I FINALLY got ‘round to doing one! Its been an experience rollercoaster since I’ve cut off the last bit of relaxed ends in June ‘09, I’ve been dealing with shrinkage, single-strand knots and all the crazy that comes with my hair and I LOVE it!

I’ve currently got my hair in medium-sized individual plaits (or braids, if you like), today makes it a week and one day since I got them and so far I still like them, they are a bit scalpy so I’ve accessorising with hats and silk scarves (courtesy of prettyanntoinets.com), I’m experimenting to see how long I can keep a ‘protective’ style in. So far I haven’t made it more than a week

This morning I moisturised (using my Qhemet Biologics Burdock Root Butter Cream)my plaits (especially my ends), then jumped in the shower, the result was interesting; instead of shrinking equally (like my twists do), my ends curled up even more! I’m hoping to do a conditioner-rinse on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

My scalp has been itching like crazy and no amount of oil or massages seem to help, (according to my stylist, it means my hair is growing ) so I’ve taken to spritzing some homemade witchazel every time the itch becomes too unbearable (if only so my scalp is SUPER-CLEAN), I’ve noticed that this has been happening every winter since my last relaxer… 

I’m super excited about the Darcy’s Botanical Launch! I’m running low on the Deep Conditioning Mask and was wondering how I’m going to get some ASAP and then, the email arrived in my inbox *cue Heavenly music* I’m not even sure if it will be part of the range but I’m looking forward to trying all the other products I wasn’t able to get my hands on when I ordered from the US site! 

Below is a pic of some twists I had in (courtesy of the little sister), a couple of weeks ago. The resulting twist-out was EPIC!

Gorgeous! 

Looks great Efuru!

Really cute!

Thank you all! 

Come on Efuru, more diary entries please   I need inspiration from type 4s

I did my first (somewhat) successful henna treatment, last Friday. I used some hibiscus tea (with 2 table spoons of lemon) and a LOT of coconut milk in some Jamila henna and I’m please to say there was NO dryness (it dried ‘soft’ and my dark brown hair is less of a ‘meh’ tone IMO ) but the henna was quite difficult to rinse out (the curse of high density hair) and I got tired out cowashing.

Luckily, I’d booked an appointment for a moisture treatment and trim at Adornment365 the very next day (at this point in time I’m more concerned with health than length). I’d dragged my cousin along so I was pressed for time (she’d come over from America and we had plans to do the tourist thing) so I didn’t bother asking why I got a moisture treatment first and then a blow-dry and trim (sort of defeats the purpose if you think about it). This was a mistake my hair has been behaving strange since; so so DRY! It hasn’t been this way since I cut off the relaxed ends in June, I thought that my henna treatment hadn’t been so successful until I talked to my little sister and she told me that using a blow-dryer makes her hair dry ‘hard’ (shes natural btw, her hair is less densely packed than mine and more cottony as opposed to spongy), which was weird to me as I’d previously ‘blown-out’ my hair before though at a much lower temperature to no ill effect.

I spent the weekend having a couple of bad hair days; no amount of moisturising or baggy-ing seemed to help (the effects were very temporary and I guess the cuticles were tightly sealed because all the moisturisers ended up on my scalp so for the first couple of weekdays, I had extremely dry hair and a greasy scalp. By Wednesday I couldn’t take it any more so I did a deep condition with some Afroveda Prana Green tea condish,its formulated for coarse-haired curlies but I wouldn’t advise using this as a de-tangler(not nearly enough slip) or a leave-in (strangely, it smells like slowly fermenting apples to me) and some Coconut oil and slapped on a heating cap.

My hair started to feel better but that wasn’t enough for me, so today I washed with Afroveda Ylang ylang shampoo (gentle cleanser and the smell is lush!) then the Prana condish with I rinsed out (I finger detangled with this in), as a final rinse I poured a tea mixture of horsetail, burdock root and lavender through my hair and scalp (didn’t rinse this out) and applied some Darcy’s botanicals Organic Coconut and Aloe Moisture Pudding (thanks to the Curly Emporium) and then (very lightly) some Oyinhandmade Burnt sugar to my ends. its 70% percent dry now (takes so long to dry when I don’t stretch it out) and so far so good!

Things I’ve learnt:
.Don’t rush when it comes to your hair (if I’d been more patient I would have told the stylist to reduce the heat or use and alternative method)
.If something feels hinky about your planned haircare ask questions (regardless of this result, I will still be going back to Adornment365).
.I know enough about my hair to know when it doesn’t feel right .
.‘Cheats’ like baggy-ing won’t always work.
.Thanks so the trip, I can once again work a shrunken ‘fro!
.When in doubt, contact little sister. After all she has a year + more experience on being natural than you
. I like the LOIS hair typing system much better than Andre’s (finally read the book and THOROUGHLY disagree with the idea that 4a/b hair can be made ‘more manageable’ with the help of a texturiser or some other nonsense), its much more accurate for me!   

