lela7 - 14 August 2011 09:55 PM

Efuru - 14 August 2011 09:03 PM

lela7 - 27 July 2011 05:38 PM

Hit a bit of a road block with my sagemann - after a few days of use I noticed that it wasn’t taking all the tangles out because the spaces between the teeth are so big. It was actually increasing my single strands knots! I realised its great for using after shampooing or if it is very tangled, but it has to be followed by my normal wide tooth comb to get all the tangles out. This little clumps of hair were falling out when I used my normal wide tooth comb because it was taking out all the tangles the sagemann left behind.

Tried faith in nature shampoo for the 1st time. Hated it with a passion! It sucked every last bit of moisture out of my hair. Its still recovering! I know it caused some breakage! AHHH, I never realised AO was so great until I tried that! I was looking for a better alternative, but I miss my Aubrey Organics. I used sulphate shampoos before with no problems, but this was just awful. I’ve had to moisturise my hair every day to try and combat this.

I think the trick is to have a medium tooth comb as well as a wide tooth as thw wide tooth doesn’t necessarily remove shed hair (for major detangling sessions I use my ouidad comb and follow with my modded denman).

Having you tried Giovanni 50/50 shampoo, its mild but still manages to get my scalp clean.

I tried the Giovanni leave in ages ago and hated it, so i never really gave the brand another chance, but I’d be willing to try the shampoo - is it expensive?

PM me your addy and I will send you a sample of the shampoo

Picked out afros with the hair standing off my forehead don’t suit me because of my forehead. I need some hair going onto my forehead otherwise I look horrendous. I tried the picked out fro, because I saw a very pretty black girl doing a similar style and she looked really cute. When I tried it….cute was not the word I would describe. My family were like….“no, we don’t think so.” I need an afro like this with some hair falling onto my forehead and I’m not sure how to do this without extra styling.

Ahhhhhh! :p

hahahahahha….same big forehead problem here - be thankful we were not around when the black panthers were!! haha

loving your blog lela7….

Thanks for reading livia!  Just bit the bullet and ordered some henna from henna boy! Will try to find a camera to post the results!  Also booked in for a mizani thermasmooth treatment. It’s just a fancy press and curl at 3 thirty salon. Haven’t worn my hair straight in years, so can’t wait to see what it looks like. The salon seems very knowledgeable about natural hair and they say they specialise in it, so can’t wait to see!

Got henna boy dye and mixed some tea in it because I think lemon juice would be waaaayyyy to drying. It looks just like the picture in the e-book I downloaded from the henna hair website. Can’t find nice digitial camera, so will try and figure out how to post using web camera. Very excited about how it will turn out!  I will finish the mixture by adding coconut milk and some honey. Thanks Efuru for the help

Made my red henna mix and its currently sitting on my head. When I added it, it felt so strange. It went on very little and with little mess. When I put it on, I could sort of feel it maing my hair heavy and it felt stronger when I was running it over the hair. Tried to apply it by myself, but failed miserably. My normal divide and section method does not work well for my henna application. Ended up calling for help and getting mum to add the rest. Beneath the plastic cap, my hair seems to be expanding. I’ve heard about people getting more volume. I washed my hair before I did it and normally it should have shrunk to an inch because I didn’t plait it back up, but it hasn’t - very weird. Can’t wait to see the results and whether any colour shows up on the hair.

Henna - FAIL!

I washed it out which took forever! At first my hair felt really smooth, but as it gradually washed out - shrinkage attacked!  I really missed my wash my hair in plaits method. My hair became so tangled it took a very long time to detangle and my hair was really hard after. Did a deep treatment, but took a couple days of moisturising to make it back. If I ever do it again, I think I may try the lush variety because it seems more moisturising.  I think there was a little less breakage, but not enough to justify doing the whole process again. If I ever do it again, I will need a new application and removal method.  Also no real colour change. I didn’t see a huge benefit from doing it and that’s why I put it as a fail.  Can’t wait to go to 3 thirty salon!

