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Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. I wanted to do a really quick blog post to share my Miss Jessie’s Salon Experience. Miss Jessie’s is a leader in haircare within the natural and curly haired community, but did you know that they also had their own Salon?! I had no idea until I read the book written by Miko branch, one of the co-founders of the brand, entitled “Miss Jessie’s: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch—Naturally.”

I bought this book several years ago after I had recently gone natural and also after the extremely unexpected death of the other co-founder of the brand, Titi Branch. It was just sitting on the bookshelf collecting dust until I grabbed it to read while doing a lot of traveling this past Summer. After I started reading it, I finished it over the span of I think 3 weeks, which is really quick for me! I was so inspired by the story of two sisters grinding it out in NYC to follow their dreams, but was surprised to learn how much I had in common with these women! They’re also of mixed African-American and Japanese heritage with family having the last name Pittman from the same area where my Pittman family members are from! How cool is that?? AND, their grandma, Miss Jessie, lived in Poughkeepsie and would shop at the same grocery store I used to go to in College! Learning more about these sisters and their struggle to create something they believed in made me feel so close to them and by the end of the book I was rooting so hard for them. Needless to say, I was stoked when I found out I’d be able to get a last minute appointment at the Miss Jessie’s Salon my birthday weekend.

It was so crazy to know Miko’s motives and the thought process behind all of her choices in the salon and then experience them first hand. I felt like royalty during my entire experience and all of the staff was SO. NICE. If you’ve been following my natural hair journey at all on any of my platforms, you know I’ve had some difficulty finding a natural hair salon that I trusted and made me feel comfortable (because I’ve been shamed and also had nonsense spewed at me) but I instantly fell in love with the Miss Jessie’s Salon staff. They listened to my concerns and my story and were able to suggest products that would work for me. My visit consisted of a super deep conditioner, end-trim, and two-strand twist (which I neglected to get a picture of. Bummer.) and I loved the results and process of everything. I can say, without a doubt, that this will be the salon that I go to for the entirety of my time in NYC. I’ll share the products they suggested as well as the other products I’m using in my current natural hair regimen with you soon. Do you use Miss Jessie’s products?? Let me know which ones in the comments below!

 

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This month marked my 6 months since my big chop and making the decision to go natural. I have learned so many things about my hair and about myself and I am so excited to continue on this wonderful journey; however, as I type this right now, I am back to wearing a weave. There are a lot of people who would argue that I’m regressing or that I caved and went back to “the dark side,” but I completely disagree!

At first, I was really struggling with my choice to go back into a weave because I was sort of halfway listening to all of those comments people were making. I had started on my journey to learn to love my natural hair and learn to take care of it and appreciate it as a part of who I am, and I worried that going back into a weave after all this time would take away from that. My hair had visibly grown since I first started and I was so excited that people I knew and were following me on my journey noticed and pointed it out to me! I was getting a lot of compliments on my progress and how it looked on me in general, which was absolutely incredible to me and super fulfilling. I had finally gotten to a point where I felt pretty confident about working with my hair and really owning it and still feeling feminine and beautiful (which was really huge for me you guys). But..when it came down to it..I was super bored.

Those who have known me for a while, or even those who just follow my blog, if you read my post about my hair journey you can see how often I like to change it up. To me, hair has always been an avenue for creative expression and trying out new things; and, although one of the things I have learned to love most about my natural hair is its versatility, I was really missing having a pony tail and I was craving some color for summer. I’ve come a looong way in learning how to do some different types of things with my hair, but I was absolutely no where near ready to dye or lighten my natural hair. Guys, I’ve just been scared switching up the products I use because I’m terrified of losing all of my hard work! A lot of naturalistas out there are at the point where they’re willing to take risks and try new things because it’s just hair and it will grow back… but I can comfortably say I’m definitely not there yet (one day!). So getting this weave let me play around and do some fun things without potentially damaging my hair.

Another huge thing that a lot of people tend to forget is weaves can be a great protective style. I’m one of those people whose hair grows a lot when it is just tucked away and left to do its own thang without any manipulation by me. I also suffer from a horrible case of HIH syndrome (hands in hair syndrome) where I am constantly touching my hair and detangling and just getting all of those horrible icky oils from my hands onto and into my hair that just dry it out. So for me, weaves let me safely suffer from my disorder.

