Kiya's Kinks!

[nappywomyn]

Oooh! I haven't posted for a while!

Well - I henna'd last weekend, and while it wasn't a TOTAL disaster it was - interesting. I used some henna I found in the local Halal shop - and - ew. It was full of twigs and sticks, and took FOREVER to release dye - though, it WAS very conditioning. So I guess I can't complain TOO much - but I'll be tossing the rest of it. I just placed an order with FNWL for more henna (2lbs this time!), some shealoe butter, some rosemary and tea tree oil, and I think that's it.

I took the new set of hairline comparison pics as well.....Here's the originals...



And here's a month later



Hmmm... not too bad. I think that the fronthairline is filling in NICELY - the sides are still *waggles hand* I've been thinking about using the MTG - but I don't know. That stuff IS stinky. I'm thinking that maybe some Vatki Oil would be better. *thinks* I don't THINK anything is rubbing my sides moreso than the front....but then, my scarf has to go behind my ears, and I don't know how much that pulls. If that's the problem, I might just have to accept that the side will always be a little thinner, as I can NOT have my ears pinned down. *shudder*

Hrm. I'll have to think about it.

Let's see, what else? I talked about the icky henna - oh! I have to find another deep treatment. I'm seriously thinking about going through ALL the hair stuff I have in the cabinent, and coming up with something - but at the same time, knowing what I know about different kinds of conditioners - I think it might be worthwhile just going and buying a real DC. I only use it once a month - so...... *sigh* It's just a PAIN in my rear finding one that has no petroluem products or cones. I liked the Silk Elements stuff I had before - but it smells so dang chemically, and - well, after the twig adventure last week, I'm really not trying to deal with anything that has little bits and pieces of random organic material in it.

I'm really happy with my hair in general, despite my worries that I'm balding and that I'm breaking it all off and that fungus is going to grow on my scalp from me trying to keep it moist - which, really, is all linked.

I swear - I think if I had a Jherri Curl, my hair would be down to my behind - my hair is TERMINALLY dry. It doesn't really matter what I put in it - I have to do it EVERYDAY in order to keep the moisture level high enough. I've started sleeping every night with my freshly misted hair under a showercap, so that I'm giving myself little 'saunas' all week long. The mister usually has water + some sort of conditioner that is okay as a leave in - I'm alternating the Humectress and the Honey Hemp. The oils I ordered from FNWL are going to go into the mister - rosemary for stimulation (just in case I AM going bald) and tea tree oil as a antifungal/antibacterial/general keeping stuff in check.

OHMI! Speaking of going bald! I had this dream this morning - a bunch of unhair related stuff was going on, then I passed a mirror, and literally did a triple take. My hair was SHORT (like Rosemary's Baby), STRAIGHT (relaxer for DAYS) and a hideous brassy blonde color. Even WORSE - I had HUGE shiny bald patches scattered all through my hair. Normally/awake, my hair is dense enough that I don't care HOW I part it, I can't put my finger on bare/hairfree scalp (I can almost do it right at the top of my head, but it's still not hairfree). In the dream, I had shiny patches as big as my thumb that I could rub - totally hairfree. I was oddly calm about it - sorta sad, but not NEARLY as freaked out as I was when I woke up. Very strange. I haven't had straight hair in a dream in - a very, very, LONG time.

But anyhow, as I was saying before that side trip into the wonders of my subconsious, I'm misting my hair everynight....on Tue/Thur, I'm doing Lenzi's first, then misting, and the rest of the week, I'm just misting. As the weather gets warmer (and more humid!) I think that my moisture issues will ease up some - but - it's REALLY an uphill battle, and I think that my hairs' dryness is a MAJOR cause of the breakage that I get. It's so saddening, all the little half curls of hair that I'm left with - and it doesn't matter HOW gentle I am with my hair (though I MUST get better with using HH on my dry hair before touching it with a comb), it get breakage. It's a combo of the fineness of my hair, as well as all my lovely little tiny curls.

Ah! Speaking of which - very bored with a camera after a detangling session left me with this avant art picture....



I did nothing to my hair to make it do this, by the way, this is just what came out onto my hands as I was taking out my flattwists.... *sigh*

And then, here is a lovely picture of a split hair - notice the secondary partial split close to the bottom? *sigh*



Anyhow!! Those are why I'm trying to figure out how to keep my hair constantly hydrated. If I wore a wig, I could wear a showercap underneath. But, it's rally not that crucial.

And - now that all of my red (or most of it - I still have a fine fringe of red, but it's pretty insginicant - it's a really pretty highlight on my flattwists though, so I'm not going to trim it off) is gone, I'm thinking about doing yarn twists again...and I'm wondering what the thin line is of being damp/being mildewy. *makes ew face*

I think I'm going to take next Friday off, so I might try then. Or, I could stop being a wuss and at least experiment this weekend. It might be easier than I think.

Maybe.

We'll see.

Okay.

I think I'm done!

[nappywomyn]

*happy dance*

Good hair times, Good hair times.