I really wanted to have a straightened style for graduation because I haven’t seen my hair straight in many years and I wanted to see the length. I read a great review in black hair magazine, so I phoned them up.

On the phone they said they generally specialise in natural hair, so I was even more intrigued. The don’t just do afro hair, they do all hair types, which is very unique for a salon - european curly / straight, afro mixed etc. The do men and women as well. The art director was the only person who was free on the day I wanted, so I decided to do it.

I went there and had a free consulatation and she showed me some easy to do natural styles with my hair before the straightening. It was very relaxed and I liked the fact that they did not make me feel that I should get a relaxer or that my hair was more difficult in its natural straight.

I had the Mizani thermasmooth straigthening done and the overall experience was amazing. Best service I have ever had in a salon. The director was gentle, (very gentle). When she was blowdrying my hair, she took little sections of hair, (rather than just raking the blowdryer through like other stylists have done in the past). She was so gentle, it was like I forgot I was having my hair done. She really took her time to achieve a great style, within minimal fuss.  The thermasmooth was good and has lasted longer than any other normal straightening. Its not permanent, which I like.

She also didn’t use a ton of heat. They don’t use tongs or the oven, just blow dryer and ceramics, so you don’t get the super sleek look you get from tongs. I didn’t want that because that means to much heat. It was more like a really amazing blow out.

She was talking about methods for cutting curly (non-afro) hair and they seem to really know their stuff. It was the 1st time I have been in a salon and I’ve been the only black customer! lol I was really amazed at how great all the styles were on the male and female clients. I would reccomend the salon for everyone with all types of hair. You could always try the free consultation and see if you like it.

Also what I liked is that they don’t make you feel like you have to buy their products and they won’t do hair styles which don’t suit you. My mum wanted finger waves and after showing her what it would look like on her face, she realised it wouldn’t work.  Most hair stylists would just do it and take your money.

Definately reccomend it for all curlies and kinky headed people male and female.

Actually took pictures that I will post. The smoothess ha slasted for some time, with added texture. i love the fact that my hair has still retained my obvious texture without the more fake silkiness u get from relaxers.

HENNA - not so much of a fail after all

I think I have to re-think my initial henna approach. My hair has been restored to its initial softness and after the mizani thermasmooth I can actually see it has taken some colour. About a 2b / a dark chocolate brown, which I like. In bright sunlight it looks lighter - a little more reddish and when you use heat on it - it looks lighter. I think that there hair has got appreciably less breakage. I think in the future, I will try lush because the added ingredients might lead to some softness than you get from pure henna. I think I will try it again in the future with an easier application method. I think I will try slathering it on plaited hair and see how that works.

lela if you havent seen it already just a tip curlynikki has in depth blogs about her henna use that might me of help

cococure - 01 November 2011 11:10 PM

lela if you havent seen it already just a tip curlynikki has in depth blogs about her henna use that might me of help

I have been looking at her stuff but thanks for the tip!

whoops meant *might BE of help lool

cococure - 03 November 2011 08:57 PM

whoops meant *might BE of help lool

The only thing is, I have a problem with the shrinkage that happens if I add henna to loosened hair, and I don’t think Curly Nikki, has similar issues.

henna coats the hair and adds weight to it which is why people with fine strands like it curlynikki has fine hair the added weight can reduce shrinkage to a certain degree on some people and loosen curl pattern on finehair but can also increase breakage

cococure - 03 November 2011 09:09 PM

henna coats the hair and adds weight to it which is why people with fine strands like it curlynikki has fine hair the added weight can reduce shrinkage to a certain degree on some people and loosen curl pattern on finehair but can also increase breakage

It doesn’t affect the shrinkage level on my hair. I think any breakage came from my removal process and not the henna itself.  I think people may get breakage coz it makes your hair dry.

lela7 - 18 October 2011 10:06 AM

I really wanted to have a straightened style for graduation because I haven’t seen my hair straight in many years and I wanted to see the length. I read a great review in black hair magazine, so I phoned them up.

