Hooray for spring!

I had been counting down the days til spring so I could change my wintery layout but once the 20th rolled around, as fate would have it, I was nowhere near a computer. Why am I a fan of the season? The blue skies, sunny days that aren’t too cold nor too hot, dew points above 35 F, and the minor fact that I’m an April baby all contribute to my love for spring.

I spent this past weekend at my SO’s mom’s house in Canoga Park. The weekend forecast was none too exciting – gloom, cold, and rain so I just grabbed my VO5 cowash, kbb milk sample in hibiscus, and my 2nd to the last bottle of homemade FSG. I haven’t been able to get consistently good results at the Canoga Park house so I wasn’t expecting very many good hair days that weekend. Imagine my surprise when my SO’s sister and her GF (both of them stylists) tell me that my hair is fabulous – both the color, condition, and texture! My SO’s sister’s girlfriend actually told me that my hair color glows and she was surprised to learn that no, I don’t use a curling iron to create loose ringlets & waves.  That really put a smile on my face…that and finally tracking down some Girl Scout Cookies! Yum!

Today I cowashed with VO5, rinsed out Oyin HH, and scrunched in a good amount of homemade FSG.  My hair today was less than stellar – no frizz, but stringy waves and not much wave-boosting. My hair still smells like the Aussie 3MM deep treatment I gave it yesterday afternoon after having my hair flat-ironed by my SO’s sister “to see how I look with straight hair.” I suspect that the Oyin HH & FSG styling combo imparted a bit too much moisture so I’ll definitely use HH with a stronger, harder-holding gel tomorrow.

I’m still really on the fence about this conditioner. I will keep using it up if only for the scent alone but I get the feeling that it may just end up falling into the “good in a pinch” category.

 

Working with LUSH’s the Big Tease gel

Going through my products stash I noticed the expiration date on my LUSH big tease gel was coming up so I popped it into the shower as a reminder to use it up. I also did a search on NC.com for product shelf life and stumbled upon two threads, one of which had me smelling my tub of KCCC. Like one of the posters, I found that my tub has a little bit of a sour scent to it. Crap. Into the shower my tub went as a reminder to use it as well.

While in the shower yesterday I thought to kill two birds with one stone and try layering the lush gel over some KCCC. I cowashed and conditioned with Oyin HH (using a light hand) and scrunched in more Oyin (about 3/4 of a dime). I gently scrunched out a little bit of the drippiness and scrunched in about 5 quarters of KCCC. I scrunched out a bit more water using my Curlease and then scrunched in probably 4 dimes of the big tease gel. My waves were looking fabulous damp. I plopped for about 15 minutes and then diffused with my Sedusa and DevaFuser. The crunch, while pretty intense, wasn’t too difficult to scrunch out and I was left with nice, defined, waves and **curls**! When I met up with my family later that evening for dinner, my sisters exclaimed over how good my hair smelled – something definitely attributed to the LUSH gel. On top of that, the hold was phenomenal, there wasn’t any frizz to speak of, and it lasted all day.

I thought to try out the combo with afroveda’s PUR gelly underneath in lieu of Oyin HH and the results are just as nice, but with a little bit more frizz – another characteristic that I attribute to overuse of the big tease. Back in the day when I first discovered this gel, I was able to get it to work for me. Unfortunately, that’s not the case these days. On Saturday I used the big tease as my sole styler and the result was big, fluffy, rough, undefined hair that just increased in size as the day wore on; it reminded me of my first run with KMF upper management gel. My boyfriend actually noticed it enough to say that the gel definitely wasn’t working for me.

Would I repurchase the Big Tease again? Possibly. It has great hold and a yummy scent to boot but it’s not a styler that can be used on its own.

 

Overconditioned?

Methinks that is the case with Oyin. How such a light, runny conditioner could make me overconditioned is really surprising but I do feel it to be the case. My hair was really slippery when cowashing and applying only a nickel’s worth of the conditioner to each side and scrunched in upside down. While clumps still formed well when scrunching in afroveda pur gelly, it was still a little too soft for my liking. There is also the possibility that the combo of oyin hh and the gelly was again too much moisture. I’ll have to lay off the oyin for the next couple of days.

I’m still surprised by the nexxus phyto organics rigid gel. Such a small amount (in total, a quarter’s worth for my entire head) still gave good crunch. Unfortunately, my overconditioned hair didn’t hold up well and the crunch and hold started to decrease midday. Luckily, there wasn’t much frizz – just undefined, really soft, loose waves…not a bad thing!

