Natural hair update

A few years have passed and here is an update. My hair has been doing really well. It has been a loooong journey. It was a little touch and go in Italy because of the initial product search. I am thankful though because it prevented me from buying too much. I also had to learn to get by on what was there. I had to do a lot with very little.

Things I noticed a few things have worked.

• Drink lots of water
• Take your vitamins (especially those that contain biotin)
• Work out
• Relax and be patient
• Low manipulation is always best
• If you don’t have time to do your hair, don’t. Sometimes it’s best to just let it be till you have time to focus and take your time.
• Research what others do but don’t focus on what others do. Meaning look at what’s out there but support and get to know your hair. Donwhat it is best for your hair and what it wants to do.
• Find a hairstylist that specializes in your type of hair. Not everyone can work with textured hair.

I know there are many more tips but for now these will do.

Late hair post

From August 4

August 4

Ciao Curly Bellas
It’s been a while and I apologize for that. It’s been 23 days since I have started and I have gotten a little lax. Not because of laziness though, I have found that my hair and skin don’t do well with nightly moisturizing and sealing sessions. ( I hope I am listening correctly) but I still do it twice a week. I have been doing my pre poos and deep conditioning as well as co washes and what have I noticed

🌟 the strands have been feeling a little stronger
🌟I have noticed fewer hairs have been shedding (I still shed)
🌟fewer split ends

However
👎 finding a style to rocker has been harder
👎when I do Bantu knots the curls are not all that great and twists come it looking like crimps
👎seeing my tiney broken parts underneath my hair like my crown and stuff when I do my Bantu knots are such a let down.

I am going to keep going. I know I can do this. I have gone six minus to a year without relaxing my hair so I know it can grow. It just it seems to take so much longer now that I am waiting for it to grow and actually paying attention to my hair.

✨I have noticed that the bottom half of my hair are loving the attention more and more. Today I did my pre poo and as I was putting it in my hair clip it just kinda dropped looking smooth and relaxed. Almost like it was saying “ahhhh that’s the stuff.” Now granted my hair is already relaxed but usually after a few weeks and washing my hair is crispy and fried looking. Lately it has been nice as if I was recently relaxed. I wonder if what I am seeing are the benefits to using coconut oil.

 

My hair looks a little thirsty there doesn’t it. I guarded you though it was oily as heck.

Gracie’s hair is doing what it does naturally. I tried the curls unleashed and it was doing beautiful things. Not only that it looked and felt light in her hair. Cantu stuff was a little to heavy for it and looked greasy. Thing is that the orange specs in the curls unleashed were so noticeable in her hair. First time I saw the. I thought “lice Omg.” After the shock I thought about it and it made more sense that it came from one of the products I put on her hair and it was curls.
I have been co washing her hair with vo5 conditioner and omg what a difference from Johnson’s baby shampoo. If get detangling is so easy and curls galore both wet and air dry. I clarify with her Johnson’s now (I gotta use the stuff up) and condition with vo5.

Wash day for me will be tonight and on deck is store bought stuff. Loreal sulfate free shampoo, hello hydration condition and hair mayo deep conditioner. I am playing with the idea of mixing a little hello hydration into the hair mayo to see what I get out of that. Gonna Bantu knot it up tonight and my scarf on for bed.

Update, I did not wash my hair yet and it is still marinating in coconut oil (pre-poo) hoping for good results. It will be a 14 hour pre poo.

Well Happy Journies!

Keeping it (real) Natural

Ciao Bellas,

Here is an update in my tresses. It’s day or two of my do. I have not been doing nightly moisturizing and sealing treatments because before it just caused my hair to be super oily and at times hard to manage. It was almost like dealing with oily straw. ( if that makes any sense)

This is my messy bun. It’s not super greasy or oily and I have at least put in a styling cream. ( cantu Shea butter strengthener) This hair is post relaxer by about 58 days and almost a month after I announced to myself I was going to transition.

My bun looks a bit crazy, I know, but so far this is one style I am able to tolerate all the way around. I do Bantu knots after washing and air drying. The next set of knots I will do I am planning to do them a lot neater. They kind of collapse on me a little bit, so they don’t really curl up as much; they just look like they were just twisted and twirled around. Mine are smaller than  I would like but that is mostly because of the damage. My hair is a bit softer though and looks Shiny and smooth. My shed hairs look decent as well. Haven’t seen signs of split ends yet.