On the phone they said they generally specialise in natural hair, so I was even more intrigued. The don’t just do afro hair, they do all hair types, which is very unique for a salon - european curly / straight, afro mixed etc. The do men and women as well. The art director was the only person who was free on the day I wanted, so I decided to do it.

I went there and had a free consulatation and she showed me some easy to do natural styles with my hair before the straightening. It was very relaxed and I liked the fact that they did not make me feel that I should get a relaxer or that my hair was more difficult in its natural straight.

I had the Mizani thermasmooth straigthening done and the overall experience was amazing. Best service I have ever had in a salon. The director was gentle, (very gentle). When she was blowdrying my hair, she took little sections of hair, (rather than just raking the blowdryer through like other stylists have done in the past). She was so gentle, it was like I forgot I was having my hair done. She really took her time to achieve a great style, within minimal fuss.  The thermasmooth was good and has lasted longer than any other normal straightening. Its not permanent, which I like.

She also didn’t use a ton of heat. They don’t use tongs or the oven, just blow dryer and ceramics, so you don’t get the super sleek look you get from tongs. I didn’t want that because that means to much heat. It was more like a really amazing blow out.

She was talking about methods for cutting curly (non-afro) hair and they seem to really know their stuff. It was the 1st time I have been in a salon and I’ve been the only black customer! lol I was really amazed at how great all the styles were on the male and female clients. I would reccomend the salon for everyone with all types of hair. You could always try the free consultation and see if you like it.

Also what I liked is that they don’t make you feel like you have to buy their products and they won’t do hair styles which don’t suit you. My mum wanted finger waves and after showing her what it would look like on her face, she realised it wouldn’t work.  Most hair stylists would just do it and take your money.

Definately reccomend it for all curlies and kinky headed people male and female.

Actually took pictures that I will post. The smoothess ha slasted for some time, with added texture. i love the fact that my hair has still retained my obvious texture without the more fake silkiness u get from relaxers.

HENNA - not so much of a fail after all

I think I have to re-think my initial henna approach. My hair has been restored to its initial softness and after the mizani thermasmooth I can actually see it has taken some colour. About a 2b / a dark chocolate brown, which I like. In bright sunlight it looks lighter - a little more reddish and when you use heat on it - it looks lighter. I think that there hair has got appreciably less breakage. I think in the future, I will try lush because the added ingredients might lead to some softness than you get from pure henna. I think I will try it again in the future with an easier application method. I think I will try slathering it on plaited hair and see how that works.

I’m glad you had a good salon experience! It sounds great, you’ll have to let us know which one! :D

Hi everyone!

Decided to update my diary since I haven’t done it in ages. Hit the 3 year natural mark with happy results (see pic below - forgive the lazy clothing!) and I was always told my hair would never get longer than my neck! Shrinkage like crazy. Also re-activated my latent product junkism. Tried Blended beauty happy nappy styles which I loved! When added with some africa’s best herbal oil it made my hair incredibly soft! Definately a keeper.  The smell was lovely (like cake) and the product was very thick. I wanted an alternative to the qhemet alma heavy cream and this is definately it. My hair had been super dry, but this really helped a lot. Also tried the shea moisture curl enchancing smoothie. Not as amazing as the happy nappy, but definately very good. I got the products off the gidore site and I spoke to the creator - she was really lovely.  Like the hair obsessed mum I never had!

Unfortunately, I had to do a major trim / cut. Had some split ends developoing which I just didn’t notice, so I had to have it chopped off. So disappointed, but I’ve learnt my lesson - always watch the split ends. Anyway, trying to grow back what I lost, but at least I know I can reach APL! I’ve lost quite a bit especially at the back, which made me a bit low but onwards and upwards. My work colleagues love the fact I wear my natural hair full time - no more wig! They are always saying a should wear the ‘Corrine Bailey Rae’ style and wear it out - its shocking really because my workplace is very conservative. I’m protectively styling (sock bun), untill my hair comes back, but can’t wait until I can wear it big and proud. 

Is it just me or are there more and more women wearing natural hair in London?

Can’t wait for afro hair and beauty live.