YGY Pre Poo

Today I was sitting with my line sister discussing hair and my pre-poo came up, so I dedicate this entry to her. My lovely 61 who's line name is ironically Dark-N-Lovely. SKEE WEE MY SOROR!


As previously stated in another entry, pre-pooing is a conditioning step taken by a lot of women prior to shampooing their hair in order to prepare the hair for the harsh ingredients and detergents found in a lot of shampoos. A couple of weeks ago, I formulated my own pre-poo and tried it for the first time along with Organix Coconut Milk nourishing shampoo and Suave Humectants conditioner. When I first came to you all about these products, I thought that the Suave Humectants conditioner is what was making my hair feel so ridiculously soft, but last night I found that it was not! It was actually my pre-poo formula! Now, I'm not completely done playing around with the formula. I still want to try adding my Nourishing Coconut Milk Anti Breakage Serum to the mix simply because I love the product THAT much. But anyway, if you have these ingredients at home, I definitely recommend giving it a try. It's relatively cheap to make and one of the benefits is that you know exactly what's in it 'cause, well, you watched yourself do it! Anyways, on with the recipe:

1 tbsp unrefined virgin coconut oil

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsbp castor oil

2 1/2 tbsp megatek equne rebuilder

You may or may not want to add the megatek but it adds a lot of protein to the mix which could be beneficial in the strengthening of you hair (as long as you don't go into protein overload). Whenever I do this again and add the Coconut Milk Serum, I'll only be adding 4 pumps which is what I usually use for my entire head (1 pump per section) any other time.

So after stirring everything up, focussing especially on the coconut oil which was in a solid state when I did this, I applied about two or three tsp to each section of my hair. Whatever was left over was also used to saturate my hair afterwards. Once that step was completed, I put a plastic cap over my head and sat under the dryer for 10 minutes with the heat set to medium. After coming out from under the dryer my hair felt extremely soft and ridiculously manageable. I swear by this process! Give it a try and let me know what you all think! Until next time, Happy Healthy Hair Growing!

Hated It

So about a month or so ago I noticed my mother had a conair brush that looks a lot like my denman. Today, I decided to give it a try. Oh. Em. Gee. It was terrible! LOL, I will never go without my denman. HORRIBLE! It gave zero definition and it did a lousy job at detangling. In a word, this brush was useless. Also, I've come to the definite conclusion that my hair absolutely hates shampoo and all things associated with it. That rubbing motion just rubs my hair the wrong way causing endless tangles and more dryness than we care for. You'd think the solution would be to stick to my no-poo, co-wash only regimen but I can't continue on with that until I find a conditioner that does not have 'cones' in it. I've recently gained knowledge on 'cones' and what they do and I must say, I'm terrified of them. Basically, 'cones' are the ingredients in a lot of conditioners (herbal essence's included, unfortunately) that allows the hair to be slippery and easily detangled. Unfortunately, 'cones' are not easily washed away and thus coats the hair shaft blocking out moisture in the future. The only way to rinse these pesky wolves in sheep's clothing is to use a sulfate shampoo. Which brings me right back to my hair hating shampoo. See the issue here? I think I've found a conditioner that may be worth my while. HOWEVER, I am in product jail for now until I'm done/low on the conditioners I already have. So until then, I will be using sulfate shampoos bi-weekly in order to assure my hair is reaping the benefits of the moisturizing products that I use.

Know of any good cone-free conditioners? PLEASE let me know! Until next time, Happy Healthy Hair Growing!!

Megatek Update

Heyyy! So as you all know from my "Sad But True" entry, I've been wearing my hair in straight styles for the past 2 months. Well, NO MORE! My hair absolutely cannot take this annnymore! After last week when I put my bantu knots back, I realized juuust how much I missed my curly styles and that's when I decided to do away with the straight styles and start my "No Direct Heat" challenge early. Now, what does that mean for my megatek challenge? Well, I'm not ending it..but I am slowing down. A lot. So far, since last Wednesday my hair has seen megatek all of twice. I've decided to use the growth aid only on my wash days(this includes co-washing). I'll be using the same method of parting in small sections and applying directly to the scalp as before. The only difference is I will not be doing it every single night as I did before.

