Two stand twist

So I'm sporting what I call my lazy hair do. I wore it flat ironed for a couple of weeks and I got a bit worried about over doing it. So I'm wearing two strand twists. I know with my cycle of giving my hair a rest, I tend to head towards styles I can still style but wear loose too. I used to wear individual braids often. I would now but my dear husband doesn't like hair added. Any how here are some photos and products I used today. P.S. Forgive me for not putting on any make up and using my cell for these photos. No make up, I'm 37 mercy please lol!

I used a glycerine and water mix with my favorite essential oils bergamot and lemongrass just because I love the smell.

Then I used Organix repairing awapuhi ginger conditioner. Here is the front of the bottle.

Here is the back and ingredient list.

 I only used about this much for a hand full of my twists. I only wanted just enough to moisturize not full saturate to wear its squeezing off as I moved/ smooth down the hair with my hands.

 

After that I applied Emu Oil. I actually got some from Dr. Adorable via eBay. You can buy emu oil online at various places. Just make sure it says 100% pure. If not you will probably have a mixture of filler oils. I like that they put the expiration date on their oils too. One thing I like to do is write on the bottle the purchase date or the date it arrived. It helps to make sure just how old products are. Some are no longer useful after a while. This is the front of the bottle. It only has the front label, there is nothing on the back of it.

I used this amount. It's not a lot. Again I didn't want it to the point of run off as I smoothed down the twists. I wanted these products to absorb quickly and just enough to moisturize.

That's it. Here are a few pictures of my twists after all of the above. You can see the size of the twists, my different textures, and the length.

And the shrinkage :)

I did the same with the littlest ones. I used less product. I tried to get these two little ones to be still...

 

I got a quick cheese and they were off.

Thanks for reading!

A Change

Ok well, I have had a change. I decided to just undo it all and go back to wearing loose hair. Why? Well  honestly I just couldn't get it right. So I figured locs were not for me. Here's me now.

Dying to Be Back to Basics

So, as anyone following this blog knows how sporadic updating can be. Life is busy. I've been quite pleased with my hair over all. My braid locs aren't loc'd at the bottom. They are still braids. I have about 3 inches of loc'd hair from the roots and then the rest braids. I'm ok with it. I am in no hurry. I do wonder if my braids will ever loc. Funny thing is I don't think people really notice.
My girls are playing around with hair dye these days. I had a plum color in mine but the night they dyed theirs, I dyed mine black. I actually got a few compliments on it too! Here are a couple of pictures of my girls. Their hair is flat ironed. Still natural with heat applied.

Eh the colors are now different but this is what they have been playing around with. I on the other hand went back to the basics... black! This is it. Black hair, no make up. Done. It's comfortable. I think I'll leave the hair dying up to the kids now. Its out of my system... for now :D

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February 15, 2013  

ends March 31,2013!

Catching up and Reflecting.

Hey Everyone!
I hope you are all living well and enjoying the coming season. Just wanted to update the blog here.
You know, right now I'm in a funny place with my hair as it is. I like it. I think I got my first compliments on my hair today since I've had the braid locs. Well the first compliments in person. It caught me off guard really. I wasn't expecting anyone else to "like" my hair. I do though, and I guess that's really what matters.
So here's where I've been and what's going on now.
August 2008 We all decided to go natural.
October 2008 I started this blog
April 2009 I decided to do the secret big chop but with braids. I was pregnant at the time and really didn't feel like doing any hair at all. Thank God for versatility!
November 2009 After having my baby in July I decided to take the braids out. It was time. As I took the braids down I put my hair in twists.
March 2010 I made my first blog post announcing my company Pure Natural Blends.
August 2010 I decided to flat iron it for a time.
December 2010 I went to the Wash and go style. I was featured on website too!
April 2011 I had my loc extensions put in. This helped during my pregnancy with baby #5
March 2012 I had to let to loc extensions go. I could never get used to them. I actually felt weird because it wasn't all my hair. I took them down and started braidlocs. I did use some of the hair from the loc extensions to give me a little more length on the braidlocs.

October 2012 It's all me. No extended hair, just me. Sometimes I will flat iron my hair to give it a little more length but that's it. I like it that way. Saturday night I put my hair in two braids and had a nice little beach wave style. After getting two compliments today, I think I realized that I like my own hair enough not to try and conform to other people's idea of beauty. Eh so what if I don't get compliments.

The best back view I could get at the moment w/o help.

Side view. 

Side view.

Me 

My hair as of tonight. Beachy waves didn't last very long.

Young Natural Living

Well I haven't written in a while. So I guess it's time for an update. I hope you are doing well. I've been ok. Busy with life as usual. Today I'll share a couple of photos of my girls. They are 14 and all natural. I know in today's world of perms and weaves the girls have gotten a few negative comments presented as a joke from their friends. Funny that the people that talk are clearly speaking out of insecurities and fear. The girls laugh it off and go on. They are often asked, "Is all that yours?" I thought to myself, "Wow is that what our hair has become?" If its big, full, long, then it's questionable. I understand why but it saddens me that a lot don't realize the treasure they have, or can have. Fear is crippling. Knowledge is power.  I'm so proud of my kids for being just as God made them. They are sporting the big crazy hair that's all theirs! 

Any how here are my precious girls rocking their natural styles. Although they are identical twins genetically, they have their own individual style :).

 Here are 3 out of 5 of my naturally styled kiddos. 

LOL yes the girls are dancing and my son needs a hair cut.

Just a short update, change and photo.

Hey everyone,
I hope you like the new look of my blog. I used the same colors but different photos for my Learning the Art of Lovin' Life blog. It was time for an update. This time I thought of showing a few different hair styles. I hope you like it.