Lastly and most importantly, weaves make me feel so confident and good about myself. It was hard for me to admit this, because I thought it was a bad thing, but I’ve decided it’s really not. The whole point of the natural hair movement is to encourage women to love themselves and who they are while learning to care for their hair. If wearing a weave makes you feel confident and beautiful then I think you should do it! Everyone’s journey and personal situation is completely different and I think it’s important for people to remember that whilst on your journey, you should do what’s best for you. For me, I can say that this time around I am in a completely different mindset than when I would only wear weaves. Back then it felt like something I had to do to feel beautiful and now I know that that’s just not true at all. Big, bold hair will always always always fit with my personality and who I am, and I dream of the day when I nurse my own hair to get to that point. Until then, I am comfortable with faking it for the time being. Now there are also incredible brands like Runway Curls that create beautiful, 100% authentic human hair extensions that you can blow dry, straighten, dye, and do everything that you would want to do with your real hair without experiencing any of the damage or stress that comes along with styling. I work with this brand because of its dedication to the natural movement and teaching girls to love their natural texture, which I think is super important and is perfect for what I want in my weave right now! A lot of people also are hating on the Brazilian hair look, but I’m gonna be real with y’all and say that I don’t think it’s the most horrible thing. Curly hair takes a lot of work and effort and if your present lifestyle makes that difficult for you, or even if you just want a short vacation from the curly life and want to enjoy the luxury of being able to wake up and throw your hair in a pony and go, I say go for it (although I have found that having hair that matches your natural texture is so much better and easier when it comes to blending in new growth and keeping people guessing about whether you grew that hair or not)! Everyone is different and has different needs, and I think in the end we need to be focusing on encouraging people to do what’s best for them and their hair and makes them feel the best about themselves. Isn’t this movement about love and support anyways?!

Let me know what you think below!

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Hello everyone!

So probably the most overwhelming/exciting/confusing parts of moving into your natural hair journey is figuring out what your routine should be and what your hair likes.  I remember after I decided I was going to go natural I was so overwhelmed with all the information out there on the internet.  Everyone would talk about how it was important to develop some kind of routine and how it would be different for everybody, but what does that mean??  I wanted product names, I wanted to know how often people were using what, etc.  So I want to make sure that I provide people with some options and some names just to start out with, and maybe you can use that as a starting point.  OR…if all else fails, do what I do and head over to the natural hair section and sniff around.  When it came down to it, after I saw some of the brands mentioned online by other naturalistas, I made my decisions off of what I thought smelled the best.  That seems kind of silly but, it was important to me that I liked how my hair was smelling.  Okay!  On to the good stuff!

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1. Anti-breakage Keratin Oil from Organix, $5.49 at Wal-Mart, but also sold at Target, Walgreens, and most other drug stores.

This wasn’t a part of my hair care routine until the 2nd month, but oh my goodness, I LOVE this stuff! I got my sister to start using it too.  It’s from the Organix line, which is one of the more expensive lines sold at drug stores, but their stuff is great so it makes sense!  I’ll talk about the line more when I get to my conditioner that I use, but you’ll notice that this spray is of the same line within Organix.  Organix has multiple lines of products within their brand, I’ve seen naturalistas use the argan oil of morocco line, coconut milk line, or brazilian keratin therapy line, but again, I based my choice off of smell. Y’all…this stuff smells amazing, almost like perfume.  So not only will you be smelling nice, but you’ll be giving your hair an extra Keratin boost.  Keratin’s important because it’s a protein that helps define the structure of our hair, and, when hydrolyzed, Keratin has moisturizing properties. So this product is great for making the hair stronger and moisturized (two things your hair needs to not break off, hence, anti-breakage in the product name).  I spray this product in my hair after my moisturizing step in the morning, but I know my sister uses it after straightening her hair.  I had initially heard about this product from the glamtwinz on YouTube and they would just carry it around and spray it on their hair during the day when they needed a moisture boost.  All of these are great options!

2. Coconut oil, $6.98 and up at any grocery or health food store

MY HAIR LOVES COCONUT OIL.  If you’ve done any kind of google search looking at natural hair products and things I’m sure you’ve seen a ton of girls saying “I’m in love with the coco” because it’s just. that. good. Coconut oil is like magic.  You can eat it or cook with it, use it on your skin, and now I’m telling you to use it on your hair!  My hair drinks this stuff up like its nobodies business, and I love smelling like a coconut all of the time.  When creating your natural hair regimen it’s not just enough to moisturize, you need something to seal in that moisture, that’s where oils come in.  Putting an oil on your hair after moisturizing helps your hair retain that moisture and seals it in by producing an extra oil layer over your strands.  There’s scientific evidence that this is true and blackgirllonghair talks about that study here. So I chose coconut oil, but there are many other oils to choose from including almond, sunflower, grapeseed, and jojoba.  I use coconut oil as my last step every night after moisturizing.  I used to also do it in the day time but I found that my hair seemed greasy, or oily rather, so I moved it to my night routine only so my hair could absorb while I slept.

