Transitioners REPOST

I did a blog dedicated to all my transitioners back in April 2010. I decided to repost those tips and add a few updates. These suggestions and all suggestions on my blog are great for ladies with relaxed hair as well! Again, if you all have any advice for ladies transitioning, or anyone looking for healthier hair, post a comment and I'll update this post with your name and suggestion!

Excuse my facial expression lol But this was a style while transitioning (Done with Flat Twists)

I have some family members and friends who are transitioning right now from relaxers to their natural hair. I'm sure they have many questions and don't even know where to start! So here I am guys! lol  Here are a few tips

~Depending on the type of style you have, deep condition your hair ONCE a week for 30 minutes to an hour with a plastic cap. You can sit under a hooded dryer or wrap a warm towel around head.

~Be tender with your hair & when you get frustrated with it, put it in a protective style & leave it alone! it'll be good for you & your hair. -Cris @ http://international-baby.blogspot.com

~Cater to your hair type ... trying products/styles/regimins& routines for naturals&transitioners with different hair types is NOT really going to help. work with YOUR hair and pay attention to what it likes, wants, needs!! -Cris 

~Never towel dry hair, it leaves your hair frizzy. Microfiber Towels are good to use. You can get these anywhere. 

~Be sure to purchase a satin bonnet, or scarf, or satin pillow case.

~Don't forget to get a wide tooth comb or denman brush to make combing and detangling easier.

~If you don't mind using shampoo, only use it depending the build up of different products on the scalp. Shampoo stripes the moisture from your hair leaving it feeling like a cotton ball. Look up Pre- Poo methods and sulfate free shampoos. 

~Stay away from excessive heat from flat ironing hair. Try not to do it daily. If so, look into getting a heat protectant. 

~If your styling your hair once a week be sure to condition hair before styling so that you can have fresh results. You should also follow up with a leave in conditioner.

~Invest in hair oils like olive oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil, etc. there are tons to choose from! This is critical because the hair is most fragile at this stage. Be sure to oil your scalp and ends.

~Shea Butter is an awesome purchase as well.

~Pay attention to the ingredients in the products you buy. Toxic ingredients could be detrimental to your scalp and hair.

~Research hairstyles! You can wear braids, sew ins, do roller sets, bantu knots, twists, wigs, etc. You don't have to wear pony tails or resort to flat ironing your hair.

~Youtube and hair forums and blogs on transitioning are your friends! 

I really hope I touched basis on the most important things to remember! If I have not PLEASE ask questions so I can address them and if I left anything out please add! I hope this helps somebody! These tips also work for ladies with relaxers!

Thank you Cris over at http://international-baby.blogspot.com for the extra tips!! Make sure you guys check out her awesome blog!

Second Day Hair

In my last post about the pin curls styled with the banana clip I told you all I would fix it up for work. I did that this morning and snapped some pictures so you guys can see how much better it looked for the second day. I loved the finished look! Tell me what you all think.

Look At Me Now!

Guess what? I am 6 days away from the 2 year mark of the day I chopped off my relaxed ends! CRAZY RIGHT! Well I actually found a picture on my camera that shows how my hair looked the day after. When I look at this picture I'm like WOW! Yes I have had quite a few hiccups on this journey but my hair has come a long way from May 26, 2009.

I grew my relaxed ends out for 6 months leading up until that and so that means I've been relaxer free for 2 years and 6 months, and 2 years without any relaxed ends lol. So take a look!

May 2009

May 2010 Twist Out

May 2011 Twist Out

Looking at these pictures really makes me realize my hair is definitely growing! Sometimes I feel like it's not but now I see it for a fact. This is an exciting moment! lol

Twist & twist out

This was just a quick style for me on those days that I feel like being creative. Instead of having my hair pulled back with a headband like I usually do I just added 5 quick flat twist and did a twist out in the back. Now I don't remember what all I did for the twist out but it was AWESOME! Here are 2 more pictures of the back and side.

Back view

Side View (It's Brown!)

Pin Curls

Last night I watched HairCrush on youtube (click the link to go to the video directly) and she did pincurls in her hair so I decided to do them in mine. Now I knew my hair was not going to look like her end product because her hair is like 20 times longer than mine, and we have different textures. I wish it did look like her hair though! UGH!

But here are the pictures taken of how it turned out. To me it looks like my twist and curls when I use perm rods. I decided to use a banana clip to do something different, just for the sake of the blog. When I do go out and about I'll make the style neater and smooth my edges out with the banana clip. Tell me what you all think.

Before the clip

Updo Fail

At first I hesitated to post this post with pictures but I thought to myself, What the heck! Everybody has had a bad hair style experience lol. I told you guys I'm trying to do different styles for my hair so about 2 or 3 weeks ago I attempted another updo style.

I totally did not like it! Mainly because I did flat twists in the back and the parts were crazy lol! It's funny cause in the styling process, I sure thought I was doing it UP! haha! But here are pictures.  It is so not cute so beware :) P.S. I am totally NOT showing the tragedy that happened in the back of my head lol

College Grads

Like myself and many of my friends, we are new College Grads stepping out into the real world! WOOO HOOO. It's time to make that huge salary, with all those awesome benefits RIGHT!?! Am I the only one who thought that as soon as I graduated I'd have my dream job by now with a starting salary of $40,000- $50,000 a year? Just me? lol

 I often asked myself is there something wrong with my resume? Could it be that speeding ticket from 2 years ago on my background? Is it because I was only on that one job for 4 months? MAN I DON'T HAVE THE EXPERIENCE! With the current state of the economy and job market and many other factors, it has been a crazy journey and I'm still not finished.

I currently work 2 part time jobs that I actually enjoy which I am very grateful for but this is totally not where I imagined I'd be at almost 25 years old.  I ask myself why didn't I do internships? Why didn't I volunteer any where while I was still in College? Well because I had to work a full time job that I couldn't take off for to take any internships. And guess what? I still got laid off. Isn't that funny? If your still a student and you don't have to work to pay bills, go for the internships and volunteer!

I know that God has a plan for me and nothing in my life has happened by mistake. I didn't study Business Admin. and Organizational Management for fun :) Right now I'm just going with the flow and remaining optimistic about my life because things could be worse. I've learned not to beat myself up and run myself mad with all these questions of why this and why that.

I'm standing on my faith and I know that I have favor in God and things will be just fine! I'm not giving up and I'm still doing what I need to do to get to where I want to be. I want you all to remember that too. We all have our seasons to shine.

Missing

I haven't made a blog post in a month and I have no excuses...Just pure laziness and maybe a lack of ideas...IDK...Any ideas? Any one? I need more subscribers! And I need to spice things up a bit...Back to Work :)