Review-Suave Professionals Almond & Shea Butter Conditioner

I've been MIA for a while but that doesn't mean I stop taking care of my hair ;)

Ok.....so maybe this time that was the case, but I promise to pieces it won't happen again. I got really lazy yall. And that should not have happened. What am I talking about you ask? Well once I twisted my hair this last time (this would have been week 4 but I took them out), I kept it that way. I only washed and styled once and ironically it was the day of my surprise grad party (thank you bae!). Considering that I hennaed before a twist set, I should have taken greater caution with my hair; especially since its been hot as all hell lately. The last few days of this twist-set were dry-like, which prompted me to wash and condish immediately.

While I was out shopping for items for my upcoming venture to Disney, I happened upon a 2 for $4 sale of different hair care items such as the titular Suave conditioner. I was intrigued because it has shea butter and almond in it. And its specifically a moisturizing conditioner. For the most part it has nothing but lovely ingredients in it and I was amazed at how much better my hair felt after using it.

This is what I did:

I co-washed with Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut conditioner to let whatever twists I couldnt manage to find and undo, become undone easier. This also helped me detangle my dry twist-out.

Next, (after rinsing the condish out of course) I washed my hair with Neutrogena T-Gel shampoo; per instruction of my dermatologist for my sebhorreic dermatitis & acne issues (no more acne yall!!) and proceeded to use my newfound friend.

I applied the Suave Professionals like I would any other conditioner, making sure to cover every spot possible. I have thick hair...and lots of it.... so this took a good minute. Once it was on, I just at for 10 min (it was hot in my house so I didnt need a cap for this one lol) and rinsed. I was amazed at how moisturized my hair felt. I was soooo relieved to find that my hair could be salvaged. Just imagine what my hair would have felt like if I used an even more extravagant method of deep conditioning!

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Cetearyl Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil (Sweet Almond), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) (Shea Butter), Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil (Jojoba), Aloe (Aloe Barbadensis) Leaf Juice (Aloe Vera), Cymbopogon Schoenanthus Oil (Lemongrass), Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Oil (Rosemary), Chamomilla Recutita Flower/Leaf Extract (Matricaria), Lavandula Angustifolia Flower Extract (Lavender), Dimethiconol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Fragrance, Dipropylene Glycol, Potassium Chloride, Lactic Acid, Disodium EDTA, TEA Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate, PEG 150 Distearate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone

For now, my hair is in a very messy puff. Terrible I know but I am too lazy to even be bothered with twisting it right now. Besides, they would have to come out sooner than 3-4 weeks b/c I may be taking grad portraits (my hair looked so fly straightened in my other professional grad pics (fresh off the stage pics.....coming to the site soon!) I wanna do it again! lol) and I may just keep it like that until orientation and stuff is over for Disney (if it keeps up in that hot A Florida weather, sheesh!)

So ladies, if you're not against conditioners that don't have 100% all natural ingredients or you wanna feed into your PJism, go ahead and buy this heavenly conditioner.

Hop over to your nearest Kmart to indulge in the 2/$4 deal :)

Later days~~

Perfect Pony Puff--How I Got To Where I Am Today

I'm baaack!! lol I couldn't wait until exams were over to post again; it just wasn't gonna happen this time. Remember the last time I tried that? Yea, I was MIA for about a month or so. But anywho, I decided that I wanted to share the ingredients for my perfect pony puff.

My pony puff has been one of my staple styles since going natural (I don't know anything else but that and twists). Before my last relaxer back in July 2007 I was rocking pony puffs in the pursuit of a natural me, but I decided to relax again because I was in a wedding in glamourous Cali. I was sooo corrupted back then. I only knew then that sleek, relaxed/pressed styles were "appropriate" for big events and such. I wish I would have known then what I know now. Natural styles work just as well and sometimes even better :) My puffs back then didn't require much, at least I didn't attempt to do much. I washed and conditioned with my faithful Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine shampoo and condtioner and did a deep condtioning mask of theirs also. To keep some of my faint curliness (actually fake most of the curliness lol) I left in my conditioner. Nowadays, in 2009, its a whole new game!

I decided to go natural last year in 08 after not relaxer for a full year. I wanted to get my length back to my hair but for some reason I just couldn't. My sweetheart kept telling me to get my ends clipped but I kept avoiding it like the plague! Every time I went to someone to get my ends clipped they almost always took my APL length hair to shoulder length or worse---neck length :( Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with short hair and it actually works for about anyone but I was used to long hair and long hair worked for me. I got tired of hearing my dad go on and on and on about letting people cut my hair and how it won't grow back if they keep cutting, etc etc. This time around I was afraid that if I went in for clipped ends I would come out with a TWA that I wasn't ready for.

I never thought about doing a BC. My oldest sister has done enough of those for me (Hi big sis!!) My dad is always talking about how she shouldn't have done it and this and that. OMG!?!?! lol I can't deal with him, so I decided to do a gradual removal of the relaxed ends :) When I finally got around to doing that back in April I was able to go to someone who wasn't just out to chop away my thick hair. She showed me why my ends needed clipping and why there was alot of it instead of getting right to cutting. My hair ended up somewhere at my neck, alot shorter than it was before, but as long as my relaxed ends were gone I was good to go.

