Hair and Grad School: Regimen and product update

Hello my loves! If you have been following me, you know that I am in my last year of graduate school and life has been hectic. I have been behind on blogging and well....a lot of things, but I am here and I am coming at cha' with some updates! I missed you guys, so I'm back to let you know I still love ya!

So yeah, this semester has been one of the hardest I have ever endured. The stress was high, my personal life is a mess (all a result of being in school), I'm interning 3 days a week, my conceptual paper needed to be approved and printed, and I have a 1 year old at home. You can call me crazy, cause that's exactly how I feel! Despite it all, ya girl earned that 4.0! Paper was approved and printed, and I can breeze through this last semester of school!! And my hair.......

Let's just say, this do has been on the back burner. I have kept up with my regimen and protective styling, but all that trying to be cute and flat twisting and being more creative stuff flew right out the window when things got real this semester!!! My hair stays pretty much in either twists that are tucked and pinned away, or in a bun. Period.  Ain't nothing fancy bout' that! But I have been deep conditioning and moisturizing, and all that good stuff, but I changed some things. Here are the updates:


I'm still shampooing and deep conditioning with these:

 

But the shampoo is definitely a staple. I found that Sally's Beauty Supply sells a salon size bottle of it and I will be adding it to the product shelf once my 12 oz bottle is gone.  I have also found that I like the conditioner and will keep it in the regimen, but it works so much better when I add olive oil and honey, heat it up, and apply it. My hair soaks this up! I am still on the hunt for a staple deep conditioning and once this is gone, I will try:

 

 

I got this on sale at CVS for like less than $3, so I grabbed it. I will replace the Cream of Nature conditioner with this once that bottle is gone to see how I like it. I will use it till it's gone and decide from there if I will keep it, or go back to the Cream of Nature as a staple. If I don't like it, I will keep looking and continue to rotate the Cream of Nature conditioner.

 

I have also fell in love with this!:

 



Holy Grail For Sure!! This stuff is the bomb in my hair. At least this winter it is and it will stay part of the regimen. My hair is super moisturized and looks healthy. The down fall of this product and please pay attention: DO NOT USE GEL WITH THIS PRODUCT! It will leave residue and clumps of white stuff in your hair. It's good for keeping and maintaining twists and twists outs.

My other Holy Grail is this:

 

 

 

This is the BEST conditioner for detangling And YES, I do own this big, dumb, pump bottle of this conditioner. I bought this in the spring and it is just now getting down to the bottom. This bottle was around $7, you can't beat that. The amount of product you get for the price is also a huge reason why I love this so much.  I do cheat on it sometimes with Tresseme and I am going to have an affair with Aussie Moist because I have heard good things about it. I like cheap conditioners I can buy in large quantities that work great because I go through a lot of it. From detangling to co-washing. I use a ton more conditioner than shampoo, so price, size, and quality is important!

 

 

Consider yourselves updated. I will be back before winter break

Dark & Lovely: Au Naturale Review

Alright, I said I was going to review it in a few weeks....yeah, I don't need a few weeks. Okay, so this is what I bought:

This line of products promises to ant-shrinkage, all day elongation, moisture, shine, and hold. Before I get started, please remember that this review is only relevant to the experience on MY hair. I am not being paid to do this (I mean my page only has about 100 views anyway, so Dark & Lovely did not send this to me), I bought these products with my own money because I wanted to see how they would do!

Hydrating Soak Shampoo: Umm.....not so much! I mean, this shampoo was nothing to write home about in my opinion. It did not strip my hair which made me happy, but I don't know that it made my hair feel any different than any other sulfate shampoo I have used. It lathers really well and cleans the hair. If you like heavily scented products, then you will like the scent, if not, then you will not be happy. I would not re-purchase this. I have used cheaper shampoo's with better results. In my honest opinion: there are better shampoo's out there and I will not buy this again once the bottle is gone. ( I bought it, so I'm using it!)

Knot Out Conditioner:I was also not impressed by this conditioner. A conditioner called "knot out" to me would imply that it is super slippery and makes detangling a breeze! Well, that is not the case with this conditioner. When I apply it to my hair, it has slip, but not as much as I would expect given the name. I do not instantly feel moisture being re-introduced to my hair and you have to apply a significant amount ( I am also a lil heavy handed with conditioner). Lucky for me, I already detangle my hair when I do my pre-poo, so once I washed and applied this conditioner, I did not have a ton of work to do. With that said, if I was applying this to hair that had not previously been detangle, I could easily see it being a nightmare to detangle because the slip is just not significant. Again, I have used cheaper conditioners with better results ie. HE Hello Hydration, Suave naturals Coconut conditioner, V05 conditioners, etc. The conditioner is also heavily scented, not completely moisturizing, and lacking the slip you would expect with the name. Will not be re-purchasing this either once it is gone.

Curl Moisturizing Souffle: Okay, this product was definitely not a win for me. I can't quite describe the texture of the product. It has kind of a creamy consistency but a little thicker? IDK, it's weird! Anywhoo, this stuff did not do anything it says! It's supposed to give definition without crunch and add moisture. UMMM......NO! First of all, I did not use this product for a wash n go. I thought about it, but the consistency and the non-slippery quality of it let me know that I would not be applying this to wet hair to be worn out all day! I used this to do braid out and twist outs. If you do not let your hair dry COMPLETELY with this stuff in, you will have a frizzy, poofy, tangled mess! There is not much moisture, but it didn't dry my hair out which I guess is a plus. It does not get crunchy which is what the product promises. However, it does leave your hair dull looking, maybe a tiny bit of a sheen, but nothing that says "hey look at me! My hair is moisturized, soft, fluffy, and I want to keep my hands in it all day!". Absolutely not! The anti-shrinkage claim is non-existent also. But, I will say that I don't believe any product that claims ant-shrinkage. Natural hair shrinks....period. So yeah, this was also disappointing to the point that I'm not sure I will even use this till it's gone. I may be tossing it in the trash. As we speak, I am sitting with the conditioner in my hair, thinking of a style and trying to determine if I get lazy and do a twist out, will I even use this product. This product was definitely not for me.

10-in-1 Gelee: Definitly not for me. It's a thing, goupy gel. It reminds me of the Murray's Loc and Twist Gel, but I like the Murray's better! I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this is or why it's in the line, but whatever. What I did find it useful for is when I would pull my hair up into a puff or bun or something and didn't want to gel my hair, this would provide the hold without the build up or that "slicked down" look. I will use it for that purpose in the future, but nothing else. It did not make a difference or add definition when twisting. Will also NOT be re-purchasing!


So overall, I guess you could say that I was not pleased with this line and it just was not for me. My hair is probably a 4b/4a mix with some 3c in the back. So yes my hair is highly textured and this line did nothing for me. I look for my products to not only be good stylers, but to be nourishing for my hair. This line definitely did not do that. It's full of bad ingredients,  but we all know that some of those products can do very well in our hair. Well this one does not fit into that category for MY hair. In all honesty I have gotten better results using TreSemme Naturals Shampoo and conditioner as well twisting with some coconut oil and eco-styler gel. My hair looked and felt better than with using this line. So I will not re-purchase this line EVER, and my fix for trying this product has been satisfied!

I will be reviewing the ORS CURLS Unleashed line next. I have reason to believe I will have better results. Ultimately, I am convinced once I my product junky fix has been completely satisfied, I will be sticking with my Oyin, Qhemet Biologics, oils, and eco-styler gel!


Hope this review was helpful and I will holla at you peeps later!


Peace