Discovering products too late

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.

 

Hooray for good hair days!

Today’s great hair day is due to a cowash, cj curl theory rinse out, curl smoothing gellie, fsg, and bit of mop top after I’ve plopped for about 15 min. All I can say its wow! Boosting, definition, great hold (I did drive with the windows down so pictures now don’t do my hair justice) – my hair had it all today!

Considering the CJ theory condtioner ingredients:  Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Behentrimonium Methosulfate, Glyceryl Stearate, Panthenol, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, Brassica Oleracea Italica (Broccoli) Seed Oil, Hydroxypropyltrimonium Honey, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Matricaria Recuitita (Chamomile) Flower Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Sambucus Nigra (Elder) Flower Water, Hydrolyzed Wheat Starch, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Fragrance, Tocopheryl Acetate, Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, I’m really surprised my hair isn’t feeling dry and straw-like because of the protein….and WHEAT protein at that! It will be interesting to see how using my sample for the rest of the week will end up.

 

Current routine

I’m still on a soap bar kick. My hair is drying faster with more volume and wave than ever. I even see more random spirals! Today I used the windblossom bar, an ACV rinse, and since I ran out if the pear KBB milk sample, I rinsed out Curls Coconut Sublime (still really liking this). I scrunched in two dimes of KBB nectar and followed up with a half dollar of Salon Selectives gel mixed with a quarter of LA looks wet look gel. The mix of the two gels is interesting as the LA looks provides the hold and the SS gel enhances curl and softens the crunch of the LA Looks.

I am feeling a bit ambivalent with the KBB milk. When I use it as a rinse out, my hair still feels squeaky. It could be a matter of my not using enough(?) as a rinse out or it really doesn’t provide enough moisture for my hair. I’ll have to see. I probably may purchase a full bottle when I finally make a KBB order (after I’ve used up everything else) just to better judge any benefit.

I definitely do like the KBB nectar. I don’t have to use a lot and my hair feels soft and moisturized. This is going on the “hits” list.

And now for a good hair day picture:

 

Revisiting KMF upper management gel

I decided to break this gel out for three reasons:  1) my SO was out of town for the weekend and I was bored, 2) it gave me amazing waves/curls when the moisture content in the air wasn’t high, and 3) I’ve been on a slight experimentation kick and figured, why not?

I cowashed, rinsed out regis vivid satin, and applied two ribbons of sheam, and a blob of ky. WOW! My hair looked great! The clumps were forming in the shower as I was applying the gel and once I diffused and sprayed in some tightly wound, I was set for a fabulous hair day. Unfortunately, the 100 degree weather wasn’t much into working with me so I wouldn’t have to put my hair up. About 3 hours later I was forced to break out a hairstick and bind up my amazing waves and curls. I will definitely keep playing with this gel!!

 

Back from being MIA

I’ve been away from my comp for the past few days and for good reason; my older sister gave birth to her first son (and my parents’ first grandchild) this past Wednesday. I’ve been visiting her every day so blogging has been far from my mind.

I’ve been enjoying the slip and results from NG rose and persimmon condish so I stashed it away to try out a new condish. I pulled out Regis Vivid Satin Conditioner and have been in love with the results! I didn’t expect to get suck great results with a condish that doesn’t have as many natural ingreds as the NG persimmon. I’ve been seeing more spirals and body and it’s just amazing!

I also switched out my KMS pepper gel. I wanted to see if the clumps and body were solely due to that gel. I used Pantene’s curls scrunching gel with sheam and ky and my hair looks great! If I weren’t so tired I would definitely load a picture. The definition, spiraling, body and feel is surprising.

I’m starting to suspect that my experiment of drawing all the water out of my hair before applying product was a contributor to my craptastic hair days for the two months prior. I guess my hair just likes having my product-laden hands squish out the water. I also haven’t been using the zigazaga method; I’ve just been finger combing my soaking wet hair before product application and it’s been working quite well.

