I cut my hair!

Posted in big chop, hair journey, hair update, hairxperiment by Jen

Hi guys,

It’s been a while! How y’all doing?

As you can see from the title of this post, I cut my hair! (Cue the gasping)

I have been so tired of my hair lately! Washing it, dealing with it on a daily basis, detangling it, styling it, the whole shebang! I’ve been super frustrated with my hair. And I think this is the major reason why I never really blog about my hair anymore.

I actually considered relaxing it quite a number of times.

Finally, I decided that maybe I should get a funky fade/haircut. Like this:

Continue reading →

13Jul2015

My failed straightening experience

Posted in hairxperiment, product review by Jen

Hi beautifuls! (yes I said that)

I’ve been dying to straighten my hair but I had planned to get it done professionally.

However, one evening about two weeks ago, I spontaneously decided to straighten my hair.

About two days prior, my mum had bought herself a bottle of Design Essentials HCO Leave-In Conditioner and Blow Drying Lotion(long name so let’s call it the DE lotion shall we?). So I decided I would use that as my heat protectant.

I washed my hair in my usual fashion and then applied some of my regular leave in and a bit of oil. I then proceeded to apply the DE lotion and blow dry in sections but my hair seemed to be getting really dry and ‘seizing up’ (I tried to blow dry my hair like a year ago and the same thing happened!).

I decided to skip the blow drying and just straighten from the get-go.

I would take a section, apply some more DE lotion to my ends and straighten.

My hair no gree. It would not become bone straight no matter how hard I tried or how many passes I made with the straightener. I decided to get it as straight as it would go and not stress it.

Imagine my surprise when the sections I straightened started reverting 2 minutes later.

I said “lai lai, you must be straight oh” and straightened them again. Two minutes later, same thing. After trying like 3 times, I gave up!

I know I look like struggle

That afro section was actually straight 2 minutes before!

I gave up and spritzed my hair with water

Happy to see those coils back. The fear of heat damage is real

Here’s what I learnt:

My hair seems to hate being blow dried.
My hair does not want to be straight.
My ends are as shitty as shitty can be. They were basically like dead looking, knot filled thread when I straightened my hair.

What I’ll do next time:

Try a better product.
Trim my ends.
Get it done professionally.
Maybe try one of those straightening products that last weeks e.g. ORS Strengthening and Straightening Treatment which Tuke tried here

Any tried and trusted straightening methods/products you’d suggest? Any advice for my next attempt? Have you/would you straighten your natural hair? Please share!

16Jun2015

Threading take 1

Posted in hair journey, hair practices, hairxperiment by Jen

My beautiful people, I know you have missed me and I missed you too!

Don’t think it’s you oh. It’s me. I’ve been so stressed lately. I was just off the radar on basically everything: Instagram, BBM etc. I feel like I might be going through a mini midlife crisis or maybe I’m just exaggerating. It happens.

I kept planning to post but never actually posted. You know how life has a way of just getting in the way. (feeling like a literary giant)

So yeah, threading. I’m not talking about eyebrows. I’m talking about threading your hair like the way we used to as kids. These days, people sometimes refer to it as “African threading”.

Last washday, I decided “oh what the heck, I’ll give it a shot”. And I did.

I used regular sewing thread because I’m yet to find the rubber one more commonly used for threading hair.

I folded it in two and went to work on damp freshly washed hair right after moisturizing and sealing.

I did this at night and did not take pictures. However I threaded a section of my hair in the picture below as an example.

As you can see, the threaded section on the right is way way way more stretched than the twisted section on the left.

I took down the threading when it was dry in the morning and put my hair in a puff. The ends looked a bit stringy so I combed lightly.

And the result of my first time threading experiment was a mega puff!

Alas it lasted not! Later the same day shrinkage be like…

Possibly the shrinkage could have been avoided if I had not used products with humectants (ingredients that pull moisture into your hair e.g glycerine, propylene glycol) but I highly doubt I have any products without them.

I had intended to maximize the stretched hair all week by avoiding water/products with water so it would not shrink but I got caught in the rain the very next day and my dreams of stretched hair were literally washed down the drain.

Tips:

Avoid humectants so as to avoid shrinkage.
Avoid water/products with water to lengthen the time your hair stays stretched.
Make it firm but not tight (unless you like headaches and hate sleep).
Leave space in between as you thread.(As seen in the picture above where I threaded one section). You don’t have to wrap the entire hair in thread (like yarn/wool locs). This makes it easier to thread and helps it dry faster.
Make sure your hair is dry before taking down the threading. If not, it would all have basically been in vain.
Be careful while taking down the threading. You don’t want your hair getting tangled with the thread because the thread has nothing to lose if you have to resort to scissors while you have hair to lose.

