The new ‘do
July 9, 2009 at 9:29 am | In Hair products | Leave a CommentTags: aura hypoallergenic gel, CVS curl gel, garden of wisdom healthy hair serum, homemade flax seed gel, karen's body beautiful hair nectar, Papillon Salon, seamollient
I really enjoyed my experience with Lora Johnson at Papillon Salon. Although it was radically different from the deva experience I was getting used to, it was a welcome change. I came in with my hair styled as usual and Lora took a good amount of time determine the shape of my face: square with a bit of concave to it as my forehead is a bit wider and my high cheekbones make it sink in the middle a bit; it could also have been heart shaped but my widow’s peak isn’t as pronounced and my jaw isn’t pointed. After determining the shape of my face (something no stylist has EVER done outright), Lora decided that my bangs and layers are good idea but that they need to tweaked a bit with more side layers and movement of the part of my bangs to soften my forehead and temples a bit and allow for a more oval look. I also found out that even though I diffuse every day, my hair was in great shape. Lora also determined my hair type: medium/coarse which made much more sense then the ”fine” classification I was previously told. Since my hair can tolerate protein to a certain extent and not daily at that, this definitely rings true.
Lora then took a comb to my waves.
Yes, she combed out my waves. I was a little bit horror-struck at first since I was used to the stylist just start cutting but Lora seemed to know what she was doing. She looked at all sides of my hair and pointed out that the right side was 3 inches longer than the left and that there weren’t as many layers as there should be to allow for better movement and wave enhancement. Lora told me that my hair needed to be slithered to make my waves pop. The technique is a little bit hard to describe but she basically took a section of my hair and ran her scissors vertically down the length. She did this throughout the rest of my hair and also evened out the ends. She washed my hair with re:coil shampoo and conditioner, towel dried a bit with a terry cloth towel, and started diffusing. I know the re:coil conditioner isn’t silicone free and that a terry cloth towel is a no-no, but despite that, I knew I was in capable hands the minute I saw my hair dry.
She let me take over after she scrunched in some re:coil curl activator and liquid fx so I promptly flipped my hair upside down and started diffusing and adding gel as necessary. Once my hair was 75-85% dry, I started arranging my bangs and the rest of my canopy since I didn’t have any clips to kinda “set” things. It was great to hear one of Lora’s coworkers gush over how great my hair looked. It really did.
It’s now two days since the cut and my sisters have seen pics from the day of and one of my coworkers yesterday complimented me and said that looking at my hair made her want to get a perm. Yay! And this despite not using any of my tried-and-true products (aura gel and cvs curl gel yesterday over kbb milk)!
I’ll post some pictures once the weekend rolls around and my hair has recovered a bit from the shampooing I did today to ensure removal of the silicones from the conditioner.
Today I styled with GoW healthy hair serum and my FSG mixed with some seamollient. I just SOTC and my hair looks all nice and bouncy after last night’s DT.
Biolage sculpting jelly
July 4, 2009 at 8:10 pm | In Hair products | 2 CommentsTags: biolage sculpting jelly, curls goddess glaze, freeman cowash, inecto pure coconut oil conditioner
I’m pretty amazed by the biolage styling products I’ve purchased: the molding souffle, bodifying creme gel, and the sculpting jelly. Today I decided to try a new product so out came the last of the biolage products I purchased a while ago. The ingredients definitely don’t fall under the “all natural” category [Water, VP/Acrylates/Lauryl Methacrylate Copolymer, Propylene Glycol, Triethanolamine, PEG 10 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Parfum, PEG 40, Methylparaben, Laureth 4, Limone, Hexyl Cinnamal, 2 Oleamido 1, 3 Octadecanediol, Coumarin, Linalool, Butylphenyl, Methylpropional, Hydroxycitonellal, Amyl Cinnamal, Butylene Glycol, Geranoil, Alpha Isomethyl Ionone, Isoeugenol, Citral, Benzyl Benzoate, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citronellol, Saccharum Offcinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract, Akebia Trifoliata Stem Extract] but hey, if it works why not? I cowashed with Freeman seakelp smoothing conditioner, rinsed out inecto coconut condish, used my flour sack to blot some water out of my waves, and opened up my tub of biolage sculpting jelly. The consistency is a bit odd; its definitely a gel but rather than smearing all across my palms when I rubbed my hands, the dollop pretty much stuck together. It’s like a gel version of rubber cement. I ended up using about 3 nickels worth to make sure my hair was evenly covered and not just patches here and there.
After plopping I applied 2 dimes of curls goddess glaze and diffused as normal. Once I carefully took my hair out of the Sedusa, the crunch was amazing. I used my devafuser on the roots for just a couple of minutes and clipped. Rather than getting under the hard hat as I usually do, my hair seemed to have a pretty good styling product cast going so I just did my thing for about an hour and a half before unclipping. 8 hours and one active little 9 1/2 month old nephew later, the result is still pretty good.
