Commercial or Homemade?

Are you a “mixtress” or do you prefer to purchase commercial products? I don’t think of myself as a mixtress but I have come to realize that I have mixed up quite a few hair potions since going natural. As you may know, I devote Friday’s to posting hair recipes for those interested in mixing their own hair brews. So, how many of you like to do that? Do you do it frequently or only occasionally? What type of products do you make? Have you had failures and did they keep you from trying other hair mixes?

In recollecting what things I have attempted to mix up for my hair, here is the list I came up with: pre-poos with honey or molasses added, hair spritzes, hair conditioners using food items, whipped shea butter hair moisturizer (I ended up giving to my mother), baking soda rinses, herbal ACV rinses, henna treatments, bentonite clay treatments and hair oil (mixture of 3 oils known to penetrate the hair shaft – check here and here)

Here is what I learned from those experiments: (1) Honey and molasses are messy! (2) Some foods are hard to rinse out of your hair so now if I need to use banana I substitute for the jarred baby food instead and if I am using avocado, I puree it in the blender first. (3) In the future, I will probably only use unrefined shea butter and coconut oil to make my hair moisturizer. (4) I want to try infusing herbs into my hair oil mix for added benefits.

Mixing up a “hair tonic” can be both fun and fulfilling. If you’ve previously had some unfavorable results, I encourage you to give it another shot. I like making my own products for time to time but I will always purchase some commercial items – hey, I’m still a product junkie in recovery :-)

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

Friday's Formula: Banana Smoothie for hair

Happy Friday everyone! There are many recipes that Naturally Leslie credits getting from this site but I have personally tried this one (with some minor tweaks) and loved the results. Hope you will venture to try this one also.

Combine:
1 mashed banana (I used jarred banana baby food)
1 full egg
3 T honey
3 T milk (I used plain yogurt)
5 T olive oil

Mix together well and apply to hair. Leave for 15-30 minutes and wash out with a gentle shampoo.

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

Study Hall: Information Overload

Hope the mid-week has found you well. I may have gotten a bit carried away on this one but I wanted to list as many hair forums as I could (I’m sure this isn’t a complete list). If you are not currently a member of any hair boards, this is a great way to socialize, receive and give support, and obtain general hair care/hair styling information. Please check these out!

Afrobella

Black Hair Media

Black Hair Planet

cNappymeNow

Diaspora Hair Care

Hair Boutique

HairFinity

Hairlista Inc.

Happy Curls

Keep It Simple Sista (KISS)

Long Hair Care Forum

Nappturality

Naturally Curly

I know I have only been focusing on “Information Overload” but I will get to the “Book Club” segment of my Study Hall posts in the near future.

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

* You can click on the “study hall” label in the right-hand column to read posts you have missed

Let's do the twist. . . (part III)

Twists no more! It was a disaster waiting to happen. Ok, I’m not even going to get into the detailed ordeal. Lesson learned here. . . my natural hair + yaki hair for twisted style + my plan for daily maintenance = BIG NO NO! I dare not take pics of the hot mess on my head when I spritzed my twists today, lol.

I warned you that I was no pro in the hair scene. Just know that during the week, section by section, I will be braiding the twists down to the ends in an attempt to salvage some of the hard work I did over the weekend. The style was unraveling too much for me to leave them as twists and I think this will look a bit better than what I finished with on Sunday. I’ll see if I can keep these in for longer than the 3 weeks I had originally anticipated.

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily

Let's do the twist. . . (part II)

As promised, I've included my process and pics from my last post. I washed and deep conditioned my hair and allowed it to air dry (80% dry). Then, I applied a moisturizer and blow dried my hair.


I used a total of 2 and 1/2 bags of Yaki synthetic hair that I cut in half. I needed a rattail comb for parting, hair clips, Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera gel and lots of patience! I started the twists off as braids instead of twists. I don't know how long it took me but I did it over the course of Saturday and finished the rest on Sunday.


I think I may keep them in for about three weeks but we shall see. During that time, I will spray my hair daily with a water-based leave in conditioner and wrap my hair up at night. I will cleanse my scalp/hair with diluted shampoo every week while I have the twists (after I put them in 4 loose cornrows). Please share your input and suggestions.


Thanks for reading. Be blessed!


CallaLily

Let's do the twist. . .

Senegalese twists! :-)

Sorry for the late Sunday post. This weekend was my first attempt at doing twists extensions on my hair. Since my hair styling patience is usually short-lived, I was not eager to tackle this project but I decided to "bite the bullet" and do it anyway. I am pleased that I stuck with it to the end (I wanted to quit several times during the process) but not as pleased with the results. It was good for my first try but I don't think I will be keeping these in that long.

I promise that I will come back at you tomorrow with my pics and process so stay tuned. . .

Thanks for reading. Be blessed!

CallaLily