Darcy's Botanticals is da truth!

Hi Renny! I don't know how I missed that you started a thread! You have pictures and every thang! Sounds like you're working it! Keep at it until you determine what works for you because at the end of the day- that's what its about!

Thanks lady. I'm behind. I have more pics. I have to get caught up.

Keep up the good work.

I am the worst journaler in the world, which is bizarre because I'm actually a writer. Really, I should be journaling with ease. NOT!

So here's the update:

I big chopped on 8/13/2010 and it's one of the best decisions I ever made. Hanging on to permed ends was for the birds. I love my hair. I really, really love it.

Here are a few pictures during and after the BC:






Look at all that hair. I actually mini-chopped my hair every week so I'd already cut alot of it off.


Right after the chop


After I styled the next day


My hair regimen:

I only wash once a week which is interesting because I cowashed at least three times a week when I was transitioning. I just don't feel like my hair needs it as much. I was washing with Pantene Natural/Relaxed Shampoo, because it didn't leave my hair feeling stripped, but I've evolved in the last two weeks and I'm using a mix of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap and VO5 Lime Clarifying Conditioner as my shampoo. I only use about a capful of the Dr. Bronner's because I honestly don't know how much of it I should use and it lathers like crazy even in small amounts. So far, I like the combination. My hair feels great and I feel like I've gotten all the gunk off of it. (Time will tell if that's true.)

Next I cowash behind that wash. I detangle at this point with my shower comb. I have a Denman brush, but I don't like it. As for cowashing, I find that Yes to Cucumbers has the best slip but I also like HEHH and White Rain Tropical Coconut.

I deep condition with ORS Replenishing Conditioner. I love this stuff.

Next up the leave-in conditioner. My hair likes protien ( I think). It always did when I was relaxed and we'll see now it continues to respond in the natural. I use Giovanni Direct-Leave-In as my leave-in. I also have Yes to Cucumbers Leave-in. I've used it once, wasn't wowed by the feel.

I seal with coconut oil most of the time. I use some castor oil on my scalp and edges too. Not consistently with the castor though. I don't like the way it feels.

Then I use a moisturizer. (I may have the order wrong on sealing first, but this is what I'm doing.) I haven't found the right moisturizer yet, but right now I'm using Soft and Free Gro Healthy Strengthening Creme. It may be working. I can't say I'm objective about it. I absolutely hate the way it smells. Like a friggin' cake. Yuk! So I'm still looking for a good creamy moisturizer, but I'll continue to use this because I paid for it and it's not hurting (although I can't say I completely love the ingredients.) I use alot of this by the way. Afterward I put my hair in about ten twist and then I put a plastic cap over my head and go to bed. (why do I twist? No reason in particular, just don't want to risk tangles I think.)

That's wash day. (Usually Sunday.)

The next morning I untwist my hair, wet with my spray bottle and style.

I've been doing wash n' gos. I style with gel on fairly wet hair, but not soaking hair because I hate the shrinkage soaking hair yields and it works wonderfully on wet hair. I really like Herbal Essence Set Me Up Gel. I learned about it from Mahagony Curls. She did a video comparing it to EcoStyler. It doesn't dry my hair out at all and my hair is only crunchy (and not terribly crunchy) on the first day.

I did one week with Ecostyler EOO Gel and I wasn't really pleased. It was a poor follow up to the HE Set Me up. I have a huge tub of it. I'll try it again when my hair is longer. Maybe I'll like it more.

I define my curls by twirling them sometimes, but it's so time-consuming and I have a bad shoulder so mostly I just rake the product through and shake it a bit.

I refresh in the mornings with a little of my spray bottle, Shea Moisture Curl and Styling Milk and a few squirts of ORS Nature Shine (Love it!) and the wash and go look last all week. It never gets old looking, but by day four I'm touching up with a little gel but not much and that's really only because I can't keep my hands out of my hair.

