Karen’s Body Beautiful is now available in the UK at the Nexrastore. Oyin’s Handmade Hair Dew, Greg’s Juice and Frank Juice is now available at the Nexrastore as well.

Happy hair journey ^o^ 

(Source: modernemeid.blogspot.com)

5:04 pm  •  22 June 2011  •  1 note

So after a few busy weeks with work, holiday trips and all sorts, I finally decided it was time to deep condition. I hadn’t deep conditioned with protein in over four weeks. I have deep conditioned with rhassoul clay before, about two weeks ago (I’ll make a blog post on that when I do it again in the future).

This is my hair in its dry state - I removed mini twists the night before and then I did chunky braids and removed it on the day of the DC treatment, so this is my hair with no product, etc. The nape of my hair is slightly heat damaged (due to my attempted blowouts on my hair in the past - never again).

This is some of the heat damaged part of the nape (not the entire nape is heat damaged, just this part). There are some long strands with a wave - that’s not my hair type. Even with addition of water, the wave doesn’t turn into kinks or tight curls, just very very loose curls.

The treatment;

From left to right - Jamaican Black Castor Oil, honey, egg, cayenne pepper and Jamaican Black Castor Oil Protein Conditioner

I used;

• JBCO because it helps with dry skin and protects scalp and hair from fungal and microbial infections
• Honey because it acts as a humectant and softens hair.
• Egg because it is rich in protein which helps strengthens the hair follicle (but also because I have little JBCO protein con left).
• Cayenne pepper because it stimulates hair growth
• Jamaican Black Castor Oil Protein Conditioner because it is made up of mayonnaise, making it rich in protein but it also contains oils which contains essential fatty acids such as grapeseed, mustard and pimento oil. I initially purchased it because I had no time to whip up DC mixtures so I just worked this into my hair put a cap on and wash it out after an hour or so.

 I added half a tablespoon of JBCO and a tablespoon of honey and stirred it in the egg.

 I added a tablespoon of cayenne pepper powder (you should feel a tingle depending on your sensitivity to capsaicin (property which gives cayenne pepper its hotness)). 

 (Not sure what happened to the light), a further addition of a tablespoon of the JBCO protein conditioner was made.

 Stir the mixture well to makes sure that most of the cayenne pepper has dissolved and has also been mixed properly.

 The mixture is then worked into the hair.

A shot of the top of my head. 

I left a shower cap over my head for about 40 minutes to an hour (it was getting late). The mixture did drip but if you have a towel around your neck you should be ok.

No images of after the wash etc because it really was becoming time to just dry my hair and prep for bedtime. 

This is the back of my hair three days after the protein treatment in its dry state. I have to say that the protein treatment made an improvement but nothing big.

Nonetheless, it has strengthened my hair. But with heat damage, nothing can be done to repair it and protein treatments are very temporary solutions. What I can do for now is just cut off parts of the nape as my hair grows out.

Happy hair journey ^o^

(Source: modernemeid.blogspot.com)

6:15 am  •  20 June 2011  •  4 notes

Natural hair care is a process of trial and error. Finding something which works for you, whether it be a routine or a product, can help you have a smooth and comfortable hair journey.

Natural hair is also extremely diverse so it is no surprise that one product may have a positive effect on one person while having a negative effect on another.

There are a couple of things you can do with products that don’t work for you or products that you don’t like insteadof binning them. The number of things you can do are;

1. Try looking at other ways of using the product. Chances are the product you’re using, is not working for you because of the way you’re using it. For example with hair gels, you may scrunch your hair to reduce the crispy feeling the gel gives your hair. For protein treatments you may want to finish up with a moisturising treatment or a simple co-wash to restore that protein - moisture balance.
2. Try diluting the product. If the product is too thick, either use little of it or dilute it with water or an oil to allow it to be more easily distributed through your hair or scalp. The opposite can be done if the product consistency is too thin - mix it with a butter or use very little.
3.  Try mixing the product with an oil. For example, oils may be added to gels to reduce the crunchiness of the gel.
4. Swap products with other naturals at meet ups - this allows you to try new products without having to spend more money. You can also swap the products with any natural outside of a meet up.
5. Give products away to family or friends - this is if you really don’t mind being generous.
6. Give products to a homeless shelter or a women’s shelter - besides clothes, hygiene products are very helpful as well.

Whatever you choose to do with your products, knowing where you stand with it is progress. You can move on to try something different which might just be the product for you.

Happy hair journey ^o^

(Source: modernemeid.blogspot.com)

6:15 am  •  16 June 2011  •  6 notes