My Month In Hair: March

It's been high end hair this month!

The Regimen:

I shampoo'd every week, co washing once because as you may have seen on my channel i straightened my kinky curly for the first time since going natural.

• Pre Shampoo with Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Extreme, almost a protein type of treatment that you apply to wet hair first and leave on for twenty minutes to restrengthen and soften the hair. It's creamy in texture.
• Shampoo and condition with Philip Kingsley Moisture Extreme line,  the shampoo is a runny sheer peach colour with an earthy but citrus scent and the conditioner match but with a white and lotion like texture.
• Ojon restorative treatment- i raved about this giving me a moisture kick when i first went natural, it's an oil based pre-wash treatment
• Co wash with Ojon Rare Blend Moisture Rich Conditioning Cleanser- i've tried many a co-wash in my time and having tried their treatment i've been dying to try this since they released it.

A lot of silicones & sulphates which as you may know is basically stripping and then re-coating the hair and can be drying if used a lot especially on curly hair. Philip kingsley has specific formula's based on your hair type and its very rare to see a high street or high end product that caters particularly to afro textured hair. 

My hair felt really soft the elasticizer replenished and acted as my deep conditioner, though by personal preference i would like it thicker, and i can't tell if my hair feels 'good' or if it's the coating silicones. It's also pretty pricey for the amount you get at around £18 for a tube and £30 for a tub of elasticizer but it's not the most expensive out there and you can get trial kits for £25.

Ojon's oil treatment sat on top of my hair, i loved it when i first went natural but perhaps now my hair longer i need to apply heat or try again when i haven't been using a silicone conditioner. I love the co-wash it's so softening and cleansed without any drying effect. The smell is kinda musky like an expensive spa, i like it though others may not. 

My hair feels good. I will revisit using PK's stuff and try ojon's treatment again with heat. I'll re purchase the co wash though at it's price can't swear it will be a staple. Ojon i believe is now owned by the origins brand and so their advertsing has changed would be cool to see afro haired girls on their the way Phillip does on his! I gave my ends a good trim. 

Hair feels: Strong, ends are dry and tangled

What are your favourite hair products? x

My Month In Hair: February

The Regimen:

• Co-wash weekly with As I Am Coconut CoWash which i adore! you get a great amount, no lather super soft and creamy cleanse and it has a nice sweet tangy scent because of the tangerine
• Condition with As I Am Hydration Elation which i have raved about on my channel it defines like nobody's business and is super moisturising.  It's a tad pricey but it absorbs well into my low porosity hair but i admit I didn't deep condition which would have been beneficial.
• Then i cornrowed my hair and wore it under my wig which is the freetress 'patsy' unit which was originally 18 inches but it was chopped to around 12 inches 
• Throughout the week i would spritz my hair with water and apply shea moistures restorative conditioner and then seal with shea butter
• the few days i filmed hair tutorials or for example wore twists to valentines day meal instead of my wig i styled using curls goddess curls gele and i really like it! light hold, not sticky and supposedly great for humidity (anti shrinkage!)

I will be doing a full product line review on my youtube channel soon so look out for that! I loved wearing this wig i could wake up super late and not have to worry about taking my hair down or the weather messing it up. The cut length works great for me as its more my style than super long and straight and i love the ombre it was cool to see how my skin tone looks against light brown/blonde. I wouldn't say it was super duper protective though because the constant braiding plus wig balancing on my hairline caused my edges to look worse for wear again. My hair was clean so i could have gone longer between co washes however my scalp was crazy itchy and flaky maybe because the scalp between braids was exposed and the heat under the wig dried it out even when i applied my oil mix.

This wasn't a bad month in retaining moisture etc but my hair did tangle even though it was braided so takedowns were stressful plus my scalp was dry though my hair itself was clean and smelled like it was freshly washed.  