The final result (after an outing at the British Museum)
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu207/Efuru/HERR/th_bmponypuff.png

For anyone interested in where I get my products see below:

Afroveda line: I used to get them from the offical Afroveda website but I’ve just found out that Doeli stock them as well (they are located in the Netherlands, I think).

Darcy’s Botanical: The Curly Emporium has a lot of their stuff but if you are quite finicky about picking your own scents (for the daily leave-ins etc.) then try the official website, its more expensive though.

Oyinhandmade: The official website or Mariposa Import (make sure you contact the owner about stock or you’ll end up waiting three MONTHS+ for your goodies like I did).

Bah! I rambled on again, I’ve got to try not to leave the updates so long. 

p.s. I’m on the look out for moisturisers with NO-Glycerin (I’m aware than DB just unveiled a new one but it will probably be some time before it gets here), any ideas? I’m pretty much open to anything with natural ingredients as long as the doesn’t smell like cocoa butter.

Hi Efuru

I always love reading your Curl Diary so thank you for the recent update   Re the new Darcy’s lines I will be getting those in stock in the New Year. I hope that will be okay for you. Thanks so much for asking

Keisha Jo - 28 November 2009 10:17 AM

Hi Efuru

I always love reading your Curl Diary so thank you for the recent update   Re the new Darcy’s lines I will be getting those in stock in the New Year. I hope that will be okay for you. Thanks so much for asking

Thanks Keisha Jo! The New Year? Thats perfect! Also regarding Darcy’s scents; how are they chosen? (I was going to email you about it) I’m asking because I wanted to order the Daily Leave-in condish (my coconut-patchouli scented one is running low) but I couldn’t tell if it was unscented, sweet cream, luscious amber etc.

Efuru - 28 November 2009 12:40 PM

Keisha Jo - 28 November 2009 10:17 AM

Hi Efuru

I always love reading your Curl Diary so thank you for the recent update   Re the new Darcy’s lines I will be getting those in stock in the New Year. I hope that will be okay for you. Thanks so much for asking

Thanks Keisha Jo! The New Year? Thats perfect! Also regarding Darcy’s scents; how are they chosen? (I was going to email you about it) I’m asking because I wanted to order the Daily Leave-in condish (my coconut-patchouli scented one is running low) but I couldn’t tell if it was unscented, sweet cream, luscious amber etc.

Hi Efuru

Good question! That was a hard decision to make for me but I went with the best selling fragrance which is sweet cream as in the product pic. I am sorry it was not clear and have now amended the product details by putting the scent. It’s not possible to stock all of Lysandra’s scents but I hope if British Curlies continues to grow and is supported I can introduce another option.

Oo, great diary entry Efuru!
Lots for me to think about too. 
I honestly never realised that my hair could have it’s own personality, I just thought it was what it was but after reading the posts on here and all of the other natural hair sites I now know that out hair “speaks” to us, we just have to learn to listen!

yep, our hair definately does speak to us, my sister said the same thing and i thought she was joking!

gonnabekinky - 28 November 2009 11:59 PM

Oo, great diary entry Efuru!
Lots for me to think about too. 
I honestly never realised that my hair could have it’s own personality, I just thought it was what it was but after reading the posts on here and all of the other natural hair sites I now know that out hair “speaks” to us, we just have to learn to listen!

wow efuru.. you certainly invest a lot of time in your hair.. its so worth it though when its healthy. and its clear you know your hair’s likes and dislikes.

lela is right,  your this particular entry definately is giving me food for thought too.
i dont have loads of spare time although i am making more “hair ” time but id like to try more home concoctions when possible.

re: lois system, i changed my curl profile a while back as i didnt like the andre system. i think lois is more accurate too.. 

Efuru - 27 November 2009 08:28 PM

I did my first (somewhat) successful henna treatment, last Friday. I used some hibiscus tea (with 2 table spoons of lemon) and a LOT of coconut milk in some Jamila henna and I’m please to say there was NO dryness (it dried ‘soft’ and my dark brown hair is less of a ‘meh’ tone IMO ) but the henna was quite difficult to rinse out (the curse of high density hair) and I got tired out cowashing.