In any case I am still working at it. I have not gotten any new products yet although I have been eyeballing a few in the exchange.  Unfortunately for me I have not found a place that sells beauty supplies where I am. Not only that but everything at the Exchange is super expensive so it has been easy not to become a product junky. I am hoping that I can get stuff I do need sent from the states. if not I may have to beg someone to send me a care package of a few things or even do a trade.

I have not tried the mall yet and I am hoping I can next and see what I can see. Perhaps even replace my favorite clips since day before yesterday my two favorite clips broke.

I was sad about it but I had to quickly push through grief because I know me I try to stock up on 20 more of the same to replace them. One is totally repairable he other It just wore out. This is weird because I have only had it a year. The yellow one I have had for much longer and only the cover came off.In any case my bad luck. The tiny clips I bought, that I am currently wearing, are falling apart very quickly. I wonder what troubles I will have when my hair gets thicker.

Moving on, any relaxer transitioners out there I am right there with you. I still make faces when my hair is un twisted and totally to he style or curls I was aiming for but I out it up in something presentable and rock it like it’s the best thing since the wheel. I am still going to move forward

Happy Transitioning

Natural hair, yes I care

Ciao Bellas,

So I got lazy yesterday and kept my pre poo in longer than I had originally intentioned. Total hours was 15. ( give or take a few minutes) Detangling was easy, washed with sulfate free shampoo, skipped the instant conditioner and jumped right into deep conditioner. If you are thinking oh no don’t do that, I wanted to see if there was a difference.

I let it sit for the recommended amount of time (again give or take a few minutes) with a heated hand towel on top and more towels to keep the heat in under my plastic cap.

After a rinse I spritz it with my leave in cocktail and out I go for a good air dry. Hopeful good things come out of wash day.

It looks so short though.

🌟I noticed one of my strands in Gracie’s bath water( I got it out don’t worry) it floated in the middle. I think that’s good I’ll update that when I look it up.
👎I still got a bunch of hair (not as much before the journey) still snapping off and leaving me with short strands close to the scalp (about an inch or two long) this leaves me with poofy hair close to my scalp and strands coming out of my head like you see below.

Now granted a bunch of my hair I stacked up on top of my head but you get my drama.Here is is a better look at my hair. It is still air drying but it looks better than it usually does when it’s wet.

The picture below is what it first looked like when I start this 23 or 24 days ago. A small change but I think there is some improvement. What do you think?

 

Gracie’s hair is doing fine. She wet it today and it air dries quickly. It’s a little poofy but that’s nothing a little bit of leave in won’t fix. I am just letting it do what it naturally wants to do.

I don’t have anything else. My hair is feeling quite soft right now.

Zoo adventure and more

August 2

Ciao everyone,

So Miss Gracie and I are off to the zoo today. This is one of those zoos that you get to interact with the animals as they poke their heads in the window.

There are going to be a bunch of animals that she has never seen up close before. Hopefully they won’t bite, they really shouldn’t. I’ll update you in how this went below.

Lately she has been more Whiney than usual. When I watch her sleep I think to myself that I should be more thankful because right now her tantrums are about little things. I often blame myself for showing her my frustrations because when she gets stuck she gets frustrated. I am amaZed every day by how quickly she picks things up though. I am trying to teach her how to ask for the things she wants to use. I tell her no to that question sometimes because not everything will be available or allowed for her to use. I want her to be able to cope with that answer.

She is speaking more every day. I am scared a cuss word is going to fall out. Every now and then when she says fork it sounds like fuck!!! Gah can you imagine at a restaurant??

She has been amazing at restaurants so far.that may be attributed to our habit of sitting at the dinner table for food and eating together. I get comments all the time about her.

Update: zoo safari was so much fun. I enjoyed her excitement and she loved feeding the animals. She got up lose and personal with a giraffe and feed it. It’s big head was too much for her to process and it greened her out a little. Overall a very enjoyable experience. We hung out with our sponsor yesterday, C. I admit at first I was a bit standoffish. She comes off quite aggressive. After talking a good but with her she is very down to earth and tell it like it is type person. She was fun to talk with and I see that she is, woman with alot of emotional strength. I hope to be that way one day.

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We came home from the trip and were both exhausted. Lydia went to bed with no issues, I think she was glad to see her bed after a long day.

Oh goodness I got a huge cheer! She was getting her bath and all if a sudden she stands up and says “I got to poop.” I say “yea let’s go!” I take her out and put her in her potty sure enough she drops her poop in it. Yay for potty training!!

It’s the little things we gotta cheer for

Until next time,

Happy Toddlering

Hair hair everywhere

Better late then never right.

