unrefined cocoa butter | Jennifer Abah

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes; snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes; something something something bla bla bla bla; these are a few of my favourite things

I enjoy reading what people are loving every week/month on their blogs and I always wanted to write about things I was loving too here.

I’m not sure I can keep up with doing it weekly but I can do monthly.

So here are a few of my favourite things from April:

1. Cocoa butter:

I was recently kind of bored with plain old shea butter and decided to try something different.

I stumbled upon cocoa butter and other exotic butters such as murumuru, avocado, mango etc on the Beautifully Nappy blog shop.

I initially wanted mango butter because I love the smell of mangoes but a quick Google search informed me that it actually doesn’t smell like mangoes so I went for cocoa butter instead.

I loooove the smell of cocoa butter! It’s like chocolate but not Dairy Milk kind of chocolate; think Richoco or King’s Bite(That Ghanaian chocolate with a red wrapper).

My baby brother actually tries to lick it sometimes when I’m not looking and my sister and mum keep trying to steal it.

2. iOS 8:

If you’re not into Apple devices, this one won’t be interesting to you but I recently upgraded from iOS 7 to iOS 8 and I’m really liking iOS 8.

The camera features are better, there’s now a ‘recently deleted’ album so you don’t lose mistakenly deleted pictures (Love this!), you can send voice notes on iMessage etc

The difference between both isn’t so major but it’s the subtle changes that just make it so much better and cooler.

3. One-a-week styles:

If you’re like me and you like to dress up at the last minute and rush out the door, you will appreciate styles you can put your hair in for a whole week.

They save me time and stress and save my hair from excessive manipulation.

Here’s what I do these days:

Wash my hair on Saturday and twist.
Wear it in a twist out on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, put it in a style for the week.
Forget about it till Saturday.
On Saturday, moisturize it and twist.
Wear a twist out on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, put it in a style for the week.
Forget about it till Saturday.
On Saturday, start from step 1 again.

This means I now wash my hair every 2 weeks which is good for a lazy girl like me; although I must admit that it itches during the second week.

4. The view from my balcony:

You might be wondering “but it’s not a fantastic view”.

I’m moving to a new house soon and that house has no balcony or view.

I’m seriously going to miss sitting in this balcony enjoying fresh air, watching people and cars go by and listening to the sounds of Lagos (i.e shouting, car horns and generators).

I’m also going to miss my annoying dog, Kiara, who will not be moving with us. (Hopefully she annoys her way into the hearts of her new owners)

5. Cardboard:

Did I hear you go “huh?!”. Don’t worry I’m not crazy.

Sometime ago, I read on Cassie Dave’s blog about how cardboard makes a great background for pictures and I thought ‘Wow! How come I never thought of this?!’. Anyways, I have gotten myself a few and I will be using them when necessary as they do make great backgrounds for pictures.

I used pink for my what’s in my bag picture; did you notice?

I also used blue and white for the cocoa butter pictures above.

I personally think yellow is the most beautiful but my neighbourhood mallam didn’t have yellow.

I think I will go to a book shop and get sheets of coloured paper as well.

There you have it; my very first “current faves” post.

What are you currently loving? Share, share, share! I wanna hear!

P.S. you guys know you’re my favourites all day errday right?

Xoxo

Hi guys,

One thing I would say I miss about my non-existent hair routine before going natural was that I could use 30-60 minutes to wash my hair AND dry it.

Nowadays, that basically borders on impossible.

I really like the feel of cold water on my scalp and the softness of freshly washed hair. If not for these I actually do not enjoy wash day because, without sugar-coating it, I am lazy and would much rather use my free time to do what lazy people do.

In case you were ever wondering what I do on wash days, let me give you the low-down.

1. Detangle:

I sometimes shampoo before I detangle but these days I mostly detangle first.

If I’m shampooing first, I shampoo and then finger detangle my wet/damp hair in sections with my deep conditioner and twist each detangled section. After I’m done detangling and everything is in twists, I put on a shower cap for some time(deep condition).

However, if I’m detangling first, I take my dry hair in sections, put conditioner in it (or spray with a mix of conditioner, water and/or apple cider vinegar as seen in the picture) then finger detangle, twist that section and move to another until everything is detangled and in twists.

See how creepy my hand looks after detangling.

For now, I’m not sure which method I prefer but I’m leaning towards method 2 because it can be quite tasking to reach your scalp properly when shampooing loose hair like in method 1.

2. Shampoo:

I proceed to rinse my hair as best I can and shampoo it focusing on my scalp.

3. Deep condition:

I usually sit around and wait till my hair is damp before I deep condition (but that’s because most times, I don’t use a towel/t-shirt to blot excess water so I have to sit and drip till the hair becomes damp. If I have a towel/t-shirt, I blot out the excess water after shampooing and proceed to deep condition). I apply my deep conditioner of choice that day, put on my shower cap a.k.a nylon bag and go about my business for the next hour or more. Then I rinse it out.

4. ACV rinse:

After rinsing out the deep conditioner, I dilute apple cider vinegar with water and pour it over my hair making sure it gets everywhere. I wait a minute or two and then pour a bowl of plain water over my hair. Don’t ask me why I do this step because me sef I no know.

Loosened one twist to look at my hair. Looks clean to me

5. Moisturize and seal:

I sit around with my hair still in twists till it dries a bit.

When it’s damp, I proceed to loosen a twist, apply Cantu and follow it up with cocoa butter(or Shea butter) focusing on my ends and then put it in a loose Bantu knot or flat twist so I can differentiate it from those I haven’t moisturized. I do this till I’m done with everything. I then loosen each Bantu knot or flat twist and put in back in a regular twist so I can have a twist out the next day. (Alternatively, I do a firm Bantu knot/flat twist after moisturizing each section so that I don’t have to loosen it after moisturizing).