Summer Rain

"Summer Rain" from Carl Thomas' 2000 Emotional



This song is definitely in my top five feel good songs. It's just so chill and relaxing. It makes me want to dance, sing and keep it on repeat for 30 minutes :)

Braid & Curl pt.2

I love second day hair :)

Braid & Curl

After washing my hair I felt like doing something different, so I decided on a Braid and Curl. I said I wanted to try this style a few months ago when NikkiMae did one for Valentines Day. I did a variation of what she did.

I used a tiny bit of Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture as my leave in, olive oil as a sealer, Cantu Shea Butter Coconut Curling Cream as a styler and a bit of the As I Am Curling Jelly Curl and Coil Definer.

I didn't want to have a bajillion braids so I ended up with 17. I braided until there was 2 inches of hair left and rolled the ends with some perm rods.

Here's a nice tutorial that's similar to what I did. Her braids are bigger than mine, but its the same concept.





This was my first time using the Coconut Curling Cream and I really like it. My hair is moisturized, has shine and bounce and it smells yummy lol. As far as the style, it came out ok, nothing spectacular. It looks like a regular ole braidout. I think that next time I'm going to have bigger braids and leave more hair unbraided at the end. I also think I'm going to use my small rollers, which are slightly bigger than the perm rods that I used.

Here's a couple of pics:

Drowndeep: Hula

Last week VH1Soul played Maxwell's Soul Story and his VH1 Storytellers from 2011. Of course I was elated because I loooove me some Maxwell. After hearing him perform this song, I just could not get it out of my head. Its just so soothing, beautiful, sensual, melodic...perfect. You ever hear a song and feel it resonate within your being? Yeah, that's what this song does to me. 

"Drowndeep: Hula" from Embrya (1998)

 

Omg the end of the second verse is just...ugh. When he sings "How could I let you go" my heart aches...but in a good way. Damn you Maxwell! :) 

Here's the whole set from Storytellers. The intro to "Drowndeep" starts at 10:55ish and its followed by my all time favorite Maxwell song, "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever" at around 18:00.

Enjoy :)

I really need some live music in my life. I'm missing it.

WnG turned Twistout

So five days after my As I Am WnG, I got a bit tired of my hair. It wasn't dirty so I decided to wet it, comb through it and and do a twistout. I figured I could pin them down to stretch them like I'd seen Naptural85 do before -

I ended up with 17 twists because I wanted them to be chunky. I took out the pins the next day but waited five days to take them down. I was glad to see a bit of hangtime and nice definition.

I gave up on twistouts a long time ago but as usual, I'm changing my mind lol. I still love a good braidout though.

Random but here's a couple of curlies I found while combing out my hair :). Yup, I have a bunch of weird S/U shaped curls lol

Ask Myself

Robin Thicke's "Ask Myself" from The Evolution of Robin Thicke (2006)

Advantages of Fine Hair

A couple of weeks ago, I came across an article that Jenell from Kinky Curly Coily Me reposted from Black Girl Long Hair which listed advantages of fine natural hair. I usually complain about how fine my hair is but while reading this article it made me feel better. I guess its good to look at the positive side of things that seem to be negative. 
 
7 Advantages of Fine Natural Hair

Fine hair almost always gets a bad rap. We’re all familiar with its downsides — scalpy twists, fros that flop and susceptibility to breakage — but we don’t always discuss the benefits of having fine natural hair. Here are 7 unique advantages of fine natural hair. For the purposes of this article, fine hair refers to thin strand and low density hair.

1. Less Products

With fine hair, a dime-sized amount of product goes a very, very long way! Thicker haired naturals require more product to coat and seal their strands, plus they often require heavier products — like shea-based butters and creams — that tend to be more expensive. Many fine haired naturals can skip heavy butters and seal with lighter, cheaper products like coconut oil or aloe gel.

2. Easier and Faster Hair Straightening

While coarse strands and thick hair take more coaxing to loosen their curl pattern, fine hair tends to take to heat more easily and requires less of it to straighten out. On the flip side, you have to be careful not to burn fine strands. Keep your blowdryer at medium to low temperatures, and don’t keep the flat iron on for long!

3. Easier Bunning

Thick hair can look a bit bulky when pulled into a bun or a single braid and can put a strain on hair ties and bobby pins. Fine hair is easier to pull into one, and can look a bit more effortless.

4. Hot Weather Friendly

There’s nothing hotter in the summer time than a mass of thick, heavy strands. The “scalpiness” of fine haired styles is actually a plus in the summer time, providing a way for heat to escape the body.

5. Shorter wash day

While thicker haired naturals have to divide their strands into several sections and cleanse and condition each one individually, fine haired naturals can get away with fewer section and, in some cases, not sectioning at all. Plus, fine haired section take less time to work through and air dry much faster.

6. Easier Detangling

When you have less strands to detangle, the process is much quicker. Plus, fine haired naturals can get away with finger detangling only, while many thicker haired naturals must also incorporate hair tools like Denman brushes and wide toothed combs.

7. Faster Styling

When there’s less hair to get through, styling tends to go faster. On fine hair a set of twists or box braids can take less than 2 hours, while thick hair styling often take 4 hours of more. Plus, thick hair can be a downside at the salon, with many stylists charging extra cash for clients with a lot of hair to get through.


Source

I agree with everything listed and I can also add that I love that my hair dries pretty fast.

Wash & Go - As I Am

Warm weather has finally arrived and with it comes my excitement for wash and goes. I haven't been too excited about wash and goes in a couple of years. Lately I've been having the itch lol. I never really had a great experience with a wash and go and I'd love to play around with different products to see what could work well for me.

It recently dawned on me that I never show off MY curls. I'm forever braiding, twisting, bantu knotting, roller setting, and whatever elsing my hair. I barely ever just let my hair be. So I'm going to start doing just that. Plus, a good wash and go can last me up to a week. For a long time I thought that WnGs gave me single strand knots and split ends. Come to find out that ANYTHING I do to my hair gives me SSKs and split ends lmao. So I said eff it, I'm gonna do what I want any damn way. 

Over the next few weeks I'm going to try out a few things. First on the list is what I have left from a free sample I received months ago - As I Am Leave In & Curling Jelly Curl and Coil Definer.

As soon as put the Leave In on my hair I felt my hair smile. It had nice slip and smelled like cake batter lol. I followed up with some olive oil. The Jelly looked like, um, mucus. I really felt like I was putting snot in my hair lmfao. I was kind of unsure about the Jelly because as soon as I added it to my hair, my hair felt a bit hard. It felt as if it wasn't agreeing with the other stuff on my hair. I was hopeful that it'd be fine though. Since my wash and goes tend to be a bit crunchy at first and soften up as time passes, I was ok with the crunch.

Here's a couple of pictures of it when it was freshly done and still soaking wet:

After it dried, I put olive oil on my hair and scrunched out the crunchiness.


Here's a few shots of it dry the next day: 

 

I'd love to try this leave in again. It just felt so nice on my hair. I'd try the Jelly again also because it gave me wonderful definition. The crunch eventually subsided and my little Jherri curls were still popping all over lol.

I'm excited for my next WnG :)

Big Ass Puff

I'm so in love with big, fluffy hair. This is the aftermath of my last braidout finger-combed out.

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My puff is growing :)