My hair today May 2nd

Put some Karen's Body Beautiful Butter Love (in Lavender Vanilla, yummy!) throughout and pulled it out a bit with my hands. Then pulled the sides back with side combs and smoothed them with Jane Carter's Nourish & Shine and some Eco Styler gel on the edges. Topped it off with some SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Elixir.

My Flexi-Rod Experience & Results: Take 1

Before washing out the SheaMoisture Souffle yesterday (see my last post), I decided that I wanted to try flexi-rods. So I dressed my son and let him scooter to the beauty supply store with me :) I really want to buy some Curlformers, but I can't drive myself to spend $60 on them with shipping. I saw on YT and read reviews that flexi-rods produced the same/similar results, so I decided to give them a whirl. The prob with buying curlers is you never know how many packs to buy. I decided to go with 4 packs of the short orange ones (5/8" wide) and 1 pack of the short grey ones (11/16" wide) for the front since I didn't plan on doing small sections. The brand is Diane and they were $2.99/pack of 6, so that ran me about $15, not bad.

When I got home, I washed my hair with the SM African Black Soap Deep Cleansing Shampoo (had to get that sticky souffle out), then the SM Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo (my absolute favorite!!), then conditioned with the SM Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner. I decided since I was doing a roller set I would use light styling products to let it air-dry faster. So for each section of hair, I spritzed some water, then put some Jane Carter Revitalizing Leave-In Conditioner and her Wrap & Roll setting lotion and combed it through end to root with a small tooth comb. I really had no curling method, I was just made sure to smooth the ends of my hair on the rod, then I twirled the curler and bent each side to keep it put. I didn't go in a uniform direction or anything, I just did it. I swear, these chicks on YT make it look so easy! It wasn't hard per se, but it was a little tricky at times, especially since my hair isn't long so by the time I got into a groove, I was at the end, lol! I used the orange ones on the back and sides and the grey ones in the first two rows in the front. I was left with about 3 or 4 orange curlers, so I used about 27. Not bad, better than not having enough. I let it air dry the rest of the afternoon and night. Slept with my bonnet as usual. I have to say, it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. Though I did end up with a headache in the middle of the night that I'm blaming on them :P

This morning I took them out and the results were good. Not exactly the smoothest, especially at the roots, but I think that's because it was my first attempt. I also didn't do it to achieve a smooth look, just some curls. I think I'll try the little papers with them the next time. 

The curls are tight and the only way not to look like a grandmother in my opinion was to do the mohawk look with the sides pinned back. That seems to be my go-to hairstyle since my hair is in that in-between length. This time I used hair pins instead of side combs. I separated each curl in 3 before doing that and used an afro pick to fluff the roots a bit. I sprayed some SheaMoisture Raw Shea Butter Reconstructive Elixir (LOVE!) throughout, put some Karen's Body Beautiful Hair Growth Serum on my edges and Jane Carter Nourish & Shine on my sides to smooth it a bit. Nothing with water to ruin my hard work! I ended up using Ecostyler Olive Oil Gel on my edges last minute to smooth them down as well. It looks cute...something I don't necessarily strive for, haha. I look like Little Bo Peep or something, lmao! As the week progresses, I'll pull it out more and mess it up a bit to create some volume and oomph.  

Shirley Temple or Little Bo Peep?

Close up, sides pulled back

Bang area needs to be fluffed more

 

My hair today, Aug 25

I decided not to set it (twist) it last night. I wanted more of a curly afro effect. I like! All I did this morning was put a bit of Jane Carter Nourish & Shine and frizzed out my hair with my hands.

Sent from my Motorola ATRIX™ 4G on AT&T

Naturally Curly & Natural Selections Curly Pool Party!

Since I quite frequent www.naturallycurly.com and their forums, I was excited when they announced they were having a pool party in NYC! I was least excited that they said you had to wear swimsuits, but I guess I wasn't the only one because they did away with that rule. The main focus of the event was to let people with natural hair know that they should not be afraid and can go swimming with their natural hair. There were representatives from Jane Carter Solutions (she was there herself), Hair Rules (owner Dickey was there as well), Ouidad and SheaMoisture. The cost was $25, but with a coupon code, you could have gotten $5 off. Come on, $20 for an event at a posh boutique hotel poolside where you get to mingle with other curlies, try products, see demonstrations, hear great music, get a $50 gift bag, and the chance to win an iPad and other prizes?!! I'm in! I told my cousin about it and we got our tix and were amped! She was especially interested in how to keep the form of her twist-outs. 

