Curly in Colorado

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?

Finally on Facebook and Instagram

Posted on by Michelle

I know I’m pretty late on this but bear with me. I started a page on Facebook sometime ago but was never really sure how to keep it separate from all of my other Facebook ongoings. My friends and family already hear enough about my hair as it is and I didn’t want to blast them with it on there too. So the Facebook page for my blog was born but then it just sat for a while. Fast forward to this fall, where I’ve been a lot more productive for some reason and got back to this whole social media thing.

I also decided to start an account on Instagram because I really like photography. I figured it would be a fun way to update my YouTube subscribers on some of the daily styling I do with my hair. Since I upgraded to a new phone I thought it was a good time to check it out. I have since found out that there is a ton of stuff to see on Instagram and I’m having a lot of fun with it.

MY VIDEO INTRODUCING MY SUBSCRIBERS TO MY FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM

I’ll be using the two social media sites to keep everyone up to date on what is going on during my four month No Heat Challenge which will take us into early 2014. For now I’m just enjoying my new “online life”.

My Staple Hair Products

Posted on by Michelle

As a follow-up to my No Heat Challenge video, I decided to let everyone know what hair products I’ll be using over the next few months. It turns out that I feel the most comfortable sticking with what I know. That brings us to what I would consider my “Staple” products. These are the things that I keep coming back to after trying other products. Sure, sometimes I like to change things up a bit, but right now I have this desire to just keep it simple.

MY YOUTUBE VIDEO ABOUT THE HAIR PRODUCTS

I’LL BE USING FOR THE

4 MONTH NO HEAT CHALLENGE

One thing I want to mention, that is not shown in the video, are my moisturizers. I’m still in love with the Hollywood Beauty Olive Creme but I’m also using the Elasta QP Mango and Olive moisturizer. Otherwise, everything else is in the video. You can also take a look at what’s listed in the tab above named “Hair Regimen” to see some of the things I do on a weekly basis.

4 Month No Heat Challenge

Posted on by Michelle

Finally! I’m gonna stop being stubborn and just own up to the fact that using heat on my hair is keeping me from achieving greater lengths. I had my suspicions of this earlier this year but now I’ve decided to put myself to the test. Even though I like the look of straight hair, I’m going to go without using my flat iron until February of 2014. This may sound like a walk in the park to those of you who gave up straight hair a long time ago. For me though, I’ve actually kept up with wearing my hair straight every other month. Sometimes I even straighten twice in the same month.

Of course I saw how other naturals who were gaining two to three inches of growth every time they decided to lay of the heat for a 4-6 month break. Still, I kept up with the same regimen hoping that maybe my light protein treatments would rescue my curls. After having to trim some loose curls last month I decided that that was the final straw. Using heat means I’m gonna be up for a trim so the more I use it, the more hair I lose. I just can’t keep doing it so it’s time for me to step away from the flat iron and just style my hair in other ways. Here’s a video discussing the, “rules,” for my personal no heat challenge. Feel free to join in!

4 MONTH NO HEAT CHALLENGE

Tresemme Naturals Conditioner Formula Change and Back Again

Posted on by Michelle

Old formula and New formula (black label & top)
on the shelves side by side

I never even saw it coming and, up until now, was in denial. Yes, my beloved go-to, all around
conditioner made a change to its’ formulation. The conditioner in question is from the Tresemme Naturals line. I’ve always liked the Nourishing Moisture one but the Radiant Volume conditioner was also pretty good. The first I heard of the change was a few months ago on an online hair forum. At the time not many people were aware of it and were still wondering if the conditioner was still pretty much the same. From the looks of it, the new ingredients list made for a drastically different product and even a change in the consistency.

OLD INGREDIENTS LIST
Water(Aqua,EU), Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Carprylic/Capric Tryglerceride, Stearmidopropyl Diemthlyamine, Fragrance (Parfum) Lauroyl lysine, Carprylyl Glycol, Brassica Campestris/Aleurites Fordi oil Copolymer,Aspartic acid, Distearyldimonium chloride,Persea Gratissima (Avocado) oil, Citric Acid, Alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, aloe barbadensis leaf juice.

Why change an already good product? Well, the Alberto Culver company (VO5, Noxema etc.) was recently taken over by Unilever Corporation (Suave, St. Ives etc.). The new owners of the Tresemme brand decided to change things up a bit. This was probably an attempt to save money on ingredients. However, if you head over to the reviews page for this product on their website, you’ll find that many people expressed their negative views on the change.

Apparently the new company is listening and started putting the old formula back on the shelves with a minor change to the packaging. There is now a pump installed on the bottle but supposedly the conditioner inside is the same as before. I say, “supposedly” because I have yet to compare the current ingredient list with the old version (see above). Once I get this confirmation then I’ll be more than happy to pick up a couple of bottles because this is my staple conditioner we’re talkin’ about here!

On a side note, over the summer, I found out that my hair absolutely loves Aussie Moist conditioner. It’s very rich and has loads of slip so I will most likely be deep conditioning and detangling with that in the meantime. It sometimes has a weird reaction with hair gel though so I have to make sure to rinse it completely before styling. However, I did find out that it works well for conditioner only styling so it’s already pretty far up on my favorites list right now. If I can’t find my favorite version of the Tresemme I guess this will have to be my new go-to conditioner. I’ll keep you posted on what I find.

UPDATE 10/2/13-I picked up the old formula recently in a new bottle with a pump on top at Walmart. Not all stores carry it yet but I’m just glad that my staple conditioner is back on the shelves!