Due to the fact that my ends are relaxed and moisture will simply destroy my bantu knot outs, making the relaxed hair fall straight, my Ends Saver Challenge will also be affected. I've pretty much decided to stop stressing so much about my ends for now since they'll be gone in May anyway. However, I do believe that the No Direct Heat Challenge will have a positive effect on my ends. The only thing is I wont be sealing my ends every night. Honestly, since I'm not using a blow dryer anymore, I don't think my hair will become so dry so quickly. When wearing my curly styles my hair is in contact with H2O a lot more often than when I wear my straight styles so I think that will take care of the moisture part.

So that's all for the updates with my challenges. Because I got really sick from air drying my hair overnight last week, I will be using my hooded dryer to dry my bantu knot outs while the weather is as frigid as it's been. You guys know we got 30" of snow here?! And another 10-20" is on it's way tomorrow. HA! Yeh, hooded dryer it is. My room is drafty then a mugg right about now and I hate being sick! I couldn't even go play in the snow! (big kid alert) Welp, til next time...Happy Healthy Hair Growing!

Product Jail

"denial is a disease"-..idk lol

So I've just recently (like 15 seconds ago) decided that I am going to put myself in "product jail". Now, what is product jail, you ask? A place that most of us should be! LOL I haveentirely too many products going on in my closet! And on top of that, I had the nerve to order even MORE within the past week! I have half empty bottles of conditioner everywhere I look and I've decided that I will not buy anything else until I have finished what I already have! Humans are creatures of habit; if I begin now, only half using my products and then tossing them to the side I will create a terribly cycle of spending and then wasting money due to product boredom. I refuse! I challenge all of my fellow product junkies to take the first step in admitting you have a problem and then placing yourself in product jail! No one is going to come do it for you. And remember my loves, denial is a disease! Here are a few pictures (evidence) of my closet. *bows head in shame* Don't judge me.

Then & Now

Here's a comparison pic/growth progress pic of my hair 5 months post relaxer and again last weekend at 9 months post relaxer. Both pictures were taken with freshly co-washed, damp hair. That's a lot of growth in just four months, huh?! Remember, hair typically grows at 1/2" per month. So in four months, I grew about 2 inches! :)

Youtube Flow

I finally got MY journey (so far) onto youtube...check me out! :)

Product Paradise

"This conditioner really surprised me!"-DJ

So this Sunday I went to Whole Foods and Target with my sister specifically to buy new hair products. I bought Suave Professionals Humectant conditioner, Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk shampoo, Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum, Castor Oil and Unrefined Virgin Coconut Oil. Because I will be featured in an article about natural hair for my school, I did a bantu knot set tonight in order to have a natural look tomorrow for the pictures that I and a few other ladies will be taking together. (more details soon) Anyway, tonight I decided to start off a little different; I decided to pre-poo! What exactly is pre-pooing? Pre-pooing is simply the conditioning of the hair prior to shampooing in order to prep it for the harsh ingredients of the shampoo. There are many different ways to pre-poo, there are even products out there specifically for this step! Most women who use homemade pre-poos just throw together different oils (most commonly EVOO) or just one oil and allow to sit for anywhere from 5 minutes to as long as overnight. I decided to try out my own pre-poo formula using the following ingredients:

• 1 tsp unrefined virgin coconut oil
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp castor oil
• 1 1/2 tbsp megatek equne rebuilder

I combined the above ingredients in a bowl and stirred them just a bit. I parted my hair in 4 equal sections and took about a teaspoon and a half of the pre-poo to rub into each section evenly. After my entire head was saturated, I placed a plastic cap on my head and sat under the dryer for 10 minutes with the settings on medium heat. Once I got from underneath the dryer, I shampooed in the shower with my Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk shampoo. One of my favorite features about this shampoo is that it doesn't take a lot to lather. Usually, when I use shampoos I have to wash, rinse, repeat and use a lot of product in order to get a good lather. I feel like I'm wasting my money when I have to take extra steps and extra product to get what I need out of it. So, I really appreciate the lather Organix! Other than that, my hair felt really clean but not overly stripped and the smell is great too! Not too strong to the point that it's annoying but I can still smell it after the fact. Once the shampoo was 100% rinsed out in warm water, I moved on to my Suave Professionals Humectant conditioner. Now, this conditioner really surprised me. At first I wasn't too thrilled about it because it's kind of thin and I'm used to using Herbal Essence's conditioners which we all know are thick and absolutely wonderful for detangling! I kinda had to take more time and extra care with my denman when trying to detangle with this conditioner but in the end it was worth it! After I was done detangling, I got back into the shower and allowed my shower head to rinse warm water over my head as I used my denman to smooth the hair down. Then, I detached my shower head and used cool/cold water to rinse my hair from underneath, smoothing with my fingers. I deliberately left some conditioner in my hair and rinsed out most of it (about 85-90%) out. OMGosh guys, when I say my hair instantly felt like silk.....I mean it! I don't think my hair has ever been this soft...ever!