My spray bottle - Aloe Vera Juice, glycerin, rosemary oil (a few drops as a perservative), a little Jojoba oil and water. It's about 1/3 of each on the aloe vera, glycerin and water. I plan to transition to leaving the water out, but I haven't gotten there yet. I like the results I get from this. It's definitely a better feel than plain water or even water with oils and conditioner that I was using when I was transitioning.

I also use a little coconut oil and shea butter at night before I put my satin cap on. I just use maybe a dime size amount of shea and about the same of coconut oil and rub them together in my hands and then coat my hair with it. I don't use the shea everynight, but I do at least coat my hair with coconut oil.

So far so good. My hair has not been dry even with all the gel. I haven't really experimented with using less product or trying anything new because it's been a hectic few weeks. I've been out promoting my new book and I needed to not have a bad hair day. Things are slowing down a bit, so I have time to maybe play with it some more, but I don't know. It ain't broke, so I might not try to break it.

My Goals:

Healthy, shoulder length hair. I'm sure I won't want it any longer. I'm not a long hair person.

I'd like to try Kinky Curly Knot Today and Curling Custard to see if my curls are a little more elongated, because they are super tight, but those products are so not in my budget right now. I'll definitely treat myself to some for Christmas if I don't buy before then.

I plan to protective style with Kinky Twist for the winter, or at least until my hair grows a bit more and I start doing twist outs and braids outs. I'm thinking by February.

I'll try to be more consistant with blogging or at least when I do something different.

Thanks for reading.

I used a Jazzin rinse last week. I know it has mixed reviews, but I already had some so I figured why not. I was really concerned that it would dry my hair out, but it didn't. It also wasn't as messy as people make it out to be. Not in my opinion anyway and I used EBONY.

I put the product in like shampoo and then made small parts and raked it through my entire head. I sat under the dryer for 25 minutes and rinsed it out. I pooed to get more of it out with my Dr. Bronners and V05 Key Lime Clarifying Condish mix. Then I covered my head in EVOO, put Nexxus Humetcin Condish on top and put on another plastic cap. I sat with a towel on my head for heat for an hour (too lazy for the dryer again) and washed it out. My hair was super soft and the gray is gone.

I'll do it again but not with EBONY. I am too old for black hair.

Sound like you have everything under control over here...LOL!!

You are sealing in the right order (According to the chicoro method)

Okay, great about the sealing. I had it written down in that order but I didn't know where I gleaned that info from. I do subscribe to Chicoro's newsletter and of course these boards are just the best.

Thanks for reading my blog, Lynn.

BTW - do you use a moisturizer after your leave-in? I notice you've been rocking a fro. Your hair is soooooooo long. Great job.

I said I would blog when I used something new so here I am already. This morning I used Beyond the Zone Noodle Head Curling Creme. I purchased it about a month ago at Sally's ($4.99) and for some reason felt compelled to try it because I decided to cowash my hair this morning. I used it on a soaking wet head because I didn't read the instructions and for most of the day I really did look like a Noodle Head. My hair was white. It had been hours and was completely dry and was still white on the ends where I put the most product.

Here it is soaking wet.


Another just done picture. Not done very well, but I had great curl definition.


I made a video after I used it, but then I thought what am I doing making videos. I'm not trying to another Youtuber. I won't be consistent enough with it so no point starting. I can barely keep up this blog and my checkbook.

Anyway, I had to go out to pick my son up from college. (Yay! His first weekend home since he left. I miss him.) By the time I arrived at his school my hair was pretty dry. It had been 5 hrs since I applied the product. I ended up spraying some of my water and conditioner spray that I carry in my purse on the white hair and the white went away. I really think I had too much product in my hair and there again, I did it in the shower on dripping hair. So not the way they tell you to use the stuff.

It's thirteen hours later and the curl definition continues to be great. This is really the first time I noticed I had some corkscrew curls. Usually I get corkscrews from twirling, but with this I just shook my head in the shower and the curls naturally popped where they lay.

