I just wanted to write a quick blurb on a group I recently came across. I'm always soooo jealous of all the fabulous meet ups I read and hear about on blogs and youtube across the US.
Well I recently found out about www.meetup.com/Toronto-Naturals
It's a small group of lovely ladies who plan meet ups around the city and I hope to see it grow. If you are in or around the Toronto area please check it out.
I think it'd be great to come together...make some new friends; share some tips, encouragement and fabulous styles! I hope to make it out to a few meet ups this year and I'd love to see you around sometime :)
-T
Monday, 30 January 2012
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
JERRY JUICE
This winter weather has been wreaking havoc on my hair. Over the last month it has never felt this dry. I decided to take a trip to my local beauty supply store to stock up on some deep conditioner and as I was browsing through the aisles I came to an old school product.
Carefree Curl by Softsheen Carson. I may be aging myself here but am I the only one who remembers their jerry curl in the 80's being ultra moisturized all the time! Yes, I had a jerry curl and I am not ashamed of it! It was fierce....at the time.
Anyways as I started having flashbacks to my juicy curls I decided to pick up a few products from the line.
When I got home I washed and conditioned my hair and then applied the Curl Activator moisturizing lotion as my leave in. It's a thick lotion consistency with a pleasant scent. My hair immediately felt softened. I like this stuff, and only $4.99! I applied an oil mix to seal it in.
After my hair was moisturized I applied the gel activator to large sections and two strand twisted my hair. This gel is quite light and as it promises on the packaging....non-greasy and onlhy $3.99
The last product I picked up for $3.99 was the instant moisturizer with glycerine which is a liquid spray moisturizer. I used this product every day on my twists...I saturated them each day with this product which I wore for 5 days. The twists stayed juicy and springy.
And finally the take down. The twists glided loose easily with no snags. My hair was so moisturized that it immediately shrunk up. It was uber soft.
I got pretty definition from the twist out but it was so soft that it didn't hold the pattern very long.
With these results....I think i'll stay on the juice for the remainder of the harsh winter months.
Carefree Curl by Softsheen Carson. I may be aging myself here but am I the only one who remembers their jerry curl in the 80's being ultra moisturized all the time! Yes, I had a jerry curl and I am not ashamed of it! It was fierce....at the time.
Anyways as I started having flashbacks to my juicy curls I decided to pick up a few products from the line.
The last product I picked up for $3.99 was the instant moisturizer with glycerine which is a liquid spray moisturizer. I used this product every day on my twists...I saturated them each day with this product which I wore for 5 days. The twists stayed juicy and springy.
And finally the take down. The twists glided loose easily with no snags. My hair was so moisturized that it immediately shrunk up. It was uber soft.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Can't we all just get along? Seriously....
I'm getting tired of all the division that black women seem to insist on spreading within our community. Light vs dark, relaxed vs texlaxed, natural vs chemically treated, the list goes on. Why not just black women vs black women? Don't we all go through the same struggles and obstacles on a day to day basis? Wouldn't it be nice to have a support system instead of being faced with adversity from your own brethren?
For those of you who are new followers of my blog/channel, let me share a bit of the background that led to my publicly sharing my journey. I experienced a lot of damage over the years from relaxers but I continued to relax until I physically couldn't because I didn't know I had another option. When I finally experienced enough damage that prevented me from relaxing anymore I turned to braids....again because I didn't know that the act of simply NOT relaxing was an option. I wore braids for 2 years straight and when I finally stopped braiding....I was shocked, in love and obsessed with my new full head of natural kinks. THAT and that reason alone is what led me to share. I wanted to let other black women know that there was another option! If I didn't know....than I knew there must be others like me. I don't think that being natural is necessarily for everyone but I want to do my part to let women know that at least they have an option.
The goal I want for my channel is to show options. The manageability and versatility of natural hair, natural hair styling, braids, weaves and wigs.
On my most recent wig review I received the following comment:
I've never claimed to be someone trying to change the world....I'm simply here to share what I've learned and let other women know they have choices. But I did want to take this opportunity to respond to this comment and let other black women know that they also have choices. You have choices in how you choose to wear your hair, your choice of music and clothing. You also have the choice to RESPECT other's choices. You have the choice to spread love and not hate. You have the choice to play a supportive role in our community or attempt to tear it apart. What choices will you make?
NATURAL HAIR
WIG
BRAIDS WITH EXTENSIONS
For those of you who are new followers of my blog/channel, let me share a bit of the background that led to my publicly sharing my journey. I experienced a lot of damage over the years from relaxers but I continued to relax until I physically couldn't because I didn't know I had another option. When I finally experienced enough damage that prevented me from relaxing anymore I turned to braids....again because I didn't know that the act of simply NOT relaxing was an option. I wore braids for 2 years straight and when I finally stopped braiding....I was shocked, in love and obsessed with my new full head of natural kinks. THAT and that reason alone is what led me to share. I wanted to let other black women know that there was another option! If I didn't know....than I knew there must be others like me. I don't think that being natural is necessarily for everyone but I want to do my part to let women know that at least they have an option.
The goal I want for my channel is to show options. The manageability and versatility of natural hair, natural hair styling, braids, weaves and wigs.
