Tuesday, August 14, 2012

1 Month Progress Report!


Hey there fellow naturals! I'm popping in quickly today to share my 1 month comparison photo (featuring a picture of me on the day I BC'd and now). I can definitely see the growth, but I must also point out that my hair was still wet in the first picture from a month ago and the 2nd picture was taken today when I got home from work (my hair was completely dry).

I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping my hair well moisturized...it feels very soft and clumps/curls-up a lot. I'm quite pleased with the progress Sofie has made and very excited for what's to come!

I'm currently trying to use up my stash (making room for new product... and trying not to "OD"), so I've been using the following;

Co wash with- TRESemme Naturals Moisture Conditioner
Deep Condition with- Shea Moisture Raw Shea Reparative Trauma Masque
Leave-in Conditioner- Paul Mitchell Original The Conditioner (Leave-in Moisturizer)
Styling Cream- Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

xo

Thursday, August 9, 2012

New Beginnings in LA!


Hey there! Greetings from LA (a.k.a- La La Land)!! I moved up last weekend for a new job and so far, so good! I've never been a huge fan of "Hollywood"...but figured its the best area for me to be living at this stage of my life and also for more design opportunities. I'm loving the artsy vibe, beaches and all the things to see and do! Hoping to take full advantage of this situation and to get the most out of it! I just joined LA Curly Girls, which I've been wanting to do and I'm so excited- looking forward to attending their events and making new friends!

Also, in other exciting news...this past Saturday, I walked upon a brand new Devachan Salon that opened in my neighborhood (by accident), and was sooo pleasantly surprised by this discovery! I love the Curly Girl Handbook by Lorraine Massey and have wanted to visit a Devachan salon for a while now! So although my Sofie is tiny right now...I'm definitely looking forward to making an appointment as she gets a little "bigger/older".




Well, not much else has changed in my curly world. It's been about 3 1/2 weeks since my BC, but I can already see the growth...it's amazing how fast your hair grows when it's so short! I recently started taking a daily multivitamin from Trader Joe's which focuses on hair, skin and nails- not so much to help with growth (or speeding up the process because I don't believe it does that) but to ensure I'm getting all the necessary nutrients to support a healthy and full head of curls! I'm also working on a "Curly Girl" sketchbook, or journal where I can add inspiration images and helpful information that I can access on a more tangible level (in addition to this blog). What do you do to help stay on track and keep yourself motivated/inspired?!? I'd love to hear from you! xo

Friday, July 20, 2012

6 Days Post BC & Honey/Olive Oil Conditioner

So today makes almost a week since my BC and I feel like this time around, it's totally changed my life! I just love the fact that Sofie is so healthy and officially on the road to growing fuller and happier! She's soooo short though...I think some strands might be at least an inch long, when stretched...but others are definitely shorter (especially around the sides and the very back). But I must say, the tiny curls are too cute for words! *wink*

Now, since the health of my hair is the main goal in this process...I figured I better get in the habit of deep conditioning and what better time than the present. So earlier today I decided to try the honey/olive oil conditioner that can be found in the Thank God I'm Natural book (pictured below). I also read a post that Elle did on this conditioner after she BC'd which pushed me to try it out!




I purchased organic olive oil and honey from my local grocery store on the way home from the gym and got right to it! The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of honey and 1/4 cup of olive oil. You have to make sure to combine both ingredients well (which requires a bit of mixing to get the olive oil to blend evenly with the honey). The consistency should be like maple syrup when its mixed well. Given the fact that my hair is so short, I definitely didn't need to use this whole mixture for one application, so I used enough to fully saturate my whole head and saved the rest in a reusable plastic container with a label noting the contents and the date- then stuck the rest in the fridge for next week. I threw a plastic cap over my head and let it sit for 30-35 mins. Pretty easy peasy!

Once it was time to rinse, I hoped in the shower and let the water run through my hair for a little bit while massaging the conditioner out. Then I washed my hair once with Shea Moisture Organic Coconut & Hibiscus Curl & Shine Shampoo (which is free of sulfates, parabens and a bunch of other unnatural things). I then did one more rinse with TRESemme Naturals Moisture Conditioner. For my styling products, I used:

Paul Mitchell Original The Conditioner (leave-in)

I really liked this honey/olive oil conditioner, its supposed to make your hair soft and shiny and I feel it did accomplish both things quite nicely! I will probably continue doing this conditioner at least once a week if not twice. Although, I do have a few other DC's that I like, which I will rotate from time to time, but I'll talk about those another day...

Here are some pics/close-ups of the results...





I haven't noticed much hair shed since the chop, so I guess that means no breakage and/or split ends! Yeeeaaaayyyy!