So after I got back out of the shower I went on to do my bantu knot set. I part my hair in 4 sections again, which by the way was ridiculously easy because of how soft the conditioner left my hair. I pinned up each section except for the back right section and proceeded to brush through again and apply two pumps of the Organix Nourishing Coconut Milk Anti Breakage Serum. I probably could have used one pump and been just fine but I chose two for tonight. I brushed that through with my denman and applied a small amount of coconut oil on top before parting and doing my bantu knots. I repeated on each section until I was done and tied my hair up with my head scarf to sleep on.

So tonight I used each and every last one of my new products and I think it's pretty safe to say that I love them all! Although I can't remember the individual prices of the oils, I do remember they came up to about $13 and some change at wholefoods. The castor oil is by a company called "Home Health" and the coconut oil is the 365 brand. Not bad! The Organix products were each $7 and under and the Suave conditioner was only $1.97 at Target! Nooot baaadd!! Unfortunately the ingredients dictionary is down right now, so I'm unable to check the ingredients on these products but the Organix shampoo does claim to be sulfate/paraben free, which is a good thing. Below are pictures of all the products listed in this entry. Until next time, Happy Healthy Hair Growing! :)

(note: the coconut oil is not the brand that I used, just a visual. I bought the whole foods store brand "365 everyday value")

Co-Wash Chaos

"There has GOT to be a better way!"-DJ

Hey there! This past weekend while I was home visiting my mom and sister from school, I co-washed my hair. Now, normally co-washing is nothing to report about, but this time I was running into some serious issues that made me wonder if you all were having similar ones. My first issue was that my mom's shower head is not detachable and I find it kind of hard to wash my hair in there. It always seems to take entirely to long to saturate my entire head which is kind of annoying. I decided that this time I would wash my hair in the sink; never again. Washing my hair to the front was absolutely terrible! When I co-wash, especially if my hair is starting off straight, I begin by brushing my hair (in this case forward) with my denman to kind of get a jump start on the detangling process. Well not only was this awkward for my hair strands that are used to going in the opposite direction, but when it was all said and done, all of my hair was sitting at the front of my head needing to be brushed back! It was terrible you guys! I felt as if I was pulling unnecessary strands out which broke my heart. I tried to make it a little easier on myself by sectioning my head off and then trying to brush it back but I still felt traumatized. If you wash your hair in the sink and you know of another/better way to deal with detangling PLEASE let me know!

Usually, while in the shower I begin by brushing my straight hair back while letting the water hit and saturate it. Alternatively, if my hair is already curly, I let the water saturate first and then use a wide toothed comb to comb through. After these first two steps are complete, depending on the status on my hair, I put on whatever conditioner I plan to use and work it in all over my hair. I'll usually dab both hands on top and then head straight for the back, grabbing the nape and above to get conditioner all over it. These two sections typically get the most of the first bit of conditioner so I'll add a little more to the sides and middle. Once I'm done applying the conditioner, I turn once again to my denman to brush the conditioner through, being sure the brush massages my scalp in the process. I'll usually let that sit a while while I'm in the shower and then rinse with cool/cold water. After co-washing like this, detangling for styling is a breeze. Just add a nickle/quarter size amount of conditioner evenly throughout your hair and use your denman or paddle brush to detangle!

I hope this helped with anyone who's been going through what I experienced this weekend! Until next time, Happy Healthy Hair Growing!