What hurts the most
From the time I was in the 5th grade, up until the end of high school, I was a social pariah. I was awkward, weird, and just plain odd. In two short years I went from a smiling bright happy girl, to a miserable angry person. I stayed that miserable angry person for many many years. My choices in clothes, in music, and in pretty much everything reflected what was popular. Well, as much as it could. We were poor.
Around the end of high school, like my last semester, it was as if someone cleared a film from my vision. I realized that I would no longer see these people every day. I cared nothing about them, and they cared nothing about me. That was the God’s honest truth, with the exception of a few people. I was done. I was free. I could be whoever and whatever I wanted to be.
Turns out being me isn’t anything fancy. I am a girly girl. I am smart, crafty, and nerdy. I am stylish. I have a wicked temper and a kind heart. If I am livid at you, I just won’t talk to you anymore. You have been deemed no longer worth my time.
All in all I think I turned out pretty good. I am confident and self aware. Sometimes though, it takes one comment to take me back down to where I was when I was younger. Usually it is from a ‘loved one trying to help.’
So I am sitting here, sad, pissed off, and hurt, by someone who is supposed to love me most. I’m sure I will be over it in a day or so, but for now, I am just going to sulk and be emo.
Awkward Hair Growth.
My hair grows weird.
I am sure everyone says this; that their hair does not grow evenly. I am one of those people. For some reason, the hair at the base of my head, near my neck grows the fastest. It is also the hair that doesn't really have much of a curl pattern. It is incredibly loose. It is also the hair that is shoulder length. The rest of my hair grows fairly evenly, It is all equal to each other, with the exception of that back part. Take a look at your hair. How does your hair grow?
I purchased some new conditioner this week. I was out of 'Hello Hydration' and it hasn't been working all that great for me for the past couple of months anyway. This time around I purchased Tresemme moisture rich for dry or damaged hair. I don't want to give my opinion on it just yet; I have only used it once. I will be back with a review on that later.
I also picked up some goodies from kyah Alexandria. CharyJay (from 160 Days 2 lose 2) did a review of a couple of her products and something she said about the shampoo/shower bar stuck out in my mind. She said after shampooing her hair with the bar, her hair felt like there was lotion on it, it was that moisturizing. That got me hook, line and sinker. I purchased the Coconut Paradise shampoo and shower bar and Hydra Moist Leave-In Conditioner. I have not tried them yet. I don't like trying a bunch of new products all together. It seems like you don't get an accurate read on the products if you do that. Once I decide if I like how the Tresemme makes my hair feel, then I will check out the kyah Alexandrea.
What is your favorite shampoos and conditioners? How did you come across them?
Product Review- Cantu Shea Butter leave in conditioning cream
After a brief hiatus (in which at one point my husband had to come home for lunch from work because I was crying so hard he couldn’t understand what I was saying, because I was SURE I got a D in my math class, and I couldn’t take that class anymore, and it turns out I got a C and cam move on.) I am back with a product review for you.
I bought the Cantu Shea Butter from the weird hair place around the corner from my house. It is ran by a family. I once went in there asking if they had the crackle polishes. The woman told me no, and asked me why I would want that, as it is ugly and unkempt! I just kind of goggled at her and left. Their nail polish looks old and scary for the most part, so I guess it is a good thing they didn’t have it.
Anyway, I heard of Cantu ever since I had gone natural. I always wanted to try it, but I never really saw it when I was out and about. It wasn’t something that I sought out either. However, when I was buying flower hair accessories in the local hair shop, I saw the leave in conditioning repair cream for $4.99 and decided to pick it up.
The front of the product says the following:
stops and mends hair breakage
leaves hair soft, shiny, and manageable
formulated for severely damaged, dry, or coarse hair
Here is the first issue I have with the product; The grammar on the front of the product. There are no capital letters in the previous statements, no periods, however, we have commas. Just looking at the statements drive me batty. Meh.
The product gives you three sets of directions based on what you wanted to do with it. You could use it for daily styling, a leave in treatment, or for frizz free hair. I used it as a daily treatment for the better part of a month
As you can see, I used about half of the jar. The first thing you notice when you open up the Cantu leave in conditioner is the smell. Oh man! It smells like fruit punch. I had Jeff do a sniff test, and he enjoyed the smell too. It is a water based leave in conditioner, so it is kind of runny. I liked the fact that it seemed to revive my hair. It made it moist so that I could style it however I chose. A lot of times in the morning, I would put this on my hair and add a little of my Belle Butters and go. When I did two strand twists at night, I would slather this on, and add Belle Butters on top of it, twist my hair and cover it. In the morning it would still be slightly damp and pliable, so I would put it in a poof and go.
