Hello there!

Anyone still around..Wow..Its's been a while...
Nice to see new followers. HIIIIIII thanks for stopping by and following.  So good to see you all
I am still natural. Plus my new little baby as well. :D
Natural hair and it's products has really exploded into something else these past few years.

Accessibility really isn't problem. If at all the market looks oversaturated with so many products out there from the niche to mainstream established manufacturers all trying to get a slice of the natural hair care market.

I still use some of my old favourites. But some new faves have sneaked in, some others I'm not so fussy about. I'd say the only thing still consistent in my routine is still being a wash and go girl. That is still my main way of wearing my hair. Still and always will feel just right for me.

Can't wait to fill you more on what products I have been loving.. :D

Chat soon!

Review: Darcy's Botanicals Natural Coils Curling Jelly

I got this as swap from a forum member on British Curlies. She was offering it at a discounted price so I moved in for the kill.  Was it worth it? Read on…

Regular Price: £10.95 for 8oz.

Availability: British curlies and Etsy. Only available online in the UK.

Ingredients shown in picture below: 

Packaging: It comes in a simple white jar with a white screw top. I personally think the packaging was inadequate. Which brings me to my next point.

The Texture: Very liquidy snotty texture, infact so liquidy that I ended up pouring out the jelly into my hands everytime I need some. Otherwise dipping my hands into the jar would have been as useful as dipping my hands into a jar full of water. On that note I must say this. Do not let the watery texture of this jelly fool you. With this stuff a little went a long way for me.

Scent: I didn’t feel like mine smelled of anything. I think I must have got the unscented version. Despite this  I believe I  still got a faint whiff of something that reminded me of paper glue. The faintness I actually liked because it gave my leave-in conditioner olfactory dominance.

Darcy's Botanicals Natural Coils Curly Jelly On my hair..

Pros: 

On applying this to my hair with my leave-in i.e. Hawaiian silky gel activator +castor oil + aloe vera gel mix, it seemed to get absorbed into my hair almost immediately. I liked that it gave a tiny bit of slip. It dried fairly quickly around my ends, but about 3-4hours later it was mostly 80% dry. It did not give me a flash dry effect. There was no crunch, but there was a light hold. I got second day hair with this. On the second day, my hair had about ½ its definition and some hold.

In terms of elongation, it did not offer any of that. My hair shrunk, but stayed in place.

Cons:

Flaking - I noticed some flakiness whiteness around my part section where I may have possibly being a bit heavy handed.

Price - I wish this was £10.99 for 16oz rather than 8oz. If it was I would put this in my staples list.

Repurchasing probability - I liked the light hold and effectiveness of this jelly. But I shall only re-purchase this if it is on sale at a cheaper price. Because I have other stylers which are just as effective and cheaper.

If you are looking for a  styling product with stellar natural ingredients or a stickler for natural ingredients in your hair products .Then I would recommend this product to you.

Style & Go! - The Start of A Damp/Dry Styling Routine??

So I've been feeling a bit under as I've been having some bad bouts of hayfever and not been to the gym this week. I usually go 2-3 times a week and coincide those days with wash and re-styling. Since I usually want to rinse/wash all the sweat off my scalp.
Today I didn't go to the gym and did not feel like washing my 3rd day hair but my hair was frizzing up all over - I guess "medium- hold" Kiss My Face Upper Management Gel can only last so long (review coming by the way).
I suppose another propeller for this action was Taliah, she had convinced me at the Afro Hair & Beauty Show that styled, defined coils were best achievable on dry Type 4 hair.

So I decided to try a quick re-style on damp hair 1st. Why damp and not dry? I simply like to moisturise my hair with water every day. I used this as an opportunity to lightly hydrate Dafro, but not saturate her .

I also wanted to spot test a couple of curl cremes - Trevor Sorbie's original curl cream and Boots pink curl creme. I used a light gel in this case the Aldi Carino purple gel.  I used a light gel because I was basically refreshing over pre-styled hair that still had some gel left over and did not want to over do the gel situation.

