Protective Style: Two Strand Twisted Sock Bun

I think I've been deep conditioning all wrong. The other day, I had the best deep conditioning experience ever! I mixed Aussie Moist, vatika and olive oil together and literally saturated my hair with the mixture. Normally, I'm a bit light-handed on the conditioner. My DC results are usually good, but the other day, they were great! My hair seemed to soften immediately and it had amazing slip. After saturating my hair, I covered it in plastic and sat under my soft bonnet dryer for 40 minutes.

Something, I've learned since going natural is that my low porosity hair requires heat to feel deep conditioned. No matter how long I baggy, it will never be as effective as a heated, deep conditioner. #finally figuring out my hair

After my DC, I put my hair in a protective style to protect it from the elements. I wanted something elegant and classic. I've been seeing a lot of sock buns lately and really wanted to give it a try. I wasn't sure if my hair was long enough, but to my surprise, I just managed to wrap my strands around the donut. YAY for new styles!

After rinsing out the DC

What are some of your favorite protective styles?

Natural Hair: Surviving Cold Weather

Before, I discuss my cold weather regimen, I'd like to take a moment to say my thoughts and prayers are with those back home, who have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Related to weather, now that jack frost is tapping on our front door, I've made some slight adjustments  to my hair routine. Thought it would be a good time to do an update on my routine.

Pre-Cleanse
Pre-pooing is not really my thing. I've heard it's really good for your hair, blame it on my laziness. I'd like to try it in the future, we'll see. For now, I bought Dabur Fall Control Cream, which is supposed to reduce shedding. It contains olive oil and cactus juice. All you have to do is apply it 15 minutes before shampooing. I'll try it out over the next few weeks and report back later...

Cleanse
I wash my hair with diluted shampoo, mixed with glycerin and aloe juice once or twice (if I feel like I have build-up) per month. Alternatively, I do a rhassoul clay cleanse in lieu of a shampoo.

Condition
I condition my hair once per week and every time I wash my hair, I deep condition, with heat. First, I gently detangle with a slippery conditioner and a wide tooth comb, rinse and coat my hair with a moisturizing conditioner, mixed with aloe (and depending on the season honey). I put on two plastic caps and sit under a bonnet dryer for 30 - 45 minutes. I let my hair cool 10 - 15 minutes before rinsing it.

Moisturize
Lately, I've been leaving a small amount of Tresemmé Naturals in my hair. I don't liken this to the curly girl method, because the amount is very small and I only apply it to my ends. This helps my ends stay soft and supple despite harsh elements. This is something I do during cold weather, but not so much in summer.

Seal
I seal with coconut oil, vatika oil or olive oil. I apply this to wet hair and then I put a small amount of leave-in (concentrating on the ends) on my oiled hair. My hair literally feels like butter and I can go 4-5 days without moisturizing again.

Style
I'm keeping it simple now that the cold has kicked in. I usually just wear my hair pulled back. I did a lot of twists in September, but have done them less this month, blame it on laziness. =)

Preserve
At night I tie a satin scarf around my edges, I leave my hair up in the bunny tail (kind of like a pony tail for natural hair). I leave the bunny tail exposed and do not wrap the scarf around it. I do sleep on a satin pillowcase, so my ends aren't rubbing against a drying material. I found that leaving my ends open and not wrapped at night leaves my hair full and also more moisturized. Not sure why, but wrapping my ends tends to make them dryer.

Finally, we can't change the weather, but there are some things we can do to combat it. Next week, I'll be on the lookout for a humidifier. I live in the mountains and it's quite dry in the winter. I'll make sure my hair and skin stay hydrated by using a humidifier at home.

So that's it! Pretty simple, basically, I'm only styling and cleaning once per week. Easy peasy.


What kind of adjustments are you making to adapt to weather changes?

Two Strand Twists

Tonight I decided to switch things up a bit. I've been a wash n go girl since I've gone natural. What this generally entails is me co-washing my hair twice, sometimes three times per week and wearing my hair out or pulling it back into a low puff. According to some hair specialists, it's not the best practice to wet your hair daily, as this can cause hydral fatigue, as the hair is being submitted to a continual cycle of swelling with water, stretching then shrinking as it dries.

I really want to wash my hair only one time per week, I don't think I can go much longer than that. However, without a protective style, my ends immediately get dry and frizzy, hence the constant rewetting. I've been searching the web for protective styles that might work for my hair. Right now it's in an awkward phase and I can't bun it and I don't like weaves or wigs. So, what did I do? I went to the web to for inspiration. I stumbled across a video on Youtube by HeyFranHey where she does a tutorial on two strand twists. The end results are beautiful and her hair almost looks like it's in a twist in curl, even though she's rocking twists. Then, I found a post on Curly Nikki on the Twist and Turn Two Strand Twist by Shelli of Hairscapades (major hair crush). Well, both of these ladies have long hair, so I wasn't sure if it would work for me.

The only way to find out was to give it a shot. What did I have to lose beside a few hours of my evening. On the bright side if the twists look cute I will save a lot of time. I can twist my hair on Sunday, wear it in twists until Thursday and then rock a twist out Friday and Saturday. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but this could save me loads of time on my morning routine. This week, I did my monthly cassia treatment and my hair felt full, soft but I also had major shrinkage. The idea of wearing twists and stretching my hair a bit didn't sound so bad after all.

