ALERT

BIG CHOP ALERT! BIG CHOP ALERT!

I have been going natural since March 13, 2009 and today is December 24, 2009. My original plan was to transition for a full year, meaning that I would have done the big chop on March 13, 2009. Since my hair has grown more than I'd expected and it is becoming harder and harder to blend my natural hair wth my relaxed ends, I want to start off the new year with a fresh new look. I am going to do my big chop myself on New Year's Day!

I have mixed emotions right now... anxious, happy, scared... but I will definitely go through with it. When I first started my transition, I told myself that I won't do the big chop. Like most people, I am attached to longer hair. Now I realize that my hair isn't exactly healthy. Some of the relaxed ends fell off already on the crow of my head ah! It's time for me to get rid of them all!

Here are some pics of the new growth so far.

Estelle's hair

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Bantu Knots

Hey peoples. I'm back. I'm back with my new signature hairstyle, bantu knots. I love how curly and shiny my hair is after taking out the knots. I put in the bantu knots the night before and then take them out the next morning, and the greatest part about it is that it's easy to do! All you need are your fingers, black rubber bands, and the hair product(s) you use. I like doing the knots with dry hair because it becomes more curly but doing the knots on wet hair is still nice. Make sure you wrap your head before going to bed.Part your hair in sections and twist each section until you have a knot. Twist each section as if you are making a tiny bun.Take the bantu knots out the next day using your fingers. No combing!
Style it and rock it!

Rihanna's best hair poll

<---- Poll

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It's been awhile

Hello all. Sorry I haven't written in awhile. I've been so busy. I now work two jobs to pay those bills, for now. This economy is fucking us over.



A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Good Hair with my sister (look at my earier blog for a preview of the movie). It was good but I kind of knew the reality of the "African American Women's Hair Industry" before seeing the film. I knew Asians profit the most off of this industry, which is kind of sad. I knew that African American women spend a whole lot of money each year on their hair, be it relaxers, haircuts, weaves, braids, etc. You most likely knew all of this too. Something that I did learn from the movie was that women in India can get their hair stolen off their heads while they are sleeping. Indian hair is very popular here in the United States due to its shine, thickness, and healthy length. I guess Indian business people will do whatever it takes to make their pockets grew, even if Indian women have to wait five years to grow their hair back. Plus, it is a tradition for people in India to sacrifice their hair to the Gods, even though they are not aware that their "sacrificed" hair is being sold as weave in different countries. Damn. Very crazy. Go see it if you haven't already. Chris Rock is funny and the people he interviews are even funnier.



My next blog will be about bantu knots, which is becoming my new favorite transitioning hairstyle because it's fast and easy. =)

The straw set results...

Sorry for the one picture. My stupid computer or stupid blogspot doesn't want to upload any more. Grr! Well, I hope you get the picture. Now go get your tools and start your straw set. Just do it!

Straw Set

The straw set is a great transitioning style. Having relaxed hair with natural growth is a bummer but this style will cover up the new growth that you don't want to show the world. It's easy to do but may take awhile to do. The results are magnificent and the spiral curls last for about a week. You can do it yourself with cheap supplies. Make a stop at Stop&Shop and you are on your way.


To start, I washed my hair with Coconut Milk Shampoo (The price isn't on my bottle but I don't think it was too expensive) and then used Suave's Tropical Coconut Conditioner ($1.79). I towel dried my hair and then applied Cantu Shea Butter ($3.43) throughout my entire head. You will need to buy straws (I bought Diamond's 100 flexible straws). I cut the bendable section off the straws so I was left with sturdy, plastic rollers. You will also need bobby pins to hold the straws in place in your hair. Look at the pics below:





I hope I didn't scare you with the last pic hehe. Anyway, I still have the straws in my hair right now so I will put pics up tomorrow to show the results. Since I don't have a drier I can sit under, I will let it air-dry for about five hours or until I go to bed. I will use a hand dried for about ten minutes before I take them out to make sure all the curls are dry. After taking the straws out (use the straws for your next straw set!), I will sleep with a satin cap and in the morning I will finger through my hair to make it fluffy and bouncy. Can't wait!


Here are some lovely photos of my new growth so far:

I dunno what "type" my hair is or anything. Maybe you can tell me.

Good Hair

Today I was watching Oprah. I usually don't watch Oprah, or any talk shows for that matter, but this one was about Chris Rock's movie Good Hair coming out October 9th. The show talked about the many issues black women have throughout their lifetime involving their hair and how much they actually spend on it. Solange Knowles made a guest appearance with her new TWA (Teeny Weeny Afro) explaining why she cut off all her hair. Some clips of the show will probably be on youtube sometime soon so I recommend that you watch them. Informative and hilarious.

Although I am not against relaxers, weaves, braids, and whatnot, I am going natural because I can. A lot of black females believe that growing out their natural hair is not an option due to the amount of effort they must put in to upkeep it. I am not going to lie. I just began transitioning and it is pretty hard but I get my encouragement from my expected end result--nice, healthy, thick hair that I can rock out with. I've done the relaxers that burned my head everytime I put one in in order to get my hair straight and easier to manage. I've done the weaves that tugged at my hair and broke it off, which I then covered up with more weaves that broke my hair off even more. I've done the braids that pulled my hairline back, which now makes me self-conscious to wear updos. It's kind of sad what we have to do to our hair to make it presentable to the world. Let's make going natural a desireable option!

Here is a movie trailer of Good Hair. I hope to see you in theaters!

