nappylove

Curly Pudding!!!

No, not Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding, the substitute recipe I got from Nappturality's Homemade Hair Products forum.  The recipe calls for about 12 ounces of curl activator gel, 3 ounces of oil (Castor, Olive, etc.), 4 oz. of Fruit of the Earth Vitamin E oil gel (or Aloe Vera gel), and essential oils.

Since I only wanted to try it, I just got a little bowl and added a scoop of curl activator (S-curl Lite), a squirt of Aloe Vera and a couple capfuls of castor oil.  I didn't add any essential oils, but I should have because curl activator doesn't have the best smell.  I used a bobby pin to mix it up and this is what I got.

I co-washed my hair, blotted and applied a moderate amount all over my hair.  My hair did turn white, but I was kinda expecting that.  I worked it in, shook it out and...curls!  Well, at least in the front.  The hair in the back of my head is a different texture than the hair in the front.  Ain't too much curling go on back there.  The curly pudding weighed it down and it was looser, just not curly.  My normal puff looks like  this.  After the faux curly pudding kinda dried, my hair didn't have as much shrinkage as it normally does.  I had a big curly puff!

I liked it, though I don't know if I'll be doing this often once the weather turns.  It took forever to dry.

Halfway home...

Liv's hair is halfway loose now, I was hoping to have it all picked out by the time she started school, but as school starts Wednesday, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.   It's kinda cute though, two little loc-tails in the front and a few big puffy twists in the back. 

So, now, why I got to deal with folks?  The first thing her father said when he saw her hair was, "What are you going to do with it now?  You know the shop is right across the street?"  His wife just happens to be a hairdresser.  My response was, "And it can stay across the street."  Damn, her hair ain't even all the way loose yet, why you gotta come at me like that?  Talking about how, "it might be easier to take care of if you had some chemical help."  Who said it was hard?  I don't even know why I let that bother me, it's really nothing less than I expect from him.

Since I'm talking about things that bothered me...my mother house/baby-sat for me when I went to Oakland earlier this month.  While she was here, she used almost ALL my hair care products, even some that were brand new and still in the package.  It took me a minute to figure out why it bothered me so much.  I don't think I would have cared one way or the other, but my mother is a die-hard natural hair hater.  She abhors the nap, uses every opportunity to talk about how ugly my hair is, how she would never walk around with "that shit" on top of her head or have my kids walking around "looking like they came from across the water."  So, then she comes over here and uses all my nappy hair care products?  I don't get it.  Whatever.  Another day in the life of a nappy.  

It's time for me to deep condition.

Steel Teeth and latchhooks...

I started picking Liv's locs out this past week.  We're making good progress, her locs are not as tight as mine were, her locs were only 3 years old, where mine were five.  I'm using the cheapie White Rain conditioner like I did with mine.  I have about 1/4 of her hair loose now, and it is so long.  As soon as I get her entire head done I'm going to give her an Aphogee treatment because I know how damaged her hair is going to be.  I'm using a steel-tooth comb to pick out her locs and that has to be damaging the hair cuticles.  So the plan is, one Aphogee protein treatment and then another in about 4 weeks. She should be fine, lucky for her, I learned this lesson the hard way. When I first took my hair down it was a mess, all tangly and uncombable--is that a word?  Now I've realized that the damaged cuticles were getting caught on each other and...like I said, it was a mess. 

I finally tightened Bri's locs.  I started her locs with the intention of latch-hooking them but I didn't know how to do it, so I'd just been palmrolling them like I'd done for Liv's locs.  Someone finally showed me how to latch-hook, so I took a couple days last week to tighten all of her locs.  They look much better than they did.  Her locs were too small for palmrolling and I had started to notice some thinning.  Plus, she's a swimmer and the roots would only stay "neat" for a couple days before she was back in the pool.

I did an Aphogee on Friday and trimmed the knotty ends as I was putting in two-strand twists.  On Saturday I decided to use the Qhemet heavy cream and--y'all already know, my hair feels like...I don't even know how to describe it.  It feels so moisturized and so good that it almost feels like I didn't use anything at all.  It's amazing.  Whatever I considered soft and moisturized before was nothing compared to what I've got going on right now.  The only thing I don't like about the heavy cream is the smell.  I have severe chemical allergies and the heavy cream has made me sneeze every time I've used it.  But that's just me.  I react to most perfumes the same way and anything from Bath and Body Works will damn near kill me.  The way my hair feels right now, a few sneezes is NOT going to stop me from using this product.  Now I'm wondering just how long that sample container of heavy cream will last...