Results of styling on damp nearly dry hair.
To date this method of applying gel onto 2nd/3rd nearly dry hair has been great at producing longer lasting excellent definition.  I'm also the type whom likes twists/twist outs on damp/ semi-dry hair because of better elongation.
So the same principle could be applied here.
A winning method for even more defined coils especially in areas usually hard to define. More elongation on day 1 hair. Basically the kind of elongated and bigger hair you get on day 2 is the type you could get on day 1 with this method.
As for the curl cremes.. they didn't do much for me. The Aldi carino purple gel gave a soft hold.

Have you damp or dry styled? What have been your results?
This method is a Keeper. Currently I've taking to re-styling on 2nd day hair for better definition and elongation which lasts the rest of the week for me.

HOW TO FINGER DETANGLE: FINGER DETANGLING 101 FOR AFRO COILY KINKY HAIR

I've been finger-detangling my hair almost exclusively for almost 2 years now. Matted roots? No. Time-consuming, I think not.  I do it regularly and love it.

How I finger detangle:

1.) I part my hair into 4/6 sections.

2.) Dampen or wet my hair with water and soak it in conditioner/oil/both. (Recently I've also taken to adding a tblspn of ACV to approximately 250ml of conditioner to calm down frayed cuticles)

3.) Then I position my head under the shower stream. The shower does a wonderful job of helping me push/flush most of the shed hair out. I don’t have a problem with matting, because I work my way upwards from ends to roots. Below is a pictorial of what I simply do. 

                                                      FINGER DETANGLING 101.

The Clap: Self-explanatory. This is a great smoothing method and also a quick means of gently pulling out shed hairs freely hanging within the other strands. I gently pull on the ends between my palms and work my way up. During lazy mid-week co-rinses I simply use this method, working with the gravitational push of the shower stream

The Separate: I believe is more popular and common. Better on dry/damp hair hair than wet hair. Here you piece apart the hair strands until you come across knots in between. When a knot is spotted you focus on the gently untangling that knot with some extra oil/detangler/slippy conditioner. Personally I don't do this too often as it really does take the longest time for me.

Here is another Type 4 Coily head finger-detangling with a virtually identical method and very similar hair texture to mine. - Earthy Delight.
                             


The Half-Rake: termed half by myself because I don't rake entirely through a section. I use my other hand to provide some tensile strength to my fragile strands and use the other to gently rake through starting from the bottom and working my way up, then switch to work on the other unraked side (Does that make sense). Obviously the other hand proves to be redundant as soon as I get closer to my scalp.

The Claw: I use this to gently pull out shed hair from the ends. Holding onto a section with my other hand for additional tensile strength and less strain on my fragile hair strands. I also use a similar method to fluff out my hair, with the exception of the other gripping hand when re-shaping 2nd day hair.

                     

After all that. Below is the end-result. 

.

'Minging' looking shed hair.

The benefits for me and finger-detangling have been:

• A reduction in frayed ends, my ends looked thicker.
• A reduction in the number of  broken shorter strands I would see after each detangling session. 
• A much  better realization and understanding of her fragility and reactions to products. (
I can easily 'feel' how Dafro reacts to certain products as I use them). 
• General ease and simplicity in this method. It’s tremendously much easier to handle my hair, I don’t dread washing it - infact I look forward to it. It's another major reason why I am able to rock the wng style with ease.

So I guess finger-detangling/finger-combing works for me ; /

If you finger-detangle what technique works for you?