My hair is a little crunchy but not near as crunchy as it is the first day with gel. This stuff is very light. I can barely tell I have something on. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up on Day 2 and after I moisturize. It'll also be interesting to see if I get frizz. I've been touching it all day so if I get frizz it may not be the product.

Thanks for reading. Let me know if you've ever tried it and the results.

Oh, another thing, my hair is growing. Great!

I know last night I said I was going to see what the Noodle Head was like on Day 2, but I had to wash that crap out. Yuk. My hair was extremely dry, no shine and I was horrified I'd wake up and it would all be on my pillow. So I pre-pooed and washed it out at 4 a.m. Yes, 4.a.m. I happened to wake up and realize I had a plastic cap on my head, so why not.

I put in Giovanni Direct after my wash and then put on a cap and went back to sleep. It was still wet when I took the cap off this morning and then it dried, really dry. I mean bone dry and the ends were kinky. I decided to try another product. Sister Smith's Wet Curling Pudding was up next. I've had it a few weeks and have been itching to try it. Here are the directions and what I was supposed to get:

Apply to wet hair to maintain your curls and coils all day. Wet Set offers a non-greasy, light hold, so that your curls "POP" without feeling hard or crunchy.

It is as it says a pudding. Looks just like vanilla pudding. It's listed on the website as a moisturizer and the ingredients include: glycerin, aloe vera, olive oil

I can't remember what end use I had in mind when I purchased this. Not wash and go's. I think it was going to be for twists, because I can't imagine thinking those ingredients would define my curls.

I rewet with my water bottle (includes: aloe vera juice, glycerin, water (1 part of each and a few drops of rosemary oil). I thought since the incredients in the bottle were almost the same that the products would be compatible. I'm now going hmmmm...on that thought. I choose to try to seal in extra moisture, so I divided my hair into sections, parted it and put castor oil on my scalp. Then I went back through and applied shea butter from the root to the ends. Then I put on the Wet Pudding. The curls did come up. The definition in the back which I'm starting to believe is 3C hair is pretty good. But everything curls that hair, even conditioner. The front, top and sides is where I have to do the work to define my curls. The curl definition was not as good, or maybe not so much not good, just too tight. I don't like my curls really tight. Also now that it's completely dry my hair is oily. Very oily. I might have should have left the shea butter out of the equation or maybe it's the castor oil moving up the hair shaft or an overload of glycerin from using the spray bottle? I don't know, but it's greasy oily. In addition to being greasy, it feels weird. Kind of the way the Talijah Wajiid Style and Shine feels - almost sticky and cottony. I'm not pleased.

I think I would have gotten better curls in the front on the sides if I had twirled it to define them, but I'm not doing that. It's too much work. I'd prefer to stick with the product I don't have to do that for.

In retrospect, I probably should have done a hot oil treatment or at least a deep condition before I tried the Sister Smith. My hair started out pretty yukky from the Noodle Head fiasco. I'll give Sister Smith another try on another day when my hair is wet from the shower and I won't do the shea butter or castor oil and see what I get. However, I am starting to believe that my hair might respond better to gels.

To be continued...

Just in case someone wants to the website to Sister Smith here it is:

http://curlsbysisterssmith.com/default.aspx

I guess I'll have to go ahead and admit that my hair does not like shea butter. I personally love shea butter for my body, so it's pretty disappointing that I won't be using it on my hair.

Last night I continued to yuk about the spongy feel of my hair and then I took a look at the TW Style and Shine to see what common ingredients it might have with what I did yesterday to see what was giving my hair that feel. Number one ingredient - shea butter. The revelation about shea butter did not just come to me yesterday. I've had other instances where I've put shea butter all over my head and thought, "Yuk", but I blamed myself, poor application, or something. Surely it was not the compatiablity of the product with my hair. But there's no point in dragging this out. My hair dos not like shea butter.