3. As I Am Double Butter Cream, $25.19 at Sally’s with a Beauty Club card

MOISTURE MOISTURE MOISTURE is so important for getting you hair to a healthy place and making sure it stays there.  One of the hardest parts of figuring out my routine was finding a moisturizer that I really felt like my hair liked.  I started off with an olive oil spray but that didn’t really feel like it was getting it done to me so I asked my old trichologist and she suggested this product and it’s all I’ve ever used since.  I think my hair likes it because it’s of a thicker consistency and my hair is super thick and just drinks up moisture.  They have another moisturizer in their line that I haven’t used, but if anyone else has tried both of the two, let me know what you like or don’t like about them.  I use this product twice daily as 1 of 2 moisturizing products that I put on my hair.

4. Anti-breakage Keratin Oil Conditioner, $5.74 for 13oz at Wal-Mart, but also sold at Target, Walgreens, and most other drug stores

So within the natural world there’s this thing called co-washing, where you can do a pre-poo before hand, or not, and you just wash your hair  with conditioner.  Shampoos have drying agents that aren’t the best for natural hair, so many naturalistas use them sparingly.  I’ve never done a pre-poo but I wash my hair once a week with this conditioner.  It smells exactly like the spray (a.k.a. AMAZING) and I was so shocked how soft my hair was after using it.  Like I said earlier, I had heard about the Organix line from some other naturalistas online, but before I bought it at the store I was reading the label (make this a habit when buying your natural hair products!  The first ingredient should always be water, and you need to make sure there’s no secret bad stuff that you’re going to be putting on your head) and it said that it had methosulfate in it.  All these red flags and bells and whistles went off because I have been trained that all sulfates are bad.  So of course, I did a quick google search and apparently a lot of other women had the same concern I did.  Apparently, this methosulfate isn’t really a sulfate at all, and has amazing detangling properties that are so mild on the hair that they are often used on babies!  Curly Nikki (LOVE her) goes into more detail about that here. Then after using the conditioner for the first time, I was amazed at how detangling it was!  This is super important for natural kinky hair that so easily tangles. I fell in love.  I was already in love, but that just sealed the deal.  So again,  I use this once a week for a wash as my shampoo and my conditioner.

5. Cantu Coconut Curling Cream, $5.99 at Sally’s with Beauty Club card, but also sold at Wal-Mart and Walgreens.

So while perusing the web, I saw a lot of people mentioning things about getting something to define your curls.  There are so many products that do that, so for the time being I just went with this one (I currently use something else that I LOVE, and I’ll post that in product reviews).  As winter in New York rolled around, my moisturizer wasn’t enough to keep my hair’s thirst quenched, so I started adding this in as a second moisturizer and my hair really responded! I’m not sure if I’ll continue to do this as temperatures warm up, but we’ll see. So the product is intended as a curl definer and it really does do that.  Every time I put it on I can instantly see my curls become longer and more defined.  So as a moisturizer or as a curl definer, this product does its job!

6. Cantu Leave-in Conditioner, $11.69 for one with a pump at Sally’s with a Beauty Club card, or $5.49 for the one shown in the picture at Walgreens.

Deep conditioning is an important part of the natural regimen because it really helps to keep your hair moisturized and give it that extra oomph!  The frequency in which you deep condition is up to you, and I’ve heard people do it multiple times a week and some people who only do it once or twice a month.  I just deep condition every week after my wash.  After I get out of the shower, I put on the deep conditioner and then a shower cap and sit under the dryer for 30-45 minutes, then I rinse out. It’s definitely a bit of a time commitment but it’s an important step in getting your hair to where you want it to be, which is at its healthiest!

7. Mane ‘n Tail Hair Strengthener, $5.49 at Sally’s with Beauty Club card

I’m a little upset with how pricey this is, but it is completely worth it.  This is the product that I credit with getting my edges to grow back as quickly as they did.  I forget where I heard about this, I’m pretty sure I read about it in Nylon but I went to pick it up and I’ve used it ever since.  It’s the first thing I spray on my hair every morning before I begin my moisturizing routine and it does a good job of kind of loosing up my curls that have dried up and gotten packed together over night.  In fact, this product is so important to me, I think I’ll do a review on it. So…tbc.

 

SO TO SUM UP MY HAIR ROUTINE:

MORNING:

1) Mane ‘n Tail hair strengthener

2) As I Am Double Butter Cream

3) Cantu Coconut Curling Cream

4) Organix anti-breakage Keratin oil spray

 

EVENING:

1) As I Am Double Butter Cream

2) Cantu Coconut Curling Cream

3) Coconut Oil

 

WASH-DAY (x1 a week):

1) Wash with Organix anti-breakage Keratin conditioner

2) Condition with Organix anti-breakage Keratin conditioner

3) Apply Cantu Leave in Conditioner and add shower cap. Sit under dryer for 30-45 minutes.

 

I hope y’all find this helpful.  Share your routines with me down below!

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