So - I left work, and went to the BSS. I wanted some more deep conditioner and I had'nt been to the BSS up the street from me yet.
I spent an hour in that place, picking up bottles, reading the ingredients, hitting the words 'mineral oil' or 'petrolatum' or my personal favorite 'parafidum liquidum', sighing and putting the bottle back on the shelf.
I mean, really - if I wanted to put a mix of mineral oil, vaseline, and water in my hair, I could whip that up at home.
The ones that passed the petrol exam, usually failed dismally at the cone-free test. I figure it this way - I KNOW that I have exceptionally dry hair. I'm looking for an exceptionally moisturizing conditioner - but if I get one that has cones in it - my hair isn't going to be able to be fully moisturized throughout the week - and well, that defeats the bloody purpose!

So - I walked out of there with two conditioners (after an HOUR), one moisturizing conditioner (Elasta QP Intense Fortifying Hair Conditioner), one protien rich conditioner (Remedi Hi-Potentcy Protien Moisturizing Conditioner), a hair creme (Cream of Nature Nature's Design Mositruizing Creme Hairdress with Carrot Oil and Vitamin E), and a 12 oz container of gylcerin.

Okay. The protien stuff I got, because - well, I'm sick of the coconut milk mix. It's too damn thin, and it's drippy, and it gets EVERYWHERE, and it attracts ants. So, if my hair likes this stuff, it's going to take the place of that on the 3rd week.

Despite the fact that my hair doesn't seem to like glycerin (it HATED StaSofFro and wasn't all that fond of Greg Juice), but I think I might like to add a bit of it into my nightly misting spray - I think that it will help my hair suck that 'moist' air from around my head into my hair. I rubbed a bit of it into my hair in the store, and my hair seemed to like it, so we'll see.

The hairdress I got is because I don't think that the whipped pudding alone is quite as moisturizing as it should be - so I'm thinking about using this stuff on my wet hair, then putting the WP on top of it. It'll be interesting to see what my hair thinks of it.


Then, I came home, and started detangling my hair....well, really, I started detangling my hair on my way how (playing with my hair in the car is a fabulous thing).
And MUCH to my delightful suprise, I had little breakage. I don't think I've ever really explained JUST how much breakage I could get. I would touch my hair, and tiny piece would come off in my fingers - detangling my hair would leave me with a HUGE pile of hair - and most of it was broken pieces. I wanted to cry sometimes - seriously, that's what put me on this crazy moisturemoisturemoisture kick. Half the time, I didn't even SHE shed hairs - I think they just crumbled into wee pieces.
Yesterday - I was getting MUCH fewer strands of hair, and they were LONG pieces, too - many of the with the bulb still on! :hollie
So - that makes me VERY excited. With the amount of breakage that I had, I was seriously worried about preserving my ends - now that I actually want to KEEP these ends!!

I'm gonna calculate my yearly growth rate in TWO months!! (Yet another reason I want to preserve my ends!).

Interestingly enough, my hair is more - consistent, now? It's - really fabulous. I'm not loosing any curl - it's still as nappy as it's always been - but it's - it's working WITH itself. I'm actually able to rock a really cool, pretty, natural looking shake & go now - it actually just - settles. It's really amazing the difference that having the color in my hair made - I LIKE my hair. Now, I jsut wanna get it long.

I know this is a BOOK. So I'll stop now.

[nappywomyn]

Remember the cartoon doggie? The one, that when you gave him a treat, he would shoot straight up in the air, then come floating down like a leaf to land in a puddle of utmost contentment?

My hair is that dog.

Okay.

To start with, I took my hair down on Thursday - I was taking Friday off, so I got a little start on the hair playing. And. Omgs! My hair was - soft, supple, smooth, strong, and barely breaking.
It was - lovely. I actually wore it OUT in a shake & go pushed back with a headband most of Friday, and all I did to it was mist it twice - and - it was LOVELY. Tight little soft curls, so moist - not breaking - and - curly! I mean - truly, tight, curls.
My hair is LOVELY! It's really going to be amazing long - and finally, because I've figured out how to stop the breakage (it was really bad ya'll) - I'm actually going to RETAIN all the hair I grow. *happy dance* Wooot!

Friday night, I bestirred myself, and put on the Remedi Protien mix - it smelled sooo good. Like - bananas and coconuts mixed. Yum. I slapped it in, and left it in for far, far, far too long. I rinsed it out Saturday and - my hair was STILL dreamy. I was able to comb it out in the shower - and - STILL barely any breakage. I mean - the amount of hair (shed & broken) that I've seen ALLL weekend is less than the amount of hair that would come out after fingercombing it as I was taking it down last month - heck, two weeks ago!

I was considering putting a moisturizing conditioner on top, but it felt SOOO good, that I didn't think it needed it. I made my usual fat twists, using the CoN ND (I really think this helped A LOT in making my hair so moisture-retentive through the week), and tied it all up while I worked on the kitchen.

So - things are going SOOO well, up on top of my head. Well. Almost everything. I have a thin layer of - gunk on my scalp. VERY thin, and I have to scratch pretty hard at it for it to even come up. I can't see it in the mirror, and when I look under my nails, it's a creamy white - stuff. Is that sebum, I wonder? I'm thinking it might be buildup from the mister/Lenzi's request - but, next week is clarifying week, so if that is it, I'll clean that up quickly.

