The woman behind Happy Girl Hair has a contest currently going on. Enter for your chance to win Whipped Shea Body butter and a product of your choosing from the My Natural Hair store!
I have to be doing something wrong…
My twistout this morning looks a hot mess. I untwist and kind of fan it out like I would if i was doing a 'fro. It's my ends.. The ends of my twists always look crazy and I can't quite figure out why.. any ideas anyone?
Huetiful hair steamer give away!
This contest is in no way affiliated with my blog. However, I know how bad I want a hair steamer, I figure you guys might want a chance at winning one too. If you go to http://www.behuetiful.com/ there is a survey for you to fill out to have a chance to win one of 5 steamers! I've already entered... have you?
Product Review and Hair Styles With Belle Butters.
Tasha of Belle Butters was kind enough to send me a couple of samples. The first one was her Matcha Green Tea Shea butter. The second was a concoction she was trying out. It is a mixture of unrefined shea butter, evoo (extra virgin olive oil), evco (extra virgin coconut oil), jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, and cucumber fragrance.
The first one I tried was the Matcha Green Tea Shea Butter. I opened the container and touched it, and was pleasantly surprised... it was fluffy! Tasha whips her Shea Butters, so you get this light and fluffy consistency. Its not thick and heavy at all. I loved it!
The first couple times I used it, I just used to moisturize my hair after my shower. It was amazing. It moisturized my hair so thoroughly that I didn't have to use any for two days. My hair craves moisture so that was awesome. Tasha sent me a letter with the butters, stating that a lot of people use it to twist their hair. Thinking about this the whole time and staring at the jar, I decided to attempt a twist out using her product. I co-washed my hair using Herbal Essences Hello Hydration.
I don't know about you guys, but I use twitter. I follow the natural hair hash tag (#naturahair), so I get a lot of tips from other natural hair women about doing specific styles. I knew a twist out was going to take me some time. I plopped down in front of the tv with my husband and my dogs, grabbed the shea butter and went to work. I'll be honest, it took me a couple hours. I had to take a couple breaks because I just don't have great range of motion. Eventually I got my hair twisted.
I really don't understand why it always looks like i have a bald spot.
These two pics are the ones my hubs took for me.
I obviously didn't think this was enough
I don't know what is going on, when I put the URL in , it shows that it is right side up, but here it shows it sideways. I give up.
Here is the thing. If I would have parted and very carefully and lovingly twisted each twist, I might have been able to wear this hair style in public. But I doubt I would. Here are the reasons:
1. I did not carefully and lovingly part and twist my hair. They were all over the place. I looked like a twisted up version of Coolio.
2. Even if I would have lovingly parted and twisted them, I have a feeling I would have ended up looking like Miss Ceelie on The Color Purple. While I love that movie, Miss Ceelie is not who I aspire to look like.
If my hair was longer like Tasha's I could rock it. But mine are uber short and sticky out all over the place.
Anyway, the next morning, I untwisted and styled!
 |
| Totally cute right? |
 |
| COILS UPON COILS!!! |
Bottom line, I love this hair style. It takes a bit more work than I am used to ( I am a wash and go girl), but it is so worth it. I liked it so much so that I did it again the next night. I untwisted it in the morning.
Huge hair!!!
Even my mother, who is queen of the hair pieces loved my hair! Yay!
Belle Butters kept the moisture in my hair the whole time as well. It is an amazing product. The best part of it? It's for hair AND skin. I love multi tasking products!
The Matcha Green Tea didn't have much of a scent. However the new combo she is coming up with, it is cucumber scented... I LOVE CUCUMBER SCENTED STUFF! It smells so fresh and clean and crisp. It is a bit heavier than the Matcha Green Tea, so I used that more on my skin than my hair. I live in Indiana and all of the moisture in my skin is GONE. So it helps a lot.
Check out Belle Butters! You can't go wrong. The hair doesn't lie.
Product Review: Free Your Mane Series (Reviving Spray)
Authors Note: Free Your Mane was kind enough to give product for me to sample.
Free Your Mane. The story of this company warmed my heart. In 2003, Israel because the proud adoptive father of two African American sons. Well, He tells the story better than I do. From his website:
In 2003 I became the proud adoptive father of African American twins. One of the trickiest and most important responsibilities for me was grooming, and I was eager to meet that challenge with love and care. As someone with coarse, curly hair, I have shopped in the 'ethnic hair' section of the beauty supply since I was a teenager. On the hunt for the elusive solution to my own hair issues, I became very familiar with those products.
