Winterizing your Routine
So, how about the weather eh? I. Hate. Snow. Being from Indiana, this is a slight problem, as it snows quite a bit. For example, this was the view outside our garage Sunday afternoon:
This is my reaction to the view outside my garage:
Not happy to say the very least.
In the winter you winterize your house and you winterize your car. You also need to make sure you winterize your hair routine.
When I say winterize, i mean take a few minutes and a few extra steps to avoid unnecessary damage to your hair.
- Wear a satin or silk scarf under your winter hat.
Acrylic and wool are two fabrics that can pull and break off hair. By putting a satin scarf on your head mitigates or entirely gets rid of that risk.
2. Moisturize Moisturize Moisturize!
Basically put, winter suck the life and moisture out of your hair. If you are used to wearing lighter leave-in conditioners and thin oils, you may want to bust out the big guns and invest in some shea butter. I personally like Belle Butters, as she has nifty smelling scents (like pumpkin pie! mmm) and the shea butter is whipped and easily spread on the hair. I also like Pooka Pure and Simple. I did a review on them this week and you can read that here.
3. Protective Styles
In this climate, wash-n-gos are not the best option for me. My hair takes forever to dry and going out with it wet just isn't smart. Wet hair can freeze, and it can break off. Protective styles to the rescue! I co-wash my hair at night and twist it. I then proceed to wear the twists. I have a few things to say about this though. I am unemployed *sigh*. So when I go out, I go out to run errands and do things like that. This means my winter hat can stay on my head the entire time I am out. My twists are haphazard and unattractive. Don't believe me?
I would like to reiterate that I do not have a bald spot at all. I have lots of hair. It is just the way the twists ended up that make me look like that
gangstas paradise bitches!
Yeah, so no, I don't wear these where anyone can see them. But they protect my hair so I wear them. One day I will have the patience to sit there, and carefully part my hair and lovingly place twist in. Today ain't that day. But I know under my satin scarf and my hat, my hair is well protected.
That is all the tips I have for right now. What do you do to protect your hair?
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!
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| Totally cute right? |
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| 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.
Apple Cider VInegar Rinse
So, on the Twitter I have been hearing lots about people using apple cider vinegar (or ACV) for hair rinses. They swear that it makes their hair softer and more easier to manage. I did a bit of research on the internet as well, and I just kept hearing a lot of the same thing. A lot of the articles I read talked about the hair pores closing after using the vinegar, resulting in smoother hair all around.
It sounded a bit odd to me, but what the hell. The husbands gone (he had to go to a remote site for work for a week *sniffle*), I got two feuding dogs, and I am feeling lonely. What way to perk a girl up faster than a hair/ beauty treatment?
So, I put 2/3 of a cup of acv in a squirt bottle, and diluted it with one cup of water. I leaned my head over the guest tub and began to squirt.
I would like to note here that I love salt and vinegar chips. They are MY FAVE. The salty tangy goodness is almost too much to bear. mmmm....However, I do not like smelling like a salt and vinegar chip. That stuff burned my nostrils!! argh!
I hurriedly get done dousing my hair and hop in the shower. I rinse it out, condition, shower, and get out. My hair is thick, so it takes it some time to get finished drying. Before I went to bed though there were parts that were dry though, so I felt them....and, uh, they felt the same as usual. I shrugged and (because honestly? Nothing gets in the way of me and sleep) crashed for the night.
I wake up this morning and start feeling and looking at my hair.... um, bout the same. No difference. I was tweeting about this last night and someone was nice enough to send me this link. I am inclined to agree with the blogger on this one.
Oh well, lesson learned. and luckily I did not buy a huge container of acv. However, there is enough leftover for me to henna my hair. I will be doing that when Jeff gets home, because he is lord of the pictures!
Rocking My Puff
So, last week I discovered that my hair was finally long enough to put in a puff! How exciting! Some pictures for your viewing pleasure
The first puff
I had a wedding to go to this weekend, and this is the result....
Aren't I adorable! I had a great time at the wedding as well. That flower is is a separate accessory from the hair band I have in.
Don't forget I am running a contest!! Belle Butters is making it possible Click Here to go to the contest page.
New Contest Featuring Belle Butters!
Taken from Belle Butters facebook site!
I am excited to announce a new give away today on The Tale of Going Natural. I have teamed up with Tasha from Belle Butters to give you a special opportunity.
We all know the benefits of shea butter both for your skin and your hair. But it doesn’t smell the greatest. That is where Belle Butters come in.
Tasha makes the smoothest creamiest whipped shea butters I have ever seen. Not only that, they have delicious scents that make you want to eat it! But don’t... Not for human consumption.
I’ve been in love with her orange dreamsicle. She has many other flavors, but that seems to grab a hold of me and pull.
Today Tasha of Belle Butters is giving not one, but three of my readers a chance to try some of her delicious smelling shea butters!
Remember, this isn't just for my curly girls! Shea butter is great as a moisturizer for skin.
So here are the rules!
Rules
- Contest ends Sept. 6th
- You must be following my blog publicly. You cannot do any of the extra things without doing this.
- You must go to Belle Butters Etsy site and tell me what flavor you would want to try.
Please fill out this spreadsheet so I can keep track!
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Espionage Cosmetics