I decided to wear a romper with my bikini under even though I had no intention of swimming since, well, I can't :/ I'm more of a poser :D

My cuz also wore a romper, she looked adorable!

Of course, the MTA was being its normal self and made us later than we wanted, but we still got there in good time. When we walked in we got our gift bags right away. The ambiance was great, nice "club" lighting with ladies mingling and snacking in the first room with the bar, then around the corner poolside was where all the action was. Ladies swimming, others sitting and chatting, the dj and SheaMoisture were set up upstairs on one side. We checked them out and got some samples of their Raw Shea masque and some body scrubs and just scoped out the venue from high up. Then I spotted there was another section to the other side, wow, more?! So we went back down and back up to the other side. That place was buzzing. Jane Carter, Hair Rules and Ouidad were set up over there and it had normal lighting so you were able to see products and read labels and pamphlets. They even had someone re-twisting locs.

We went to JC first, she was so sweet. I basically told her that her Curl Defining Cream didn't do much for defining my curls for a wash-n-go, so she put a bit in my hair and did a finger-twist. I took that to mean that for my hair type, maybe it's best used for twist-outs. So I will try that. I actually didn't go to Ouidad, and Hair Rules was a mob scene! So we just took in some music, man that dj was good! They did the prizes shortly after, which I didn't win, I don't know what the deal is with that. We went back to the bar area and got a drink, whoa, hi there, $16! Hehehe, fine, it was the city and a hotel, we get it ;) Karen Tappin of Karen's Body Beautiful popped in, her hair was FIRE! I snapped a pic with her and we chatted, she remembered me from the Huetiful event at her store. We spoke about different peoples' perceptions of natural/curly hair. Then I saw Jane Carter by the bar, we also had a chat and she spoke about why she started her line. Basically she had an allergic reaction one day to some products and decided to start her own. Why the heck don't I think of these things? She gave us some more product recommendations. She really is a nice person, she said she felt like a celebrity when I asked for a picture because in NJ no one recognizes her. Ha! I actually didn't even know she was right here in NJ. Taren916 was also there, man do I love her YouTube videos. She was probably the first person I subscribed to when I first cut off my locs back in April. She's done a big chop since then, and still looks fab. When I saw Michelle of NaturallyCurly, I told her that I'm on her site basically all day and she said she wanted to interview me, so I met her outside and she asked me some questions with her iPhone 4 (that phone can do anything apparently) and I had to pretend I wasn't nervous and gave her answers. Let's hope it turned out okay! I love events like this. It was nice meeting the people who's products you use and chatting with other natural ladies with similar hair in different styles. It gave you style ideas, encouragement and just a "feel good" feeling about your hair.

View of pool area from the DJ area, the section with Jane Carter is right above

Jane Carter doing her thing

Jane giving my cousin advice

Ladies by the pool

Pool on the other side, so it was a swim-up bar

My cousin's pretty flower

Jane Carter and myself

Karen Tappin of Karen's Body Beautiful and myself

Taren and me

Dickey of Hair Rules and myself

Michelle of Naturallycurly.com and myself

Prize time!

More pictures here

In my goodie bag:

SheaMoisture Coconut & Hibiscus Curl & Shine shampoo, 4oz

Jane Carter travel sized Curl Defining Cream and Revitalizing Leave-In

Hair Rules travel sized Nourishment Leave-In Conditioner

Ouidad Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel, 6oz

I also grabbed samples along the way. This is a great way to decide if you like something without committing. Like I discovered that I love the Shea Moisture body scrubs and I now have to purchase one!

I can't wait for the next curly girl event which should be at Karen's Body Beautiful in two weeks.

** I apologize for the delay, I wrote this since July 29th and had it sitting as a draft until now! **