Twist Out Results

As promised in my previous post, here is the result of the twist out. I like!

Even though I like the result, I still prefer a straw set because I like more curls. I like how the twist out gives me length compared to a straw set which shortens it. I think a twist out looks best on those people who are completely natural.

What should I try next?

Hello. How ya doooin'? I'm doooin' fine.

Right now, I am sitting in my comfy chair in my bedroom with a newly set twist out in my hair. This is my first time doing a twist out so I hope I love it. My very first hairstyle during my transition (minus microbraids and kinky twists) was a straw set. I can't really say anything bad about a straw set, except for that it takes a little while to do, maybe like two to two and an half hours, but it's worth it. The straw set lasts for about five days. Yippy!

Okay. Back to the twist out. Since I already washed my hair a few days ago (I don't wash my hair more than once a week), to begin, I wetted my hair in the sink and put conditioner in. I used V05 Passion Fruit Smoothie Moisturizing Conditioner, which only costs 99 cents from Stop&Shop. I left it in for about half an hour. Later, I jumped into the shower to rinse it out and towel-dried my hair. Next, I parted my hair in four sections and applied Cantu Shea Butter ($3.43) to each section. I used several hair ties and clips to keep the hair sectioned properly. I then started with one of the back sections and sectioned it into four mini sections. I twisted each mini (four twists makes up one 1/4 of my head). I did the remaining three sections the same. To make sure the ends of my hair wouls be curled, I put in bendy long foam hair rollers. Also, since my hair is short in the front, I payed special attention to the twists to make sure I had a bang. I sprayed the twist out with Olive Oil Sheen Spray ($4.49) so my hair can be shiny the next morning. I used Tea Tree Oil ($3.37) on certain spots of my scalp that tends to get dry and itchy easily. Waalaa! I'm done for the night.

Before I go to bed, I will wrap my twisted out hair with a silk wrap. My hair will be completely dry in the morning. A picture of the twist out is below. I will post the finished look sometime tomorrow after I get off of work.

Be sure to come back for the result.

Vote for your favorite Solange Knowles hairstyle.

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A journey back in time...

Before I go full force into going natural, I want to take a trip down memory lane to my many hairstyles (braids, kinky twists, relaxed, and sew-in).

Braids - Love them! Wavy and straight styles.

Kinky Twists - Eh. Became annoying after everytime I washed them. My hair would start to unravel from the synthetic hair and I would have to take an hour or two to wound them back up again.

Relaxed - Love it! My first short haircut. I usually had shoulder-length relaxed hair.


Sew-in - Love/Hate situation. I really liked how they looked but my head would begin to get itchy and my hair would break off sometimes. Not a fan of this style.
Although I changed it up a lot, my hair wasn't exactly healthy. With braids, I neglected to get trims before putting in another set of braids. I had split ends galore when it came time to get a relaxer or sew-in weave. My hair grew a lot with a relaxer but since I have a very sensitive and dry scalp (I can make it snow on my shoulders), it burned so badly everytime I put one in--That doesn't seem good for my hair. I think going natural is the best bet for me and my hair. Sorry, Hair for all the pain I put you through.

This Marks the Beginning

Welcome all! Thanks for coming and making me feel extra special =). My previous posts are kind of old but I am turning this into a new blog about my journey to natural hair. Yay!

My main motivation for going natural is sisterlocks. I will be getting, hopefully in a year or two, sisterlocks, so I have to grow out my relaxed ends (I don't think I can do the BC).

Well, I guess I should tell you a bit about my hair. My last relaxer was about six months ago (March 13, 2008) and I intend to go natural without microbraids for the next six months, maybe longer. I've been doing the microbraid look since elementary school (Oh, man! I remember those burnt end microbraids that made me feel like hot shit haha). I would do a sew-in once in a while but everytime I got one done my head would get really itchy. I told myself I would never get a sew-in again... and then do it again. I guess I don't live and learn.

When I was in college, I kept rocking microbraids until my senior year when I allowed my hair to breathe, finally after all my childhood and teenage years. I put several relaxers in after that and loved it. When summer came around after graduating college, I tried kinky twists. I hardly ever leave my hair out during the summer because the humidity sucks and I tend to go swimming a lot. I have a kinky twist tutorials on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuQWJ9MVmWw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdi2NZBBWGc&feature=related). I like kinky twists but they became a hassle when my hair began to come out of the twists everytime I washed them Ah! I enjoy doing and washing my hair every week while blasting music in my home. Seems more like a fun activity than a chore.

Anyway, my hair is pretty thin but I've never really seen it completely natural. I am excited to embark on my journey to healthier hair!

So, every few days I will be blogging about my journey from relaxed hair, to natural hair, to sisterlocks, and all the bumps in the road on the way. Last Saturday (today is Monday), I did a straw set on my hair. It still looks pretty good. I will add photos to this post to let you see.

For people who are thinking about going natural and are looking for information, I will try my best to example everything I do and products I use.

For those of you who asked yourself, "what the hell is a BC," a BC stands for Big Chop. When your natural hair begins to grow, pushing your relaxed hair towards your ends, a lot of people cut off their relaxed hair leaving their new growth. After they do so, they either have an afro or really short hair. I don't think I can handle they BC because my hairline is pretty pushed back from braids and I need to cover it up with longer hair. Plus, but less importantly, I don't think I would look good with an afro.

Okay peeps. Let me go and take pictures of my straw set to post. Thanks again for reading my first hair blog. Feel free to comment questions, tips, and/or whatever. Stop by again... and again!