Shampoo bars and being a wavy

I received my shampoo bars and KBB samples from Kathymack on Tuesday and I of course had to sample the bars the first chance I had. I have been using the carrot milk and honey bar from Chagrin Valley and have been pleasantly surprised by the softness, wave formation, body, and lack of frizz each time. Since KM’s hair has been responding so well to an all natural routine, I figured it was worth a shot. I lathered with the wind blossom bar (smell leaves much to be desired; kinda “granny” smelling), rinsed with an ACV and honey mix, rinsed out my KBB milk sample in coco/lime (scent is not one one of my favorites), scrunched in the KBB nectar in white tea (I’m surprised at how much I like this scent!), scrunched water out with  a flour sack, scrunched with a MF towel once out of the shower, and applied two scoops of KCCC. There was no frizz, my hair felt soft, and I noticed a half sausage curl buried within my waves. However, I didn’t feel like there was as much body as I had with the CV carrot bar and I didn’t notice as much wave boosting. I tried the wind blossom bar again today, rinsed out what was left of the regis vivid satin, applied some KBB nectar in white tea, and srunched in two dimes of LUSH the big tease. As of 2.5 hours later, my hair is dry but it’s half up with some clips. (I don’t think I put enough gel).

The verdict so far? Shampoo bars are giving me good results and without the same-day frizz that I usually get  on low poo days. I definitely want to experiment more. As for KBB, so far I’m not experiencing anything earth-shattering. It seems like any other leave-in for me. I’ll try Kathymack’s routine for a week or so to see if KBB products really contribute to healthier and better-looking hair.

I fully accept and cherish my wave pattern. I know I’m not a curly and I don’t try to pretend to be nor do I wish I was. One thing that I find bothersome on the boards is that a majority of wavies are unhappy that they aren’t a curly. There is a thread about the “Woes of a Wavie”, “Are you generally happy with your hair pattern?”, and talk about whether a perm is the way to go to achieve a curlier look. I find it disheartening. Yes, there is the whole “grass is always greener on the other side” mentality, but I can’t understand why for some it’s so hard to embrace the waves. I think waves are sexier than curls. They are more versatile as it’s easier to go straighter or curlier on any given day. I know I can’t convince a wavy to love her waves if she’s really dead set on achieving a curlier look. What I’m trying to say is that wavy hair isn’t bad. And it’s easier to learn to love and work with them than it is to hate them and try to make your hair what it’s not.

 

Give me back my dry heat!

The past few weeks we’ve had some pretty weird humidity. Actually, just humidity itself in general. For it being the Inland Empire in the summer, it’s really quite odd. Not only did I experience humidity out in Rancho Cucamonga, but also in LA. I was at my parents’ house this weekend for my older sister’s baby shower and even in Eagle Rock (between Pasadena and Glendale), it was ridiculously humid!!! (Ok, not Hawaii or tropical style humidity, but enough to warrant a “WTH is up with the weather?!?!?” response). My other sister and a friend and I were setting up for the shower at 10 am and it was muggy and overcast. Thirty minutes later the sun was out but there was still that muggy feeling. I hung a couple of decorations underneath the canopy and I was already sweating! It was unfortunate that I was already dressed and had my hair ready for the party. By the time people showed up, I was at the point where I was constantly tossing my hair off my back because it was sticking.

I’m having a tough time finding the right products to use with this odd weather. I’ve been experimenting with a couple gels and experiencing mediocre hair. This past weekend I brought along my LUSH big tease gel which hasn’t gotten me down yet; unfortunately, the humidity made my hair all damp and reactivated it so touching my hair in any way resulted in slightly sticky hands.

Yesterday I tried out Biolage bodifying creme gel. Unfortunately I can’t find the ingredients list online but I’m pretty sure it’s CG. I read the ingredients list on all products I purchase and stay away from as many ‘cones as I can. I don’t shy away from dimethicone or cyclomethicone since I’m modified CG, but I do stay away from cyclopentasiloxane and try to limit my ‘cone use. The consistency is more gel-like than a creme. It’s a little bit like a thicker runny gel. Imagine LOOB but a runny version. I used about three pumps on each side over a quarter’s worth of KY jelly. I scrunched in 2 nickel’s worth of MopTop over it and plopped. First off, let me say that the zigazaga method has been failing me a bit. Rather than getting the clumps I’ve gotten used to, the clumps are stringier than usual. I don’t know if my hair is crying out for a DT (I haven’t done one in a while) or if it’s just rebelling because of the weird weather. Either way, I wasn’t anticipating any Wow! when my hair dried so I was quite surprised to see voluminous, soft, clumpy, albeit somewhat frizzy, waves.

To determine whether or not it was some freakish half blessing from the hair gods, I used the biolage again today. I used SheaM underneath and squeezed out some water, applied 3 pumps of biolage in addition to a pea’s worth of spike it on each side, plopped, and diffused. I still had the wet stringy waves, but now, after scrunching out the crunch with GF brilliantine shine water-based shine wax (a thanks to Shellynot for that one!) my hair is voluminous, clumpy, and wavy with some ringlets! The frizz factor is higher today and I’m thinking it’s because the SheaM wasn’t distributed well enough. Then again, the dewpoint is 61 and humidity is 78%. I will update later on in the day to report on how it held up.