Wash & Go Trials On Afro Coily Kinky Hair 10: Garnier Fructis Survivor Gel & Castor/AVG/Curl activator mix

I applied this to my wet hair with a LI mix of a dab of curl activator, Aloe vera gel & castor oil. My definition was on point with application. I even saw some grouped coils on my crown region which almost never coils/clumps for anything!
But man! When it dried, I was not ready for the CRUNCH!! My hair was HARD! 
In the mornings I would spray a glycerin/oil/water mix to re-shape my hair and it always suprisingly moulded back into place easily. I easily got 5day hair with this and could have easily kept going. The only thing is that my hair just didn't feel nice to touch initially. It felt hard to touch and would not scrunch out easily with just any oil. (After a few days it naturally relented it's hold). After this trial I resigned this gel for use only with very heavy leave-in conditioners or as a finisher.

Review: Garnier Fructis Style Ultimate Survivor Gel with Cactus Extract

This Garnier survivor gel is not for the faint-hearted it really does have an extreme hold
This gel is serious stuff. If you can't stand hard hold gels, I suggest you stop here.

Garnier Fructis Style Survivor Gel ensures 24-hour hold even in the most extreme conditions. Contains extracts from the cactus plant and a citrus fragrance combined with the non-drying formula keeps hair styled, strong and residue free

Smell: Light citrusy scent. I find it pleasant.


Price: 200ml for £2.50-£3.50 from ASDA/Boots/Tesco/Superdrug. Usually on offer 2 for 1 at Superdrug/ASDA

Texture: pearlescent opaque with a slight grey tone. Not sticky, mucousy or gummy. Almost seems to disappear between my wet palms as I rub them together


Ingredients: Aqua, Polyester-5, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Phenoxyethanol, PEG-40 Hydrogenated castor oil, PEG-70 Mango Glycerides, Triethanolamine, Limonene, Benzyl alcohol, Linalool, Propylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Acylates/Steareth-20 Methacrylate copolymer, Pyrus Malus Extract/Apple Fruit Extract, Sorbitol, Disodium EDTA, Citral, Citrus medica, Limonum extract/Lemon Fruit Extract, Opuntia Coccinellifera Extract/Opuntia Ficus-Indica Flower Extract,Amyl Cinnamal, Parfum/Fragrance (FIL C47405/1)
(Actual ingredients on my tubes. I have noticed varying ingredients online.)

Application on my hair: it went on quite tame-like, giving me no indication of its powers apart from showing me some serious coiling/clumping upon application.

This gel did not seem to have a lot of reviews online for women's hair not to talk of afro kinky coily natural hair. I reckon that it may not be considered by most ladies, as going by the video ads alone this gel appears to be  marketed and targeted to mainly men, or people wanting to create 'spiked styles'

 
Garnier Fructis Survivor gel is most likely one of the hardest gels I have tried to date. It claims to resist humidity and frizz and holds that promise.  Even after I went to the gym and had a rigorous sweat-fest my hair was still defined. Most gels would render my hair a straight up fro after a session at the gym. To put this into a better perspective for some ladies- this leaves Ecostyler gel -Krystal (hold 10) behind in the dust.

When it dries, the CRUNCH is CRAZY!! My hair gets very HARD! 
So hard that when I lay my head on my pillow at night I would hear my hair rustling ! In the mornings I would spray a glycerin/oil/water mix to re-shape my hair and it always suprisingly moulded back into place easily. I easily got 5day hair with this and could have easily kept going. The only thing is that my hair just didn't feel nice to touch initially. It felt hard to touch and would not scrunch out easily with just any oil. (After a few days it gradually relented it's hold).

Another surprising property of this gel was how it rinsed out extremely easily with just water from hair. My hair did not feel sapped of moisture or parched as I rinsed.If using this alone I'll be recommending that one uses a much heavier leave-in. (Do the combo test on hand for potential white residue)
The Survivor gel has indeed survived and gradually snuck itself into my styling routine as a 'top-upper'/finisher. Basically after I use most gels to style a wash & go. I apply a wee bit of this on the top of my crown to address the harder to define and easy to frizz areas.

