Friday, February 29, 2008

Updates



Okay, so I got the super-duper flat iron I spoke about in a previous post. I am washing M1 tonight and letting her hair air-dry overnight. I plan to fire up that new iron in the morning. Secondly, I got brave and decided to cornrow M3, who is only 17 months old. It was a fight almost to the death!!! But, I was the victor and she has some decent cornrows on her head. I don't know if I had said before but her hair collects lint around the elastics when I put her hair in ponytails. It does this even when her hair has been freshly washed. I don't know what causes this but it happens with M2 as well. It does not happen to M1's hair though. Go Figure! Anyway, M2 and M3's hair does not collect lint when it's in cornrows or braids. So, that's why I braided M3. Now, M3 has soft and fine hair like mine so I had to cornrow her hair dry, without any oil. So for you cornrowing newbies, make sure you don't use oil when you're cornrowing if your child has fine or thin hair.

Monday, February 25, 2008

my hair

Okay, so I ended up cutting the top off my Carol's Daughter to get the rest of my Hair Milk out of the bottle. I washed my hair and wanted to wear a twistout today. But I wanted it to be soft and non-frizzy. So, after cutting the top, I have about 3 more uses in the bottle. That should get me through until my shipment comes in. I ended up 20 minutes late to work messing with my hair. But I must say it was cute!!! At the moment I can't find my digicam, but I will post a pix later. Toodles.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Hair Balm and Hair Elixir

I am getting ready to order a few items from Carol's Daughter. I have been using my "other" hair products since I ran out of all of my CD in January. I am ordering the Hair Balm and Lisa's Hair Elixir. The balm is kinda like pour-able grease, but it's supposed to not be oily. I've been having a problem lately with my hair being hard on the ends, so I'm hoping the balm will do the trick. I am getting the elixir for the girls' scalp. It's supposed to have antiseptic and anti-itching properties. M1 and M2 have chronic dry scalp, so I'm hoping it will help them. The two products are 2 that I haven't used before. I did sample them when I went the Harlem store in NYC, but they weren't in my budget at the time. I am also ordering more of the Tui Hair Smoothie Conditioner, since I am experiencing hard hair.

On the straight tip, I am going to flat iron M1's hair next weekend. I was told about this ION straightener at Sally's that is the TRUTH. My nieces have coarse, thick hair like M1 and M2 and it has their hair looking like it's relaxed. And the hair stays straight without poofing out when it's humid outside. My nieces' mom is a former stylist and she said she uses the flatiron and regular olive oil out of her kitchen to flatiron. All I know is their hair is shining and bouncing when she flatirons it.

When I get my new CD products and use the flatiron I will definitely dish with all of you!
*two fingaz*

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Productivity

Wonder of wonders!!! I ended up washing M1's hair last night. I could not take the fuzz anymore. It actually turned out pretty cute. I will post pixs later. She got compliments from her little friends at school. I know she thought she was cute cause she was all scrubbing her face and putting on lotion and lip gloss this morning. (out of character for my little tom-boy) I'm thinking of cutting off the rest of her "texturlaxer" during spring break, but I don't know if she can handle hair that short. It would be about 5 inches long. I still have time to decide. She has a short patch in the front where her "texturlaxed" hair popped off at the line of demarcation. Her little natural sprig is so soft and cute. It was a terror detangling the permed ends last night. If I don't chop in March, it will be my first project for summer vacation! That's all for now. Happy Valentine's Day!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Totally off Subject

Okay, this post has nothing to do with hair, but it is about Paula's Daughter. Why is it that M1 keeps tearing up her uniform pants???? She has ripped the knee on 2 pairs of GAP khakis. I am so done with her. She's going to have to figure out how to make her 4 pair of uniform pants last her 5 days. She is too old for this foolishness. I'm not buying any more pants this late in the year. I am not doing any extra washing. She's going to have to get real creative, or be the girl in class with dirty pants on. At this point, I got to keep it pushing.

Such a Bum!!

You know what they say, the best laid plans........
Okay, so I only got M2's hair washed and put into ponytails this past weekend. M1's cornrows are pretty fuzzy at this point, but it's going to have to do what it do until I get to it. I had a family emergency on Friday, and spent alot of time at the hospital so I did good to get anything done. I HAD to do M2, because it had gotten to "what's that smell " stage. I put her hair in a cute ponytail style that will get me through this week and I will braid this weekend. I will get M1 done this weekend, I don't know how I will style it though.

