One More Thing About This Tag Thing

I really would like to learn more about this blog's followers, so if any of you have a blog, and I somehow missed it, you've now been officially tagged:0). I know some of your have a blog, but I didn't tag you because you've already been tagged by someone else, but for the others I want to know more about you. Leave me your information, and I'll be sure to post your blog link here!

Thanks all!

Ciao!!

Ten Things About Me

I've been tagged by the lovely Kinkyrhonnie at http://kinkyrhonnie.blogspot.com/

She's a wonderful lady with loads of knowledge about natural hair. If you're not familiar with her blog, I suggest you go check her out - she's great!

1)I'm a mom of  a lovely little 14 month old baby girl.

2)I have a very loving husband who is also my best friend - we've been married 10 years.

3)I have two college degrees.

4)I grew up in Los Angeles, but moved to the midwest in the 90's and never moved back.

5)I'm an aspiring artist and dream of the day when I might see my art hanging in a gallery.

6)I big chopped on July 21, 2008.

7)I'm a bird whisperer. For some reason birds really like me - from parrots to finches, for some reason then act like they are not afraid of me, LOL.

8)I'm a kombucha addict - I can't get enough of it - my favorite is the Synergy Divine Grape.

9)I can sing a Polish folk song, from beginning to end in Polish:).

10)I have an orange belt in Shotokan karate.

My Ten Tags:

1)Forensic_chick at PrettyHoneyBun's Way

2)Suburbabushbabe at Starry Elven Twins

3)Bekkapoo at Supr-Natural

4)Naturally Beautiful at Wild Haired Woman

5)Subbrock at Subbrock:In Search of the Perfect Curl

6)Rinnyriot at She's a Hoot, She's a Riot

7)Peajai at Naturally Junky

8)Cammyb at Pink Camellia's

9) Alice_42 at Diary of a Kinky Curly Transitioner

10)Crazy.Kinky.Curly at http://crazykinkycurly.blogspot.com/

Snowdrift Farms

I made some more of Shae's Curly Pudding this time using the brown ecostyler. The results in my hair came out nice - not as much definition, but still pretty good - this one definitely has a softer hold. I suppose this just goes to show how creative you can get with this stuff:0). 

This was how much I got out of it - and I still didn't use my whole jar of ecostyler.

The white on the top is the butter - I don't know if I mixed it long enough, but it still worked very well in my hair.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all about a store online where I like to buy a lot of my butters and oils - and also the jars you see. It's called Snowdrift Farms. They have all kinds of supplies, a few how-to videos, and even just basic recipes that you can use to make your own lotions, conditioners, etc. 

I really haven't compared them to all the other suppliers out there, but I can tell you this place ships very quickly and has very good customer service^-^. They also have a number of things on sale, so if you're thinking of shopping for some butters soon, perhaps you can find a good deal there.

Ciao!!

And the Winner Is...

...Afia! Yay! Afia!! You've won an 8 oz jar of Shae's Curly Pudding!! Email me or PM me on Naturally curly with your contact information, and I'll get your jar in the mail right away!

Thanks for the interest everyone! 

It's Not a Denman, but...

...this baby is really choice!

I have a denman, but for the life of me, I can't remember which one it is - otherwise I'd tell you. Anyway, it's too big for my short hair, so I never use it:0?. I've tried, but I can never seen to get it in close to my roots or maneuver around corners, LOL. So, instead of using my denman, I use this:

Mebco Tortoise Backcomber Comb/brush T205

You can pick it up at Sally's for $1.69! This thing is great! It's perfect for shorter hair like mine - I can really get in there and smooth and maneuver with very little effort. It's light weight and easy to hold, even when my hand gets full of gel or other hair gunk.

The teeth are very smooth all the way around, so you don't have to worry about a seam that can be damaging.  It's just a good buy, and for the price - it's worth trying.

I first stumbled across this baby while watching a youtube video by NaturalReign, she suggested trying it, so I went out right away and bought one. I've never been sorry!

Ciao!!

Shae's Curly Pudding - Results

Later this afternoon, I was able to take some time to myself and do my hair.

As promised, I wanted to come back and share with you my Shae Curly Pudding results.

So, what I did was co-wash with Trader Joe's Nourish Spa mixed with Honey and EVOO (You all are probably going to get tired of hearing me talk about this stuff, LOL:0)). I did a quick coffee rinse, and then rinsed everything out with cool water. At that point, I was ready to begin.

I've included some pictures, but I just wanted to mention here that I recently did another brahmi treatment, and for some reason my hair has been a lot frizzier than usual. Perhaps I did the treatments too close together - I don't know. At any rate, I wanted to mention this here, because my hair is normally a bit easier to work with, but today I was having - one of those days, so the fact that this stuff worked at all is a testament to it's effectiveness. 

Here's a picture of part of my hair with the Shae's Curly Pudding and a portion of it without:

I said before that there was no whiteness to my hair - and for the most part there wasn't. I did use some Trader Joe's as a leave in, and in places where there was a bit too much of the Trader Joe's I did get a few goobies. I think this could have been avoided if I had worked the Trader Joe's in a bit more. Also, you can see that color looks a bit dull - that's just the picture.

Here's the back:

The side:

The top:

Ok, so I think you get the gist. Basically, this is a product that in many ways mimics some of the more expensive curly puddings available. The difference, of course, is the price and the amount you get.