Another thing I’ve changed in my routine is my clipping method. After diffusing, I’ve been using 5 big clips and getting more volume than I ever before…and it’s SO much easier to boot!

In other news, I splurged at Target and bought a crapload of Pixi makeup at Target. I purchased some eyeshadow palettes, all her cheek gels, all her gel eyeliners, and a couple of her lip stain pens. I also nabbed some JK Jemma Kidd items: two i-tech liquid liners and the color adapt lip gloss. I didn’t pick up anything from the NP Set line; it didn’t really grab my attention. I’ve played with almost everything I’ve purchased from the two lines and I’m really quite impressed. Yeah, I spent a pretty penny for the items but I think I’m good on makeup for, oh, the next millennium.

 

Looking good today!

I’ve come to the the conclusion that using the Freeman sea kelp conditioner daily exacerbated the seborrheic dermatitis on the back of my scalp. I’ve been alternating with my SO’s conditioning dud, Giovanni TTT conditioner. Since he prefers the amazing conditioning capability of the ever-so expensive VO5, I’ve taken it upon myself to help him use up the Giovanni. Yes, my SO is simple guy who prefers the no-frills stuff. I love him.

This morning I cowashed with the Giovanni, rinsed out YTC, and (as an experiment) squeezed out water and applied a dime sized blob of Sheam mixed with a quarter’s worth of generic KY jelly. I combed it in, ran my finger through and scrunched in three pumps of biolage creme gel mixed with another dime’s worth of sally’s spike it. I was a bit wary with the whole scrunching out the water deal, but since some curlies on NC.com have been getting pretty good results using this method for KCKT & KCCC, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. I must admit that I really wasn’t feeling it when scrunching in the gel. My hair felt a little dry and looked stringy. I guess I’m just used to all the water coming out of my hair after scrunching my dripping wet hair. I will say that it took much less time to diffuse. I don’t know if it’s the knock-off BRHG or the fact that my hair had less water, so I’ll have to test using the scientific method. In any case, my hair dried faster and seemed to look wavier.

It’s now 4 hours later and I just scrunched the crunch with the GF water-based shine wax. I am pleased to report that the stringy, crunchy waves turned into soft, frizz-free, bouncy waves with a good amount of volume, shine, and clumpiness. I did experience good clumping with the biolage creme gel and sheam combo before so I definitely need to make a note of that.

ETA: I am thoroughly impressed! Even my SO said that my hair looked curlier than normal. Take a gander. Note, photos were taken around 630ish pm…about 14 hours after my hair was styled. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Loose, chunky waves that almost look slightly Farah Fawcett-ish.

 

I love you KCCC

Today I lugged out the KCKT and KCCC combo. For definite hold, I grabbed the Sally’s Beyond the Zone Spike It gel that is supposed to be a Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee knockoff. I applied a nickel’s worth of leave-in and scrunched in 3 quarters worth of KCCC – side to side and then flipped over. While still flipped over, I scrunched in a dime’s worth of the spike it. The fragrance of the gel didn’t compete with the yummy marshmallow scent of KCCC. It does have protein (ingreds: Water, PVP, Glycerin, Acrylates/Steareth-20 Itaconate Copolymer, Panthenol, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Wheat Starch, Polysorbate 20, Propylene Glycol, Triethanolamine, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methylparaben, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance, Limonene) but my hair actually doesn’t feel too dry. There is a little bit of frizz, but not horribly so. My waves look super chunky and defined and overall it reaffirms my love for KCKT and KCCC.

The gel did dry extremely crunchy. For the amount I used, I was surprised by the intense crunchiness.  By the time I got to work, my hair was so stiff that I felt like scrunching the crunch -  a mere 2 hours after fixing my hair. Definitely a first!

I scrunched with Oyin burnt sugar pomade (about 2 half dime sized blobs).

Photos were taken with my little nokia. Not the greatest, I know.