Now that I think about it, I am really spreading myself thin with these children's hair. M1 might be in for a trip to the braid salon. It would so help me if I didn't have to fool with her hair. Between graduate school, work, the baby, room mom, and hair it's getting real crazy around here. M1 does not like to get her hair braided at the salon because of the time committment. However, if she gets the kinky twists at the end of this month, they can carry her until the end of April. Decisions, decisions.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Practice What You Preach

Okay, so I did not get to my appointment with M2's hair. I just simply ran out of steam. Since I have M1 on the books for this weekend, that means I have to squeeze in M2. My go-to hair style for a time crisis is the AFRO-PUFF!! I plan on washing and putting M2's hair into afro puffs at my earliest convenience. If I can get that done tomorrow, I can do a 2 week style on her later this weekend. As for M1's appointment, I will shampoo and condition her hair Friday night and style on Saturday morning. I probably will do a 2 week style on M2 after I get M1 washed and conditioned Friday night. Maybe one day I'll practice what I preach!

Monday, February 4, 2008

My Favorite Twisting Product

Okay, so you probably have figured out by now that I love the Organic Root Stimulator line of products. If you are doing the two strand twists, I highly recommend using the ORS Lock & Twist Gel. It is so not like a gel. It doesn't make the hair hard or flake up. It makes the twists smooth and shiny, provided it's used on clean hair. Just fyi, most products only work as advertised when they are used on clean hair. I had forgotten how good this stuff was when I ran across it under my sink while looking for cotton balls! So, the ORS lock and twist gel is back in the rotation.

On another note, I was reading a concern about thinning edges on another site. It stirred my memory to yet another great ORS product. During M1's relaxed days, her hair did thin out around the edges considerably. I ended up trying the Fertilizing Temple Balm from ORS and it worked like a charm. The ORS website offers "free" samples, however there is a shipping fee of $1 for every 2 products. I sincerely hope I don't turn you into the product junkie that I am. Until the next time, *two fingaz*

Sunday, February 3, 2008

How to Cornrow

Finally, I have found a good how-to video for learning how to cornrow! Cornrowing is one of those things that you have to "see" to be able to practice and do. This video is from a talented lady in Brooklyn, NY. I was going to do a series of pictures for my "how-to" posts, but I think videos will work better. So, as soon as I can, I will start recording how to do twists, cornrows, and braids. But for now here's the link to najahface's video on youtube. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IlHSEf9BHo

Friday, February 1, 2008

Preventative Measures


After you take all that time to get those ponytails just right, it's ruined after 1 serious naptime or 1 fitful night's sleep. That happened to me one to many times before I figured out I need to treat my daughters' hair like I do my own. Thus, the head scarf, sleeping cap, bonnet, or whatever else you want to call it comes into play. I don't know about you, but when I have a fresh style I want to preserve, I definitely break out all preventative measures! So, for my girls, I have satin/silk scarves that they wear nightly. Even when they were little, like 3 years old and their heads were too little for the scarves, I bought the "doo-rag" wave caps. Yes, the ones that have the long back and the two long strings to wrap around your head. They work like a charm on that little one that sleeps wildly. My 6 year old still uses hers. My 9 year old has graduated to one of "mommy's scarves" now. I've even seen lately, the satin bonnets made especially for kids in the underground beauty supply stores If you don't have one, I suggest you try it.

Scheduled Hair Time

After checking my palm, I realized that it's M2's weekend to get her hair washed and styled. Out of my 3 girls, she has the most hair. So, I definitely have my work cut out for me!

As I said in a previous post, it's important to plan when you can do your child's hair and also how you are going to style the hair. You have to consider how long you need the style to last in contrast with how much time you have to actually "do" the hair. If you don't have much time right now, you should do a style that will last at least a week or two that doesn't take much time. My favorite time saving style is the 2 strand twist. It doesn't last as long as braids, but it's quick to do and it's way easier to take down when you're ready to wash the hair again. Now if you have more time, I would suggest a braid style, which would also last longer. The braids take longer to do and take longer to take down for washing. But, if you have the time to invest, it's well worth it, like during summer vacation or long holidays.

When I say "braids" I am talking about the individual braids that can be moved around or put into ponytails. Cornrows are the flat braids that do not move and just lie next to the scalp. Cornrows are a bit time consuming, but they are easy to take down. To me, they are somewhere between twists and braids as far as how long they last.

I will begin posting how-tos very soon so you can try some of these things on your little darlins'!