After a little bit, I noticed a slight problem. You see, when I do a twist out, just using Belle Butters, My twist outs can last about a week. They get bigger and bigger, and they are fully moisturized. With the Cantu stuff, It would get bigger, but my hair was incredibly dry after two days. The ends of my hair would look crispy and frizzy. It was not cute. When my hair would get like that, nothing could revive it. I would have to co-wash and start over again.
So yes, I don’t think Cantu Shea Butter leave in conditioning repair cream is right for me. It took styles that normally last up to 5-7 days, and made them last only 2-3. It made my hair feel dried out and crispy. I wouldn’t recommend this product.
Have you tried anything by Cantu? What were your results?
It feels like summer! Whip your hair back and forth!
I love summer. Indiana has decided to skip spring (except with all the rain), and go directly into the heat of summer. I hate winter, I hate cold weather, and I hate my allergies. I had one very minor allergy attack this year, and have been pretty much okay since. Last year, everything was COATED in pollen, and I couldn't really go outside until it rained. Even then, I had to have allergy pills ingested.
With the summer comes summer hair. Most of the winter, my hair stays underneath a silk scarf, and underneath a hat in two strand twists. It's too cold for me to just let my hair out. Now with summer here, I can two strand twist at night, undo it in the morning, put my hair in a puff, or just let it be in it's afro. I do have to continously moisturize my hair, however, with using the Belle Butters shea butter, I can usually get away with moisturizing every two days. With my hair in twists like that, I can also co-wash about once a week. Unless of course I have been swimming, or sweating hard. Then you know, it's more often with the washing.
It's a marvelous time! So, my question to you is, how is your summer routine different from your winter routine?
In other news, I was over on the Curly Nikki forums. Seems like they are trying to put together a natural hair meetup here in Indiana! How exciting is that!? Would you guys come? I would love to meet you (Janelle, I am looking at you girl!)! They want it to be big like the ones in Atlanta, and honestly, Indianapolis has the potential for that. I kind of wish I would have found out about it earlier, as I could have taken an active role in getting local vendors to display jewelry and stuff at it. I am really good about researching and sales (though, I don't want to be in sales; too much pressure.) and I think I could have gotten some great things accomplished. Oh well, I will just be okay with going and having a great time!
I'm out! I have a mess of clothes to fold and some twists to retwist. I am not going anywhere today but my back yard, so the hair will remain in twists.
Have a great day, and if you haven't taken my survey, please do!
It’s OVER!!!!
*Runs manically through the house*
THE SEMESTER IS OVER!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Until summer School.
*starts crying again*
May the 4th be with you.
I've got nuthin today guys. I am tired, I had a final I think I bombed because I made an idiot mistake, and I am anxious because I have two more finals to take. I hope you guys are having a better week than I am.
The one in which a person with special needs screamed at me.
Hey Guys!
The semester is wrapping up here, and even though I do have classes for the summer semester, it will hopefully be nowhere near as hectic as my life is now. 5 classes? Never again I say. NEVER. AGAIN.
My title is an interesting one, I know. Let me explain. In March I did a haul entry, showing you some things I purchased. Here is the entry. I finally got a chance to wear the earrings from Sarenzo's beads. They are huge. I think they are adorable. They set off my fro nicely when it is stretched. My husband thinks otherwise. He was teasing me for wearing them. We went to the grocery store, because we have nothing in the house to eat. The grocery store that is nearest to us, his mom works at. We stopped in her department to talk to her for a minute. All of a sudden a noise had me jumping out of my skin.
"OOOOHH MAYYYY GUUUUDDDDD!!!!!"
I whirl around to see a lady about my height staring at me in wonderment. I am generally not self conscious, but people make me anxious so I took a step back.
"THOSE ARE THE BIGGEST EARRINGS IN THE HISTORY OF ALL TIMES!!!!"
I glance over at Jeff, he's trying really hard not to smile, and so is his mom.
"SOOO BIG!! OHHHH MAYYY GUUUUDDDD!!!"
I glance back at her and say thank you. Jeff's mom introduces me as her daughter in law. The lady stops and stammers. She is so embarassed. She apologizes and I feel bad for making her feel bad. You can tell she has some sort of issue. She slinks off, and Jeff goes "You see what you did with your earrings? You made another person feel bad!" He then busts up laughing.
I just kind of.. scamper off. This is my life people.
If you haven't yet, please fill out this survey for me! It tells me what you want to see from me as far as this blog goes!