Surprisingly, most of the same products that I'd tried as a teenager in the 1980s were still on the shelves, and with the same old formulations. They are composed primarily of cheap fillers, low quality ingredients such as petrolatum and mineral oil — basically the waste from the petroleum manufacturing industry.
The other options were the all-natural 'kitchen' remedies responding to the nascent green market.
I tried them all. The mineral oil based products were somewhat effective, but ultimately too greasy, outdated and unhealthy. The natural products were ineffective and overly fragranced.
Working in fashion and advertising for the past twenty-five years has kept me current on the amazing breakthroughs in chemistry which have benefited the beauty industry. It became clear none of these advances had made it to the African American hair care market.
My frustration echoed the frustration of countless others. Every African-American woman I spoke to had shelves full of disappointing products - there was a powerful need to be met.
This was the birth of Nola Industries, Inc.
After three years of intensive research, development and testing, I am thrilled to announce the arrival of free your mane, a revolution in black hair care. The free your mane product line has been developed for adult women of color whose needs, until now, have been summarily ignored by the beauty industry.
All free your mane products blend the best of nature and science. We fuse the finest natural ingredients with cutting edge technology for a modern, stylish and very lightly fragranced product. We ban mineral oil, petrolatum, sulfate, phthalates and parabens from our entire line.
As the guardian of my children's future, I was driven to create a product that is eco-conscious and sustainable, while promoting social responsibility. With this inspiration, I created "SE%EN," the nonprofit division of Nola Industries, Inc.
Amazing huh? I thought so. There are several products that they sent me to try out, so I am doing this as a series.
Reviving Spray
I love this stuff. Basically, I do not have to wash and go everyday with this. It has a mixture of baobab seed oil, Argan oil, and pomegranate oil. I spray it on my hair. It rewets my hair and moisturizes it all in one swoop. I can then fluff my hair out with my hands and go! Love it!
It really is moisturizing. My hair feels good without feeling greasy. I love it.
One thing I am not a fan of is the smell. I like really light smells. Floral, lemony, and light. This is kind of a heavier scent. It reminds me of an amber musk type scent.
I would purchase this product. It's a great addition to my styling regimen.
Shaun of the Dead
Genre: Comedy/Horror
Director: Edgar Wright
Screenplay: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Morgan, Penelope Wilton, and Bill Nighy
Shaun lives his life catering to his best friend, Ed, with no want for a bigger picture, which is why his girlfriend, Liz, leaves him. While trying to embrace the fact that Liz is gone and yet still concocting a plan to get her back, something darker is happening to the world around him. People are turning into zombies. As soon as Shaun accepts this new dilemma, he is determined to rescue Liz and his mother with the help of Ed and get them to the only safe place they can think of, the pub.
I really adore British movies and the dry humor, so when it was mixed with horror, I fell in love. Yeah, they’re fighting zombies, and they’re laying all their hopes on a beloved pub that will be their sanctuary. Who needs to figure out why there are zombies or how to take care of them. This doesn’t seem to be a good recipe for success, but this film actually works. Plus, although brief, the addition of Bill Nighy to a cast is never a bad thing. This movie is good fun if you enjoy dry humor and can laugh at blood and flailing limbs.
There is one problem that I did have with this film. At the end Shaun is faced with the horrible reality that his mother is about to turn into a zombie and that he will probably have to kill her. A tough matter regardless the zombie situation, yet this is a comedy. They did not however choose to lighten up the situation, but chose to make it very dramatic. The scene was so out of place compared to the rest of the film that I was completely removed from the main plot and then thrust abruptly back into the hilarity. I just felt that they needed to make the transition a little more harmonious to the rest of the tone of the film.
I give this film 3 Buttery Kernals.
Drag Me to Hell
Genre: Horror
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenplay: Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, and Lorna Raver
Christine is a nice girl with the boy of her dreams and always living by the rules. She is competing with another coworker for a promotion. Trying to take a more assertive role to make her look like the ideal candidate, she denies a loan extension for an older woman. Because of this, the woman ends up cursing her. Struggling between belief and ridiculousness, she begins seeing things and is attacked by the unknown. Now she has to figure out the curse before it takes her life.
This is the first horror film that the Raimi brothers have done since the Evil Dead trilogy. Because I love Sam Raimi just as much as I love Bruce Campbell, I immediately ran to the theaters to see it. I was not disappointed. It was just the kind of fun that is expected out of Raimi. The film had plenty of gross moment that made you squirm, yet were so gross at times that you were cracking up, which was the point. Raimi does enjoy his horror, but he also enjoys making you laugh.