I would really recommend this if you are serious about making your wng style last for ages.This gel would guarantee that longevity  If you want your coils/curls/kinks to stay controlled with military obedience then this gel will do exactly that for you..Plus a little will go a long way. Otherwise, If you can't stand the crunch then run!...... Far away as fast as you can. 

My hair with Garnier Fructis Survivor Gel.

2012 Afro Hair Beauty Show Review & Haul

Afro Show catwalk

1st floor at show centre

It was my 1^st time going to the show, so I went fairly neutral. We went on the 1^st day fairly early as my friend and I had other obligations later on in the day. On arrival at the front door we were met with umbrella bags for our umbrellas. Great reception! Went past security, after checking in with our tickets the samples galore began. It was fairly quiet so it was easy for us to circumvent through most of the floor (which wasn’t a lot ) quickly.

PAK reps (seemed like they were major sponsors) were 1^st to go offering us a mysterious bag supposedly worth £25 worth of products for £5. (Errr nah thanks, dunno what’s in there mate!!). Then it was Miss Jessie’s offering us samples in this fairly dinky orange bag, containing a great mix of their products. We saw the Fair & White Stand looking very quiet (Good!). Walked past that them and were met with the biggest display of Miss Jessies. Miss Jessie’s really did it BIG at the Afro Show. You could see they were intent on making their presence known because by the end of the day. Their orange sample bags were on every corner of the Business Design centre. Their marketing strategy was on point! They had a massive stand complete with salon equipment and all. Funny enough they did not have an actuall stand selling their full sized products. I guess the intent was to demonstrate and create the interest. The sisters themselves were styling clients and demonstrating how to use their products.

£10 for the JC butters?!Unbelievable! The stand attendant had the loveliest WNG fro. She claimed to get that with the curl defining creme.

Mixed chicks repping with discounts!

I noticed a lot of stands aimed at natural hair, plus my friend and I, her with her big twistout and myself with my puff did not pass by unnoticed as they called out to us to try their wares. I liked that there was no demarcation between stalls and stands aimed at natural hair were represented by the likes of Curls, Taliah Waajid (whom was so lovely and humble in person offering great deals), Jane Carter (Amazing deals), Mixed Chicks, Gidore, Beautiful Textures, Sof n Free with their Nothing But Line, ORS with their Curls Unleashed line, MmmHair , Regular brother selling massive tubs of shea butter/oils/scents and the likes.

Taliah herself, demonstrating how to shingle her curl product on dry hair. (I'll be trying that soon!)

Sleek stand

Sleek stylist working on the blue wig

Gidore stand

Sleek Hair also did their thing with another massive stand showcasing stylists doing clients weaves and wigs. I was looking out for their makeup/ makeup brushes but Sleek seemed to offer mainly their hairpieces. 

Loved the marketing tactic on this one. Nice skirt! 

I didn’t notice a lot of makeup stands, I believe I only spotted two. Neither of which I can remember. There was a nail bar right at the back corner. Jewellry by Ry-va. African woman magazine stand, African candy (which unfortunately still wasn’t open by 2pm when we were set to leave). Startup fashion designers were also present showcasing their work on the fashion runway but I didn’t stay too long to watch that as I wasn’t interested in the pieces.

I left with loads of samples, pamphlets, great discounted buys, so it’s quite fair to say that this year’s show was definitely done with natural hair ladies in mind. I hope the trend continues and grows and would be more than happy to visit again next year.

REVIEW & COMPARISON ECOSTYLER GELS

I know there are thousands of reviews on the infamous ecostyler gel. But I thought I'd add my two cents on the variant properties of the majority I have tried. So folks curious about the other Eco-varieties will know how they compare...

Ecostyler is popular due to it's price per quantity, availability and efficiency (depending on what you need it to do..)

So here goes..