Help a natural girl out!
From this website
So most of you know that I am in school for computer information technology at IUPUI. What you don't know is that on top of that, I am getting a certificate in technical communication. I won't bore you with the details, but basically it means that I will be well equipped to handle technical writing and understanding communications in the business world.
I opted for the fall semester to enroll in an independent study class. I want to turn my blog into a business venture. I want to learn how to write a business plan, and create my own website from scratch. I've taken web design classes and this is a way to implement both what I learned in my CIT courses and what I am learning in my technical writing courses.
This is where I turn to you my lovelies. I want to know what you want to see on a blog. I want to know what you enjoy about my blog and any ideas you may have. It will be a little bit before you see things fully implimented. I have to make a syllabus (as it is considered a class), research, and finally develop the things. I created an easy peasy survey for you to fill out here.
Today is May 1st. I want to leave the survey active for about a month, so I can get a good supply of opinions. Your opinion counts! Please fill it out. Thank you 🙂
Leslie
Fabulosity at its finest!
Before I start this entry, I was using the phrase "Teeming with fabulosity" Before Kimora Lee Simmons. I love her show, I just thought I would throw that out there.
This past Sunday was Easter. I didn't have any major plans. It was going to be, my programming homework (shoutout to visual basic 2008!), some math homework and an organizational communication paper. My husband requested that I go with him to his family's Easter Sunday dinner. I told him I would if I finished my programming assignment. Surprisingly, it went smoothly this week. It took maybe an hour and a half (usually I go at it for like 4-5 hours) so I had plenty of time to go with him.
I decided since I rarely leave the house (I haven't had a face to face interview in so long.. I NEEDS A JOB!!), and when I do leave the house I am going grocery shopping, or somewhere that just jeans are required, that I would dress up. It was going back to that whole making myself happy. I love to dress up, even if I am the only one who does so.
I also decided to do something different to my hair. For all of you that follow me on Facebook, you'll know that for the past few days I have had my hair in two strand twists. When my hair is in two strand twists and I have to go somewhere, usually I take them out and put my hair into a poof. I then wear it free for a couple of days because I get a HUGE 'fro. Instead of the poof, I untwisted my hair and kind of parted it to the side, so I would have side bangs. My twists are crazy. They will be bent at odd angles and just stick straight up on my head. I took a handful of duckbill clips, and clipped like 5 of those bad boys to my bangs, weighing them down. I then clipped more of them wherever I had crazy twists flailing about. I then went about my business, applying my makeup and getting dressed. When it was close to the time to leave, I removed the clips. I was still a little flyaway in the back, but it was cute. I then put a headband on (just a stretchy one that I normally use) behind my bangs. My bangs were threatening to creep up, so I searched high and low for a bobby pin. I can't believe I don't own any bobby pins! I eventually found one, it had a jewel on the end of it, and so it looked a little odd with my flower there as well. Everything turned out really cute though!
PICTURES!!!
These are really blurry and I apologize. Camera phone for all of them except one. This is the back of my head.
My twistout
Front View
Attempting again to get a decent shot of the back.
Before I left the house.
So yeah, I really liked this look and can't wait to do it again. I also can't wait to try other things! I hope you guys are having a great week!
Me Time!
Ever since the birthday that wasn't I have been taking time out to do things for me. I usually make excuses though. I am at the end of the semester, and with five classes on my plate (one at a different school), I have to keep up. I hadn't done much to my hair in a while though, and so.. it was time. A couple of nights ago I pre-pooed my hair with coconut oil and walked around with that god awful processing cap on my head. You guys have no idea how much I hate that thing.
I worse it until it was time for bed. I then went to shower and co-washed my hair and detangled with the wide toothed shower comb. I got out the shower and combed through it again using a double toothed comb and moisturized my hair using Belle Butters matcha green tea butter. I threw my hair into 5 thick twists, put my bonnet on and hit the hay. The next morning, I did some homework, and watched "The Secret Life of the American Teenager. A little off subject, but do you watch this? Maybe I am getting old, but none of the guys are handsome. Ricky has a pompadour, and Ben is gawky. Jack is okay but he is a manwhore, and the one that Grace is seeing is wonky eyed. I am however in love with Adrian's eyebrows. They are shapely and well defined, and I am jealous.
Mine are shapely, but don't stand out with my skin tone and I am just jealous.
While Secret Life was on, I retwisted my hair into smaller twists. It is not the prettiest look, and when it is like this I just stuff it under a satin scarf and put a hat on, but my hair is taken care of, protected, and loved.
How do you treat yourself?
Espionage Cosmetics