There was just one thing that disappointed me thoroughly about the film. Ted Raimi was of course in the film, which I fully expected since he is a Raimi. Bruce Campbell was not, however. I was just shocked that Raimi was doing another horror movie that he wrote and no cameo from Mr. Campbell? I mean he did cameos for the Spiderman movies. I just hope that there was a schedule conflict, because that would be the only reason I’d let Mr. Campbell off.
I give this film 3 Buttery Kernals.
Coming Soon: Shaun of the Dead
Evil Dead
Genre: Horror
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenplay: Sam Raimi
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker, and Theresa Tilly
Ash and his friends decide to take a trip to a cabin looking for some fun and relaxation. After arriving, strange things begin to happen, but that’s the warm up. After finding a strange book and recorded tapes in the basement, they decide to play the tapes and evoke an ancient evil.
I had listed in my top 10 favorite Halloween movies Army of Darkness. Well you rightly cannot do a real review without doing one about this film. That is why I chose to do this one instead being that it is the first of the trilogy, Army of Darkness being the last part. This is the brain child of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Tapert, longtime friends that decided to take the movie business into their own hands. They proved what a strong will and determination can really create, and it doesn’t matter if you live in Hollywood.
The film became successful, but to say that it was good is an entirely different matter alone. I guess it would have been considered alright for the time, and their budget was considered insignificant compared to the studio backed films. The film does have a place of honor as one of the original great scary films of the 80’s. There have been talks of a remake, which would really sadden me, because I don’t think anyone can imagine Ash as anyone else other than Bruce Campbell. The movie and character have spawned two more sequels, video games, and even a feature in comic books. When Marvel Comics decides to go zombie, of course they had to do a special version in which Ash gets thrown in the middle battling the zombie-fied superbeings, a drastic change from his usual “deadites.”
This is the film that started Bruce Campbell’s typecasted career of random horror films and guest appearances of several “weird” television show. I’m not complaining, because I love the guy so much, but I am glad that he has his role on Burn Notice. I would really love to see a guest appearance on Superntatural, especially before time runs out on that show. I would like for him to be given more of a chance with straighter roles, because I think he can more than handle it. He’s actually inspired a story for me that I base a straight character around him. I read about how he would love to handle a role like that, and the story came to me. Not that it will ever come to actual fruition as a movie, but hey, if he can inspire me to do that, he’s got to be a decent actor.
I give this film 2 Buttery Kernals.
Coming Soon: Drag Me to Hell
Bubba Ho-Tep
Genre: Comedy/Horror
Director: Don Coscarelli
Screenplay: Don Coscarelli based on the short story by Joe R. Lansdale
Starring: Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis
After trading lives with an impersonator for a less complicated life, Elvis is now old, worn out, and left to a nursing home. Strange occurrences and deaths ignite a spark of purpose within him that he long thought dead. With the help of a friend, one that believes he is J.F.K., Elvis investigates what exactly is happening to the nursing home and comes face to face with a mummy.
This is probably one of my favorite movies ever. The story is so ridiculous yet so well put together that you’re compelled to watch the movie at every moment. The idea of Elvis in a nursing home fighting a mummy with a walker seems like cheap comedy, but alas, the quality of the film is what actually gets you, not to mention decent acting. The story and characters are so good that I can care less about the mummy. The film is quirky and meant to be entertaining which it exceeds fantastically.
Best of all is the acting. I am a huge fan of Bruce “Don’t Call Me Ash” Campbell, because I am a girl that appreciates sarcasm, an attribute Mr. Campbell perfects. I personally feel that this was his best work yet. Of course the Elvis character is miserable and humor is created through sarcasm and crankiness. Bruce Campbell has got that, but Elvis is also a well rounded, emotional person, a character. This is foreign territory for Campbell, but he made it seem as if he had been doing it for years.
Finally, I have to give a shout out to Ossie Davis. This is the type of film, no one would have ever expected him, a phenomenal actor, to be a part of, especially playing J.F.K. His performance alone is worth seeing this film for. He is fantastic!
I give this film 4 Buttery Kernals.
Coming Soon: Evil Dead
Protective Styles
Wearing your hair in protective styles is how you will be able to keep from manipulating your hair so much. It protects against the elements and protects your new growth.
I've done a braid-out once. Which means I had braids in my hair over night. That is considered a protective style, no matter how brief it was. I know quite a few naturals keep their hair in protective styles probably 90% of the time. What is your favorite protective style?
Espionage Cosmetics