Overall thoughts:

I think threading is a good and effective way of stretching your hair. It’s also a great way for those who can’t/don’t like to twist/braid to keep their hair stretched.

All in all, I would try it again if I can find a way to stop my hair from shrinking (if you have tips on this, please share). But for now, twists are much easier and quicker for me to install and take down even though they don’t give as much stretch as threading.

Have you tried threading? Do you have tips? What do you think of threading and would you try it? Please share!

7Jun2014

Driving me bananas

Posted in hairxperiment, protective styling by Jen

I know, I know; I’ve been MIA! Sorry for the absence. Life happened.

I’m kicking myself for not having any pictures of the dilemma I’m about to tell you.

About 3 weeks ago, I thought I would try bananas to deep condition my hair. I had seen people do it on blogs and a friend of mine had done it in the past. So I ~~steal~~ get two bananas out of my sister’s bunch and keep them till the weekend. Beforehand I did some reading and read somewhere that you should sieve the mixture before use.
Being the rebel that I am(rolls eyes), I did not listen. There was no light(Thanks NEPA!) so I didn’t even use a blender. I just mashed my bananas with a spoon, threw in some honey and olive oil(I think I added a bit of conditioner too but my memory fails me), saturated my hair with my mixture and put on my ~~shower cap~~ nylon bag.
Time to wash it out!! I rinsed my hair and cowashed it and it felt good! I’m thinking “I like this banana deep condition oh!”. I step out of the bathroom and stand in front of the mirror and what do I see? Particles upon particles upon particles. I’m like “Blood of Jesus!”.
I go and cowash again, this time very vigorously and I use a comb this time(been finger detangling for a while now).
Brethren I stepped in front of the mirror and there was no damn difference.
My brain is processing, thinking “what to do, what to do”.
These strings and particles and jammed tight in my wet coils.
I figured the best bet would be to wait till the hair dries.
When the hair dried, my sister helped me comb and pick out the particles. She couldn’t even get all of them out.
I put my hair in flat twists speckled in banana leftovers and wore my new wig over it like that.

Moral lesson of this sermon: DO NOT USE BANANAS IN YOUR HAIR WITHOUT SIEVING FIRST BECAUSE YOU WILL DEFINITELY REGRET IT!!!!

Check out my new wig!!

WIG DETAILS:
Name: Vivica Fox
Price: N8,950
Place of purchase: Casa Bella, Ikeja City Mall

I’ve been wearing it for three weeks now. Every weekend I wash and deep condition my hair, put it in flat twists for the week and wear my wig over it.

In other news, I’m done with NYSC! Whoop whoop! Praying for greater things and higher heights!

The blog turned one in May and I missed it :(. I’m not even sure of the date.

My one year “nappyversary” is coming up also and I don’t know which day to even choose; is it the day of my first big chop? Or the day of my 2nd big chop? Maybe you guys can help me decide.

However, here are my dates to note:
Last whole head relaxer- Jan 25th, 2013
Relaxed just the front for a weave- March 8th, 2013
Big chop- June 14th, 2013
Second big chop- July 18th, 2013

Hopefully, I will have another post up sooner than later *fingers crossed*

Till next time guys,
Take care.

1Mar2014

We made a wig!

Posted in hairxperiment, protective styling by Jen

Hello beautiful people, welcome to March!

So this post is looong overdue considering my sister and I made this in November or so.

I’d recently read two tutorials on making wigs (this one and this one ) and I’d also watched a Youtube video about it(can’t find the link) so the idea of making one had been lingering in my head. I love a good DIY(~~#TeamCheapskate~~ #TeamAdventurous) and my sister is ever ready to join in so we thought why not make a fringe wig?

The process wasn’t properly documented but please bear with me and the pictures I managed to get.

Tools needed
-A wig cap (I got a pack of 2 for N100 from some hair shop in my neighborhood)

-Your weave of choice (I used a mixture of old weaves I had: Passion,Supreme and some Peruvian I believe)

-A plastic/nylon bag

-Bonding glue (Got a bottle for N300 from the store where I got the wig cap)

-Scissors and(or) a razor blade

-A wig stand/doll or a person to make the wig on (I used my sister since I didn’t have a stand/doll)

What to do

The first step is to put a nylon/plastic bag over the wig stand/doll or person’s head. Trust me, the glue can and will seep through the wig cap so you don’t want a wig that you can’t take off the stand or person’s head after making it.