Moving on to search for what it does like.

Hey Renny,
Congrats on the BC!

I see you're working on a reggie and finding your fav products. It's such a process....and fun doing so.

Hi Renny! Just dropping by with this here house warming basket. Sounds like you've got a good start on a regimen! Congrats on your BC and welcome to the gang!

I have been looking for the right moisturizer since April, since my transitioning days. I'd been thinking I needed a creamy moisturizer because I like creamy products, well not so. I found the perfect moisturizer for my hair. It's aloe vera juice, glycerin and a little water (about 1/4 water) and a few drops of rosemary oil in a spray bottle. I've been wearing wash and gos since my BC on August 13th. I don't wash my hair everyday because I don't want to and don't feel like it needs it. I just refresh with my spray bottle to activate the products, retwirl a few curls and keep it moving. I can get a week out of a wash n go with no problem, but I wash my hair at day 4 or 5 just because I think I should be washing my hair and I find by day 4 I'm touching up with more gel, so I figure just wash it and start over. It's only gel and it's inexpensive gel. Well, with this moisturizing spray there is very little touching up with gel. My hair is so soft and so unbelievably moist that the curls are defined longer. I can't keep my hands out of it. I'm amazed really. I never thought hair could feel like this. Even that hard to handle hair on the sides of my head is soft and manageable. I'm in love.

I purchased some real 100% aloe vera gel also, but haven't used it yet. I'm looking for more natural products to define my curls and figured I'd give this a try since I've been using the HE Set Me Up Gel and it's full of chemicals. I'll update when I give it a try.

I owe much love to Chrlvsbks (I hope I have that right), because she suggested this spray bottle solution. Thanks Chrls!

Good morning Renny! Congrats on your bc and finding a moisturizer that works for your hair. Your curls are pretty. Have a great day!

I decided it was time to treat myself to some good products. I am a PJ but I've been feeding it with small, inexpensive products because that was what was in my budget and I figured why not start cheap and work my way up. However, I have found the problem with cheap or inexpensive commerical products is the ingredients; not all of them, but most of them. I care about ingredients. I don't plan to obsess over them, because largely hair is dead, but I think it's crazy to put chemicals all over your hair that will travel down the hair shaft, through your hair follicle and into your bloodstream. I never would have thought about that five or even ten years ago, but once you enter your forties, or at least once I crossed over forty, I began to think about my health and my mortality. I try to make wise decisions, so, I'm looking for healthier ingredients. Hence the haul.

I started off at Whole Foods. I've never been to Whole Foods, but of course lots of naturals shop there and I wanted to see what they had. I didn't see that there was very much that I couldn't get locally from The Vitamin Shoppe so I likely won't be going back to Whole Foods. It's downtown. I live and work in the suburbs and really don't like going downtown. They had tons of Kinky Curl Curling Custard and Knot Today. They were out of the KC shampoo. I forget the name of it. They had various oils and other products like Aubrey Organics, Jane Carter, Curl Junkie (I think), Jason and Avalon, and alot of stuff I never heard of that were shea butter heavy products. I can't use shea butter in my hair, not if it's high on the ingredient list. I did make one purchase. Kiss My Face Upper Management Styling Gel. It was not an impulse buy, I've had it on my list to get. One of my favorite YouTubers substituted it for KCCC and loves it. It was $9 for 8 oz, so it's cheaper than KCCC. The ingredients are good too. I figure I'll try it.

Next, I went to a cute little shop in the Castleberry Hill are of SW Atlanta called Sage Naturalceuticals. Here's a link for a youtube video about the shop if you're interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y787JH6VeFg

It's black owned and this is really where I had intended to spend my $$$. The shop was very urban chic and the owner, Cindy Primm, was very nice and very helpful. I wish I had come in with naked hair, because I could have tested lots of products.

