensive for me and there is so much out there that it is easy to get caught up in all  of the hype. I just want to find the products that work best for me. Now, items 1,2, 6 and 7 are products that I want to mix in  order to try a new leave-in conditioner. The Henna is something I want to do next year to color my hair and just to see if it changes the texture of my hair at all. The Denman brush seems like it is a really good detangler and the hand dry hair gloves is something I want to try in a couple of months when my hair gets so thick that it needs some help getting dry especially since I am doing my best not to sit under a hair dryer.  the pH strips will be used to make sure that my products are a certain pH (between 4-5) this aids in hair growth.  Yes to Carrots and Cucumbers, Hair Milk, Knot Today and Mixed Chicks are all products that I have read really good reviews about.   I want to try them all, but I will pick one each time another runs out hopefully by next year find the one that works the best for me.

This week will mark month two! Yesterday I was at my friends baby shower and I had my hair in my protective signature two-braid style and a lady was there that asked me how long I had been going natural. I was so excited to talk to her about the entire process! I was even more excited that someone could tell that I was going natural! I’M OFFICIALLY IN THE CLUB…HEY!!!

New Growth…WELL at least it seemed like a lot

Today I felt my hair and subconsciously said to myself  “ooohh I need a perm” not because I wanted to get one, but because I felt so much new growth and in all of my permed hair years as soon as I felt new growth “needing” a perm was the first thought that crossed my mind and calling my beautician to make an appointment shortly followed. This time, that was not the case.  Instead of calling a beautician I thought “no I don’t I just need to figure out how much my hair has grown since I’ve started.”

As soon as I got home today, I tried cutting a little bit of the permed hair off of a small section of my hair so that I could visibly see the new growth. I don’t think I was very successful at cutting it all because when I stretch it, it still seems like there is a little perm left on the hair. Anyways, if you look at my picture below you can tell where I am pulling my hair it still looks like perm is still there, but I cut about 3 inches off of that section (which, by the way is the front side of my hair that was really thinning out when I was putting perms in my hair, but just in this month of caring for my hair and since my last perm I have seen the hairline begin to form again).  You can kind of tell where the new growth is actually coming in now.

I see a little new growth coming in! It's growing...I think 🙂

I have decided in October I will get my hair cut. OH NO NOT THE BC, but if an inch of new growth has grown, then I will cut an inch of my hair. I think I will keep doing that until A) All of my permed hair is gone or B) I decide to just go ahead an BC! We’ll see 🙂