I realized, that really, I only 'wash' my hair once a month - when I clarify. The protein treatment isn't cleansing. The moisturizing treatment is KINDA cleansing - assuming I don't add honey to it. Ooooooh - I've GOT to add honey to it next time, oh, that'll be FABULOUS. I might start adding honey to everything again - except the henna! *thinks*

<rambling>
What I'm trying to do is lighten my hair, and use henna at the same time to give a more obvious red tint to my hair. So, I'm thinking that if I take advantage of the lightening effects of honey all the time (hmm, honey in the mister?) EXCEPT when I'm hennaing, that might acomplish that. So..... that would change my mixes a little, but not really how I do things. Hrmm. I think I'll go one more month with this set of products, and then add back in the honey.
</rambling>

The moisturizing treatment is KINDA cleansing - assuming I don't add honey to it. The henna is kind of cleansing - but that is the week after the clarifying treament, so I doubt there is much to cleanse at that point.

I'm kind of interested in maybe trying something different for clarifying - I'm doing baking soda + cheapie condish + humectress now.... I've been thinking about maybe going with some herbs. *LOL* I love having a framework! I realize that just because I know what works, doesn't mean I always have to use the same thing. *wiggles nose* So. I might do a search for that later.

Oooh! I got my box from FNWL - tea tree oil, rosemary EO, shealoe butter, and TWO POUNDS of henna!! *contented sigh*
The Rosemary EO is going in the mister - I LOVE the smell of rosemary, and - heck, it stimulates the scalp too, which is a nice side effect. And it's strong enough that I can use just a TINY bit so I avoid the risk of side effects. The henna - well, that's obvious. FNWL's henna is the - it's damn good. It's *grins* almost snotty. It hangs together VERY nicely with just water in it, and it rinses out like a DREAM and the color release happens in like 1/2 hour.... *strokes bags of henna*

I have no clue what I'm going to do with the shealoe butter, but it was on sale, and I've heard such great things about it, that I said What the Heck! The TTO is going into my mister - it's a good antifungal, and I figure if I'm going to be keeping my scalp damp 1/2 the time, that might be a good idea.

That's another reason I would like to find something herbal that cleans the scalp - I'd LOVE to have some of that handy to mix into my mister.

*forlornly tugs on a twist*

My hair is SO. SHORT. But then, at the same time, I know it's getting longer, because it's doing new things.

Like - the little sideburn thingys? They go almost to my jaw now. When I have my hair out, and I'm sitting on the couch, I can feel it brush against the nape of my neck - it tickles. There is hair all along my hairline that sticks out in these long stretched out curls when my hair is wet.

Oh!

(My, but I'm chatty tonight.....)

Something else I was thinking of while I was getting in the shower to rinse out the Remedi - how much my perception of my hair has changed. Or - is it how much my hair has changed?
If you would have told me back in 2000 that I would be in love with my natural hair (not just tolerate it because I refused the other options, but really LOVE it), I would have laughed in your face. I endured my hair, natural, because I hated the look of jherri curls, I hated the smell of pressing combs & relaxers, and I hated the price of extensions. So, by default, my hair was natural. It was the same default that ended up with me being in dreads, but that's another branch of the same story.

Anyhow. I wasn't fond of my hair. It was dry, and hard, and tangled, and was dull and bleh looking and really didn't suit my face at all. It took too much time to do, and it still felt - not quite - natural - I felt like it didn't suit me, but I did it because I had no other choice.

Now - I still don't have a choice - well, I could always go back to dreads - but - I'm okay with that, now. Because even if I DID have a choice, I'd chose (now, that is) what's authentically growing out of my head. Maybe it's a matter of age, and growing more comfortable with who I am. Maybe my hair HAS changed, through a combination of supplements and products. Maybe my hair is actually healthy for the first time - ever - and this wondrous crown is what I've ALWAYS had, hidden under neglect like a secret garden.
It's a delightful adventure I'm on - with myself! With a part of myself that - that was so sorely neglected and - dismissed - because I didn't know how to actually take care of MY hair.

Oops, I forgot to warn ya'll bout the rambling, again. I've been thinking about hair alot lately (obviously) and just haven't seemed to have the chance to sit down and write it all out - this is what happens when I don't journal for a week at a time.

Urm.

I think I'm actually done.

[nappywomyn]

I'm insane, really I am.

I just added a RIDICULOUSLY long intro section to my first entry. Am I going to keep up with it? We shall see. I always love it when I go to people's diaries, and they have those sort of things there - if I can ever get some good pictures of my texture, I'll add them there too. It's a CliffNotes to the madness that is me.

And ya know, I think that I will always be public....because I want (so not about to be humble here) I want to be an inspiration to other black women who are trying to grow their natural hair - whether they are members here or not. I'm hoping to have hair down to my ass one day, and this journal will be the record of how it got there. *grins* I want to give back what Nymphe gave to me.
Hm. That reminds me, I need to back this journal up.

