DIY trim

Posted in DIY, hair journey, hair practices, hair update by Jen

My people, how far?

You know how I keep saying “oh my ends are shitty, I need a trim”? Guess who finally got one?

I’m not even joking when I say my ends were horrendous.

I had so many single strand knots and my ends looked so rough and frizzy. On one strand alone I could find as many as 3 knots and I was in the habit of pulling them off with my fingers.

Detangling had become a serious chore no matter the conditioner because of all the tangles. Even separating twists for a twist out became harder because all my ends wanted to do was stay together.

When people talk about split ends they seem like such a modern myth to me but I kid you not when I say I used my two eyes to see several split ends in my hair! At this point I knew something had to be done fast.

I knew I needed a trim for a long time, trust me. I mean, I haven’t had one since I went natural; that’s 2 years!

The thing is, I wanted to get it professionally done so I kept postponing and postponing till I could go to a salon that knew what they were doing.

One day, I thought to myself “wait oh, but people do this thing themselves e.g. Nafisat. How can I, self proclaimed cheapskate mama and DIY queen, not be able to do it myself”.

So I googled how to do it myself, bought 70 Naira scissors, sat in front of the mirror and trimmed.

Not a good picture but peep those ends!

I’d take a small section, twist up to where I wanted to trim and then cut

All done!

My twists were so blunt by the end

Ends look and feel waaaay better!

My “OMG, my hair is shorter” face 😦

All the hair I cut off

In my two year nappiversary post, one of my goals was to get a trim and I’m glad I got one.

I know I could have gotten better results because some parts aren’t even and I think I might have taken too much hair off but I think I did okay for a first attempt.

My experience with trimming:

Pros:

My hair is easier to detangle
Crappy ends are gone
Styles turn out better

Cons:

You might become scissor-happy
Shorter hair (but it will grow back)

Lessons learnt:

Eventhough a decision seems scary, take the leap if you know the pros will outweigh the cons.
Don’t delay a decision that will benefit you because of excuses that are surmountable. (See grammar! My English teachers must be proud of me.)

I did a bantu knot out for NITC 12(post coming soon) after trimming and it was so easy to take down and separate the bantu knots afterwards! I was pleasantly surprised!

Have you ever trimmed your hair yourself? Would you ever DIY trim or would you rather get it professionally done? Share with me.

20Jan2015

Crochetastic

Posted in protective styling, styling by Jen

Hi people!
Remember I said I had crochet braids?
Today I want to tell you in words and show you in pictures my crochet experience.

I had wanted to try crochet braids for so long but the prices the salons that could do it were calling were heart attack worthy so I figured why not do it myself?

So how did that go?

WHAT DID I USE?
-A big bobby pin
-1 pack of Supreme Afro Twist Braid (colour 1)
-1 pack of Noble Afro Braid (colour 1)
-2 hours(approximately. Excluding cornrowing time)

It works better if you widen it like so.

BRAID PATTERN

I cornrowed on clean, moisturized hair. I made 8 neat cornrows in front(making sure to line the centre and side where I wanted the part to be because I wanted to be able to wear the hair both ways).
I then joined two cornrows together to form one ugly one at the back so I had 4 at the back(hope you understand this my weird explanation).
Lastly I made one horizontal cornrow at the back below it all, that is at the nape.

Truth is you will be fine just doing all back cornrows. Don’t mind my senrenre

DID I DOCUMENT THE PROCESS?
No 😦
I was sick at the time and didn’t feel up to it.
However, this pictorial from The Kink and I as well as a quick Google/YouTube search will be of great help to you.
It’s super easy to do!

I cut some of the hair into halves and used these shorter pieces around the middle and sides where my proposed partings would be so it could have a somewhat layered look.

Here’s what it looked like when I was done. Don’t judge the pictures, remember I was sick.

Did I like it?
Yeah, but it wasn’t really me.
So I thought, let me see what it looks like curly.
Some twists, bendy rollers(flexi rods) and hot water burns on my neck later, it was curly.

And did I like it? No! I preferred it in its original state but there was no way to get it back so after a bit of deliberation, I combed it out.

I would take a section, spritz with water, apply conditioner and go to town combing with my wide tooth comb.

IT. TOOK. 4. HOURS!!!!!

And I was left looking like a lioness but I actually liked it

MAINTENANCE
FOR THE EXTENSIONS
Combed out, this hair tangles a lot!
I put it in big twists at night or whenever I wasn’t going anywhere to curb the tangling. The twist outs were nice too so this was a win-win.
Saturdays were the only days when I combed it. I would spritz with water and give it a thorough combing.

FOR MY REAL HAIR/SCALP
I would spritz my cornrows with water only from time to time, say twice a week.
I oiled my scalp about 3 times a week(and whenever it felt itchy) with a mix of castor oil and eucalyptus oil. I oiled my edges more often.
On Saturdays before I combed the extensions, I would clean my scalp with cotton wool dipped in a mix of apple cider vinegar, eucalyptus oil and water.

HOW LONG DID THE STYLE LAST?
I kept it in for 4 weeks but it could very well go for much much longer!

HOW I WORE THE STYLE

Minnie Mouse did not leave the house though. It was too big for me.

I never wore it down much and when I did, by midday I’d have put it up. Lagos is too hot yo!

TAKEDOWN
You can easily cut the extensions where it connects around your cornrow and pull it off. I however wanted to reuse the extensions so I opted to not cut. I used a bobby pin/comb to raise/loosen the knots the extensions made around the cornrow, unknotted and pulled out the extensions.

WOULD I TRY THIS STYLE AGAIN
Definitely! It’s easy to do and it’s a good protective style. If I can find other extensions to use for a different look that would be even better.

You can do this style yourself but if you’re in Lagos and you’d rather get it done at a salon, you can visit:

-KL’s Natural Beauty Bar
29C Ikorodu Crescent in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi Lagos.
08063650977

-Savvy and Chic Hair and Beauty Hub
34A Awolowo Rd, Ikoyi, Lagos.
08090613325

-Tunmise Natural Hair Salon
147b Ogunlana Drive, Alhaji Masha Roundabout, (Opposite the Taxi Park) Surulere, Lagos.
08039138342

Have you done crochet braids yourself? Tell us all about it! Have you gotten it done at a salon and you’d like to recommend that salon? Would you try crochet braids? Please share!

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” 😦