hair stuff!

ive been meaning to do some hair talk around here for the last, like, month and a half.  i’m still transitioning and trying to get used to home life again, and sometimes it drains all my creative juices and motivations.  i just got outta the shower though and i am COMPLETELY motivated by this awesome hair day i’m havin to share some stuff that ive discovered.  ive got a great pre-shampoo suggestion and a quick review of oyin’s sample pack.

firstly, my hair is natural & curly and i’m not good with the grading stuff, but i think/guess i’m a 3c.  i have a lot of hair, but its relatively fine and as such can be tempramental when dealing with heavier products, especially while wet.  co-washing pretty much doesnt work for me.  it just leaves my hair feelin crazy and lookin crazier.  and dull.  co-washing makes it very dull.  my curl pattern is coily.  i have one main problem area, being the front part of the upper left quadrant of my head.  i dunno what happened or when it happened but the curl pattern there is on life support.  my usual routine is:  sulfate wash once a week, no-poo when needed in the inbetween time; slap in a leave in, moisturizer & finisher (sometimes.. i dont always).  air dry. i wish i had taken some before and after pics, but i didnt 😦

okay so.  when i went natural i bought a jar of cantu shea butter leave-in conditioner.  i was still trying to get the hang of things and just tryin stuff out while reading up on maintenance and care and what products to use and what not to use.  shortly after i bought the cantu, i decided to stay away from products that have silicons in them, which included the cantu.  so its been pretty much sitting on my shelf for a year and a half.  i did discover, though, that it’s great to use when detangling; the slip is phenomenal and it makes combin out my difficult tangles relatively easy.  even so, i eventually phased it out of my routine as i got better with caring for my hair.

fast forward to this morning.  my hair’s a dry, stressed, weighed down mess.  i havent deep conditioned in weeks (terrible!!).  i need to do something to get the buildup out of my hair, but im all of my no-poo and there’s not a drop of ACV to be found in the house.  co-washing doesn’t work, as previously established, so that pretty much leaves me with regular old sulfate-laden shampoo.  problem is, it’s not time for a sulfate wash yet, and i’m scared that washing with shampoo right now will stress it out even more.  my options at this point are: A) keep runnin round lookin like Boo Boo the Fool, or B) get to shampooing.  i got nothin against Boo Boo the Fool, but his style doesn’t really work that well for me, so shampoo it was.

i decided that i’d pre-poo before to sort of protect my hair some… its something i typically don’t do because…. well, i dunno why i don’t.  i’ve done it before, and it was cool or whatever, but.  you know.  just didn’t feel like something i needed to work into my regular routine.  but i knew the shampoo was gonna take out a bunch of important moisture, so it made sense to put some extra moisturizers in first to protect it all and kind of replenish the good stuff before the shampoo even had a chance to take it out.  but what to use?  i really wanted to use my oyin whipped pudding to see how it would do–it’s creamy (after emulsifying with a bit of water) and penetrates well.  but i only had precious little left, and im still tryin to see how i like it as a moisturizer (i bought an oyin sample pack a few weeks ago and i’m still givin it a trial run).  then i remembered my big ol jar of cantu!  plenty in there, and i could use a detangle anyway, so why not?  i threw in some coconut oil too.. i rinsed with water, worked the coconut oil in first, followed with the cantu, and got to brushing/combing out with my imitation denman style brush (omg i cant find one ANYWHERE.. ive been using this cheap little 99 cent deal that i found at Walgreens which, surprisingly, gets the job done!).  i covered with a plastic grocery bag because either my head or my hair is too big for the shower caps i have, let it sit for about 30-45 minutes, then rinsed and washed it out in the shower.

when i took the bag off i was already gettin tingly with excitement bc my hair was WAY curlier than it has previously been.  i saw similar results, though perhaps better ones, with oyin’s honey hemp conditioner.  i looooooooooooooooooove this stuff.  its SO moisturizing and nourishing and it smells like a dreamsicle.. i was hesitant to use it (i’ll explain why later), but after deep conditioning with it overnight a couple weeks ago, i was sold.  i would have used it today but im all out 😦  anyway, the cantu leave-in gave me similar results in a fraction of the time.  in the shower, i lathered twice with the last of my nexxus theratin extreme moisture shampoo (i then shed a few tears.. i love that shampoo but its so freakin expensive!) and by the second wash my hair was STILL full of curls.. i figured that they would relax as the cantu and coconut oil was washed out, but nope!  still poppin!  and continued to pop after i got out and put my products in!