In less self-centered, more hair-related news - it's FRIDAY!!! Which of course means, that the hair is out. Seriously, by Friday, my hair is BEGGING to be set free. I realized this evening as I was slowly picking out my twists, that locs would drive me INSANE right now - just - *shudder* crazy. Not because they were bound together, but because I KNEW I couldn't take them apart.

Okay. I'll talk about this weekend's plans first.

So! It's Clarifying weekend! I was planning on doing my usual baking soda/citric acid two step, but then, as I was rooting around for SOMETHING in my cabinent, I stumbled across a box of Amla, and a box of Shikakai! Mind you, I thought I had used both of them all up in the CASH oil, but noooo!
I've been thinking about something herbal, to give a little 'boost' to the cleaning action - esp. since I'm actually using some sort of product EVERY day (cone/petro free or not) - and it's starting to get warm - so I might need a little something extra.
Then, I saw a thread - not sure if it was here or at LHCF (I think it was there), where they talked about mixing the herbs with CONDITIONER. Now, doesn't that just sound RIGHT up my alley? So - I think I might do that this weekend. I'm going to Ostara Ritual tomorrow, and I think I'm going to rock a wee, not pushed back fro, and then wash my hair when I come home afterwards.

Also - speaking of finding lost herbs, I'm going to finally take pictures of ALL the hair stuff I have. *hangs head in shame* You see, I collected all this stuff over a long period of time and well.... well, you'll see. I'll take the pictures tomorrow when DH isn't here - he's already ribbing me on my 'mild' hair obsession - I don't need to give him anymore ammunition!

Urm.

I'm seeing a BIT more breakage this week than last - I'm thinking that my decision to not follow up with a moisturizing conditioner after the protien was a bad one - next go around, I'm definitely going to finish it off right. However! Still WAY less than before, and still a healthy number of shed strands vs. broken ones, so I'm still content. I've noticed though, that the roots of the shed strands look lighter COLORED - almost blond. Am I going gray? Wouldn't that ROCK!??! I would have the reddest.hair.EVER.

One thing that DID drive me batty this week was the shrinkage! My hair literally SHRUNK it's way out of the twists (esp. after I got it all nice and wet) and I had to redo one on the side (which saved it) but the back was a lost cause. I'm thinking about shifting the 'hair rinse' to THURSDAY morn, that way, I'll only have to get through one more day. But - I think my scalp would be screaming by Wednesday - esp. with the weather changing. Hmm. I can live with a severe case of the fuzzies on Friday - esp as since, as it gets longer it should hold together better.
I'll leave it on Wednesday, for now.

Also, I'm thinking about tweaking my misters. I've got the one with the strong TTO, conditioner and water - that one will stay the same - and I might even take out the conditioner and add some jojoba oil (which I really DO think I'm out of - but I could be wrong. ) since that mister main focus is the scalp. Or... ooooh. I wonder if I could use a lil MTG? I wonder what that would SMELL like though - ugh. More pondering required there - I'll stick with replacing it with jojoba oil next bottle.
The moisturizing one though - I'm thinking of doing 1/3 water, 1/3 glycerin, 1/3 conditioner - maybe the Oyin, and a fre DROPS of TTO (more for the anti-bac aspect) to use to soak my hair at night. It's starting to get warmer again, and I'm driving with the windows down, and I need someting a lil more intensely moisturizing on a daily basis. And I'm seriously starting to think about taking something to work with me, to give my hair a lil refresher in the midday. I'm not saying I WILL - I'm just - considering it, is all.



Sooo!!

I had originally taken next Friday and Monday after next off so that me & DH could go someplace Smmoopppy and LovelyDovely for our anniversary but *fondglare* he has to work. I'm not really ALL that upset, as it's just one less reason to spend money we really don't need to be spending ANYWAY.
However, I've already put in (and been approved) for vacation, so um, yeah. I'll have a 4 day weekend!!
And I'm seriously considering spending a good portion of it putting in some yarn twists. The weekend was already clear, because I planned on being laid up in some hotel room somewhere. In fact.... *sh* you guys are the only ones who know that we AREN'T going somewhere - it's going to be WONDERFUL (as if I'm really that popular! )
I said I wanted to do this once I had all the red out, and - well it's a 4 day weekend that I plan on spending at home (garden, house, hair - esp. garden as I'm taking my seeds in to be blessed at tomorrows Rit!) - so I can do the twists in bits and pieces over four days. My main concern was whether I would be able to continue with my moisture regimen - and apparently, that's one of the main reasons that you HAVE to use acrylic yarn - so that it doesn't soak up moisture like a natural yarn would, and wick it away from your hair.

Soooooo.... I might be doing that next weekend.

And really, I think this forever long entry (number 2 of 2 tonight) is finally DONE.

Sheesh.

[nappywomyn]

I had a really lazy weekend, and totally did NOT feel like combing my hair - so I didn't. I'm rocking the same wee fro that I've had all weekend - and I'm actually kinda liking it. I didn't take pictures of my products either. I didn't use the amla/shikakia either. I clarified with some BS & conditioner - though really, I used it to get my hair as curly as possible.

