Join my hair growth journey/challenge

Hey everyone. I'm in a curly hairstyle contest on YouTube. Please vote for me. I'M STYLE #27!!! IVYCHARLAINE. Here is the video link. You vote by putting my number as a comment to the video. Remember, I'M STYLE #27!!!! Thanks guys!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnDkkIKT-vQ

Almost 10 months natural woohoo!!!

So this month will mark 10 months since I decided to go natural. In that time frame I have probably tried a million products and styling techniques out. I think I finally found my winning combinations. My hair suffered from severe heat and dye damage when I first started last October that it would barely even curl. Every few months I would gradually cut some of the straight ends off and then in June, I got a devachan dry curly cut and finally freed myself of almost all of my straight ends whew that felt good. All in all, in these 10 months I probably got 5-6 inches cut off. Thanks to weekly deep conditioners, protein treatments and only using the flat iron twice since October, my hair is SO much healthier and curlier now. Now I'm on my growth kick. My goal is to grow it down to bra strap length while curly. I may flat iron it when I reach my 1 year natural-versary lol just to see the difference. Here are some pictures of my journey thus far, beginning with October 2009 and ending with July 2010:


This is when I got my devachan cut in June 2010







This is now:

Been gone too long...

Hey friends (in my head) haha just kidding. I've been gone for quite some time due to computer problems. Well I got it fixed and now I'm back in business :) Anyway, I know this is primarily a natural hair blog, but I'm going to start incorporating more aspects of my life, such as my love for makeup, my obsession for losing weight, and just life issues in general.

So as far as my curly hair journey, I have now been curly (flat-iron free) for six months now! wow that's crazy, my husband probably didn't think I would last more than a few weeks lol. Well after six months I am finally learning what works for my hair....and that is my handy dandy diffuser!! Going out with wet hair has been getting annoying so I've been diffusing my hair lately with my dryer and I really like the results....here are two recent pictures




And I've also been doing more makeup lately. Here are a few pics of people that I've done.

less than a week and ready to quit

Ok so it's been 4 days and this diet business just plain sucks, but I refuse to lose this competition. Aargh!!! However I am determined to be chillen on a beach this summer in a TWO PIECE BIKINI.......

Weight loss challenge--week 1

So a friend of mine at work has challenged me!! She must not know how competitive I am, I simply refuse to lose. We both want to lose 15 pounds by June 1st. We have a scale here at work and every Monday we are going to record our weight in front of each other. Uuugh that part is embarrassing but hey it will all be worth it in the end..... I really want to get in shape and drop these stubborn pounds. I haven't been motivated lately so I'm praying that this is the boost that I need. Anyway I'll keep you updated....I'm off.....going to run up and down four flights of stairs....how fun :(

Fun with Make-up

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy gals!! So I decided I wanted to dabble more in makeup and freelance on the side. I absolutely love makeup even though I don't wear it everyday. I love MAC, Smashbox, Benefit, Makeup for Ever, Loreal, Revlon.... Eyes are my specialty and I love experimenting with different colors and combinations and things of the such. Here are some of my creations.

The first picture is of my cousins, the second is me and the third is my sister. Tell me what you think...

Incognito

Soooooo I have not posted in a while. Sorry my friends but my computer is experiencing technical difficulties right now lol. But hopefully I will be back up and running soon. Anyway I have so much to share. I started a new healthy lifestyle. For years I have been losing and gaining weight and I'm ready for that to change. I'm not getting any younger and I need to get healthy so that I don't start developing health issues or become obese in the future. So no fad diets for me anymore! I have made a vow to eat healthier, drink more water and do some form of exercise 5 days a week. My goal is to drop ten pounds and tone up everything! Any accountability partners out there?

Beautiful Girls

I saw these beautiful dolls recently and I must say I am very glad that Barbie has finally made dolls that exemplify different ethnic groups appropriately. Yes there has always been a black Barbie, however she always had European features and long, straight hair. I'm so glad to see that they have diversified her. It also made me smile a little to see one with dreads. (I'm Jamaican)

Protective Styling Challenge

Well I've decided that I am going to keep my hair in protective styles for the next month....ok let me not kid myself haha how about 1 week :) it's a start. I made the decision to do this because I think I am obsessing with the length of my hair. I want it to all grow back overnight and obviously that's not happening. I find myself examining my hair everyday and this is just getting ridiculous lol. So if I keep it in a ponytail or bun for a little while then I will be pleasantly surprised when I finally notice more growth. It's all mental guys haha. Does anyone have any styling suggestions?

So we'll see how long this lasts. It's been two days and I'm already itching to let it down.....