Personally, I think it was an extremely good idea. I think it's only "flaw" - which really isn't a "flaw" per se,  is that the recipe calls for IC gel. The only reason I say "flaw" is because IC gel contains cones. This isn't a problem if you're not CG, but if you are  - these are the ingredients:

Purified Water Aqua , Glycerin , Carbomer , Triethanolamine , Aloe Vera Gel , Dimethicone Copolyol , Tocopherol Acetate , Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein , Polysorbate-20 , Benzopehonoe-4 , Methylchloroisothiazolinone , Methylisothiazolinone , Disodiium EDTA , Fragrance.

Though I do not know this for a fact, I would assume that you or I could potentially substitute the IC gel for something else without cones - such as ecostyler, if we were so inclined.

Once my hair dried, I noticed that the hold was a bit harder than I had originally thought. Definitely not rock hard, and not even as hard as the ecostyler brown, which is about a 7 in terms of hold. This is definitely a softer hold than that. And scrunching the crunch is easier than with the ecostyler, so that's another plus.

The last thing I wanted to mention, is that my hair did not have the same shine as I have had with some other products. It's not that it looks dull, but it just didn't have it's normal bling. Now, this could be countered, I'm sure, with a nice hair creme such as KBB or something. In fact, I'm sure just a little bit of  additional coconut oil would probably do the trick. Also, I'm thinking I may have been a bit heavy with the application, and perhaps I didn't work it in as well as I should have - this might also be why I did not have the same shine. I'll have to play with it a few more times to make certain I get it right.

All in all, I do stick to my original statements - I think this one is definitely worth trying out. It seems like a good "go to" product if you are trying to save your pennies for something (dare I even say it?)other than hair products.

Ciao!!

P.S. If you've made it this far in reading and your are interested in trying some of Shae's Curly Pudding, I will be happy to send you an 8 oz jar. This will be sort of like another giveaway. 

Here are the rules: You must be a follower of this blog;  you must leave a comment under this post letting me know that you are interested in trying out the pudding. 

If there is only one person wanting it - then that person gets it! If there are multiple people wanting to try it, then I will have to place those with interest into a drawing, and I will name a winner by this Friday:0).

Thanks for ready!

Good Grief - Another Bad Hair Day^-^

This morning I woke up late. 

I had to be to an appointment - an appointment which was a 45 minute drive.  What time was the appointment?? The appointment was at 8:45 am, and when I looked at my clock, and it was 7:37 am:0/!! Hmmm...that leaves me with 23 minutes to get myself and my 14 month old cleaned up, dressed and fed. No problem, right? Riiiiight!!! Hahaha...

I suppose it wouldn't have been soo bad if my hair were longer.If my hair were longer, I could throw it in a bun, smooth my edges, and I'm out the door! Poof - no problem! But my hair isn't long - it's short, and the possibility of my having second day hair nice enough to go out in is pretty remote. 

At best, when I wake up I look like Gumby:

At worst...well...I don't really wanna talk about it.

Anyway, as you can imagine - I had a very real problem. 

How in the world was I going to pull myself together and make it to this appointment on time, without looking like Bobby Brown revisited?

Aha! The light bulb comes on! What about my headwraps?? I saw my scarves sitting very neatly on the shelf, and with all this "hair playing" I've been doing, I had completely forgotten about my wraps.

Pa-dow! Potential meltdown defused!!

Here's what  I did( Oh! By the way, these pictures were taken after I got back from my appointment:0):

1) Take some stretchy material - this is my base wrap. I use this to keep my more colorful wrap in place. It gives the colorful wrap "grip" in a way. I still need to use a couple bobby pins on the side, but this keeps it pretty secure even when used without the pins.

The stretchy material can be purchased at Joann Fabrics or any where you buy your sewing supplies. 

The first thing I do is fold the material into a large triangle and then drape it over my head as if I were going to tie a regular scarf. But instead of tying it, I start twisting it from the base of my neck all the way to the end (this is kind of fun for me, because I like to pretend it's my real hair:0)). 

Sorry about the lighting:(

After I twist it to the end, I begin to wrap it around itself to create a "bun" shape.

This is not a really good example - my little one was fussing - if I had more time I would have created a better "bun" with the material. But this gives you a basic idea of what I'm talking about.

2) After my first wrap is in place, I select my top wrap. The Indian section of the materials store -  where they sell material for saris is a great area to find really pretty material (I'm sure you already knew that:)). 

Just a few of my favorites - this picture does NOT do them justice:(

Anyway, I pick out my top wrap, fold it into a triangle, and then drape it over my stretchy wrap. I smooth it down over my head and then secure it with my hand under the bottom of the stretchy wrap:

I like to grab it under the first bun, because it gives the overall wrap a little more support IMO.

After I have my hand positioned where I want it, I start to twist the material of the top wrap all the way down to the end, and then begin wrapping it around the stretchy wrap, creating a "bun" - this is exactly what I did the first time only this time I'm using the bun of the stretchy wrap as my guide and I'm wrapping my top wrap around it.

Again, I like to wrap the top wrap around the stretchy wrap to help keep the top wrap in place.

3) The last thing I like to do to really ensure that this baby doesn't move, is use a stretchy headband - some people call them a "brastrap"? Anyway, it's really just a very large rubber band. I use this to secure the end of the wrap by wrapping it around the "bun" part.

In this picture you can actually see part of the "rubber band" in the wrap. Again - I was having these pictures taken very quickly. In a normal situation, the "rubber band" would not be visible.

This is the end result:

Again - I have to apologize for the lighting, but hopefully you can see the results.

So, there you have it. It may not be perfection, but it will definitely do in a pitch!

Oh - and I just made it to the appointment on time;0).

Ciao!!