My mullet is more or less gone in the back - I can FEEL that the hair is two different textures, but it's at least shrunk up about to its limit. Interestingly enough, I also have mulletworthy hair on the sides, right above/behind my ears. I can pull that behind my ears (thankfully), but it likes to puff out. In general though, shrinkage is AMAZING. My hair looks like it's about 3/4 of an inch long - prompting several of my coworkers to ask me how I liked my new hair cut.

I'm playing in my hair, of course, and I'm VERY VERY pleased with how it feels and how much hair is coming out.
I've switched up my mister already - water, a tiny bit of TTO, glycerine, Humectress, and some jojoba . Yeah, there was some tucked in my cabinet too. I like how my hair feels - it's smooth and soft, but not too soft. And when I pull it straight, it boings right back into place. And it's DENSE - dear god, is this dense. Talk about a fabulous sunscreen. I've got this funky cool little patch of red hair right at the front top of my hair too - it's interesting. Looks like I did highlights, but I didn't, actually.

I'm debating leaving my hair like this all week - kind of a reward for having gotten so far with it, as well as to give my hair some 'breathing' time before I do the yarn twists. Also, I'm lazy.

hrm. I thought there was something else, but I can't think of it, so oh well.

http://public.fotki.com/malaikablu/style_how-tos_produ/

[nappywomyn]

Hmmm, yes, it's high time to start detangling the hair. I've got a couple of small knots in the back, and my number of fairy knots has just gone through the roof. Hopefully some water and conditioner will get them out. I think the glycerine doesn't help either, as it's slightly - tacky - and thus attracts lint, and if my hair has something to twine around, it will. Hrrmmm - I think that just means I HAVE to do daily rinses - whether in the morning or at night, to be sure that the glycerine doesn't hold onto any lint - cuz my hair DOES love my mister mix - gylcerine, jojoba, tiny bit of TTO, and a splush of HoneyHemp, and water. Ooh, I added some rosewater too this last go around, to sweeten up the smell of the TTO. Man, but that stuff (TTO) is strong!

I haven't used any Lenzi's all week - I realized that would be WAY too much manipulation of my loose hair, and I would regret it come the end of the week. However - since skipping the Lenzi's, I've noticed that my scalp doesn't itch AT ALL. So - is the Lenzi's too heavy for my scalp, or am I just too heavyhanded with it? I think I'll try to lighten up on the Lenzi's a little - still use it, but use much less.

I think I might henna tonight - though - I HAVE said that I don't wanna sleep on Henna. I might jsut have to bring the old pillows to bed. Hrm, no - I take that back. I'm going to Amla/Shikaiki/Conditioner my hair tonight, Henna tomorrow, practice yarn twists tomorrow night, leave it alone Saturday, and then do the yarn twists Saturday night and Sunday and Monday.... That SHOULD give me enough time to finish before I go back to work on Tuesday, along with everything else I plan on doing.

I'm switching up my henna recipe this go around, after a question/thought was raised on LHCF about mixing coconut milk, lime, and henna together - the ultimate natural decurler. I don't THINK it'll do much - but I'm willing to try. I actually have some of the coconut/lime mix in my freezer left over from last time. I think it has some conditioner in it, and some honey too - so that'll be a perfect mix to add my FNWL henna to. I'll use the leftover C/L stuff as the liquid (I'm not going to heat it up - I'll jsut leave the henna on the porch - it's warm enough for that again!), and make my usual thick as all get out mix. Then mix in extra condish to make it hair worthy, and freeze the rest again. I've also promised (Hi Just_Isabel!!! ) pictures of my head wrapped in saran wrap, so I think that I'm going to do a photo montage of my hennatype adventures - have to remind DH to leave the camera home.

Hrrmmm. It's taken me almost an hour to write this, as I take pauses to work, read other forums, play in my hair (the breakage is still close to NOTHING - I get a few, but they are either red, or obvious splits, so I'm happy - shedding is about 4-5 caught a day.... I'm sure it's a whole HORDE of shed hairs waiting for me) - but it's almsot time to go home.

I'm sure I'll be back.

Hairsta la Vista!

[nappywomyn]

Have I mentioned recently just how MUCH I LOOOOVVVEEE FNWL's henna? Hrmm? I haven't? Well, let me just say - the. stuff. ROCKS.

So. This is going to be my ultra detailed, wonderfully pictorial trip down Henna Lane (in several parts, as I've violated the picture limit for one entry. heh.)

I started around 3pm in the afternoon or so - setting up my ingredients so that I could let the dye release before I slapped it on. I was trying something different this go around, so my ingredients are a little unique.



From left to right we have:
1/2 cup of FNWL Henna
about a cup of leftover coconut milk/lime/conditioner/honey mix that I made 02/24 and froze what I couldn't use.
My mixing bowl (which is actually a fondue bowl - all that matters is that it's NON POROUS and NOT METAL!)
a coffee cup full of hot hot tap water.