My Month In Hair: January

We have ran out of January. I can't believe we're in February already, settling right in to 2016. So i'm going to skip the new year stuff (since i missed it, naughty me) and let you know of the first of many new posts coming to my blog: My month in hair, talking about the products and methodology used on my hair and whether it's working or not and how i find the mix of products.

i wore faux loc extensions as a protective style for the first half and sadly it hasn't been as protective as i would have hoped. I found the style really tight around my nape and the locs were so stiff i could really only wear them down and its a shame as i found all the styles available to me so cute! i used marley hair to braid and wrap.

The Regimen:

• I shampoo'd weekly instead of cowashing this month and used my ol' faithful shea moisture retention shampoo which is so nourishing and soft doesn't strip at all (sulphate free). I'm so pleased that Boots has decided to stock it in the UK! 
• I deep conditioned after every wash without heat using sm manuka honey deep conditioner but it's very light and just...meh. 
• Every so often i would go in with my oil mix and apply that to my scalp and give my head a massage to stimulate blood flow and growth.
• To moisturise i used the very basic, water from a spritz bottle
• A new company called modie contacted and sent me their moisturising hair creme and oh my.. it's so deeply moisturising without being greasy or heavy, as it's oil based i use it to seal in my spritz, and my hair feels good for days. 

Apart from the modie creme, my hair hasn't been as moisturised as i would like. My hair needs a trim and weirdly, because of the faux locs, more protective styling. This month my hair needs repairing.

Hope you enjoyed this post x

u.

Revolution in dry shampoo.

The super kind people at Zerreau Beauty sent me their dry shampoo to try. This isn't like any ordinary dry shampoo: its a mousse like texture that lifts the dirt and all you have to do is massage in and towel out- no water required. It reminds me of co-washing, a light cleanse but in half the time!

This is perfect for those headed to festivals where you need something to give a good clean but without having to miss your favourite artists and stand in ridiculous queues; but having discovered this now i've also thought how useful this would have been as a student where club nights often meant beer in the hair and late night/early morning showers before having to be up for a lecture. This would have been a God send.

Now at first i was apprehensive as mousse/foam means alcohol which on my hair texture means super drying and damaging but i was more than pleasantly surprised to see its actually alcohol and paraben free! also pH balanced like, yes! Now cleansing braided extensions isn't always the easiest but this really helped as i didn't have to rinse the length of my hair making the braids heavy with water i just got a nice quick cleanse.

It has a lovely crisp apple sent, which on my scalp was tingling and refreshing. It does what it says, all the product build up, dirt and flakes were gone. They also have a strawberry sent which i'd love to try. The only thing i must point out is it has sulphates which again is quite drying for curly and afro hair. In my box braids and when clarifying this is great but prolonged use on my hair may dry it out, causing breakage, so i don't know if i'd be able to say, use it after exercising to remove sweat and buildup as i planned since that would be frequent which is a shame as i thought i was onto something.

This is worth having in your collection for the times you really need a good clarify but either haven't the time or are inconvenienced by location. Gone are the talcum powder days and thank goodness because i could never use powder dry shampoos on my hair texture anyway this is a much more inclusive product. It smells great, is environmentally friendly, UK made and cruelty free. I just hope one day they could reformulate a sulphate free alternative so curly girls and those on the cg method can be fully on board. I will be trying this again on my afro when i take my braids out for a thorough review so look out for that on my Youtube! 

Hope you enjoyed this post x 

s.

I recently got box braid extensions and i'm in love with them. I feel weirdly regal, so naturally couldn't resist a selfie, and am following a tradition of african and afro-carribean styles for natural hair.

Box braiding is where synthetic hair is looped and braided into the hair. It a fantastic protective style, that is, my afro hair isn't heavily manipulated and left to face the elements and friction that can cause it to dry out and break, it can simply grow. 

It is a style that has come back round to western fashion swooped in under the growing 90's revamp where it was most popular.

It's dubbed 'box' due to the squared off sections of hair. One can also get hair twisted in styles such as senegalese twists or faux locs using synthetic or human hair.

The entire process took around four hours to complete, i then cut them to a slightly more manageable length for myself though its not exactly short as i'm having fun playing around with long hair. I simply can't wait to see how healthy my hair has held up underneath, and will most certainly get similar styles in the future.

Hope you enjoyed this post x