It does feel a bit rough so I’ll have to try it out with a bit of leave in underneath. Also I’m in dire need of a haircut so I’m looking forward to meeting Lora Johnson (formerly of HotHeads in Pasadena and Escape in Claremont) on Tuesday. Thank god for finding a well-reviewed stylist in my area! If she’s as good as all the reviews make her out to be, I may have to pass on the 1+ hour drive to Studio City and Capella Salon. Not that I didn’t like Capella – Shai and Keyonna are fabulous and if I still lived in Eagle Rock, Capella would be my salon of choice, but Upland and Lora are only 30 min away!
Surprising combos
June 24, 2009 at 1:32 pm | In Hair products, Skincare products | Leave a CommentTags: afroveda curly custard, avalon organics coenzyme q10 wrinkle defense creme, camellia rose nilotica synergy, curls gel-les'c, curls princess glaze, CVS curl gel, garden of wisdom lemony mint cream cleanser, garden of wisdom skin friendly cleanser, hoity toity sheer satin shampoo, inecto pure coconut oil conditioner
Today I shampooed with my generous sample of Hoity Toity’s sheer satin shampoo in the yummy red apple fragrance, conditioned what was left of my bottle of KBB milk and added a bit of Inecto’s pure coconut oil conditioner (which smells delish!), and scrunched in about a nickel of afroveda’s curly custardfollowed by CVS’ generic curl gel after scrunching out some water. I topped it off with gel-les’s and princess glaze after plopping and prior to diffusing. There was a bit of frizz after drying under the hard hat but a bit of kbb cream rectified that. I had tried the afroveda cc + cvs curl gel once before on a stay at home day and was impressed by the curling I saw in the shower. Needless to say, the combo came out great! I see nice waves, definition, and good hold without the dreaded dry feeling from a protein-laden gel. Even with the dewpoint at 57 right now, may hair is looking pretty good. As for the shampoo, it didn’t seem to strip my hair. Yes, there was a squeaky feeling during rinsing but the feel of my hair was akin to gvp nexxus aloe rid – clean but not rough like the way the organix shampoos found at target make my hair feel.
Skincare wise, I’m still REALLY liking avalon organics’ wrinkle defense for my eyes. It’s moisturizing, reduces lines and doesn’t clog my pores. I truly see a difference with this eye cream…even over the PSF cranberry eye gel I liked so much. As for skincare combos, I’ve found that GoW lemony mint cleanser mixed with the skin friendly cleanser makes for a phenomenal face wash. On their own, I found both cleansers to be a bit mediocre but combined you get the great skin clearing aspect of the lemony mint but without the slick, not-really-clean feeling that a non-sudsing cleanser has and the moisturized, foaming action of the skin friendly without the feeling of not having truly gotten down into your pores.
I’m having great success with my sample of Camellia Rose’s nilotica synergy butter. All you need is 1/2 a pinkie nail sized dollop mixed with the hyaluronic acid of your choice, some distilled water for spritzing and you’re set for good moisture and hydration.
Seamollient in FSG is amazing!
June 20, 2009 at 9:38 pm | In Hair products, Skincare products | Leave a CommentTags: avalon organics coenzyme q10 wrinkle defense creme, curls princess glaze, homemade flax seed gel, jessicurl aloeba, karen's body beautiful milk, seamollient, water wash
Today’s warm, muggy weather would normally lead me to have my hair up by midday, that is, unless I used seamollient mixed 50:50 with my homemade FSG!! The combo was amazing! Defined, soft, frizz free waves and curls with amazing body and hold. I’m in love with it! I took some pictures but they just don’t do it justice. The day was quite windy and of course I had to enjoy the weather with my windows down as I was driving; despite the wind, my waves still look great and the minor frizz is nothing a little smoothing with cream or butter couldn’t fix. Today’s routine was a water wash which I rarely do, condition with kbb milk mixed with aloeba, my homemade fsg, plop, and 2 dimes of curls princess glaze prior to diffusing.
I’ve been using Avalon Organics’ CoQ10 wrinkle defense night cream as an eye cream for the past 2 weeks and have to say that I’m pretty impressed. Although I was a bit wary about possible pore clogging from the dimethicone and the fact that it’s a cream, I haven’t had any problems so far but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!! The fine lines I’ve noticed seem to have diminished and my eye area feels nice and hydrated. My eyes aren’t irritated nor does the cream make makeup application difficult.
Biolage, deadlines and summer colds
June 19, 2009 at 9:21 pm | In Boo..., Hair products | Leave a CommentTags: biolage molding souffle, curls gel-les'c, curls princess glaze, CVS curl gel, fairy tales curly q natural curl maker gel, garden of wisdom majik lockes
The past two weeks have been rather interesting. The week prior was spent racing to meet district deadlines for report approvals and experimenting with some items in my PJ stash. This past week, on the other hand, was spent getting over a nasty cold…in June! Oh the irony.
