twistouts

So, not the greatest idea for myself. At all..

 

 

Well, I tried geling my two strand twists. They stayed twisted for two days. I didn’t have anything to do the past couple of days. Tonight I am going to try sushi for the first time with my friend Heather. I just undid my twists… If anything, they are wilder than when I just twist them.

 

Snapshot_20110608

Not cute at all. For those that are curious, my shirt says “Mixed martial arts and crafts” and has three ninjas painting, knitting, and writing.

So the craziness that is my hair is going into a puff for tonight. Eesh

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!

Helping out a friend.

Hi everyone. This, is my friend Shannon

(I had to put a pic on here with her drinking pepsi! LOL)

Shannon is a transitioning natural. She usually wears sew-ins or braids. She has straightened her hair twice in 9 months. The other day she got bold and decided to attempt a twistout. Something didn't go according to plan. 
In Shannon's own words:
"My hair was damp, I used water and a conditioner mix with the TCB Naturals hair and scalp conditioner." 
This was the result of the twistout:
How she ended up wearing it:
And this is how her hair turned out looking by the time she made it to work:
Yeah, wow.
Shannon and I both took a good look at her hair (well, as good of a look as I can take from pics..she lives in NY, I am in Indiana) and her curl pattern when she is natural is slight. She is more wavy than anything. So, I am asking you my Naturalistas, to help a sista out! What can Shannon do to produce a better twistout? This is the TCB Product she used. I know nothing about this. Do you think it is the way she twisted? Is it the products? Do twistouts not work well on wavy hair? Let us know!

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?

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.

The word, goodies for you soon.

Hey everyone! I hope your Monday was good for you. It is Tuesday, and I do no have class. I was getting ready to pick up the house when we had a tornado watch/warning. I headed down to the basement with my dogs. One of them was calm as could be. The other was riled to the point of insanity. As long as I have internet and a chair, I was okay. but the severe weather has left. And I should get to cleaning, but I  wanted to write an entry first.

I keep wanting to do another braid out, but I never have time it seems. I don't think I would look good with twists in my hair, that is just my opinion though. If you don't think you look good in something, chances are you aren't going to feel good in it as well. I really liked the results of my braid out though.

Part of the problem is that I don't really have anywhere to wear all these cute styles too. I am unemployed, I go to school, though most times it is in the evening. My main day trips consist of library or the grocery store. I'd find something to do with my time, but then homework comes crashing down on me.. like a big crashy down being.

I know that even if I did have a job, hair styles would be few and far in between. I would rather sleep than style. So I trade my minutes to get up and look cute for sleep. blessed sleep.

I can't win, so I complain.

In other news... remember a couple months ago I interviewed two special ladies? They were running their first marathon and raising money for the leukemia and lymphoma society? If you don't remember, or didn't read it, please go read it here. Well, Shonika and her twinnie Rashida finished their marathon!!! I was so proud of them. Literally I had tears in my eyes when I found out. It is such a big deal. I told them that when they were towards the end of their journey I would purchase more stuff from them and host a give away on my blog! YAY give aways. When everything gets here, I will divvy it up into little groups so I can have multiple winners. Can't wait for that. Once again Congrats girls!

Things that I want to do to my natural hair.

These are things that I have not done yet, but will get around to:

  1. Braid out - I was reading an article over at Black Girl Long Hair that explained how easy a braid out could be! I am thinking after my shower tonight I am going to give this a whirl. 
  2. Banding- I keep saying I am going to do this, but life gets in the way. 
  3. Two Strand twists- After watching one girl do ONE twist on Youtube, I might leave this to the professionals and head to my beautician.
  4. Plopping- This is a new one that I had never heard of until about two weeks ago. Watch a Youtube vid here
  5. Henna- This is the big mama jamma. I am busy and tired.. This is like a weekend project. 
  6. Twistouts- Which could be done after the two strand twists

Twist outs braid outs

Let me preface this with something: I know how to braid. However, it is not really a braid someone would want to wear in their hair.

I would love to be able to cornrow or flat braid my hair. I want to do twist outs and braid outs. Do you have any good tutorials you watch on youtube to help you?