Natural Hair Update (1 YEAR!) and My First Flat-Iron Experience- THUMBS UP!

It's been a full year since I cut off my locs and I decided to flat iron my hair for the occasion. Okay, no I'm lying, it was only while I was doing it that I came to that revelation. But what good timing! I must say, it has grown a lot in the year. The initial cut, the front of my hair was longer than the rest, so I kind of had a bang. 

Fresh from the hairdresser after taking out my locs. A coil-out.

Twist-out with a pompadour effect

A wash-n-go

Flat twist-out.

Since maybe last September, I've been gradually evening it out to make my hair all one length.  I would trim pretty much every time I washed it while protective styling.
This is what it looked like in Trinidad in February and in NYC in March:

Hair is taking a more rounded shape. Check out my tan lines! :)

I have wanted to flat iron my hair for a while and started buying certain hair products and even a flat iron since last summer, but then I decided to just leave it and have fun. Then I started protective styling in September, so the idea went on the back-burner. Now that it's Spring and the dew-point is low, I decided to give it a whirl. Plus, 1/2 a year of wigging it was enough.

My hair was already in about five cornrows going back since that was my normal wig wearing mode. So I just undid one by one, dampened my hair with water from a spray bottle, then applied:

- mark Salon Straight Smoothing Balm with Invigorating Orange ($6). This stuff smells so good! It's also a pretty light consistency and not heavy at all. I put enough so that it spread evenly along the section of hair I was working with. It has silicones in it, but I think that's needed when applying heat. Unfortunately when I was going to link it here for you, I realized it's no longer on the website for sale! How disappointing! Here is the line though, mark Salon Straight. Looks like they may be phasing it out, I have to look into that. Great, now I have to find a replacement when this is done now. Maybe I will try Carol's Daughter's heat line, though a little pricey.

- next was Aussie's Heat Protecting Shine Spray ($4). I spritzed it along the hair shaft and combed from end to root.

The last row!

I then blow dried the piece of hair to loosen my curl before flat ironing. I only had it on the medium setting because I didn't want to over-do the heat in my hair since I would be flat ironing after. My blow dryer cannot add a comb attachment unfortunately, so I have to work with an actual wide-tooth comb, then a Goody brush with white plastic teeth, similar to the infamous Denman with the rubber base.

This is the same piece blow dried

Once it was to my liking, I then re-applied both products, but then added some Oyin Burnt Sugar Humectant Pomade ($12, but I have a trial size). I'm only realizing the "humectant" part of the description now as I'm typing this. Perfect! I wanted to use a grease based product because adding something with water would only defeat the purpose of just blow drying it. The humectant properties act as a combat against humidity, which is a plus for natural hair that is flat-ironed. I combed once again, then used my Remington S5500 Anti-Static 1-inch Ceramic Hair Straightener that I bought from Amazon last summer for $18.26 :D It has a very helpful digital display with the temperature which is great because you can clearly see how much heat you're applying. I had the setting to what it was when I turned it on, which is probably the default, 370 degrees. I ran it across the hair shaft about 3 times, slightly bending each time. I remember back in the day those Gold n Hot flat irons, you were pretty much frying your hair with no idea how hot the plates got! And I used to do it without thinking twice on relaxed hair (which is already fried), and now with natural hair, I was so nervous and mindful about heat damage...go figure! 

My straightening trio :D

The end-result was great, not greasy like I was kind of afraid of. I also managed to achieve my desired result without pricey products and tools. I'm always one to try "cheap" before splurging. I actually wasn't expecting my hair to come out so straight! Which I guess was messing with me psychologically because I then wanted to add some body, my hair is naturally thin and it's more noticeable when straight, so I decided to bantu knot it, which is something I do when doing regular twist-outs anyway. It also helps to keep your hair neat and out of the way while sleeping. I had to keep them secure with hair pins this time though since my hair was so straight. I tied on my hair net to keep it in place, then my satin bonnet to keep my hair from rubbing on my pillow case.

All done, before Bantu Knots

Knots

In the morning I undid each knot to find the cutest curl! 

 
A little Shirley Temple and such a change from my big hair of wigs, but it was cute! Then I was like, "It doesn't even look like I straightened it, why did I knot it!?" But I didn't have much time to fuss around with it, so I separated them a little, pinned back one side and was out the door. It held up well all day, the dew point was only about 30. This is the perfect time to try out these kinds of hairstyles, when the dew point is below 50. In the summer, the dew points go up and your hair curls up, which is great if that's what you want :D It's supposed to rain tomorrow, pray for me :|

In the a.m after separating the curls and pinning one side

At the end of the day, it dropped and filled out a little. Plus I played with it during the day.

Tonight I won't do the bantu knots and the rest of the week I'm going to keep fluffing and letting it do its own thing. If it gets limp, I'm going to knot it again, maybe not as tight. I'll try to put up a pic everyday. 