I’ve still been enjoying my last batch of FSG but the bottles, tubes, and jars of hair products boxed away in my walk-in closet were taunting me to the point where I had to take a break from homemade goods.
I’ve had success with my tub of Biolage sculpting jelly in the past, so I decided to try out the molding souffle as well as a bottle of CVS’s generic version of LA Looks’ Curl gel.
I’m really impressed by the Biolage. I know the ingredients aren’t all that natural but my hair didn’t freak out; it looked soft, wavier than usual, and touchable. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said with the CVS gel. Daily use of the gel led to protein overload. I used it today with a more natural cream underneath (Afroveda curly custard) and my hair seemed to respond better with the combo.
One combo worth remembering is GoW majik lockes and Fairy Tales’ curly Q natural curl maker gel topped off with Curls’ gel-les’c and princess glaze which, unfortunately, will be discontinued. My hair looked great! Wavy, frizz free, soft and defined. My only gripes are that majik lockes is a little cost prohibitive and the princess and goddess glazes will be discontinued. Luckily, I stocked up on the glazes due to the sale so I should be set for quite some time.
A weekend away
June 8, 2009 at 11:17 am | In Hair products, Skincare products | Leave a CommentTags: curls princess glaze, garden of wisdom lemony mint cream cleanser, garden of wisdom squalene and cranberry seed oil, gardeon of wisdom waxless base cream, karen's body beautiful super silky, karen's body beautiful milk, sebastian hi contrast, vo5 vitaburst nectarine orange
I spent the weekend at my SO’s mom’s house and took my VO5 cowash, kbb milk, kbb super silky, curls princess glaze and sebastian hi contrast gel along for the weekend away. I’ve only used the princess glaze once before and without a hard holding gel on top so I was interested to see how it would hold up. I’ve never really tried too hard to make my hair look good when I’m away since enjoying the time with family or sightseeing is the main goal. SoCal weather has been pretty dreary as of late and the past weekend was no exception. We had a bit of drizzle on the way over and grey clouds pretty much defined the weather for the entire weekend. With gloomy weather and knowing that I don’t have much luck with good hair days away from home, I was pretty much anticipating blah hair days. Well, luck must have been on my side because this combination worked very well! I had great boosting, definition, NO frizz, and great wave definition!
In skincare news, I’ve been using GoW’s lemony mint cleanser in the mornings and have to say that it’s just alright. It’s a non-foaming cleanser marketed for the oily, blemish-prone gals and while I haven’t experienced any breakouts, I can’t say that I’m bowled over either. I purchased another sample to figure out my true feelings about the product and I still feel like it’s a good cleanser but not a great one.
My last order included a sample of the base cream sans wax and I must say it feel pretty nice. I spritz my face after applying my serums and HA+oil, spritz my hand holding about 1/2 dime’s worth of the cream and apply. My skin absorbs this cream quite readily and without any greasy feeling. My current oil blend is a mix of squalene and cranberry seed oil. I’m not sure how I feel about the squalene oil; it doesn’t appear to be clogging my pores but it still feels a bit heavier than I’d prefer. My mix is probably a 9:1 ratio of squalene to cranberry so I think the next time I use squalene, I’ll use a lighter hand.
Discovering products too late
June 4, 2009 at 4:58 pm | In Hair products | Leave a CommentTags: donna marie honey and aloe curling jelly, garden of wisdom majik lockes, good hair day, homemade flax seed gel, karen's body beautiful hair nectar, karen's body beautiful milk, mop top anti frizz gel, vo5 vitaburst nectarine orange
Yesterday I tried out GoW’s majik lockes all on its own with my homemade FSG (now with seamollient!) on top and a wee bit of mop top for extra hold after plopping. Despite the freak weather we’ve been having (thunderstorms, occasional drizzle, and dewpoints 50+), my hair was pretty good! One of my sisters even asked if I had recently gotten a trim because my hair looked shorter - yay shrinkage! There was a bit of frizz and I’m more than likely to attribute it to the protein in the majik lockes. It’s something I definitely want to continue experimenting with but the cost makes me think twice about considering it for the long run.
Today’s hair is courtesy of a cowash, kbb milk rinse out, kbb nectar, donna marie honey and aloe curling jelly, and mop top as a finisher. My hair looks great! There isn’t as much shrinkage as Tuesday and Wednesday’s hair, but there is great wave definition, boosting, and hold with a tad less frizz. Unfortunately, the jelly was recently discontinued. More info can be found here and here. It’s a shame because I’m really impressed by the gel. My hair is quite picky when it comes to products containing aloe so finding one that works is like finding a needle in a haystack.
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