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Using Coconut Oil on Natural Hair in Colder Weather

Posted on by Michelle

Coconut Oil for Natural Hair During Winter ww.CurlyinColorado.com

My braid out results using conditioner and coconut oil

I recently picked up one of my favorite hair products, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. I probably haven’t had any on hand in a little over a year. This went from being my staple to being something that was just okay. Somehow I stopped wanting to buy multiple bottles of oils and decided my Grapeseed and Castor oils were all I needed. Lately though I started to consider the fact that something seemed very different about my hair. This made me think back to some of the things I did or used at the start of my journey. That’s when I realized that it had been ages since I used coconut oil on my hair.

Coconut oil can have many benefits for the hair. The one that I was most concerned about was the oil’s ability to moisturize the hair. This is because it’s made up of tiny molecules that are small enough to penetrate through the cuticle layer. I picked some up at my local natural grocery store, Sprouts, without another thought. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that, in the past, I tried to stay away from coconut oil during the colder months. Why? Well, it was because of the fact that the oil had a tendency to solidify at lower temperatures which could lead to hard hair. This happened to me the first week I started using it again. I tried it as a sealant after spritzing my hair with leave-in conditioner diluted with plain water. I did this for a few days in a row before braiding my hair up into two french braids. When I took my hair down on wash day I noticed that weird, hard feeling. My ends felt like straw.

FIND OUT HOW I FRENCH BRAID MY HAIR

After that I figured maybe I would just use it for deep conditioning or hot oil treatments. Until one night when I decided to use it with my Aussie Moist conditioner for a braid out. I applied the conditioner to my freshly washed and conditioned hair and then sealed with the coconut oil. I then took medium sized sections and spritzed with water before smoothing the hair with my denman brush and braided it into plaits. Let me tell you, my hair was so soft and defined even I couldn’t believe the results! Just two products and I ended up with a braid out that was photoshoot worthy. That’s when I realized that the coconut oil worked for me as long as I used it on wet hair without too much product buildup. Now my hair is back in love with my old bestie and I plan on keeping up with it during the rest of my No Heat Challenge. Hopefully this will give me an extra moisture boost during these harsh winter months.

Changing My Hair Routine for the Winter Months

Posted on by Michelle

Making changes to my Wash n’ Go routine
for the winter months

This is the time of year where we start to make changes in a lot of ways. Sometimes the drier weather may call for heavier products for the hair and skin. This has been the case for me lately as I have had to make adjustments to my hair routine to make up for the lack of moisture. Normally I’m able to do my wash n’ go style with just two products. I like to use my favorite leave-in, Paul Mitchell’s The Conditioner with Eco Styler gel (the Argan oil one). Right around early October I could tell that my usual combo was not working like it did over the summer. I decided to add a little Castor oil to seal in moisture before applying the gel. This helped some, but still wasn’t quite what my hair needed.

I started leaving conditioner in my hair that I would normally rinse out. The Tresseme Naturals conditioners worked great for this but sometimes I used the Aussi Moist conditioner. Both products were thick, rich and gave lots of slip. The Aussi Moist even worked as a styler on it’s own and gave me lots of curl definition. The only thing though with using conditioner only was that I didn’t get as much wear out of the style. With Eco gel added I could go 4 to 5 days before having to re-do my hair. With conditioner as my styler, I’m lookin’ at two days tops.

I finally settled on applying a little of the Tresseme conditioner to my hair for a moisture boost. Then I’ll apply a little bit of the Paul Mitchell leave-in to each section I’m working on. I seal in the moisture with a quarter size amount of castor oil for each section. Finally, I re-wet my hair by spritzing water on the sections before applying the gel for hold. It’s taken me a few weeks to figure this new method out but it seems to be working a lot better for me. The added moisture makes my hair shrink up more but that’s a good thing so I welcome it.

Natural Hair Now–Stores Are Taking Notice

Posted on by Michelle

NEW Product Display at Sally’s Beauty Supply
geared towards Customers with Natural Hair

When I started transitioning in the summer of 2008 (well relaxer stretching that led to transitioning), there wasn’t a lot of products available locally for natural or curly hair. That was fine by me because thanks to YouTube and online hair forums I found a lot of information on how to make my own. I learned all about making whipped shea butter, sulfate free shampoo and hair oil mixes. I pretty much tried everything. Then one day I discovered a natural hair product line called Kinky Curly. On YouTube ladies were raving about the curl definition the Curling Custard gave and did tutorials on how to use it. It also had natural ingredients so I thought it would work great for me. Then I saw the price. This is where I started shakin’ my head. Just because the product stated it used all natural ingredients meant I had to fork over thirty bucks?! No maa’m, I didn’t feel the need.

