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Showing posts with label product junky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label product junky. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Hair Goals 2012


 



I like goals! They steer and enhance performance and give us things to look forward to. Every goal we accomplish, the more rewarding the journey is. I always set personal, financial, health and life goals, but rarely do I set hair goals. I simply state healthy, long hair is a goal of mine. So here is my 2012 Hair Goal List. I hope to reach these goals by the end of this year.

Hair length goals
1. Maintain healthy, moisturized, split-end-free hair.

2. Grow hair to a little past shoulders when stretched. Current length is just above shoulders in the back.

3. Speed up the growth of the front and sides of my hair. This part of my hair grows incredibly slow! While the back is almost grazing shoulder length the front of my hair is like ear length. Business in the front, party in the back = no bueno!

4. Protect my hair and look cute in the summer. Accessorize with more hats and scarfs to protect my hair from the heat of the sun, especially between 12-3pm.

Product goals
5. Streamline products

There is nothing wrong with being a PJ (product junky). It helps you discover new products that work for your hair and keep an open mind. However, I'm tired of shopping around. Our city is not exactly a haven for curly hair products. Besides, I'd like to go to the store, pick up the exact product I require and move on. My goal by the end of this year is to have: 1-2 shampoos, conditioners, styling products and oils that work well for my hair and no more!

6. Stop buying things that do not work for my hair.

Case and point, gel. I have a huge tub of eco styler taking over my medicine cabinet. Gels have never worked on my hair and I need to move on and accept this!


Style goals
7. Stop fearing the flat-iron! Words like heat damage and loss of curl pattern, have terrified me from picking up the flat iron. The versatility of being natural is that you can rock straight or curly hair. Of course, I don't want to flat-iron my hair weekly, but I would like to do a blow-out/flat-iron/roller-set every 3 months i.e. 4 times per year.

8. Have a salon experience. I haven't been to a hair salon in over a year! I miss it so much! The chatter, the female bonding, the gossip, having someone else's hands play in my hair. So, I would like to have a pampering salon experience at least once per year. I'm thinking of going to my old stylist and getting a roller set on my trip home this summer or checking out Aveda salon to receive a pampering deep conditioner and head massage.

Will keep you updated on my progress.

What are some of your hair goals?

Monday, March 5, 2012

Shopping Overhaul

The other night I was invited to dinner at a friend's home. We met a few years ago through my husband and hit it off immediately. Well, the other night we both discovered something about each other for the first time! We are both product junkies! It was amazing, our husbands were laughing at us as we sat on the couch talking about our "addictions". She kept running into the bathroom and pulling out products and explaining what ingredients they held. Something even cooler, she makes most of her beauty products!! She gave me a website where I can find a bunch of essential oils, butters and natural ingredients to use on my hair and to make my own products. This crazy lady spent hours and bought waaay too many things (don't give a PJ a website). I'm really excited, because I have a source for quality ingredients close to where I live! I'm going to try making my own conditioner and the hubby a shampoo for starters. I'll also start to make my own moisturizer. This is great news for me, because if I like the results, I'll no longer need lug a suitcase full of products from the US. Customs always checks my suitcase!

My friend is going to show me the proper way to make soap as well. She uses lye, but uses more oils and butters in proportion to it, so it cancels out the lye and leaves an excess of moisturizing agents. She also adds an lactic acid, which prevents the PH level from being too high and the soap typically ranges from 4.5 - 5.5.

I also ordered henna and rhassoul clay. I want to try out rhassoul clay as a cleansing agent/shampoo, I've heard good things about it. The henna I purchased is cassia, so it's a neutral color. I was too nervous about the color I'd get with henna. My hair is naturally sort of reddish-brown, so I was apprehensive about the outcome.

Indigo is too dark for me and I'm no mixing expert, so I played it safe.

I'll start off by doing the cassia treatments once every other week and see how I like it. I read on CN that it has similar properties to henna, minus the longevity of the effects and it doesn't elongate the curl, which I'm okay with. Once I start seeing gray hairs (probably just talked them up), I will revisit henna with dye.

For some information on rhassoul clay and henna, here are some useful sites/blogs:

Rhassoul clay:
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/rhassoul.php
http://www.minimalistbeauty.com/rhassoul-clay 
http://www.naptural85.com/blog-content/2011/11/2/whats-this-about-rhassoul-clay-deep-conditioning-treatment.html

Henna/Cassia
http://www.hennaforhair.com/science/
http://www.curlynikki.com/search/label/Henna
http://www.curlynikki.com/2009/03/faq_07.html

xoxo
Annabel