Ciao Curly Bellas,

It’s been a while and I apologize for that. It’s been 23 days since I have started and I have gotten a little lax. Not because of laziness though, I have found that my hair and skin don’t do well with nightly moisturizing and sealing sessions. ( I hope I am listening correctly) but I still do it twice a week. I have been doing my pre poos and deep conditioning as well as co washes and what have I noticed

🌟 the strands have been feeling a little stronger

🌟I have noticed fewer hairs have been shedding (I still shed)

🌟fewer split ends

🌟de tangling has been a breeze and hair looks more moisturizer

 

However

👎 finding a style for my relaxed transitioning locks to rock has been harder

👎when I do Bantu knots the curls are not all that great and twists come it looking like crimps

👎seeing my tiney broken parts underneath my hair like my crown and stuff when I do my Bantu knots are such a let down.

👎I still shed hair I am going to keep going. I know I can do this. I have gone six months to a year between relaxers and touch ups; so I know it can grow. It just it seems to take so much longer now that I am waiting for it to grow and actually paying attention to my hair.

 

✨I have noticed that the bottom half of my hair is loving the attention more and more. Today I did my pre poo and as I was putting it in my hair clip it just kinda dropped looking smooth and relaxed. Almost like it was saying “ahhhh that’s the stuff.” Now granted my hair is already relaxed but usually after a few weeks and washing my hair it gets crispy and fried looking. Lately it has been nice as if I was recently relaxed. I wonder if what I am seeing are the benefits to using coconut oil. I know my hair looks a bit thirsty here but I promise it is pretty oily.

Gracie’s hair is doing what it does naturally. I tried the curls unleashed and it was doing beautiful things. Not only that it looked and felt light in her hair. Cantu stuff was a little to heavy for it and looked greasy. Thing is that the orange specs in the curls unleashed were so noticeable in her hair. First time I saw them I thought “lice Omg.” After the shock I thought about it and it made more sense that it came from one of the products I put on her hair and it was the Curls Unleashed. I have been co washing her hair with vo5 conditioner and omg what a difference from Johnson’s baby shampoo. It makes detangling so easy and curls galore both wet and air dry. I clarify with her Johnson’s now (I gotta use the stuff up) and condition with vo5. . I know her hair looks a little dry but my biggest worry is over burdening her hair with product. I do put creme conditioners in it but as wonderful as her curls take to them it also seems to weigh her hair down and make her head look greasey. I tend to give her hair a break from products and allow her natural oils do their job. Wash day for me will be tonight and on deck is Loreal’s sulfate free shampoo. I am skipping instant conditioner, which is usually a mix of my vo5 moisture milk in strawberries and cream, in favor of a deep conditioning combo: hair mayo and hello hydration. I am hoping for some good things out of this. I am also planning on a heated soak of deep conditioner by adding he heated towel on top of the plastic cap and covering that with another towel to keep the heat in.  Finally I am going to  Bantu knot it up tonight and out my scarf on for bed.

 

Update, I did not wash my hair yet and it is still marinating in coconut oil (pre-poo) hoping for good results. It will be a 14 hour pre poo. I will show you the results in my next post.

 

Well Happy Hair Journies!

Unpopular popularity

A week or so ago I noticed that I had been un friended by someone I thought I wanted to friend. She seemed like she could have been such a awesome friend, so outgoing and cheerful. After the initial shock I made myself get over it. It wasn’t even worth the thought and yet I still had a reaction. We had nothing in common except occupation. (Yea I feel and felt dumb about it… So trivial)

Sometimes I’ll go through my Facebook friends list and do some purging and other times I do some wondering. Are these people truly friends, are they lurking? I can’t help but wonder why are they even on this list. Some of them don’t even answer when you say hello or poke them. I know a few I sought and friended and some found me.

Why bother with some folks. It really is good to have your set group of friends however few that may be. I gotta work on just being grateful for those already close to me especially my family. I really am done looking people up and friending them. I am going to see if I can chip away at my numbers too.

I am sure many are not like me but for those that are don’t sweat it. It’s just Facebook it’s really not meant to be taken seriously. And whatever you are posting post it because you want to not because you want others to see and like it. Sometimes no one is really looking.

Not saying this to be all negative and depressing but just understand anything you do you must first do it for you. Something for you to enjoy. A few others may jump in and say hey that’s cool. The person who should be enjoying it first is you.

Yea you could do all kinds of fancy things to boost your likes but in the end it doesn’t really do much for you except boost your ego a little bit.