Luckily, I’d booked an appointment for a moisture treatment and trim at Adornment365 the very next day (at this point in time I’m more concerned with health than length). I’d dragged my cousin along so I was pressed for time (she’d come over from America and we had plans to do the tourist thing) so I didn’t bother asking why I got a moisture treatment first and then a blow-dry and trim (sort of defeats the purpose if you think about it). This was a mistake my hair has been behaving strange since; so so DRY! It hasn’t been this way since I cut off the relaxed ends in June, I thought that my henna treatment hadn’t been so successful until I talked to my little sister and she told me that using a blow-dryer makes her hair dry ‘hard’ (shes natural btw, her hair is less densely packed than mine and more cottony as opposed to spongy), which was weird to me as I’d previously ‘blown-out’ my hair before though at a much lower temperature to no ill effect.

I spent the weekend having a couple of bad hair days; no amount of moisturising or baggy-ing seemed to help (the effects were very temporary and I guess the cuticles were tightly sealed because all the moisturisers ended up on my scalp so for the first couple of weekdays, I had extremely dry hair and a greasy scalp. By Wednesday I couldn’t take it any more so I did a deep condition with some Afroveda Prana Green tea condish,its formulated for coarse-haired curlies but I wouldn’t advise using this as a de-tangler(not nearly enough slip) or a leave-in (strangely, it smells like slowly fermenting apples to me) and some Coconut oil and slapped on a heating cap.

My hair started to feel better but that wasn’t enough for me, so today I washed with Afroveda Ylang ylang shampoo (gentle cleanser and the smell is lush!) then the Prana condish with I rinsed out (I finger detangled with this in), as a final rinse I poured a tea mixture of horsetail, burdock root and lavender through my hair and scalp (didn’t rinse this out) and applied some Darcy’s botanicals Organic Coconut and Aloe Moisture Pudding (thanks to the Curly Emporium) and then (very lightly) some Oyinhandmade Burnt sugar to my ends. its 70% percent dry now (takes so long to dry when I don’t stretch it out) and so far so good!

Things I’ve learnt:
.Don’t rush when it comes to your hair (if I’d been more patient I would have told the stylist to reduce the heat or use and alternative method)
.If something feels hinky about your planned haircare ask questions (regardless of this result, I will still be going back to Adornment365).
.I know enough about my hair to know when it doesn’t feel right .
.‘Cheats’ like baggy-ing won’t always work.
.Thanks so the trip, I can once again work a shrunken ‘fro!
.When in doubt, contact little sister. After all she has a year + more experience on being natural than you
. I like the LOIS hair typing system much better than Andre’s (finally read the book and THOROUGHLY disagree with the idea that 4a/b hair can be made ‘more manageable’ with the help of a texturiser or some other nonsense), its much more accurate for me!   

I’ll update with pics later. For anyone interested in where I get my products see below:

Afroveda line: I used to get them from the offical Afroveda website but I’ve just found out that Doeli stock them as well (they are located in the Netherlands, I think).

Darcy’s Botanical: The Curly Emporium has a lot of their stuff but if you are quite finicky about picking your own scents (for the daily leave-ins etc.) then try the official website, its more expensive though.

Oyinhandmade: The official website or Mariposa Import (make sure you contact the owner about stock or you’ll end up waiting three MONTHS+ for your goodies like I did).

Bah! I rambled on again, I’ve got to try not to leave the updates so long. 

p.s. I’m on the look out for moisturisers with NO-Glycerin (I’m aware than DB just unveiled a new one but it will probably be some time before it gets here), any ideas? I’m pretty much open to anything with natural ingredients as long as the doesn’t smell like cocoa butter.

p.s one of these days efuru, i will bump into you at adornment365. now i know what you look like lol!

Efuru - 27 November 2009 08:28 PM

I did my first (somewhat) successful henna treatment, last Friday. I used some hibiscus tea (with 2 table spoons of lemon) and a LOT of coconut milk in some Jamila henna and I’m please to say there was NO dryness (it dried ‘soft’ and my dark brown hair is less of a ‘meh’ tone IMO ) but the henna was quite difficult to rinse out (the curse of high density hair) and I got tired out cowashing.

Luckily, I’d booked an appointment for a moisture treatment and trim at Adornment365 the very next day (at this point in time I’m more concerned with health than length). I’d dragged my cousin along so I was pressed for time (she’d come over from America and we had plans to do the tourist thing) so I didn’t bother asking why I got a moisture treatment first and then a blow-dry and trim (sort of defeats the purpose if you think about it). This was a mistake my hair has been behaving strange since; so so DRY! It hasn’t been this way since I cut off the relaxed ends in June, I thought that my henna treatment hadn’t been so successful until I talked to my little sister and she told me that using a blow-dryer makes her hair dry ‘hard’ (shes natural btw, her hair is less densely packed than mine and more cottony as opposed to spongy), which was weird to me as I’d previously ‘blown-out’ my hair before though at a much lower temperature to no ill effect.

