Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Water - Drink Your Way to Healthy Hair

H20… We all know it’s good for our bodies.  This should come as no surprise.  Water is important for our overall health.  It hydrates every cell in our bodies, which in turn also effects our hair.

I must admit, I am not getting my recommended 60+ ounces each day.  I do pretty well, but I’m not all the way there yet.  I am usually somewhere within the 32-40 ounces range.  This is not including when I work out.  I don’t count my working out water intake, because all I’m doing is trying to replenish whatever I’m sweating.  To me that doesn’t count towards general daily water intake. 

Let's talk water and hair for a minute....  Do your tresses always appear dry despite all your attempts at moisturizing?  It might be because you are not drinking enough water.  When you don’t intake enough water, your body becomes dehydrated.  This will impact your hair too curlfriends!

I’m going to start a 6 week challenge, which will encourage me to boost my water intake from my normal 32-40 ounces to 60-70 ounces per day (excluding working out of course).  Not just for my hair health, but overall health.  I invite you to join me on this challenge so we can all reap the benefits together!

The target is to drink ½ your body weight in ounces each day. For example, if you are 128lbs you should be drinking 64 ounces per day.  In general 64 ounces is a really good target, regardless of weight (in my extremely unprofessional opinion).  My suggestion for achieving 64 ounces:

16 ounces before breakfast
16 ounces before/with lunch
16 ounces before/with snack
8 ounces before/with dinner
8 ounces when taking daily vitamins

Let’s challenge ourselves to complete this daily.  Our bodies and hair will thank us for it!  Happy Drinking!

Friday, January 24, 2014

High Pom Pom Ponytail



My hairstyle for today is what I call the Pom Pom Ponytail.  This is more commonly called a high pony tail, or puff. I like to say pom pom, because it reminds be of my cheerleader days back in highschool.  This hairstyle is great for an old wash and go, that's starting to lack whip appeal! 

This is how I achieve my High Pom Pom Ponytail:

Items You'll Need
  • water bottle (optional)
  • moisturizer/gel (optional)
  • hair tie
  • hair/bobby pins (optional)
  1.  Spritz hair with water, so that hair is pliable. (optional depending on the mood my hair is in)
  2. Add moisturizer and/or gel. (optional depending on the mood my hair is in)
  3. Bend forward, and flip hair over head. Smooth it from the neck down.  You can either use your hands, or a brush.
  4. Gather hair into a ponytail. While bending, bring all hair into a ponytail that sits high on the crown of the head. 
  5.  Secure the ponytail with hair tie.  I like to use a either a headband or scrunchie. 
  6.  Loosen the front and side perimeters (optional). Push the ponytail upwards, making a loosening around the edges (as not to have so tight and ease the tension). 
  7. Fluff the pom pom.
All done!
 



Tuesday, January 21, 2014

My Two Cents - Carol's Daughter TUI Hair Smoothie & TUI Leave-In Conditioner

While perusing at my neighborhood ULTA I came across the Carol's Daughter section and had to stop.  I have heard so many great things about Carol's Daughter hair products over the years, but I had yet to try them for myself.  So I saw this as the perfect time to give them a try.  I  mean if it's good enough for Jada Pinkett-Smith, it's worth a shot right! 

My hair was in need of a good deep conditioning session, so after much reading of labels I decided on the TUI (Moisturizing) line. I purchased the TUI Hair Smoothie Deep Conditioner, in addition to the TUI Leave-In Conditioner.

Here are my two cents...

TUI Hair Smoothie
I applied this deep conditioner after my regular shampoo session. After thoroughly coating all my strands with the smoothie I covered with a plastic bag, and sat with my heating cap for 30-35 minutes. 

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Coils
Pros:
  • Natural ingredients
  • Smells wonderful
Cons:  
  • Soooo not moisturizing for my hair 
  • Hair felt almost hard-like after washing out
  • A little does not go a long way. I used about 7 of the 8 oz in one application.
  • Totally overpriced considering the results


TUI Leave-In Conditioner
I used like I would any other leave-in conditioner (post wash, and conditioner on wet hair). 

As a Leave-In
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Coils
Pros:
  • Natural ingredients
  • Great fruity scent
  • Does not weigh down hair
Cons:  
  •  Not a fan of the texture - I prefer leave-ins that really coat my hair
  • Non-moisturizing
  • Horrible for my detangling


I must say that I was terribly disappointed with these two products.  In the words of "In Living Color's" Blaine and Antoine, "Hated It"!!!  In no way, shape, or form did it live up to the claim of "Moisturizing" for me.  Perhaps there are other Carol's Daughter product lines that will work better for me.  But as far as the TUI line goes, it's a wrap.  I do not plan to repurchase. 

How about you?  Any experiences with Carol's Daughter products? 

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Weathering the Winter



I often hear complaints about the winter weather and what it does to our hair.  Actually I've been one of those complaining in winters past.  But I must say, that this winter I have noticed quite a difference in my hair.  I am not having dry hair issues like I have experienced in times past.  Of course now that I've said that I hope I don't jinx myself. 

It was just the other day actually when I really noticed.  I've been traveling quite a bit since December...and to be honest I haven't paid much attention to my hair.  I've been trying to do as little as possible as far as maintenance.  I haven't pampered and babied it like I normally would (especially during the cold weather).  Over the last 6 weeks, I think I've deep conditioned only once! In addition, I haven't done my normal pre-oil treatments either.  So how the heck is my  hair not dry!

Right now my hair seems to be thriving even with the bare minimum that I've been doing.  Could it be that all the months of TLC and oil treatments were in vain.  I wouldn't go that far.  I do believe that healthy hair habits are beneficial and helpful.  I just realize now that it's not the end of the world if you don't cross your t's and dot your i's every single wash session. I suppose it's similar to eating healthy all year, and then forgoing the healthy food for the Holiday meals.  Having some mac and cheese, candied yams, and sweet potato pie is not going to suddenly cause me to have high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Anyway, I'll definitely be giving myself a nice deep treatment this wash day.  Don't want to take things for granted and then end up with a pile of hay sitting on top of my head :-)  Better to be safe than sorry.  Later curlfriends! 

Friday, January 10, 2014

Happy New Year & Happy Naturalversary to Me!


Hola Curlfriends! Happy New Year! 

It has been a little over 2 months since my last post.   My bad ya’ll!  The time just slipped away from me! 

I just realized yesterday that I missed my natural anniversary.  I’m 7 years a naturalista now!  Man does time fly.  I remember back in the day when I was contemplating the decision….wondering if I should chop it off or not.  Then once I chopped it I went through the shock of “what the heck do I do now”?!?!  As they say, hindsight is 20/20. 

All in all, I’m sooo glad I made the decision to go for it! One of the best choices I’ve ever made.