Loads of Curly/Natural Hair products now
available at Walmart

Since then there have been lots of other products lines that have come onto the scene. All of them using the words, “natural,” “curly,” and sometimes “organic,” to hook new customers. The thing that made me really start considering paying for one of these products, was the availability. Yes, I’m that lazy person who doesn’t really want to go through the process of ordering something unless I KNOW it’s the bomb. I remember though stopping dead in my tracks the first time I saw Miss Jessie’s, Kinky Curly and Shea Moisture hair products in my local Target store. Seeing the items every week while doing my regular shopping was very tempting.

The selection for Curly and Natural hair products has probably tripled since then. I even found a full display of products once only available online in Walmart! Even Sally’s is trying to catch some notice by moving these products from the back of the store towards the middle (where the other products for “ethnic” hair began).

If I were newly natural right now, I would probably be a total PJ (a.k.a Product Junkie). The displays in stores hold so much styling pomade, cremes and whipped concoctions that it must be really hard filtering through all of that. Thankfully though I have gotten past the stage of trying things out to see what works. I pretty much know what works for me and I’m sticking to that. Still, I just find it funny how stores spent years practically hiding hair products for us somewhere in the back or on bottom shelves and now they’re on full display.

What do you think about stores changing it up in the hair product aisle? Are they viewing Natural Hair as a trend to make money from or is this going to last?

From Wash n’ Go to Braid Out

Posted on by Michelle

For Memorial Day I decided to wear a wash n’ go because it’s seemed to be the easy thing to do with my hair. I had a few errands to run but still managed to fix myself up before heading out. One of the things I tried was stretching my roots with the blowdryer for the look of more length. My hair was still damp when I was done so it shrunk up a little. Still, I was pretty happy with the end result.

Later that evening, I wanted to co-wash my hair and re-style the wash n’ go which meant re-applying all of the products and waiting for it to dry. Instead, I decided to just kick back and watch Youtube while braiding my hair up for a braid out. I was surprised this morning to see the amount of definition I had. I was also happy with the look of length I got without having to use any heat this time.

There was already plenty of product in my hair from the wash n’ go so I just spritzed each section with a little water before braiding it into plaits. I then spritzed a little more water on the ends and twisted with my fingers to get a slight curl. The product in my hair helped with this step. I didn’t even have to use a comb or denman brush. I just stretched my hair with my fingers and detangled a little here and there. It was almost too easy!

WATCH MY WASH N’ GO ROUTINE ON YOUTUBE

I’m beginning to see a routine forming here. I can totally see myself wearing my wash n’ go’s for a few days and then turning them into braid outs when they start to get a little fuzzy. I hope this is the case because I get the feeling my hair needs a more simplified routine and this may be it. What’s funny is the fact that this is what I used to do during my first year natural. Now I’m not sure why I

ever stopped.

Wash n’ Go on Memorial Day

Braid out the next day

My Easy Ponytail Roller Set

Posted on by Michelle

I sometimes get discouraged with my hair when I see those little tiny fairy knots on the ends. Single strand knots (SSKs) can cause a lot of trouble because they tend to catch on hair strands and cause tangles. Since I won’t be doing any major cuts on my hair this year (fingers crossed) I figured I should try my best to keep the knots to a minimum.

Since I sometimes use heat on my hair I can tell it still has lots of curl and shrinkage but is slightly more manageable than if I had skipped the heat altogether. I tend to think that this factor has contributed to my success with roller setting lately. The drying time is still the same but I can sometimes get away with using larger sections than I used to. I thought maybe I would put my theory to the test by doing a ponytail roller set using only a few ponytail sections. Instead of doing 4 ponytails down the middle (like a mohawk) and 4 more sections along the sides, I just used 4 large ponytail sections; 2 in front and 2 in back. I then split each ponytail in half and rolled each section. I also placed 2 individual rollers for the bangs. My new method only took 4 ponytails and 10 rollers which is much easier and still gave me great results.

Since my main objective right now is to keep my hair stretched this method will work just fine. It keeps my ends smooth so I don’t have to worry about them knotting up on me. Not only that, it also takes a lot less time to get all of the rollers in. Now that I have this figured out I can use this method to stretch my hair before doing protective styles like buns and up-dos.