I don't think straightening is something I'll be doing often as I've heard of ladies losing their curl pattern because of straightening too much. Uhh, no thanks! ;)

Did a braid twist-out

Sunday night:

Pre-poo'd with Dabur Vatika Enriched Coconut Oil under a cap for about an hour
Washed with SM Raw Shea MR poo
DT- CJ Deep Fix with SM Smoothie
Steamed with Huetiful steamer
R/O- Oyin Honey Hemp
LI- Oyin Hair Dew
Used SM CE Smoothie and their hold & shine mist and did flat twists to take out in the a.m. My bangs, did bantu knots at the end of twists to shorten it to match the rest of my hair.

Yesterday, took out the twists and put some of Kyra's Ultimate Indulgence Sweet Mango Butter throughout. Parted the bangs in the middle and pinned each side. Didn't end up liking the style by the time I got to work, looked like two pony puffs at the side of my head, which I wasn't in the mood for.

Last night I picked it out and did some big braids, spritzing each section with water and a bit of Eco Styler Argan Oil gel. This morning, took out the braids and got rid of the parts with my fingers and put some of Kyra's mango butter again, but just on the canopy to tame the frizzies. The result is the picture above :)

Oyin Handmade Body Products

Oyin had a Memorial Weekend $5 sale on body products and I scooped up their After Bath Blended Body Oil and Head-to-Toe Honey Wash both in the Coco/Mango fragrance. First, I have to say that I love that these products each have dual uses, for hair and body. It definitely kills the multiple bottles in the shower that some hubbies tend to not like :D I'm in the process of trying to "kill my stash", so I'm trying to use up all the shower gels I have laying around.  Second, I love how they both smell, like that fresh natural, coconut scent. Not sure if I'm smelling any mango, but I definitely smell the virgin coconut oil that's in it.

The wash doesn't suds up a lot because it doesn't have sulfates in it, which a lot of shower gels, shampoos, bubble baths, etc, have to make them foam. Actually, none of Oyin's products have any harsh chemicals in them and by the time I get to my legs, I have to add some more to my pouf. Sometimes I mix it with other shower gels I have (Bath & Body Works for example) to get that sudsy effect that tends to go a long way. So you definitely have to use a little more than you normally would a regular shower gel with sulfates in it. The consistency is good, same as the oil, not too thick or not watery. Like most natural products, you have to make sure to shake it well since they tend to settle at the bottom.

The oil, I love how it feels on damp skin. It absorbs well and isn't too thick or watery. Your skin is left soft buy not greasy. I use it on my son's skin after his bedtime bath and I've also used it on his hair, it gives great shine. Hubby uses it on his skin and likes it too. Finally a unisex product that everyone can use! Plus since it's natural, I don't have any qualms about using it on my son. It's also recommended to use as a hot oil treatment for the hair, which I haven't done yet, as a matter of fact, I haven't used either of them on my hair as yet. That will be next! Stay tuned! ;)

Carol's Daughter Monoi Repairing Shampoo & Repairing Hair Mask- First Impression

Heyyyy, so I got samples of the above at the natural hair meet-up last Friday and used them both Saturday morning. When I first saw that the line was coming out, I was interested because anything "repairing", I want a part of, my hair is a bit damaged because I picked out my locs and didn't do a "big chop" at the new growth. I plan on trimming the damage as I go along. I absolutely love the smell of this line ever since I first smelled it when it debuted on May 9th (ummm, I just happened to be on my way to Target when I passed by the Carol's Daughter store, I swear). Anywho, the shampoo went on nicely (it's sulfate-free by the way) and made my hair soft where I was actually able to detangle with it. I put the mask on and a plastic cap for about 1/2 hour and when I washed it out, my hair didn't feel soft, it had that squeaky feel to it where you feel like if you pass a comb through it, it will break off...so I put some Oyin Handmade's Honey Hemp Conditioner in and washed it out and it was all good.  The sweet Monoi smell was gone though. Not sure if I'm a fan of that Honey Hemp orange peel smell, but let's leave that for another post, lol. I'm wondering if I used the mask too sparingly seeing as it was a trial size and maybe that's why my hair didn't feel moisturized? Not sure, but I'm going to use it up and give my final verdict when I do ;) I wish I got a sample of the conditioner, I love conditioners :)

The 8.5oz Repairing Shampoo is $18, $16.20 if you're a Carol's Daughter member, which I am because the membership was $5 at the time :D (10% discount).
The 8.5 oz Repairing Conditioner is $20, $18 for members
and
the 7 oz Repairing Hair Mask is $29, $26.10 for members

My hairstyle:
After I applied the Honey Hemp condish, I passed some Karen's Body Beautiful Heavenly Jojoba Hair Oil throughout my hair. Then I used some Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie (great natural-ingredient line and everything is $9.99 at Target) and Eco Styler Blue gel (Stockngo is the BOMB btw!) and did a two-strand flat twist on my wet hair and took it out the next day to go to another natural hair meet-up that I will post about later. My hair looked great I must say. I'm really digging the flat twist method more than the individual ones. There are less gaps and it looks more cohesive, which is ideal for my hair length right now. Chunky twist-outs look better when your hair is longer in my opinion.

How to do a two-strand flat twist-out you ask? I can't remember, but I think I got the idea from PrettyDimples01 on YouTube, I love her vids, check it out. I am entertaining the thought of starting my own vids, but I'm not sure, I feel like there are enough natural hair chica's doing hair videos, lol.