I spent the weekend having a couple of bad hair days; no amount of moisturising or baggy-ing seemed to help (the effects were very temporary and I guess the cuticles were tightly sealed because all the moisturisers ended up on my scalp so for the first couple of weekdays, I had extremely dry hair and a greasy scalp. By Wednesday I couldn’t take it any more so I did a deep condition with some Afroveda Prana Green tea condish,its formulated for coarse-haired curlies but I wouldn’t advise using this as a de-tangler(not nearly enough slip) or a leave-in (strangely, it smells like slowly fermenting apples to me) and some Coconut oil and slapped on a heating cap.

My hair started to feel better but that wasn’t enough for me, so today I washed with Afroveda Ylang ylang shampoo (gentle cleanser and the smell is lush!) then the Prana condish with I rinsed out (I finger detangled with this in), as a final rinse I poured a tea mixture of horsetail, burdock root and lavender through my hair and scalp (didn’t rinse this out) and applied some Darcy’s botanicals Organic Coconut and Aloe Moisture Pudding (thanks to the Curly Emporium) and then (very lightly) some Oyinhandmade Burnt sugar to my ends. its 70% percent dry now (takes so long to dry when I don’t stretch it out) and so far so good!

Things I’ve learnt:
.Don’t rush when it comes to your hair (if I’d been more patient I would have told the stylist to reduce the heat or use and alternative method)
.If something feels hinky about your planned haircare ask questions (regardless of this result, I will still be going back to Adornment365).
.I know enough about my hair to know when it doesn’t feel right .
.‘Cheats’ like baggy-ing won’t always work.
.Thanks so the trip, I can once again work a shrunken ‘fro!
.When in doubt, contact little sister. After all she has a year + more experience on being natural than you
. I like the LOIS hair typing system much better than Andre’s (finally read the book and THOROUGHLY disagree with the idea that 4a/b hair can be made ‘more manageable’ with the help of a texturiser or some other nonsense), its much more accurate for me!   

I’ll update with pics later. For anyone interested in where I get my products see below:

Afroveda line: I used to get them from the offical Afroveda website but I’ve just found out that Doeli stock them as well (they are located in the Netherlands, I think).

Darcy’s Botanical: The Curly Emporium has a lot of their stuff but if you are quite finicky about picking your own scents (for the daily leave-ins etc.) then try the official website, its more expensive though.

Oyinhandmade: The official website or Mariposa Import (make sure you contact the owner about stock or you’ll end up waiting three MONTHS+ for your goodies like I did).

Bah! I rambled on again, I’ve got to try not to leave the updates so long. 

p.s. I’m on the look out for moisturisers with NO-Glycerin (I’m aware than DB just unveiled a new one but it will probably be some time before it gets here), any ideas? I’m pretty much open to anything with natural ingredients as long as the doesn’t smell like cocoa butter.

Its so true, I find that the more I condition and moisturise, the more sheen/defined my hair is!

gonnabekinky - 28 November 2009 11:59 PM

Oo, great diary entry Efuru!
Lots for me to think about too. 
I honestly never realised that my hair could have it’s own personality, I just thought it was what it was but after reading the posts on here and all of the other natural hair sites I now know that out hair “speaks” to us, we just have to learn to listen!

Hehe, that was over a couple of weeks. I’m just trying to get my hair to the point where I can bun it comfortably then I’ll probably ease up. I’m still learning, I’m trying to turn all the flukes its consistently good hair days. You’re so right about the curl typing.

tripleA - 01 December 2009 04:52 PM

wow efuru.. you certainly invest a lot of time in your hair.. its so worth it though when its healthy. and its clear you know your hair’s likes and dislikes.

lela is right,  your this particular entry definately is giving me food for thought too.
i dont have loads of spare time although i am making more “hair ” time but id like to try more home concoctions when possible.

re: lois system, i changed my curl profile a while back as i didnt like the andre system. i think lois is more accurate too.. 

LOL! Looking forward to it

tripleA - 01 December 2009 04:54 PM

p.s one of these days efuru, i will bump into you at adornment365. now i know what you look like lol!

your hair looks to be in great condition Efuru, you’ve got a lot of it! It looks similar to mine but I’ll know better once I get the ends cut tomorrow.