I went with Uncle Funky's Daughter's Curl Magic in mind, but she was out of it. Duh, I should have called ahead, but that would have been too much like right. Anywho, she said Uncle Funky's would probably have been very good for my hair, but she thought Dona Marie Miracurl Curling Gelly was a great choice for my hair as well. One of my favorite Youtubers loves Miracurl so I was not opposed to it. I liked the smell, the reviews have been good and I tested it on a small piece of my hair and liked the look and feel. It's was $24 for 18 oz and I received a 20% discount for mentioning the YouTube video. I also purchased the Dona Marie Cocoa Hemp Buttermilk. Cindy suggested it as a refresher and it seemed like a good pairing to me. The Cococa Hemp was $13 before my discount for 8 oz.

Cindy had sample size jars of other products I've been thinking about so I purchased those: Afro Veda Totally Twisted Ginger Almond Butter and the Afro Veda Curl Define. (They smell and feel yummy). I also purchased the Bee Mine Curly Butter Coconut Cream. I don't plan to do twists and braid outs until my hair is longer, but I figured I can play around with these samples to know what I like.

The good news about everything that I purchased is second to water, aloe vera juice and glycerin are number two and three on the ingredient list, right behind water, so you know I'm thinking they'll be great for my hair since those are my new Holy Grails.

I can't wait to use Miracurl. I'll be sure to post pictures when I do. Thanks for reading and let me know if you've used any of these products and what you thought.

Thanks Latoya. I'm enjoying the hair journey.

LadyMika wrote:Hi Renny! Just dropping by with this here house warming basket. Sounds like you've got a good start on a regimen! Congrats on your BC and welcome to the gang!

Sorry I'm late thanking you. I missed this. I appreciate the love. How are you?

I am way behind, but if I don't post this stuff I'll forget. I'm hoping to use this journal as my record of what I've been doing so I can study my hair's response to products. Since I left off I've tried some things. I have lots of pictures, but I'm not in the mood to post them. I'll do it later.

It's been almost two weeks since I made my purchases. My first try was the Miracurl Curling Jelly. I cowashed and DCed my hair and put the Miracurl on my hair. I put it on naked hair. It was kind of difficult to do that, because I'm so used to using a leave-in and sealing, but the shop owner told me that the Miracurl bonds best on naked hair. So, I followed the instructions and put it on naked hair.

I was heavy handed with it, nothing new for me and products and I didn't really like it the first day. I don't usually like many of my wash n go's on day one, but this one was particularly disconcerting; probably because I paid $20 for the gel. My curls looked smaller than usual, not really tighter, just small in circumference and my hair did not have its normal shine. My hair shines with the HE gel, so this dull look was not cool. I resisted touching it and waited until it dried at the end of the day. It was pretty crunchy. I had really used way too much product, so I decided to use the Cocoa Hemp Styling Milk to soften it. I used a little of this product. I liked the smell and it definitely softened my hair and eliminated the crunch, but it was still dull looking and like I said, the curls weren't what I wanted. I decided to wait it out and see what I got for 2nd day hair.

I decided not to use the cocoa hemp the next morning. My hair was screaming not to do it, so I decided to go for my refresher bottle (my aloe vera juice, EVOO, water and glycerin). Boy was I glad I did. I had a great hair day. Day 3 was even better and by Day 4, I was in serious love with Miracurl. On Day 5 I had to use some gel to touch up some spots so prepooed over night and cowashed the next day. The verdict: this gel is going to be hard to replace. I can't say I loved it more than the HE gel, but for the ingredients, I'd say it's a winner in the "natural" gel category.