 

Having to get rid of products sucks

It’s obvious that I have a less than stellar relationship with HEBE. My relationship with LOOB is somewhat spicy at times, but lukewarm more often than not. Garnier fructis soft curl cream and I have the most platonic of relationships, and Salon Selective curl energizing mousse and I are practically not on speaking terms.

Today, I used the kirkland conditioner as a rinseout for the last time. It smells alright, albeit a bit too floral for my tastes but not horrendously so, and it seems to moisturize well but it’s just that, alright. Granted it isn’t ridiculously expensive at just $6.99 for two massive bottles, but it’s still $6.99 on a mediocre product. Since costco has a killer return policy, I’m going to get my money back.

For stylers I used 2 dime blobs of Target brand KY jelly (CK substitute), 2 golfball sized blobs of HEBE, and finished it off with 2 half dollar blobs of GFSCC. I don’t feel any guilt whatsoever using massive amounts of products I’m iffy about. My hair looked alright after taking it out of the plop, but I really wasn’t expecting much. I did my usual clip and diffuse and headed to work. My hair felt coated and heavy with all the products but surprisingly enough, it dried with a good amount of volume. The left side of my hair even had more sporadic ringlets than usual. By the end of the day, my hair was still quite wavy, but with about 50% more frizz than usual. The waves were frizzy/defined waves and while it smelled good, it still felt producty.

Tomorrow, I have my first Devacut at Capella salon in Studio City with Keyonna. I’m so excited and nervous!

 

Screw you UPS…but talk about a freakishly good hair day!

Why am I decrying UPS you ask? Well, it’s practically been three weeks and they’re still disputing a claim I made. I had ordered about $100 worth of clothing online and since I’ve had some luck receiving UPS packages in the past, I figured there wouldn’t be any hitches. The UPS website said my package would be delivered on Friday, my usual day off, but I had made plans to visit a friend that day. Since I wasn’t expecting any hangups, I just went ahead with my plans. I got home that evening fully expecting to see my package sitting by my front door only to see nothing. No note, no hastily scribbled delivery note saying it at the front office, nothing. Mind you, the hallway where my apartment is isn’t heavily traveled. It’s just me and my neighbor to the left. A bit put out, I checked the UPS website to confirm, and yup, plain as day, it states that my package was delivered and left at my front door.

I called the shipper and UPS and they set up a tracer. I called each week to get an update and today, I was told that UPS is going on with their story that they delivered the package. Uh…sorry, I’m not going to accept that. I called the shipper again and was told that they will dispute the claim. I then called UPS and told them my story. The agent told me that they would reopen my case. He also told me what their standard procedure is: a UPS agent would stop by my place to see what the problem is and if no one is at home when s/he passes by, they leave a note for me to sign that would be picked up the next day. I informed the agent that in the three weeks time, I hardly saw so much as a scrap of paper on my door. The agent conceded that someone wasn’t doing his/her job. And not only that, but the shipper won’t refund my money or replace the order if UPS sticks to their guns!

I am suspecting that the prankster a**holes who ring my doorbell at odd hours of the night (i.e., 11 pm, 1 am, 2 am) may have a hand in this. We know who they are and we know they know we know who they are. We’ll see.

Sigh. The only good thing from my 30 minute talk to both companies is the good hair day I’m having. I plopped longer than usual since I was on the phone contemplating the likelihood of one day being able to reach into the phone and strangle the person at the other end. Today I cowashed with Suave tangerine, rinsed out walgreens condish, scrunched in 2 dime blobs of Sally’s generic PM the conditioner, scrunched in 4 pumps of salon selectives curl energizing mousse, 2 nickel blobs of hebe, and then the 2 globs of loob. When I took it out of the 30 min plop, I wasn’t too impressed. It looked stringy with a potential to fall apart and just poof on me. I diffused, clipped, diffused again and sat down with my book (The Subtle Knife, btw).

After a couple hours I casually walked into the bathroom to scrunch out the crunch and usual. My SO was in there and he noticed how my hair was much wavier than usual I don’t know that the magic step/ingredient was. The leave-in? The mousse? The longer than usual plop? I’ll have to experiment leaving out one variable at a time. But huzzah for good hair days!

 

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.

 

Budgets suck

I need to curb my PJism. I was surprised to see my credit card balance today. It’s not as if I have to move back in with my parents or live off of ramen – it just means that I need to be more frugal…and that sucks. I’m still dying to try a host of other items. Le sigh. Now I have to think twice when making a hair or skincare purchase. In fact, I don’t think my boyfriend will let me make those purchases anymore and rightfully so. Grrrr! Crappy economy!

 

Jessicurl + KCCC = : (

So I tried KCCC with Aloeba and two little scoops of WDT. Result? Stringy, undefined waves. It’s odd that I can get KCCC to work with SheaM when the creator said that KCCC works best with a non-oily leave in. Well, I sure see why. : /

ETA: When I got back from the dentist (found out I’m brushing my teeth too hard and exposing my roots :/), I did my usual hair check in the mirror. KCCC and Jessicurl resulted in loose waves at the crown to mid-length with little spirals and great waves throughout the rest of my hair. Must experiment more with this combo. I do find that the longer my hair is, the better the waves are.