ANOTHER DARK KNIGHT RISES SPOILER AHEAD!!
So, if you didn’t know, DKR is partly based on the Batman story, Knightfall. Just thought a few of you might be interested in knowing that the doctor who healed the Batman in “real life” was Dr. Shondra Kinsolving … NATURAL … and rocking a TWA. ;).
Oh yeah, and they developed a romantic relationship, he fell in love with her and was about to reveal he was Batman. Then she got kidnapped. Batman … forever alone.
#justsayin
by Sawah of Discovering Natural
When transitioning from relaxed to natural hair, you need all the support you can get to make the process an easier one. It is difficult enough figuring out how to handle your two textures. Sometimes, people that we think will be supportive of our decisions to go natural might let us down. We struggle with what to do to our hair. Many of us fail during the process and go back to the relaxer because we did not have the support we need.
This is why having a Transitioning Buddy early in the process can help make the process easier. As someone that plans to do a long term transition (2 or more years), I depend on my transitioning buddies to keep me in check. Yes, I do have more than one transitioning buddy. Pictured above is one of them.
Now, you might be wondering, none of my friends are natural … no one in my family is supportive of my decision … how am I going to get a transitioning buddy? Well, there are several online hair forums that have threads dedicated to Transitioning Buddies. CurlyNikki.com has a good support forum for Transitioning to Natural and there is a thread in there for Transitioning Buddies. This was where I found my online transitioning buddy, Uninibile. Check out her hair blog.
So, go online and get yourself a buddy! You can finally have someone to discuss natural hair information, rants and raves.
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Do you have a Transitioning Buddy?
Hair
I still haven’t measure my hair, but I can tell how much it has grown by how much my hair hangs down my neck. Since April, I’ve been a strict CG Method follower. But, since I’m more concerned with my hairline growing back more fully, I’ve started to use castor oil again and have become more of a modified-CG follower. In June, I started to incorporate pre-poos and using sweet almond oil to keep my hair moisturized. Normally, using conditioner (Tresemme Natural) as a leave-in works well as both a leave-in and slight hold. But, with the 100+ temperatures in Northern VA, my hair was starting to feel really dry and brittle. So, first I tried using Eco gel to lock in the moisture, but I feel it was too “heavy” for my hair and discontinued. Now I’ve been using Paul Mitchell “The Conditioner” as a leave-in conditioner.
My edges are still the problem areas for me to get to regrow. So any help will be appreciated! I will have to wait to see if the castor oil will work again. I read up on the benefits of sweet almond oil to help with hair loss and have mixed the almond and castor oil together to moisturize and massage my scalp and edges. I’m going to give it awhile to see if it will make a difference and jump-start the hair growth. Only other issue I’ve noticed is a lot more hair shedding. I know it’s shedding, since the bulb is attached. But I wanted to get others thoughts on if this was a normal “shed” process?
Health & Fitness
June and July have been pretty active for me: (1) Started a new job (Yippy!); (2) Planning a move in late July and dealing with packing/movers; (3) Dealing with the commute. So, with weight loss, what little I did lose previously was wiped out due to not having the time to exercise and eat home-cooked healthy meals. I’m not going to lie … the McDonald’s workers know me by name :). But by August, I should be settled and have a routine set ,so that I can plan time to go to the gym and take exercise classes. I know I have a lot of excuses as to why I’ve haven’t kept up, but I’m ready to re-commit and finish strong for the challenge.
♦
Check out Cassandra’s other GOC-The Sequel posts here:
As you know from my post yesterday, I pre-pooed with a mix of Aubrey Honeysuckle Rose conditioner and Vatika Oil from Saturday into Sunday. On Sunday night, after finishing cleaning the house (with the exception of the dishes, because Wei always says he loves washing dishes, so I didn’t want to steal his joy;)), I hit the shower and shampooed. It had been a while since I clarified and I debated between Ion Curl Defining Shampoo, a sulfated, yet moisturizing shampoo, and the unopened bottle of Lavender Garden Terressentials Mud Wash under my sink. The Ion shampoo won and I diluted it in water before applying.
After shampooing, I used Herbal Essences Hello Hydration to finger detangle under the shower stream. Now, this is where the something new comes in.
I picked up this shampoo brush at Sally’s for $0.99 about a year and a half ago. I very rarely use it, but Wei gives it a work-out! *lol* Well, I’ve been getting a lot of tight, little knots caused by shed hairs. I’ve had to resort to the scissors at least once every wash day the last month or so. That got me to thinking that finger detangling hasn’t been sufficient lately. And, I’ve read of some who finger detangle first and then use a wide-tooth comb, Denman brush, Tangle Teezer, etc. to finish the job. So, I decided to use the shampoo brush to comb through my hair as a final step before rinsing my conditioner. Yup, I used the shampoo brush!
You see, when the Tangle Teezer (TT) was the craze early last year, someone wrote that this cheap little shampoo brush was just as good, if not better. If I remember correctly, they said that this was because the teeth on the shampoo brush aren’t as sharp as the TT and it they don’t have seams.
So, anywho, after doing a thorough finger detangling, I took the shampoo brush in the palm of my right hand and the ends of my hair in the left. Then, I slowly combed through my hair, working up from the ends to the roots. If I met any resistance as combing, I stopped to remove the “obstruction” with my fingers, then resumed combing. The brush really glided very easily through my hair when it was fully saturated with conditioner and I allowed the water stream to flow over it. It also made my curls clump nicely. But, I don’t know if I’ll use the shampoo brush every wash day. Maybe every other. And, I’ll be keeping an eye on my ends as I used the TT for a hot minute after a big “trim” and noticed an inordinate amount of splits almost immediately. So, if that happens, I’ll stop using it immediately.
Back to wash day. To finish, I applied Aubrey Green Tea Rinse directly over the HE HH and rinsed with cool water. Then, I set my hair in six braids for a braid out with Wonder Curl Get Slick Smoothie and Butter Than Love Pudding, using the shampoo brush again to evenly distribute the products through my hair.
As it was about 8 pm by this time, I knew that there was no way that my hair would dry overnight. So, I decided to finally take the Salon Dryer on Wheels, which I got over 2 months ago, on a test drive!!
I realized pretty quickly that I needed to do something with those hanging braids if I wanted more than my scalp to dry! So, I secured them across and against my head with large bobby pins.
So far so good! The dryer is pretty loud though and I used the timer, which sounds like a ticking time bomb. But, it seemed to be doing a decent job of getting my hair dry. I sat under it for about an hour. My hair didn’t dry entirely, but I’m hoping that it will finish drying overnight *fingers crossed*. I’m writing this post Sunday night, so I’ll have to comb back with the final results later! Sorry for the delayed gratification!! But, I’m sure you’ve been there before ;).
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hairscapades 