So to prepare my hair I shampooed and then deep conditioned with my FAVORITE semi-DIY deep conditioner:

1 TBSP melted shea
1 TBSP argan oil
2 TBSP cheapie non-cone conditioner

I then used my spa steam treatment and sat under my soft-hooded dryer for 1h 30mins. After I rinsed the DC out with a conditioner. This left my hair soft and tangle free.

I did about 30 - 50 small to medium-sized twists (lost count). When I reach the end of the twist, I just twirled it to hold it in place. The final result was really pretty, however, with my hair in the awkward stage my twists began to shrink and helmet head was in full-effect. I tried tension blow-drying the twists for about 2 minutes and lost patience. Then I decided to try to semi-band my twists to stretch them. I plan on leaving them like this over night and look forward to seeing how they look when I remove the bands.

Uuh, my sides are almost chin length but shrinkage is major, thus the helmet head shaped hair.

Banded twists

Next day:

Do you two strand twist, any tips for maintaining them?

xoxo

Spa Steam Treatment

Want to reap the benefits of steaming, but don't want to spend a fortune on a steamer? Here's a method I use to steam my hair. I generally do this as a pre-poo treatment, especially after swimming, which I've been doing quite a lot of these past few months.

It's super quick and easy.

1. Take a tea towel, place it in a sink full of warm/hot water (not too hot). A tea towel is easier to manipulate than a bulky cotton towel and it's easier to wring out the water.
2. Add in a few drops of your favorite essential oils (I used peppermint and lavender) to the sink full of water.
3. Take the towel and wring out the water, however leaving enough to keep it damp. Place the towel on your hair immediately, cover with 1 or two plastic caps and put a satin bonnet or towel over your head, to lock in the heat.
4. Leave on hair 20 - 30 minutes.

You can apply conditioner or oil or any of your favorite hair treatments. I oiled my strands with coconut oil and aloe vera juice. The peppermint gave a nice refreshing tingle and the lavender oil was very soothing.

Do you steam? What are some of your favorite DIY treatments?

Happy Steaming,
Annabel

Protecting the Ends in the Summer

At 8 months I transitioned chopped. Back then, maintaining healthy, moisturized hair was super easy. Now at 14 months, keeping my hair moisturized involves more work than before. To whip my ends into shape and to prevent becoming dry and brittle, I've stepped up my routine. I implemented 3 nightly deep conditioning treatments:
Prepoo once per week, the night before I plan on shampooing. I generally apply coconut oil on dry hair, concentrating on the ends. I then put on a plastic cap and leave it on overnight.

Once per week I do a dry deep treatment. On days when I plan on cowashing, I apply conditioner to dry hair, concentrating on my ends. I then put on a satin cap and leave it on overnight. The next morning I wet my hair and detangle. The tangles seem to melt away.

Once per week I do a deep conditioner overnight on damp hair.

3xs per week may be a bit extreme, however I'm sleeping during all treatments, so it's not so demanding. I'm already seeing remarkable results, my ends are much softer and tangle less. We live in a warm and dry environment, thus it's important that I adapt my routine to fit the elements. I feel like I'm on my way to healthier summer hair with this new regimen!

Another measure I take is sealing my ends with an oil that penetrates the hair shaft. Every night I place a small amount of oil on my ends before going to sleep, when I'm not doing a conditioning treatment. The oils that work really well for me are: argan, olive, kukui and my whipped shea butter mixture (cocao butter, shea, argan and monoi).

Finally, I've purchased a couple of cute summer hats and baseball caps to protect my hair during peak hours (12 -3). This is especially vital if I plan on spending a day at the beach.

Is your hair summer ready? What products and routines do you use to maintain healthy hair during the summer heat?

xoxo

Cassia Update

Cassia powder is an excellent conditioner which makes hair glossy and thick and also improves the condition of the scalp. If you mix cassia with water and use it within the hour, the color of
your hair will not change (Cartwright-Jones, Henna for Hair, 2006). If your hair is dark, cassia will not lighten or color your hair. So you can benefit from all the conditioning properties, without the color. This is an advantage for those wanting to experiment with henna without dying their hair. However, the effects of cassia are not as long-lasting as henna, which is why I suggest applying once per month.

"Cassia obovata, angustifolia and alata have high levels of anthraquinones and crysophanic acid, and are
very effective inhibitors of skin fungus, mite infestations, bacterial and microbial diseases. Cassia alata,
which has high levels of anthraquinones and crysophanic acid, has been traditionally used to treat eczema,
itching and skin infections in humans. The cassias with high levels of anthraquinones and crysophanic acid
are genuinely effective in promoting healthy conditions of skin and hair (Catherine Cartwright-Jones, Henna for Hair, 2006)."


I've used cassia four times and think I will keep it in my regimen. The first time I used it, I noticed my hair was notably shinier and softer, but was not sure if this was a fluke. Yesterday, my results my results were surprisingly, less than stellar. I think this had more to do with the conditioner I used  to wash it out. I ran out of my Garnier Triple Moisture, which does a decent job of leaving my hair moisturized and soft. The conditioner I had on hand didn't do much for my hair. I can say that my hair feels stronger, even if it's on the wiry side today. I'll probably be due for a DC soon.

Here are some pics (without flash) from the first time I used cassia back in March. For information on the recipe and process I used, please see the previous post.

So the verdicts in, I'm a cassia head! Do you use cassia? What results have you noticed and how do you apply it?