 

Too much moisture

Well, the Oyin HH + AOHR mix was great for keeping the clumps but in terms of retaining definition and frizz control, it worsened as the day wore on. By 9 pm last night, my hair was super soft but with increased frizz and rapidly undefined hair. I suspect that the moisture mix may do well with a harder holding gel.

In skincare news, I’ve come to the realization that my skin is none too fond of GoW’s honey hyaluronic acid. My skin loves honey in general and can tolerate it in other GoW products but there’s something about honey in the HA serum that my skin doesn’t agree with. Luckily, it’s only one of the multitude of HA serums that Markey makes and my skin hasn’t reacted with the others I’ve tried.

 

Oyin Handmade Honey Hemp Conditioner

Since I ran out of my NG rose & persimmon conditioner, I’ve been experimenting with my bottle of Oyin Handmade’s Honey Hemp conditioner. So far, I’ve got a  little crush.

Pros:

• yummy fruity scent
• simple ingredient list [water, organic aloe vera gel, behentremonium methosulfate (emulsifier derived from colza oil) honey, coconut oil, hemp oil, vegetable glycerine, hydrolyzed silk, citrus essences, fragrance, preservative, and love!]
• the price isn’t too bad ($11.00 for 8 oz)
• it does make my hair feel like its taken a long, refreshing drink of water

Cons

• a little too runny for my taste
• I have to apply a bit more than usual in order to get the seaweed-y feel
• Oyin can be a little late with their orders
• short shelf life (4-6 mos)

Yesterday, I washed with my CV carrot milk and honey bar, did a white vinegar rinse, and liberally applied the honey hemp throughout my hair. I rinsed out  upside down and scrunched in mass amounts of my homemade FSG. The result? At my nephew’s baptism yesterday, I had 3 women ask me what I do to my hair to make it look so wavy. +1 to the honey hemp! However, by the end of the day, the definition I had earlier was sorely lacking, a bit of frizz started to kick in, and my waves looked a little stringier than usual. -0.5 for that.

In order to make my 8 oz. bottle last a bit longer, I mixed about a nickel’s worth with AOHR for each side and raked through. My hair felt like seaweed immediately! Not only that, but when I scrunched in my FSG, I had clumps like crazy. +1.5!!

My hair is still drying so we’ll see how it holds up after the crunch has been scrunched out.

 

The move & why a monthly ‘poo is a must do

The move: from Blogger to WordPress. That is all.

My hair wasn’t looking too great the past couple of days. Yes, the evil J&J leave-in had indelibly left its mark. So this morning I decided to get rid of its evilness by attacking it with some clarifying shampoo. My hair felt much better as I was rinsing the suds out and the result? My tight waves are back! Huzzah! I used a new leave-in instead of my trusty sheam: Zerran’s equalizer. I can’t quite pinpoint the scent – somewhat apple-ish with some light vanilla? Anyhoot, I used a bit too much – about a dime’s worth and scrunched in two nickle-sized blobs of that dang HEBE. My hair doesn’t look too bad actually. Yes, there is some fuzz and undefined waves, but it looks much better compared to yesterday’s overconditioned, droopy waves.

On another note, I’m not sure I’m feeling the Oyin HH. I thought it was too heavy for my hair but lately it seems as though I need to use a lot to get any slip. Maybe my hair is really thirsty? I don’t know. Hopefully I can make a better decision on it since I’ve washed away the evil J&J.

 

First really bad hair day in a while…

I used Oyin HH, Jessicurl RR & CCSS with some HEBE today. I was smart enough to leave in a little bit of my rinse out so my hair wasn’t mag-sulfate dry today but my hair was quite frizzy, undefined, and limp. I won’t lay the blame on my Jessicurl experiment today because the night before, I used some Chagrin Valley soap as shampoo and finished a sample packet of Johnson and Johnson’s leave-in that was just awful.

I’m coming to the conclusion that Chagrin Valley soap on my hair doesn’t bode well. I read through some threads on using the soap as a shampoo and just lathered my hands and applied the suds to my hair. The result? Utter squeaky cleanliness As I was rinsing out the suds in the shower, my fingers were even getting tangled in my hair! To make matters worse, I used some Johnson & Johnson’s leave in sample packet that my younger sister gave me to try. The scent is a bit too flowery and heavy for my taste and it has dimethicone as the third ingredient Not good. I figured that since I was going to be home for the rest of the day, why not just use it up? Big mistake. I credit my crap hair day to Johnson & Johnson’s and soap as shampoo. Boo.