I am doing well. I hope you are too. Just busy with family life. I'm trying a new routine I'm posting on my Learning the Art of Lovin' Life blog about. It's called 4 Weeks to A More Organized Home. There is a link to the original website on my blog there as well as my progress. It's simple and sort of fun.

In the hair world, not much has changed. My daughter is exploring and learning to moisturize and condition more. There are tons of You Tube videos for natural hair and websites with products claiming results that not everyone will get. We are trying to find what works for her. I do the Pure Natural Blends cremes but that's not all that needs to be done. It's not a a miraculous solve every problem product lol just a great moisturizer!

I'm enjoying my braidlocs. I've got some new growth that I'll need to maintain soon. I'm going to do the latching style maintenance. I haven't counted my braidlocs yet. I suspect it's over 200 which is what I wanted.

Braidlocs - A fresh start.

Hello Everyone! Well I finished my hair! I finished on March 15th. I'm happy with it. I love them thinner! I hope to be able to maintain these braidlocs. So far so good. I've been Youtubing for tips and such. I think I will do the latch hook method for maintaining them. Here are some photos of them.

 Just washed.

 First night I finished them. Here you can see the size of the braids.

Here you can see the ends. I like the loose ends.

So far so good!

Splitting Hair Do.

Hello Everyone!
I haven't blogged in a while. I've been quite blah again about the locs. You know I really tried to get use to having locs the size I didn't originally ask for. I wanted them smaller. They turned out thicker and I wished I liked them better than what I originally wanted. I'm such a fan of the thinner sisterlocks look though. I pondered taking them down, cutting them off, or just letting them grow. Well I noticed my hair line has changed. Hmmm. This happened before. I think it is because of my hormones from pregnancy are reducing. My hair is changing. I also failed to take my vitamins for a while too and I saw my hair actually suffer for it. So ladies and gentlemen thank your vitamins! Any how I went back and forth about what to do. Do I call the stylist back? Do I do it myself? I heard that you can take your locs down. It's almost been a year so I didn't know how difficult it would be. Well I saw a couple of youtube videos on taking down locs. I felt I could do it. I was a little afraid. Fear kept me from going for it. One day I decided I would do one in the back to see if I could do it. Well it wasn't so bad. I took the loc down, split it in two and braided it back. I was going to wrap the hair in a DIY loc but I decided to keep them as thin braids. So technically these are braidlocs then. It does take a while but I feel a whole lot better. LOL I'll tell you this though, I'm not looking forward to how long it might take me to maintain these sized locs but we will see when that time comes. I took a few pictures of my progress so far.

So this one is the size I want.

These are my original locs now. Funny thing is they don't look so thick but this is a photo of the ends.

Here you can see the difference in size. 

 

This is the back. I like the size and I feel comfortable with it. It may take me a while but this is a life time hair style... at least I think so for now!

I hope your hair experiences are going well. I'm learning that if you try and compromise and change into something you don't really desire to be satisfied where you are, you won't be happy. Does that make sense? Maybe it's too late. eh, Go for it! Don't let fear get in your way. With this situation I have to say I'm such a DIY person, and after all if I mess it up, it will grow back :)

Dying to Try It

Hello All!

I hope you are enjoying the arrival of November! Happy Fall. With the fall comes cooler weather. I'm always on the look out to create or try new products for moisture. My locs have been softening up. I do wonder if it's just me getting used to them or are they actually softening up. The new thing on my mind is dying my locs. I've seen some really interesting loced hair colors. I'm in a toss up between blonde and a red. I'm leaning more towards blonde. When I originally had my hair loced my loctician (April 12, 2011) put a few locs of a lighter brownish red color. It added something extra but I think I'm ready to go bolder. I've dyed my hair blonde before. Well not my whole head just streaks and the back bottom part. I liked the streaks. So I think I'm going to go for it. Not sure how many streaks I'll do though. I went to the store last night to see what hair colors were available for a good price. I can't remember what brand I used last time. The last time I had my hair dyed was in 2005. Dying the locs will be a new adventure to learn about. I've been doing research and I've read the big warning only have your loctician do this, and then I hear it's easy from the DIY'ers. I'm a DYI'er :). After deciding not to get any hair dye last night, this morning I decided to do a little Photoshop work to a photo to see what it might look like. You tell me, Go for it or No.


                                           Stay as is                        or                                  blonde streak?

Chignons & such

Hello Everyone!

I think it's time for a hair update :). I've recently had the baby. She is doing well, she's 4 weeks today! I think I'm getting back to my normal self. I definatly feel better. I'm 1/2 pound aways from my pre-pregnancy weight. Im not at the weight I wish to be but I'm happy to be back to square one in this situation.

So what's going on with the hair scene? I've been back and forth with my hair. I've had people ask me advice which is very flattering but I fell on the care for my own for a little while. I had some serious hair hatred during pregnancy too. I didn't want to make any hair decisons until after pregnancy. It might have just been the hormones ;).

I'm still on the quest to find out how to soften my locs. I've been using the Triple Moisture conditoner from Netrogena. I'll mix it with water and gycerine and use it as a daily spray. I tried and Apple Cider Vinegar rinse and it did remove build up. I was quite happy with it. My locs are frizzy but I'm getting used to it. I think I'm actually embracing them as they are...

A few days ago I tried a hairstyle that I saw in Whole Living Magazine. I took a picture of the page. It was really easy and quick to do.

Here is my result. I really like this style. I'll add my own twist on it and add curlies in the front or something.

I also did a braid out style that didn't last long, and a few other styles.

Ok that's about it. :) Need to go cuddle the kids now. Have a wonderful day/night.