(Our weave)

(The bonding glue)

(wig cap)

Then put the wig cap over that

So that done, starting from the back, first use the weave to measure the place you’re going to stick it to and snip off any excess. Proceed to put bonding glue on the track of your weave.Then stick it on

(It should look something like this. Stick it on from one end of the neck to the other)

Keep sticking it on this way until up you get to the top of the ears.
From there on, you’re going to stick it on around the circumference of the head or in a circular pattern so it falls over the face(I didn’t take a picture of this but here’s a picture from The Fashion Engineer)

So keep doing this until you have a small circle left to fill

Now what you’re going to do is to take a strip of weave and put glue on the track and roll it up tight(Again, no picture was taken so here’s one from Love Ifeyinwa)

Then put some glue in the circle left to fill and stick the rolled up strip in there.

I proceeded to press down that place with a hot straightener(I used a semi-hot iron too. Don’t judge me). Please don’t do this part if the weave you used is synthetic; it will burn.

Now you can cut the fringe however you like.

Funnily enough, I have never worn this wig out of my house. Maybe it’s because I feel there is something disconcerting about wigs; I feel like I could be walking on the road and a strong wind will take it right off my head.

Wigs are great protective styles. You can cornrow your hair under them and take them off at night so your hair can breathe. They give you full license to take care of your real hair without struggle as opposed to sew ins.

So, if you’re into DIYs or you just need a new inexpensive wig or you just want to try your hand at something new, give this a shot.

Jen out!

17Nov2013

Hairxperiment- Homemade coconut oil + New conditioner

Posted in hairxperiment, products by Jen

Hi guys, so I went to Park n Shop(Mobolaji Bank Anthony) to buy V05 conditioner but it turns out they don’t open on Sundays so I went to Goodies(on the same road) instead. They didn’t have V05 conditioner but they had the shampoo so I decided to check out the other brands they had and see if I could find something good.

I ended up settling for Natur Vital. It was N990. I got two bottles.

It’s silicone,paraben,mineral oil and preservative free and has a light smell that’s not too overpowering. I used it to deep condition my hair mixed with olive oil, castor oil and honey and it did an okay job.

I also checked to see if they had coconut oil as I’ve been meaning to try it but they didn’t.
So I got home and I remembered that we had a coconut and I’d read on African Naturalistas and DarkChildLoveThyHair that you could make your own so I thought “what the heck, I’ll give it a go”.

I decided to go with the Heating/Boiling method as it was the only one I saw that didn’t require waiting for a few days before getting the oil. So my sister and I set to work.

1. Broke the coconut and removed the shell.

2. Grated it.

3. Put in in the blender, added some warm water and blended it. (I was confused about how much water to add. I would advise not adding too much because all the water you add will have to evaporate so if you add a lot, you’ll be waiting for a long time before it evaporates)

4. Strained it. (Used a piece of cloth placed over a bowl)

5. Put it in a pan on low heat and stirred regularly until all the water evaporated and the coconut cream curd started to ‘fry’ and turn golden brown as the oil came out.

It became thicker as the water evaporated(picture on the right)
After a while, I was left with this oatmeal like stuff.

This, dear people, is where confusion set in. The blogs I’d read didn’t really tell me about this point so I was so confused. I turned off the heat and thought maybe if it cooled down, “the oatmeal” would melt and become oil(Don’t laugh at me).

After a few minutes, I turned to Google and saw on WikiHow and Yahoo Voices that you’re supposed to keep cooking this “oatmeal” which is actually the coconut cream curd until it starts to fry on its own and turn golden brown.

I turned the heat back on and kept stirring. Soon enough, it started to sizzle and fry as the oil came out. It turned brown and I turned off the heat (I burnt it a bit I think because it was way past golden brown)

I strained it and put it in an empty bottle

It wasn’t a lot maybe because it’s just one coconut I used.

Anyways, the hairxperiment was a success!

On another note, I tried a ‘twist out’. In quotes because it looked nothing like other twist outs I’d seen online, LOL!

It wasn’t bad though, except that the bobby pins were showing too much; couldn’t find small bobby pins. I totally would have rocked it to go out but I had nowhere to go. I’ll try it some other day and wear it out. My sister said it was okay and my cousin said she liked it but my mother said I looked like “a witch they poured water on” 😦

Jennifer Abah

Category Archives: hairxperiment