On the 6th day of Miracurl Christmas, I cowashed and deep conditioned and just kind of sat around trying to figure out what I was going to do with my hair. My scalp was itching a little. When I scratched I noticed I had guk under my nails. Eeewww! I thought about the fact that I'd been using gel for over a month, conditioners with cones and lots of oils and such. My hair needed a good clarifying cleanse, but I wasn't sure how to get that done. Would shampoo do it? I didn't know, but I decided to not to waste any more time trying to find out. I for sure would have a clean scalp and hair if I did a baking soda wash and ACV rinse. I'd been lazy about giving that a try. I signed on to Youtube and found my favorite youtuber (Sultry1231) and watched her video about the proper way to do both. I didn't have apple cider vinegar. Isn't that a staple? Obviously not in my house, so I ran to the store and picked some up. My PJ screamed "Buy Tressamme Naturals Nourish Moisture" and I did, thinking I should transition away from cones.

I did the baking soda cleanse and my hair felt amazingly clean afteward. Then I did the ACV rinse. My hair was pretty dry after it was all done. Squeaklly clean and screaming for product, but it was also smelly. ACV is no joke. I hated it. It took 6 hrs for that smell to go away.

Next up, my review of Kiss My Face Uppermanagement Gel.

Hi Renny

I'm just making it over for a visit. Now you have really been busy since you started your journal. Congratulations on your BC!! I see that we may have some hair similarities...my hair doesn't like Shea Butter as well. Now I can use products with Shea Butter in it, but it has to be at least the 4th or 5th ingredient.

The back of my hair is like a 3c...but I think that has to do with the henna treatments I've been doing. My hair loves MiraCurl...and being heavy handed like I am I get the best look from MiraCurl using it on damp hair. Have you checked out CoilsKinksCurls YouTube? She has a tutorial for applying MiraCurl.

I love AfroVeda (now) butters as well. Everything I've tried this second time around is so moisturizing. (purchased when I first bc'ed didn't know how to use the product).

Well I won't take up too much of your time, but I wanted to stop by and say hi. I will be following your journal closely because I think we may have the same hair type...so I can't wait to see what works for you!! Keep up the good work...you are doing a great job so far!!

KNH

Hey Kinky,

Thanks for stopping by. I learned about Miracurll from Coils videos and yes, I did rewatch her before applying. I forgot to mention that by day 3 with the gel that my curls were actually elongated. That was a pleasant surprise, especially since my curls started off looking smaller.

How long do you wear a wng with Miracurl and how do you refresh? Why are we so heavy handed with using the stuff? What's up with that?

Which of the Afro Veda butters do you use?


I did a two strand twist yesterday. I'll update and load my pictures later this week. I think I'm okay with some shea, but like you said it needs to be lower on the list of ingredients. Which brings me to the Bee Mine Curly Butter. I didn't look at the ingredients when I purchased that. Shea butter is number one.

Hi Renny,

I enjoyed reading your hair journey... I'm actually going down a similar path as yours... I had about an inch of permed ends and cut those today... So now i have a BC. I'm trying to ensure i have a good regime for my hair.. Lately i've found that my hair is dry after several hours of the day. Your looks great!

Renny wrote:Hey Kinky,

Thanks for stopping by. I learned about Miracurll from Coils videos and yes, I did rewatch her before applying. I forgot to mention that by day 3 with the gel that my curls were actually elongated. That was a pleasant surprise, especially since my curls started off looking smaller.

How long do you wear a wng with Miracurl and how do you refresh? Why are we so heavy handed with using the stuff? What's up with that?

Which of the Afro Veda butters do you use?


I did a two strand twist yesterday. I'll update and load my pictures later this week. I think I'm okay with some shea, but like you said it needs to be lower on the list of ingredients. Which brings me to the Bee Mine Curly Butter. I didn't look at the ingredients when I purchased that. Shea butter is number one.

Hey Renny...

Sorry I didn't get back to you...I get lost on CS all the time. How have you been doing?

I use AfroVeda's Curl Define, Shea Alma, so far and I'm getting the best twist-out styles. However, I'm wearing Kinky Twists so I'm not using anything right now!!

Yeah Bee Mine does have Shea Butter...I gave that product away. However, it does give you awesome hold, but it was very drying.

Hope all is well with you!!!