Within a month my hair grew back!! Yay! lol I was soooo happy to see my hair healthy and growing. I'm not sure if the clippings can take sole responsibility b/c I started taking biotin supplements before the chop but hey---who knows (I won't know until I get back on track--I stopped when I started multis and omegas). I loved seeing my hair's true length but to see it I had to have it pressed and flat-ironed. Can you say damage, again? I wasn't looking forward to damaging my newly natural tresses with heat all the time so I began more twist-outs. I was using QP Elasta Mango Butter before my lil chop for my twists and figured I would continue. I did twists and twist outs but quickly got bored. Taking summer courses doesn't leave much time for trying something new----if I don't like it and definitely don't want to go out in public with it, I can't just wash and try again. It would take me the whole weekend to get it right lol. So, I decided that until I get a sew-in of some sort I will rock my pony puff.

Rocking the pony puff came after I didn't find the flexi-rollers I wanted to get for a straw/flexi-rod set at my beauty supply. Foiled by my stores lack of inventory, I decided to use the IC gel that was raved about in the hair forums that I came across in my research and use it for a slicked back puff instead of the straw curls. I definitely love the results I get, expecially since my natural curls are blossoming everyday. I have concluded so far that my hair is definitely a mix of 4b with some 3's thrown in there. Only time and more pony puffs will tell for sure :)

Pics of my pony-puff coming soon!

Mane Progress

I am ecstatic right now! Ok maybe not that happy, but I am thrilled to note that my hair is making progress. I can't remember my hair ever feeling so alive, so soft, so....WOW lol. The longest my hair has ever been was arm-pit length. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get beyond that point, maybe to BSL (bra-strap length) or even waist length. My journey towards long and healthy tresses has been good so far and I can't wait to see how my hair has progressed when I stretch it out/straighten it out in a few months. Instead of doing that now, I am going to stick to my protection and moisturization regimen (in addition to my eat right and stay fit-n-tight regimen) and straighten my hair out to see my progress in 3 to 4 month intervals. So, when I straighten in April or May I will take pictures to capture the moment and proceed to go back into protection mode by doing more protective styles....until my 3-4 months is up again. During my transition to becoming fully natural, I will continually try new, all natural/organic methods of treating and caring for my hair.

After searching the net for inspiration for new products to help me through my journey, I stumbled upon Miss Jessie's products. After seeing the before and after pictures of clients of the shop and users of the products I was sure that I found my new favorite product line. Unfortunately, there are only two places in the state that I live in that utilize that line and neither one of them are close to me. I took a chance asking the people at the beauty supply near my house if they sold Miss Jessie's and like I thought, they didn't. I was prepared for that but I was still disappointed b/c I was so eager to try using Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding to achieve a more beautiful and effective twist out look (my fiance' looooovvvves when I wear my hair in curly fros and twists outs and stuff lol) that I saw demonstrated in a tutorial from youtube. Sooo....I had no choice but to work with what was available in the beauty supply{not my idea of a fun place, I can rarely find what I need or really want :( } and I opted to get the Shea Butter and Aloe Creme Natural Moisture Balancing Treatment by Mane N Tail. I really needed a styling product for curls but if that guy would have said another jheri curl product I would have screamed lmao. So, I looked and looked for a looong time and still nothing. Searching for natural products in a huge chemical pool is hard, you're probably not gonna find what you're looking for. The M n T stuff was as close as I could get for natural moisturization ( the 2nd thing I went looking for in addition to a good curl styling product) so being a shea butter fan I went with it. It wasn't expensive so it was either a win or lose situation.

The results:

When I got home I realized I left without a styling product, ya know in the midst of getting satin hair caps, a water spritzer bottle, and the perfect shade of light pink nail polish (my fav) you tend to forget something.... I was tired of my hair looking crazy so I figured I would do the twists anyway since I didnt use a product the last time and they came out ok. This time, I was armed with a moisturizing product that was much needed to nourish those ends of mine that have been scorned by this crazy winter weather. I applied the treatment just as it said (on damp or dry hair--I did damp) with my water bottle (w/ water & a hint of my favorite deep conditioner in it--- Neutrogena Triple Moisture Daily Deep Conditioner, its the BEST!!!) on hand and went to work. I must say, this shea butter n aloe vera creme smells absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! Omg, its soooo sweet and I was not disappointed with how it made my hair feel. It smells like cookies or cake to me and I think it is because of the almond oil it has in it. I definitely checked out the ingredients before I decided to buy it and Im glad I did; you can't go wrong with olive oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil, and the various root extracts. Hopefully, I will be able to continue to see and feel the results of this lovely treat.

While I was doing my twists I was able to stretch a few down to get an idea of how long my hair is and how long its getting. I was happy, like I said before, to see that it is somewhere near my collar bone (stretched from the longest point), soon to be arm pit length, and eventually bra-strap length. I estimate that in a few months my hair will be back to where it was once upon a time

I will probably edit this later to add pics of my hair after I finished.
Until then people.....