my favorite leave-in in the world is giovanni direct leave-in conditioner.  its made of wonderful things, none of which are silicons or mineral oils, and a little bit goes a long way.  then i moisturized with oyin’s whipped pudding, and finished with some of oyin’s shine and define serum.  the result was fabulous.. its fuzzy and frizzy and a bit dull looking in some spots in the front, but that’s likely because my curl pattern is spotty there, and i always do the front last when applying products and by that time my arms and hands are tired and i just wanna get it over with so i kinda half-ass the job.  but on the whole, my hair is MUCH curlier, even in the problem areas.. its a bit more weighed down, which i don’t mind, and it’s really soft.  at least softer than usual.

now ive been meaning to do a quick review of the oyin stuff for awhile, but im still evaluating it, i think.  i was hesitant to use it because my hair typically HATES glycerin, and all their products, so far as i’ve noticed, are glycerin based.  i dunno what it is, but it usually makes my hair just look stressed out and dull and stringy but waxy and jheri curlish at the same time and who wants that?  i decided to bite the bullet and give it a go though, and i ordered the sample pack, which includes the honey hemp conditioner, greg juice leave-in, whipped pudding, and shine and define serum.  a few quick words on each product:

honey hemp conditioner: LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!  i think i said everything above already.  smells great, moisturizes like a dream, good as a wash-out conditioner or leave in.  as a deep conditioner it gave me craaaazy curlage.  and it’s also good for detangling.  i am unemployed and going broke, but i will sacrifice the few dollars i have to buy more.  unless someone volunteers to get it for me  (PLEASE VOLUNTEER.  EMAIL ME FOR MORE INFORMATION).

greg juice leave-in conditioner: actually, i didnt get the greg juice.. i got juices and berries.  again, smells great.  kinda tropical.  i felt a slight urge to mix some rum in it and serve it on the rocks.  i don’t know how effect if was though.. i didn’t really feel either way about it.  i didn’t particularly feel any benefits from it, but i didn’t feel like it did anything horrible to my hair.  after using it as a leave-in initially, i began using the honey hemp conditioner as a leave in and just using the juice to spritz my hair to make it smell good.  not mad at it, but won’t be buying it.  but if somebody wants to volunteer to buy it for me, that’d be cool (PLEASE VOLUNTEER. EMAIL ME FOR MORE INFO).

whipped pudding: i fully expected to hate this.  it smells chocolatey, which is cool.  but i was worried about the texture.. it’s sort of like a whipped shea butter, which is lighter than regular shea butter but still pretty heavy, and a bit more oily feeling.  you can use the whipped pudding on ur body as well as your hair, and that worried me because my hair, though thick in volume, is kind of fine.  it doesnt handly heavy products well beyond the first day, and i get build up quickly.  so im like, anything that gets the ash off my knees and the heels of my feet this well (it worked wonders for that!) will absolutely kill my hair and make it heavy and gross.  how wrong i was!  i actually really like it as a hair moisturizer!  it makes it feel like its really well moisturized, and my heavier curls shine and recoil nicely when pulled.  feels healthy.  looks healthy.  for me, it helped to emulsify with a bit of water to make it spread a little easier.  it doesnt shine up ALL my hair though.. some parts can still look kind of dull.  but on the whole, i like it, and as of now would buy it.  unless… (PLEASE VOLUNTEER ETC ETC)

shine and define serum: im guessing this is supposed to supply the shine that the whipped pudding may not give.  to be honest i don’t really know what this does to my hair.  i really like the idea of it, and i WANT to like it–smells tasty, just like everything else, and feels really good.. light and slightly creamy and feels like any hold it gives your curls won’t be be waxy and crunchy at all–but it just doesn’t do anything, good or bad.  i could live without it, i and probably will.  but won’t turn it away if given as a gift.  at all.

now when i first used the oyin stuff, i used all products in the order above.  i was really scared and nervous because of my past experiences with glycerin products, and after i finished putting it all in my hair i was worried.  it looked very jheri curlish but dry at the same time (that’s what glycerin usually does to my hair) and i was none to pleased.  but as it dried, it totally transformed.  it looked healthy, felt healthy, smelled great.  the shrinkage was MAJOR though, and i usually dont mind it, but it was a loooot of shrinkage.  i first noticed it after i took the bag off my head after deep conditioning with the honey hemp conditioner.  you know what though?  i became cool with it because i was so impressed with the amount of curl it gave me.  i can learn to live with shrunken hair. it’s worth it to note that with the combination of products i used today (ie – no honey hemp conditioner), i didnt have half the shrinkage, but still got some good curlage goin on.

overall im REALLY pleased with oyin’s products.  it takes forever and a day for them to ship your products to you because each order is custom filled or something, so the next time i buy oyin, i’ll be buying from curlmart.com, only because they have a quicker turnaround.  the oyin folks seems like genuinely  good people though; i asked them a question and got a handwritten note in my package, complete with a smiley face 🙂  i approve!

anybody else out there love these products?  hate them?  have questions about them?  WANNA BUY ME SOME OF THEM??!!