Aloe Vera Uses Post #10

Aloe Vera is a plant that is grown from the ground. It contains 99% water, but the other 1% has some extremely important minerals and nutrients. Aloe Vera can be used as sunscreen,  hair gel, it can help burns, indigestion, and also constipation. I personally love it because it can promote hair growth. I usually mix 1/4 Aloe Vera and 3/4 water in a spray bottle and spray it in my hair in the morning, to refresh a wash n go and to even start a wash n go. When using it as a gel for my hair, it has great hold. my hair is extremely curly and the shrinkage is a little crazy too. Here are some pictures from last year when I did a wash n go with Aloe Vera Gel.

This is the gel I used, I do want to try and make it myself, but I cannot find a store near me that sells it. I found this gel at Walmart. It is a pretty small bottle for a $4 price, especially trying to use it for your hair. I will definitely do an updated wash n go with this gel since my hair is a lot longer now!

African Healing Clay post #9

African Healing Clay is a 100% natural calcium bentonite clay. It's used as a face mask and a hair cleanser. To use it as a face mask, you mix equal parts of apple cider vinegar together to get a nice paste, (you can use water to, but it is not as effective) smooth it all over your face and let it harden. (It may tingle, but that means its working) Once its hard, you rinse if off with warm water! This stuff is soooo good for your skin literally, it cleans out your pores, and it also takes off any left over makeup. To use it for your hair, you do the same thing; mix with equal parts of apple cider vinegar work it through your hair, but DON'T let it harden. The reason behind this is, it will be harder to wash out and will also clog your drain (personal experience). Leave it on for about 5-7 minutes and rinse. This mask will leave your hair SO SOFT! I promise you, your hair is going to feel as soft as a pillow. It also acts as a shampoo. So ditch that shampoo bottle and use this clay instead! Don't forget to condition.

This clay is not only used as a hair/face mask, it can also be used as a body wrap, clay baths, foot soaks, chilled clay for knee pads and insect bites. This is all stated on the back of the bottle, I'll show a picture below. 

                                                                                

Can African American hair be bleached/colored?? Post #8

YES! African American hair can definitely be bleached/colored. I've seen so many women of color with beautiful colorful fro's, locs, buns, braids you name it. It all comes down on how well you take care of it. Bleaching is a process of stripping the dark color from your hair strand, so of course it is going to make your hair weaker, but if you maintain a good routine for taking care of it, it wont break off as bad. A lot of girls argue that bleaching only looks good when it is done by a professional, but in my opinion a lot of "professionals" don't really know how to work with natural hair. I've heard plenty of stories of a salon visit gone wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't go to a salon, but if you have a preference, go for it! YouTube is actually a very good example of many different non licensed girls bleaching/coloring their own hair and it comes out beautiful. Here are a couple examples of girls with bleached curly, kinky hair.

So don't be scared to rock some color! explore, don't let anyone tell you what to do with your hair! Just make sure you take EXTRA care of it, deep condition, use hot oil treatments and use protective styling with it. Good luck!

Deep Conditioning is SO IMPORTANT! Post #7

Deep conditioning is EXTREMELY crucial for naturals. Here's why...
deep conditioning is used to repair color damaged, dry, brittle, broken off, and even frizzy hair, basically anything you can think of! Deep conditioners are sold at Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreen's, and many other places. Deep conditioning consists of adding the product to clean wet hair (sn: Adding product to dry hair causes you to use excessive amounts of the product if your hair is really thick, and adding it to dirty hair defeats the purpose of it conditioning your hair. It's not meant to clean your hair, its meant to repair it.), working it from the scalp, all the way to the ends, putting on a shower cap and sitting under a dryer for 10-15 minutes. If you don't have a dryer, you can always use a blow dryer to add heat.  After that, you rinse your hair out and style as usual! Super easy, just an extra step in the shower for healthier hair.
Here are few of my favorites.

$11.99

$8.99

$5.97

All of the above conditioners can be found at Walmart.

What are the benefits of deep conditioning?
Deep conditioning treatments help moisturize, strengthen, and lengthen your hair, and should be done at last once a week. I've noticed that doing this once a week helps with shedding and breakage because my ends are really prone to breaking off. 
These treatments also make your hair really soft! rocking wash n go's for a week straight can sometimes dry out your hair and cause it to have a rough feeling. In my opinion the ORS hair mayonnaise is better for softening your hair, the Shea moisture is better for actually repairing your hair and the Shea butter masque is better with retaining moisture. 