Have any of you ever tried the honey/olive oil conditioner? If so, what are your thoughts? If not, what deep conditioners do you like/recommend? Thanks loves! xo

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Introducing Sofia! (a.k.a Sofie)


I DID IT!! Meet Sofia, or as I'd like to call her, Sofie (since she's pretty tiny). After much thought, I finally did the BIG CHOP today! Although I've already done this a few times...I was pretty reluctant this time around, but knew it was really the only way to go. As I said in my previous post...my hair had suffered some major heat damage from blow drying and flat ironing too often earlier this year, so the front wasn't really curling up anymore and the back was curling, but not nearly as much as it did (pre-heat damage). My main goal was just to get back to curly and healthy...whatever it took, and this was it! The positive side- it's JUST hair and it grows back *wink*! So here's to a happy and healthy head of curls! Hip-hip-Hoooorrraaayyyyy!!! Yeeaaayyyyyy! Here are a few more pics...




Products Used;
Co washed with- TRESemme Naturals Moisture Conditioner
Leave-in Conditioner- Paul Mitchell Original The Conditioner (Leave-in Moisturizer)
Styling Gel- DevaCurl Angel

I've been using TRESemme Naturals conditioner for a few weeks now and love it...it's very moisturizing and has a lot of slip, which is great for detangling when your hair is longer. This was my first time using both Paul Mitchell The Conditioner and DevaCurl Angel. So far so good...but I will have to give it more time to see how my hair reacts. I definitely think my hair is a little on the dry side, which seems to be normal after a big chop (from the research I've done), so we'll see how it goes over the next week or so.

I went to my girl Alexxus at the Frederick Michael Salon in San Diego and she hooked it up! She has a FB page where you can check out the rest of her work! She's pretty awesome! Thanks Alexxus!!!

Also, please feel free to share any helpful tips or advice on what to do post BC. Thanks loves! xo

Welcome to my world!


Hey there and welcome to REinvention 28! My name is Wahkuna and this is where I will be documenting and sharing my natural hair journey (and maybe a few other tidbits about my life along the way *wink*). I've decided to blog about my hair so that I will have a reference to look back on 2-3 years from now which documents the progress I've made, and also may be helpful to someone else out there...you never know!

 To be honest...I'm no stranger to the natural hair movement and have gone through my fair share of BC's since HS (about 3 to be exact). However, it seems that every time I set out down this path...something seems to throw me off whether it be that awkward middle stage when my hair has grown out of it's TWA and I can't figure out what to do with it (which is when the texturizer or relaxer creeps back up) or this
time when I got severe heat damage from flat ironing my hair way too much over a period of 3 months, as you can see from the above picture :-( (and I was doing oh so well...*sigh*).
And although each attempt has been an epic fail, I can honestly say that I've learned a lot of different lessons from each experience and like the saying goes "When you know better, you do better". Now, I'm definitely not an expert on natural hair and don't know all of the terms, hair care methods, etc...but I'm doing my research this time around and already found some great blogs that have helped answer a lot of my questions and addressed some concerns. I find that my new nightly ritual is to dive into one of my natural hair care books like; Thank God I'm Natural by Chris-Tia E. Donaldson or the Curly Girl Handbook 2nd edition by Lorraine Massey. I discovered these books while watching a video by one of my favorite natural hair vloggers Elle (denimpixie) who also has a very informative blog called Quest for the Perfect Curl. I also like to visit Jess's vlog on youtube (mahoganycurls) and her blog MahoganyCurls. Another one of my favorite bloggers is Cassidy of Natural Selection, her and Lola (her hair) are so fun, it's kind of hard not to get hooked! :-)

It's funny that a few months ago, I never realized there was such a huge online community for natural hair, but thanks to my "heat damage"...I made this discovery and I'm SO glad (at least something good came from this unfortunate situation)! It's already changed my life in such a short time, I'm excited to see what the future holds for me, my natural hair and all that I will learn in the process! My hope is that I will continue to update this blog frequently so that it will be a help to me and to some of you as well...(this is the goal *fingers crossed*).

Oh, and just to give you a little background on my most recent natural hair relapse. I stopped relaxing my hair in the fall of '09 and transitioned until March of last year. At that point, my cousin told me about the Hair Rules salon in NYC (where I was living at the time) and since she was making an appointment, I decided to visit the salon, feel it out and inevitably made my own appointment to chop off what was left of my chemically treated strands. I was quite pleased with the outcome (although...I was still left with some heat damage in the front...since I had been flat ironing my hair throughout my transition period). This picture was taken when I got home from the salon that day;


I wish I had taken more pictures...but you get the idea. I remember really loving the cut...I couldn't stop looking at it...or touching it! It was a great feeling! And here are two more pictures of my natural hair from last August/September;



I wore my hair curly all the time last year...except for a few special occasions where I had it professionally blown out and flat ironed. Then life threw me a few curve balls which lead to my decision to move across country to San Diego at the beginning of this year, where I got a little "flat iron happy" and did some permanent damage to my curls :-( (it still pains me to think about it...almost 3 months later). I was pretty devastated when I washed my hair after my most recent straightening escapade in April and realized that my curls weren't coming back, as per usual...Ugh! I miss those curls...but I just have to keep reassuring myself that I will get back to that eventually.

Anyway...this has turned into a much longer post than anticipated...but I think it's been a good introduction nonetheless! So if you're reading this, THANK YOU and I look forward to sharing more of my story/journey with you soon! xo