Regimen Change

Soooo finding out that castile soap may not be a good choice for my hair I am going to remove it from my regimen for the present time.  *This is subject to change as my research continues* I am also not seeing any benefit of just using the VO5 as my leave in so I am switching to Herbal Essences as a leave in. Below is what I have come up with 🙂

My present regimen starting Friday May 18th

Daily (Saturday thru Thursday)
* co-wash w/ VO5
* leave in conditioner Herbal Essences Hello Hydration
* seal w/ Vitamin E
* apply product, Curls Unleashed

Weekly (Friday)
* deep condition w/ honey, EVOO, and Vitamin E oil with cap overnight….Is this the Greenhouse Effect?  🙂 Research Research Research 🙂

Monthly (Sunday)
* hot oil treatment w/ EVOO, Jojoba oil, Vitamin E oil, Tea Tree mixture with cap for 30 minutes
** if needed ACV rinse as clarifier in case of product buildup

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Castile Soap

So I’ve been hearing random not-so-good things about castile soap.  Because I am doing the CG method (washing with conditioner only) but this method allows you to use gel as well as product and that is reason for me to want to clean with a little more than conditioner periodically.  I DO NOT want to use shampoo so I thought if I used castile soap which is an all natural soap made of oils not a detergent that my hair would be safe from harsh elements.  WRONG! Apparently the PH balance in castile soap is very high between 8 and 9.  This can strip the hair and make it very dry thus making my health care regimen POINTLESS.  I am not saying that I am going to abandon castile soap completely BUT I am going to cute back on my usage….so I am going to change my regimen.  Instead of washing my hair with this weekly I am only going to do it Monthly (if needed) and the amount will be less.  Last time I used 1/2 cup castile soap, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons Jojoba oil, 2 tablespoons Vitamin E, 2 tablespoons Tea Tree oil, and 2 tablespoons EVOO.  This time I will use 1/4 castile soap with same mixtures of oil.  I am just a fan of the ingredients and I don’t want to use anything un-natural on my hair.

Okay, so what about the PH balance??? Well a healthy PH balance for our hair is between 4.5 – 5.5.  Anything above 7.1 is considered alkaline and anything below 6.9 is considered acidic….our hair is  slightly acidic.  Pure water is considered neutral at a PH level of 7.  When our hair is at the proper PH level the cuticle is closed this stops the hair from frizzing up.  When the cuticles are open the result is frizzy hair.

 

Oohhh, so I signed up for my first hair challenge! 🙂 The deadline has been extended to May 27th so I decided to try it.  Thought this was a good challenge especially since I just BC’d I can see where I will be in two years 🙂  Website is  http://www.naturalhair2014.com/

Curls Unleashed Curl Boosting Jelly

So in allegiance to my regimen, I shampooed with Castile soap mixture and deep conditioned on Friday. Hair felt great the next morning. Because I can’t afford to go to work looking a mess Monday thru Friday I dedicated Saturdays as my new product test day. The chosen product was Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie. It did nothing for me at all 😦 but because I like to give everyone a fair shot I will attribute this to trial and error and give it another try later in my journey.

Since that was a fail I washed it out of my hair and tried the next contender, Curls Unleashed Set It Off Curl Boosting Jelly. This is thee bomb!!! I like it better than the Kinky-Curly Curling Custard because that left my hair crunchy once dried, the Curls Unleashed did not! 🙂 🙂

My Review of Curls Unleashed:
Scent: This product smells fruity. I like it.
Texture: Good name for this product as it is very jelly like without being too sticky.
Ingredients: first product is our friend WATER, glycerin, aloe leaf juice, and wheat protein, these were those in the top seven.
Application: easy to apply and directions on the jar.
Results: I am in love with this product. It left my hair defined and not crunchy with a great shine.
Overall: I’m a fan! Hell maybe even a groupy lol

Below is a pic of the Shea Moisture but I am not doing a review at this time as I want to give it another try later.

My regimen

My  regimen

Daily (Saturday thru Thursday)
* co-wash w/ VO5
* leave in conditioner VO5
* seal w/ Tea Tree Oil
* apply selected product (so far this is only Kinki-Curly Curling Custard, I may try something else this weekend)

Weekly (Friday)
* cleanse w/ Castile soap, Jojoba oil, Vitamin E oil, Tea Tree oil, and water mixture
* deep condition w/ honey, EVOO, and Vitamin E oil with cap overnight

Monthly (Sunday)
* hot oil treatment w/ EVOO, Jojoba oil, Vitamin E oil, Tea Tree mixture with cap for 30 minutes
** if needed ACV rinse as clarifier in case of product buildup

Member when I said…well I lied

Okay, okay, so I know I said I like to follow the KISS rule and thus may not be doing product reviews BUT now that the time is here and my hair does not look too appealing in its raw state I have products to use and will review them.

The salon that did my BC ran out of “stuff” to put in my hair so I left there looking unfinished in my opinion. So in attempts to make me look complete me and my support team ( Krystal and Melissa) ran to get me some products :). Our first stop was target where I purchased Cantu Shea Butter, Shea Moisture Organic Coconut & Hibiscus Curl & Shine Shampoo, Shea Moisture Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie, Kinky-Curly Curling Custard and Tea Tree Oil. Then when I realized that in most of the YouTube videos I watched people were always talking about Eco Styler Gel, so I had to go to the beauty supply store to get some…so we did. Since my theory of no product was out the window I knew I would need some sort of cleanser. AND since I’ve read enough to know that I personally don’t want to put any harsh detergents in my hair which can be found in most poos, and I had already researched it I went to Trader Joe’s and purchased a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap. While there I also picked up some Jojoba Oil and Vitamin E Oil.

When I got back from shopping I co-washed with VO-5 left some conditioner, sealed with EVOO, then used the Kinky Curly Curling Custard.

My Review:
Scent: This product doesn’t have a floral scent nor is it earthy, it actually smelled like chemicals to me but it’s not strong enough to be bothersome.
Texture: The custard is similar to jam in that it is very tacky.
Ingredients: all botanical ingredients that are good for natural tresses. It contains horsetail, chamomile, nettle, and among other things aloe Vera.
Application: I tells you what to do on the jar so I liked that however if you have a twa you really don’t need to follow the instruction cause you could overuse the product like I think I may have! It’s a very easy to use product.
Results: Like I said, I think I used to much because at first I followed the instructions and applied it to small sections. That was too much for my inch and a half hair so once I realized that I just rubbed some in my hand and worked it into my hair. It dried very nice not flaking but it did feel goode in my hands but I’m sure that was because I applied to much.
Overall: I will certainly be using this again….maybe staple quality 🙂
Other: Getting into the jar was horrible as you have to break the seal which is part of the label and I like to keep my labels in tact