You can even make your own deep conditioner.Here are a couple of links to my personal favorites. These recipes are super inexpensive as well!

• Recipe #1 
• Recipe #2 
•  Recipe #3

Hot Oil Treatments Post #6

Hot oil treatments are definitely my favorite. These treatments make my hair really soft, bouncy and well moisturized. (I have REALLY dry hair). A hot oil treatment consists of drenching your hair in warm oils and massaging it throughout your scalp and ends; letting it sit for about 15 minutes. Adding warm oils to your scalp and hair strands, causes your hair cuticles to open up and absorb the oils and moisturize it from the roots all the way to your ends.  There are plenty of different oils that you can use for this treatment . A couple good oils would include Avocado oil, Olive oil, Coconut oil, Jojoba oil, and grape seed oil. You can mix some of them together or use them one at a time.

For the treatment: All you have to do is add enough oil to cover your hair, into a microwavable bowl and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, test it to make sure its not to hot, then start with massaging it into your scalp and work your way to your ends! Let this sit for 15 minutes and then wash with conditioner, and that's it!

Wash n Go's 101 Post #5

Wash n Go's are well known in the curly hair community. It is an easy way to get your curls super defined in a timely manner. The amount of product used should be very limited also. I'm going to post a video below on one of my favorite wash n go because she makes it look so easy!

Wash n Go's could also fall under the "protective styling" category because it focuses on perfecting the hairstyle the first day, to last you about 5-7 days depending on how you maintain it. Wash n Go's are also known for being done very quickly. In the above video she only uses three products to achieve those beautiful curls.

DIY Hair Gel (Flax Seed gel) Post #4

Flax Seed Gel is extremely inexpensive and super easy to make. I'm going to give you a recipe but first let me tell you the benefits of flax seed. 

• Flax Seed promotes hair growth
• Does not make your hair crunchy like other gels
• provides lots of hold 
• it makes your hair appear very shiny and gives it some bounce
• also help with split ends!

Things Needed:
Flax Seeds (I found this at Walmart)
a container that shuts completely (I bought this in Walmart for $1.50)
and pantyhose( These were actually to thin and kept ripping, so I used a stocking instead, which worked a lot better for me!) 
Tongs 

Recipe:
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of flax seeds
a few drops of essential oils (optional in case you don't like the smell )
you can also add a few drops of oils like, grape seed, castor, olive, coconut or avocado to prevent flaking (This is my first time making this gel, I didn't add any oils to it and haven't really experienced flaking so far, but I read online that a couple girls said the gel was flaking.)

Pour the water and  flax seeds in a small pot, bring the heat to medium-high and stir until it starts bubbling. You should let it boil for about 3-4 minutes or until its because sticky. 

Tip: If you accidentally over cook it or it comes out so thick that you cant get it through the stocking just add more water and put it back on the stove! Flax seeds are reusable. (It took me three tries to get this right, and it gets messy.)

Once it becomes sticky or looks like gel consistency, remove it from the heat and grab your stocking and put it over your container or any kind of plastic cup tall enough and pour the mixture into the stocking. 

(I switched from pantyhose to a stocking because it kept breaking :( )

After that just pull the stocking from the cup and grab your tongs, and squeeze it as hard as you can all the way to the bottom. 

You can repeat this a couple times until the stocking starts to get a little dry. Remove those flax seeds from the stocking and set them in a bowl to the side, then just repeat the steps above until you are out of flax seeds. 

This should be what your gel looks like in the end! 

The best part about this is that the flax seeds are actually reusable! So whenever you run out of gel, just put them back in the pot, add water and repeat!

TIP: This gel will only last you about 2-3 weeks and KEEP IT REFRIGERATED! keeping it refrigerated will help it last longer and help with the hold of the gel. The smell doesn't bother me, but if it bothers you, just add a few drops of essential oils to the pot while its boiling.

Here are some pictures on how it looks while slicking my hair up. My hair is extremely frizzy and I feel like this had a really good hold on it!