I normally don't use that much henna - but I normally also stretch my henna by adding a cheapie conditioner to it, and I didn't do that this time, as I wanted to see the results of the coconut milk mix on it's own. Normally, I'd use a 1/4 cup of henna, and just dump in enough condish to make it stretch.

I mixed the henna & CMLHC mix together first, then slowly added water and mixed, and mixed, and mixed until it looked like this....



Generally gross, and lumpy, and very green. Hey! That's another thing about FNWL's henna - it's not as strong smelling as others I've used. Henna to me, smells like tea made out of hay. FNWL's henna has a very light haytea smell. You can see about how much water is left in the coffee cup - barely any.

Now, the henna has to sit, to let the dye release.

While I was waiting for that, I figured I would have a little fun, and clarify my hair with the last of the Shikakai I had. I mixed about - oh, it was 1/4 cup I'd say, with some water to make a paste (I didn't expect it to be that color - reddish brown, very pretty!), and then added a LOT of White Rain conditioner (most likely the Citrus Energizing one). I also added a touch of baking soda (I like my hair to be as stripped/clean as possible before I henna, so my hair can get all the goodness out of the henna), and THIS happened.



The stuff foamed up, and turned into a thick, rich, mousse type stuff. I've seen that happen before when I mix citric acid & baking soda in with conditioner - I didn't expect the shikakai to react like that. Anyhoooow. I slapped that into my hair, and wandered around the house for an hour or so, before I went back to check the henna.



Once henna's dye has released, theres a subtle change in the COLOR of the henna itself - I meant to scrape through the top so it would be more obvious in the pictures, but I forgot. You can kinda tell that the edges have gotten oranger, though. This is how I check to see if the dye has been released:



Take the palm of my hand, stick a fingertip into the henna and gob a spot of henna on my hand, walk around for 2-4 minutes, rinse my hand off. If I've got orange - the henna is ready to go!

(continued)

[nappywomyn]

Now, comes the fun part! First - the preparations.



Not one, but TWO latex/rubber gloves. Trust me on this. If you notice, I'm wearing a towel - that's solely for the sake of the picture. Normally, I'm nekkid, as it's easier to henna that way.



You also want about three paper towels (still stuck together, and folded into thirds lengthwise), and a healthy bit of saran wrap - enough to wrap it all the way around your head.



And of course, the henna.

FNWL's henna is sticky, and gooey, and gloopy. These are all VERY good things.



See? It's really nasty looking, but that's okay. You don't wanna eat it, anyhow. I just stick my hand in, scoop a glob out, and squish it into my hair. Oh yeah, I rinsed the clarifying stuff out of my hair right after I tested that the dye had released - my hair is slightly damp, and that helps the henna spread a bit more.



All done! I don't care about getting henna on my skin around my hairline, as I'm dark enough that it just blends in. Lighter skinned folx - beware! You might need to put some sort of barrier - vaseline is a popular one - around your hairline to avoid looking like the orange ghost of who did what and WHY, sweet goddess, WHY??!! My hair is short (and stubborn) enough that it stands up on it's own - those with more 'floppy' hair, might have to sacrifice a couple of claw clips (if they are plastic, they are porous, and they will get stained) to hold your hair up.

Continuing on. (in the next part)

[nappywomyn]

This is why you want gloves. Your hands will be this color if you don't wear them, and it'll take about a week to wear off. Don't say I didn't warn you.



CAREFULLY take the gloves off, and toss them.

Now, it's saran wrap time!

Stick one end to your forehead, and carefully wrap the saran all around your head - this is the first step in the battle against drippies.



Once you are done, you should have a very attractive shiny cone head. Fold the top in so that it covers your hair (this also helps to hold the heat in), and cut your earholes (if you want them). I get really - squirelly if my ears are covered/bound up, so I have to do this. Just take a pair of scissors, and CAREFULLY cut a backwards angled slice into the saran wrap, and stop right below the top of your ear. You should then be able to pop your ear out, while leaving your hair covered.



Now, it's time for the paper towels - the main line of defense against drippies. Just grab, wrap so that the ends overlap in the front, bobbypin them together, and cut an earhole, and you're done!



Do ignore the goofy face, I think DH had just goosed me. *blush*

Next, slap a showercap on top of the whole thing. I do this for two reasons - one, to help hold heat in better (that encourages ALL of the dye to release from the henna, and I need every bit I can get), and two, to catch any drippies that might escape.



Finally, so that I don't look like a crazy plasticheaded woman walking around the house, I slap my handy dandy doo-rag on top of everything, and I'm done!



Depending on how I'm feeling, sometimes I'll hop in the shower to rinse the henna off of my shoulders, but most of the time I'll jsut grab a (dark!!!) washcloth, and rub it off.

This whole process take a heck of a lot less time to DO than it did to write about. *LOL*

I'd say from dye release to all done takes me about 30 minutes. I don't count the dye release time, as 90% of the time, I'm not making my henna fresh - I make up a HUGE batch, put about 2-3oz into a ziploc bag, and freeze them. The morning of the day I want to henna, I pull it out the freezer, stick it in the fridge, and by the time I get home from work, it just needs to sit on the counter for 15 minutes or so, and it's ready to go.
Yes, it's cold. as. hell. But - it warms up after about 5 minutes on your head.