I can say this. Once you enjoy something and show true honest enjoyment people do take notice. Happy people do really attract people.

Just stuff I have been thinking about.

Ciao for now Bella

Au Natural

I have given this thought, I am going natural!

No I am not running around this place naked (with this breeze it might actually feel good) I am going to grow my hair out and allow it to return to its natural state ( or as close as it can)

I have already told a good friend and my mom about it. Reasons for it were simple. Who can I trust out here to relax my hair and not ruin life as I know it. ( I know too much) Seriously though I didn’t want to spend more time looking for someone who knows how to deal with my hair. I have been researching ( reading articles and watching you tubes) to understand some of the ins and outs. It’s been maybe a week and my hair appears stronger than it was when I came here. I have seen less breakage and fall out as well.

It will take a lot of getting used to because I already am getting a little disappointed with the styling part. I am reverting back to my go to style – The Bun. It’s quick and easy.

My relaxed hair was becoming a hassle. Not to mention the fact that my hair was super thin. You should have seen my face when I came out of the salon the day I got it. My hair was super straight flat as a piece if paper and thin thin thin. I am craving volume, density and I was left with paper.

So I figured let me just let it go and repair it. What’s the worse than can happen……frizz?

In other news I have taken to caring for Gracie’s hair a bit more than usual. I sat watching her play one day and just stared at her hair and this one frizzy chunk thinking I hope it’s not like that because of damage.

I usually just wash it and allow it to dry ( after drying it some) but now I started to put real products in her hair other than Johnson’s leave in stuff. I notice lately that it really doesn’t do much for her hair other than run out real quick and make her scalp a little itchy. I put in some cantu leave in and her hair is really nice. It curls up better. When I put this one leave in formulated for curly hair it seemed to come to life. Her hair also smelled sooooo nice. There was less scratching above all so I will stick with that for her.

I hope I get to know my hair as fast as I am starting to get to know hers, I am still a little clueless. I forbid myself to become a product junkie though. I am still on this makeup diet and I only started doing this because my hair really needed it. I have to finish the products and give it a good try to see what results before going off and experimenting or buying more of the same product.

In any case I am doing well and I am relaxing a lot this summer. I have seen Curious George more times than I can count and the park has been our go to place so far.
( It’s across the street and Gracie can see it from her window)

Ciao for now

Blue skies and thoughts

Back in January I dusted off this app called wordpress in hopes of documenting “things” (wasn’t sure what yet) for the masses. My hope was to be a blogger with lots of people following and reading my posts because I had so many interesting and helpful things to say. I have seen others start and be successful and I wanted to be part of that group too. I seem to want to be part of a lot of groups lately.

Sitting here thinking about it I have tried over the years to be part of conversations, groups and even friendships I thought were so cool and interesting. We make a lot of people popular that way don’t we.

In any case I’m hopping off that train it’s going in circles. I apologize for sounding cliché but we gotta make our own lives interesting for ourselves and not for the enjoyment of others. Too many times I hope to do those Facebook type posts where I put up this fabulous picture or announce omg I did x. I guess I secretly hope to make certain people look knowing full well they probably don’t care anyway.

Moving on.

So I find myself in Italy for a little while looking to occupy my time while Hubs is working. Little Gracie is napping and I seem to be going on more virtual trips to the towns and nearby villages than I do actually going there. I can’t help but be a little mad at myself for my reluctance to go out and do stuff. I really have to learn how to take what some say with a grain of salt.

What a prime opportunity and all I have been doing is sitting and waiting.

Nope. Today I will march my happy ass to the the travel office, sit down in front of one of the agents and have them teach me how to use the transportation system. Might seem laughable but with limited resources and no clue as to what some of the billboards say I want to make sure I know what to look for. Wish me luck!

Tough day..

Yea one of those.  I know it’s been a while guys so bear with me.. Lots going on that has caused me to put this project on the back burner and today  was what all of it lead up to.  E, my other half is gone again, (thanks army)  Remember that surprise I promised to give clues to?  This is the next clue. If you haven’t already guessed then stay tuned. 

It was rough, he didn’t even want our little one there to see him off. Leaving  LG was tough on the both of us.. (yes I’m a little terrified) Today marks our first day alone (LG and I) 

I sat in the truck for a long time today just to pull it together and when I did straight home is where I went. It is that time to keep it positive.  Lots of things to do before my next clue. For now I just have to make sure I stay busy (which I know LG will help me do)

Staying positive through it all

VJC