On my most recent wig review I received the following comment:
I don't think my choices are appropriate for everyone. But why do my choices make me any less of a natural? or any less of a black woman than someone else? I'm not one to pass judgment but this comment is coming from someone who has music videos featuring "ass shaking video vixens" in her favourites list, lol. I mean....do we really want to talk about breaking stereotypes?
I've never claimed to be someone trying to change the world....I'm simply here to share what I've learned and let other women know they have choices. But I did want to take this opportunity to respond to this comment and let other black women know that they also have choices. You have choices in how you choose to wear your hair, your choice of music and clothing. You also have the choice to RESPECT other's choices. You have the choice to spread love and not hate. You have the choice to play a supportive role in our community or attempt to tear it apart. What choices will you make?
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Naturalli Beautiful
I had the pleasure of meeting up with a lot of subscribers from this year's Toronto Natural Hair show. One of which was Duffcola, new to video making on YouTube. I remember she was rocking the cutest twist out...it just looked really fluffy and soft and defined so I had to ask her about what she used. I was surprised to hear that she had her own product line. I decided to check it out! (I paid for the products with my own money.)
http://www.naturallibeautiful.com
First up was the miracle moisturizer and hair growth oil. My hair really enjoyed the mix of oils in this product. It does however have a very strong herbal scent...reminiscent of the ayurvedic oils on the market. I decided to use it as a pre-poo treatment as I didn't want the scent lingering with me all day. I saturated my hair with it, slapped on a plastic baggy and then a towel to lock in the heat for about a half hour. My hair felt super smooth after rinsing it out and it felt great on my scalp too. I finished washing, conditioning and detangling with no problem.
Once my hair was clean, I applied a light leave in and moved on to the main event. The Miracle Hair Moisturizing butter. This was the product she had mentioned using in her hair for her amazing twist out. I grabbed medium sections of hair, applied the butter and two strand twisted my hair with it. This product thankfully does not have that intense herbal scent the oil does so it was pleasant to leave in my hair. It was however on the greasy side. I left "halos" on every couch I got up from...kind of like a scene out of Coming to America, lol. Since I had nothing on the agenda I ended up keeping my hair twisted up for 2 days.
I must say however, that I ended up with a pretty badass twist out. The exact things I thought about hers were true for mine...fluffy, soft, defined and full. Although I do wish the product was a little more creamy than greasy, I do absolutely love the results it gave me.
earrings from: http://www.tonidaley.com
First up was the miracle moisturizer and hair growth oil. My hair really enjoyed the mix of oils in this product. It does however have a very strong herbal scent...reminiscent of the ayurvedic oils on the market. I decided to use it as a pre-poo treatment as I didn't want the scent lingering with me all day. I saturated my hair with it, slapped on a plastic baggy and then a towel to lock in the heat for about a half hour. My hair felt super smooth after rinsing it out and it felt great on my scalp too. I finished washing, conditioning and detangling with no problem.
Once my hair was clean, I applied a light leave in and moved on to the main event. The Miracle Hair Moisturizing butter. This was the product she had mentioned using in her hair for her amazing twist out. I grabbed medium sections of hair, applied the butter and two strand twisted my hair with it. This product thankfully does not have that intense herbal scent the oil does so it was pleasant to leave in my hair. It was however on the greasy side. I left "halos" on every couch I got up from...kind of like a scene out of Coming to America, lol. Since I had nothing on the agenda I ended up keeping my hair twisted up for 2 days.
Monday, 9 January 2012
SHEA MOISTURE - Likes & Dislikes
SheaMoisture is a brand that took the natural hair community by storm. Even though they've been around for quite some time in the last year they have been all over YouTube. I wanted to give you my experience with the few products i've tried so far. I purchased these products with my own money. They are easily found across the US for $10 a product. In Canada they are just over $20 a product so I wait to purchase them when I am in the US or find an amazing American youtube buddy who is willing to help me replenish my stash when it is low. (Shout out to my girl ALIEMARIE76)
The most popular just happens to be my least favourite. The curl enhancing smoothie just didn't make the cut. On wet hair this product did not give me a lot of slip, it was not easy for me to distribute and after I was done moisturizing I felt like I needed to moisturize more. On dry hair it wasn't easy to distribute either, it seemed to clump in spots, did not mix well and left my hair with an almost "linty" look. I will not be re-purchasing this product.
The deep treatment masque gets a bad wrap on most product reviews. I on the other hand have been having an affair with it. I LOVE this stuff. It is so sexy. (can a product be sexy? Damn right!) This stuff smells amazing and I love using it. I do not use it as a masque, my hair loves it too much to rinse out so I use it as it's second suggested use which is a leave in. It leaves my hair feeling drenched in moisture, and on twists they are plump and soft. I will definitely re-purchase this product.
The yucca & boobab line I've tried more recently. The masque is a great consistency, very creamy and easy to apply. I wish I had more great things to say about it but it just didn't leave my hair feeling soft at all. Maybe I can try it as a leave-in instead.
From the same line I also picked up the thickening growth milk from the same line. It's a medium consistency, not a cream more like a lotion. Although I haven't found any difference in thickness or volume my hair likes this product. It's not too heavy and not too light so I like it best as a moisturizer throughout the week.
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