BLUE (HOLD 5) : Smells like men’s shower gel. You know that smell that companies feel they need to give ‘blue’ coloured sports-themed showergels/shampoos/conditioners. Yah. That one. It isn’t overpowering, so I don’t mind it.  It dries with some firmness and the slightest hint of a crunch with a light leave-in. Not sufficient enough to smooth down my edges for a pulled back style like a bun or updo. Life-span for wash & go styles is not as long as life-span for gels with greater holds of 7 -10.

 

PINK (HOLD 7): smells like tea-tree oil. I guess because it’s supposed to come with an anti-itch formula. Clearly has anti-itching agents in ingredients. So that comes through. Gives good sheen.

 

ARGAN (HOLD 10): my favourite scent of all. Sweet light “flowery-ness”. I love the scent! Gives great sheen to my hair infact gives the best sheen out of all the gels for me. Dries with a crunch for wash & go styles if layered with a light leave in.

 

CLEAR (HOLD 10): Doesn’t smell of anything that I can remember. Keeps edges down. Dries with a crunch for wash & go if used with a light leave-in.

 

OLIVE (HOLD 10): smells like men’s cologne. Gives good sheen. Keeps edges down. Dries with a crunch for wash & go if used with a light leave-in.

I haven’t tried the black version. Simply because I have no interest in it. My favourite gel is the Pink for it’s minimised hold but efficiency in dealing with my slicked back styles and Argan oil, for it’s scent.

The hold of the harder hold gels can easily be scrunched out with some oil/pomade or powder rubbed between the palms. These gels tend to give me fat clumps, which unfortunately frizz up in a couple of days for me.They are easy to rinse out in my opinion, infact I actually like the slimy feel left on my hair as it is rinsed out! Why? Because it aids in finger-detangling. I also think these gels are great for the CG method if you are trying that. They form a great gel-cast around the hair thereby protecting the hair from environmental elements.

What’s your favourite gel?

BRITISH CURLIES SALE

Heads up!!
British Curlies is having a sale to mark their 4th year anniversary! It starts from the 26th till 28th!/ Till stocks last!

The Drying Series 1: How To Diffuse Afro Coily Kinky Hair.

Or rather, How I diffuse my hair.
One of the most common complaints of ladies trying to wash, style and go is how long the hair takes to dry. With popular products such as KCCC, Ecostyler gel drying times can take a day and a half to dry.
That need not be the case, unless you prefer to stay away from heat entirely.
I tend to diffuse if I need to be somewhere ASAP or sometimes if I just don't want to be stuck with a damp/wet heat for the most part of the day. In this pic tutorial I was using Queen Helen Curl Shaping Creme, a product heavily composed with humectants. For this reason, I decided to diffuse because I just didn't want to be stuck with a wet-head for most of the day, as experienced with humectant heavy stylers in the past.
I use a simple blow-dryer. The particular brand is Kokou. I picked this up from the local hair shop priced around £20 or so.

It's a hair-dryer, it's supposed to have grease marks!

The diffuser attachment I got from a local Sally's. Priced around £10.
I got a large cup, because I liked the idea of covering a larger surface area, as I felt that would take less time.

Attachment orifice

Separate components

Combined components

There really isn't an exact science but more of a strategy in how I choose to dry.
I dry on the warm setting in each section for about 20 seconds. I start with the crown area and work my way round in a spiral fashion around my head leaving my extremities last.

Warm setting control. Black = Cool, Red = Hot

I start and focus mainly at the crown because that usually takes the longest to dry. I don't linger so much around the extremities/edges, because they usually air-dry the quickest.

Diffuser cup further away on warm

Head bent upside down to show starting area.

Direction I diffuse around my head

Why tip your head upside-down? To create more volume on the top and prevent the flat-head-helmet head look. (No offense if that is what you go for.)
Then I use the cool setting to help close the cuticles and encourage better definition. I bring the cup much closer to my hair mimicking a scrunching method.

Diffuser much closer to 'scrunch' on cool.

               

                                                       Results...

Before diffusing (flash)

        Immediately after diffusing (flash)

  In sunlight afterwards (no flash)