Silly me, I didn't take any pictures of the un-hennaing process - but with FNWL henna mixed with a little conditioner, it's stupid easy. Wait however long you can stand - the minimum is about two hours, I left this particular one on for 24 - yes, A full day. I was working around the house, so it didn't matter.

Take off the scarf and the showercap. Un-bobbypin the paper towels, and use them to pull the saran wrap off your head. Dump the whole thing in the trash (and if you don't use bags in your bathroom trashcans - don't dump it in there, unless you want an orange trashcan). Get into the shower, and rinse with warm water.

Yup. That's it. FNWL's henna is almost like rinsing out conditioner alone, it's that easy. And if it's easy to rinse out of MY curly, will-hold-onto-a-particle-of-ANYTHING-hair, it'll definitely come out of everyone elses just fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personally? I LOVED the coconut milk/henna mix. My hair - which had been out, in a fro, for a WEEK, before this - combed out like a dream. My curls were DEFINITELY loosened (maybe a bit more than I really wanted them to be - I might be nervous about doing this regularily - but I'll have to see how it looks the end of the week), and my hair - as usual - had the lovely henna thickness and sheen.

Shhhhhhheesh. That was a BOOK.

What else did I do hair related this weekend? I think that about it. I finally took a halfway decent picture of my current style (as I don't have a SCRAP oof red left in my hair, my old siggy pic was starting to bug me), and that's about it. Oh! I took some up close pictures of my two strand twists....



*sigh* One of these days, I'm going to get a PROPER picture of my texture.

Oooh! Something new I've been doing - I have a BUNCH of palm kernal oil that I got from a swap on here, and since the weather has gotten warmer, it's melted. I dip my horn comb into the palm oil, and then comb through my hair with it - nicely spreading the oil all through my hair. It's wonderful - I'm using that as my two strand twist moisturizer/sealer, and then using either WP or the CoN as the final moisturizer when I actually flattwist it.

Okay.


I think I'm done now.


Seriously.


*thinks*

Yah, I'm done.

[nappywomyn]

I'm in a mood to write here, but I haven't been up to much, so we'll see how far it goes.

1) Henna & Coconut Milk - I loved this - loved the result, loved the way it left my hair feeling, am a little nervous about how much curl it pulled out. I definitely think that mix will have to be a once every 3 months kind of thing - doing that everymonth would do odd things to my hair.

2) Weekend Hair Things - I didn't do much to the head this weekend - a nice deep moisturizer with the Elsta QP, and that was about it. I tried taking texture pictures again, and failed, quelle misrable. Urm. I used the CoN as the moisture this go around, and I only did two twists across the forehead, and then started going back & down. I'm considering two strand twists next time - but I don't know. What I REALLY want is braids/yarn twists, but I'm being right chicken about doing them myself, and I plain refuse to pay someone to do them, so we shall see.

Goddess Spirals - well, I've been hanging out in the Goddess Spirals thread, and I have FOUR different sets of earrings coming my way. I got them from eBay (much cheaper than the real thing) so I can try them out before splurging on a 50 buck pair of earrings.
These are what I got...

14 gauge - these will most likely be the ones I start with in my first home.


Also 14g - I plan on putting these in my second hole.


12g - jsut in case one of the hoels can take something bigger than 14.


10g, because they were so pretty - and I want to see how BIG 10g is, and figure out if I would want to go that large.

So - that was my fun, my score - I wonder when he's going to ship them? It would be nice to have them - ooh, I should DEFINITELY have them in time for DotM! That would rock!

[nappywomyn]

So - this journal has suddenly (thanks Goddess Afficiando's!) turned into Kiya's Hair & Holes journey.

I got SPARKLIES!!!!

Okay, Okay - we'll talk about hair first.

Mwuauahaha.

So - this weekend was protien. I considered not doing it, since I did henna AND coconut milk - but I said no, I need to stick to my schedule, so I did the protien.
Looking back, urmh. I could have gone either way. I could imeadiately tell that my fine, fine, hair had too much protien in it, so I only left the protien in for about 2 hours, and then, put in doube moisturizing - the last of the Silk Elements (I'll never buy it again - I HATE the little grainy poppyseed sized things in it - ew!) and my love, my moisture, ElastaQP. That restored the balance nicely (thankfully). I then stretched it in the usual 2-strands with CoN....and then, I got the urge to try an old hairstyle, to see how much hair I've 'lost' by rigously trimming all of the color out of my hair.

This style:


has converted itself to this:



For one thing, it's DEFINITELY shorter. A good two inches shorter, I'd say. But! Much more importantly - it's also DEFINITELY thicker. I mean - HUGELY thicker - it's really amazing how much HAIR I have on my head - I truly cannot wait to see what it looks like as it gets longer. And it's healthier FEELING. Just looking at those two pictures - the second one looks - alive. It looks moist and rich and dense. *happy dance*

I think this is the first time I've REALLY been able to see a clear difference in the HEALTH my hair! The only real difference I was seeing was in length, and that was going the wrong direction.... but seeing this - I'm pleased.

