MY FAVORITE NATURAL HAIRSTYLE...

My favorite style for my hair is the Two Strand Twist. 

It's a great protective style and you get two style out of one.  After wearing the twist, you can wear a twistout.  Depending on how well your hair set, you can wear the twist out for a week or so. 

When you can do a style that keeps your hands out of your hair thats better, then combing, brushing and manipulating your hair cause that can cause stress and breakage.

I keep the hair moisturized while in the twists and twistout by applying my homemade oil on my hair at night and my homemade shea mixture day and night.  The most important thing about the oils and sheabutter: it helps when it time to take the twist down. 

For example it took me about 40 minutes to take these down and the twistout was nice.

 

I would like to share the recipe I used to install my twist.  I use this  shea butter mixture when I want the hair smooth. It helps to detangle too.  Then I don't need to use a comb or brush...just my fingers...and that means less hair lose.. 

8oz of refine shea butter

1/4cup Aloe Juice

fragrance(optional) 

Warm the Aloe Juice then mix into the Shea Butter (refined shea butter should  be soft so you shouldn't heat it)

I mix for about 5 minutes with an emulsifying mixer until its creamy...

THATS IT!!!...

HOMEMADE ANTI-ITCH SCALP OIL...

Recipe: 2oz of Almond Oil
              2oz of Castro Oil
              25 drops of Tea Tree Oil
               25 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil
               10 drops of Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil
                10 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil

I put ingredients in a recycled applicator plastic bottle. 

Every night I apply to my scalp and message in.  I found this keeps my scalp from itching.  I have no problem with flakes either. 
I sometimes add a little more cinnamon and peppermint, but not so much that it burns.  I heard that some of those ingredients stimulate the hair to grow so that's an added plus.  I'm no chemist so I don't know if there are to much essential oils or not.  I use this on my hair and have been for a long while and I appreciate not having to scratch my head.  I believe it helps my hair to grow too.  You know Rosemary is the RO in Rogaine..

Making your own hair products saves you money and you know exactly whats in it....

LAST SUMMER I STARTED THE CURLY GIRL METHOD(CGM)

While on my journey I discovered the Curly Girl Method.  I  watch utubers  that had been using this method to keep their curly kinky hair moisturized.  Everyone knows how Gray hair has the reputation of being dry.  So I was interested in this method.  I ordered the book(The Curly Girl Method..Author Lorianne Messey) on my phone and read the few pages that was dedicated to Afro American  Kinky Coily Hair.. I followed it exactly for about 3 months..
My hair have never been so moisturized.  I loved it.  Now the first  week or so my hair reacted funny.  My scalp dried and itched(I will give recipe for my anti-inch oil that I use for my scalp tomorrow.) and the hair seemed dry..I  stuck to it and to my surprise it worked better than I can say. 

Since then I modified a little but basically I do the CGM...Using this method, I use a lot of conditioner and not much shampoo. My Video when I started the CGM and a photo about 4weeks later.. Both are wash n go's.  Notice the shine in the photo...

HOW I CONCURRED THE YELLOW

I had a problem with my gray turning yellow.  The next day after getting the big chop my Teeny Weeny Afro (TWA) had a yellow tint in the front.  For the next few days I trim off the yellow until I couldn't  cut any more.  Then I bought the blue shampoo. The shampoo was ok but not the best.  It was drying my curly gray afro hair out.  But it got the yellow out.  I just added moisture, like Shea Butter, Coconut Oil and Olive Oil.  I looked around for a better shampoo and conditioner that would work on the yellow.  I found Clariol lights for Gray/Blonde hair.  I didn't have much to choose from, not saying they're not other brands out there but I couldn't find them.   Now,  with the blue shampoos I still had to wash my hair often.  I couldn't figure out why the yellow was winning.  Finally I was told by a blogger name GrayHairTwists, not to use any product with color in it and especially not Olive Oil because of the deep yellow greenish color.  Any product with color would settle in my hair and turn it yellow or give it a yellowish tint.
With that information I bought only products without color.  That was a big deal I had concurred the yellow...YES!..One thing that still was a issue was my shampoo and conditioner.
I needed to find a shampoo and conditioner that had no sulfates and para bans.  The few blue shampoos I could find had those ingredients.  Well, I got this idea..What if I add blue food coloring to my favorite shampoo and or conditioner????? Can you believe it worked for me and I've been using it in my favorite conditioner ever since..Only when I need to and there are no problems with the condition of my hair.  This video is when I first experimented with the Blue Food Coloring..

MY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY IS ALMOST HERE...

I can't believe its been more then a year since I posted.   Soon it will be 2 years since my big chop and me wearing out my GRAY hair...I remember being so self conscious then, and now I love my Silver hair.
I plan to post everyday in July.
August 1, 2013 will be my 2 year anniversary of my big chop and when I started wearing out my Gray/Silver hair.
I will share info on things I've tried that made caring for my hair easier.  I may share things that was a complete fail too.  (Trails and Errors).

Since I've been natural I don't use heat much in my hair.  Believe this. my hair now is as thick as my hair was in High School.   I've straighten my hair about 4 times in 2 years and that is usually to do a length check.  By the way, I used Crisco shortening as a heat protectant.  I didn't use a blow dryer and went though the hair once using the chase method....  It was so easy to straighten especially when properly moisturized..  

MY FAVORITE NATURAL HAIR STYLE..MINI TWO STRAND TWISTS..

My most favorite natural hairstyle is the Mini Twists.  I have been waiting for my hair to grow long enough for me to be able to twist my hair.  There are people that can do mini twisties on their hair when it is super short, but I can't.  I had to wait.  This is my second attempt doing mini's since my second big chop.     When I went natural in 09 I did mini twisties on my hair many times.  I loved it.  So last Thursday I cowashed my hair and then as a leave in conditioner I tried something called Shea Butter Conditioning Repair Cream Leave-in.  I like this product it was white and didn't stain my silver hair.  Next I started twisting, but I was in front of the TV and wasn't paying attention to the size of the twists.  The twisties are so tiny my daughter said it doen't look like I actually have twisties.  I think shes right but my hair does hang differently and looks a little different.  What do you think?

  To keep the twistie neat and moisturized I put coconut oil/shea butter and band the twisties in sections.  I throw on my bonnet and then in the morning the twisties are soft and neat....

TWIST OUT ON GRAY NATURAL HAIR.

When I do a Twist Out on my hair the hair will feel very soft and shinny.  I choose styles that will keep my hair from looking dry and wirely.  Gray hair has that reputation.  I 've notice if I moisturize and keep my hair clumped together as much as possible I can wear it loose and it will look soft and stay that way.  When I say clumped together I mean braided or twisted or something like that.  At night I make sure my hair is moist twisted  braided or tied down.  Then the next day its ready to style..

On this twist out I used Coconut Oil and Shea Moisture Leave in..for moisture.  On dampen hair I twisted my hair that night into about 12 twists.  Took about 15 minutes. 

The next morning, carefully unravel.    Using only my fingers I fluff it out and thats it..Thats all...No wirely or dried out hair....

This is my results.  I will cover at night with a bonnet and the style will last for days.....