Anyhow!

Sparklies!!

Sooooooo.... my earrings came in the mail! I don't know how long they were here, as DH got the mail, and neglected to tell me that a small, flat package had shown up!

I ripped open the package, popped out my earrings, and grabbed these first -
I know that one of the swirly pairs was 14g, and this set looked smaller than the other one.

I grabbed one, rubbed a little oil on my ear, and pushed. Ooooh. That burned. I pushed a little harder, and oooooohhh! Hrm. Maybe this one is the 12g?

So, I grabbed the set that I KNEW were 14g - these:

and they slid into my ear like butter. Pretty!! But - they were an identical pair, not a mirror set. We'll come back to them later.

So - now that I knew (process of elimination) that these HAD to be the 14g dangles


I grabbed them, and put them on.....



PRETTYYYYY!!!

I haven't taken them out since then - that was Saturday night, I think. The right ear is still a little sore when I nudge it (that was the ear that I tried the 12g in) but I've been keeping my hands off of it - the left ear is just fine!

So - I figure I'm going to leave these in for - oh, two months or so, then go to the 12g. I'm sure by then, I would have collected more prettties!

Now - as far as that identical set goes - I'm thinking of trying to put them into my helix piercing - but I think that my helix is 18g? 20g? ie - way too small to start with 14g...



See?? I don't know WHAT size that helix is - but the 14g in my ear looks like a right honker, comparatively. I know cartilige can be touchy, so I might actually go to a piercer for that un. Esp. since I don't know how to take that earring out.

Okay, I think I'm all caught up now.

ETA: Woot!! This is my 100th journal posting!! Happy 100 to me!!

[nappywomyn]

Hair, then Holes.

Urmmm. Let's see - last weekend was SUPPOSED to be clarifying (it's henna time again, ALREADY??), but as I was out in the woods, dancing with the pagans, it was more of a sun-in time, and lots-of-water-time. I took it out on Saturday, as the fuzz was starting to eat my head, and I gently untangled it, got it good and wet, rubbed some HH into it, and rolled on. Since then, I've HH'd it twice, Elasta'd it once, and misted it twice daily. So, yeah. It's still out - I'm wearing a loose wild choppy fro - the one thing that DOES suprise me is the number of wavy hairs I have coated the top of my fro - there are a bunch of little flyaways.
And - I have some hair - the stuff right behind my ears - that isn't my hair. I don't know whose hair is growing out of my scalp - but um - it ain't mine. It's 3a - MAYBE - back there - possibly 2b. Which - um - huh? Soooo.... I plan on wearing it out all week, detangling, henna'ing, and - oh, going back into my usual style, I suppose. I've been thinking about maybe doing some two strand twists, but dammit, what I REALLY want are the yarnbraids.

Other good news - my breakage is still close to nil - even with me playing in my hair - I get the occasional 'clumps' of broken hair and I've got a couple of tangles that I know have broken hairs in the middle, but gentle contact/fingercombing is giving me NOTHING but shed hairs - so I'm VERY pleased with that. Tiny knots are really still my worst problem - though, my hair is getting long enough that I can SEE the knots on the ends, now. I notice that most of them are very red, still - and that I get more knots where the dyed hair is still hanging out - figures. But! Henna is starting to work - I can see a distinct reddish/orange overtone to my hair!

Henna this weekend is going to be standard - I'm going to finally mix up a big bunch of it to freeze - thick henna + water paste. I'm going to leave a good bit still powdered, so that I can mix it with coconut milk & lime as needed (my next one should be - the June Henna, I think). Hrmmmmm. Yes, that sounds about right.

I think that my nape/hairline hairs have slowed down, and the hair in the center of my head is catching up - I don't see any changes in the overall length - but little things (like being able to see my ends) are telling me that my hair is growing. OooHH!!! It's been a year! Holy Cow! I've decided that the bleached blond hair picture is my offical starting picture - it's my version of bald. *whips out a ruler* roughly four inches in 12 months - that's what? 1/3 an inch, a month? Not too bad, not too bad at all. Slower than I hoped, but I'm cool with that - now, I can start thinking about topical potions. *wiggles eyebrows* I do still have sulfur AND MTG in my cabinent.

Okay - onto holes.

1st hole went to 12g on Friday - butter. 2nd hole went to 14g on Friday - butter as well. Monday night, because I'm insane, and because I was sick of having the bigger ones back there, 2nd hole went to 10g - I've left the 12's in the 1st hole, because I like them better.
I think that I'll stop at 6g - I've been eyeing the pretties, and it seems like that's the smallest size that some of the bigger ones come in - and it seems to be a good size that makes a nice statement, without being crazy big.
I've had NO problems doing this - some mild stinging/heat when I first put them in, and within 15-30 minutes - nothing. No crusties, no itchies, jsut nothing. It's wunderbar!
I'm considering buying some more....already! *hangshead* so expensive this will be - at least I'm sticking to eBay to start with!