Product Review: Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition vs. Sleek and Shine Conditioner

So on my quest to find the perfect products for my hair, I have been quite the PJ (Product Junkie) These two conditioners seemed to get great reviews on www.naturallycurly.com (which happens to be my go-to for everything curly) so I decided to test them out. Here are my thoughts:


GF Triple Nutrition: First off, the smell was simply divine, quite fruity. Makes you want to go make a fruit smoothie. Well, I finished a whole bottle of this stuff, so that's a good sign. I used it as a rinse out and a leave-in. Not at the same time though. I felt that it gave good slip and ok moisture to my hair as a rinse out. However as a leave-in, I felt that it was not thick enough and often left my hair frizzy when it was fully dry. I had to use a lot of it as a leave-in too. (glad that it's cheap) Would I buy this one again?? probably not.



GF Sleek & Shine: Again the smell was really yummy. It kept giving me a craving for sweets, although this is not necessarily a good thing when you're trying to lose weight lol. Anyway, I'm half way through my bottle right now. I have used this as a leave-in only. Haven't tried it as a rinse out yet. In comparison to the Triple Nutrition, it is much thicker and gave my hair much more moisture. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I still had some frizz, although not as much as with the Triple Nutrition. Would I buy this one again?? Yes, due to it being cheap and an ok fallback product.

Heavenly Delight!

Just had to share this yum-yum.....makings of a great sundae! Be jealous....

Sausages big, small and in-between

Ok well here is what I have to look forward to. This pic is from today. I pinned up my canopy so you can see the real deal lol. I absolutely love my root curl!!! I can't wait until my whole hair is filled with that lusciousness haha. You can see a huge differences in my roots and my ends. However there is zero volume because I did not plop at all. And no there isn't any relaxer on my ends, those are all from the dreaded flat iron! Anyway I changed up what I originally said I was going to do. After I rinsed out my deep treatment (3 hours later), I detangled with my Denman brush. Divided my hair into four sections and raked through and scrunched Curl Keeper and a little bit of Herbal Essences Totally Twisted Gel. I then just airdried it. I decided not to use the diffuser. Lastly, I SOTC with Coconut oil and voila.

Fighting the Frizz Factor

So today I had to stay home from work to take care of some personal business. Anyway, I decided to make use of my time and do a deep treatment on my hair. I have been battling such ridiculous frizz these past few weeks that it has me really spinning my wheels. I don't know what is causing it. I go from one problem to another with this birdsnest on my head. So I'm trying something different today. I have Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose conditioner and Coconut oil in my hair right now as I type under a shower cap and when I'm done I'm going to rake through some Curl Keeper, scrunch, add some Herbal Essences gel, scrunch, plop, pixicurl diffuse and then see if a miracle has happened. I will be sure to post a pic with the results. Trial and Error can get so expensive......

Chick Fila regrets...

So I'm laying in bed right now regretting the fact that I inhaled a chick fila sandwich and fries! Aargh what happened to me eating healthy and losing weight? I lack willpower like dogs lack fresh breath!

Curly "Afro" Pic

Now keep in mind this is the end of the day when it started to fall some and get frizzy lol.

Channeling my Inner Diana Ross

So my husband had a request that I wear my hair in a big curly afro haha. He likes that edgy look, and I kind of like it too hehe. Well anyway, I know this is a huge no-no for curlies everywhere, but I combed my hair with a wide tooth comb while it was dry and curly, and this resulted in my 'afro' lol I look like a Diana Ross wannabe and I love it! I will have to post a pic later when I get home.

Curly Girl At Last!

This is 1 month into the CG method. I've used so many different products within the last 3 months, reviews to come......

Dyed, Fried and Layed to the side

While growing my hair out I decided to dye it light/medium brown. This was in August 2009, 2 months before I decided to go Curly Girl.

FIRST BIG SHOCK, I MEAN CHOP!

I got married in July 2008 and then decided to chop off all my hair a month later and then later regretted it. These are my before and after pics.

Curly Girl Convert

So back in October 2009, I woke up one morning and decided I was tired of being the slave of my CHI (flat iron). Why am I always trying to conform to society's ideal image of beauty. I was not born with stick straight hair, so why am I continuously changing what God blessed me with. Now before you bombard me with comments on why straight hair is ideal, easier to deal with or whatever, I'm going to say that I have nothing against straight hair. I honestly think my hair is beautiful, silky and shiny when it is flat ironed straight.

HOWEVER, my personal decision has been to doctor my hair back to health and wear it in it's natural state. Every now and then I may flat iron it, but the majority of the time, it will be curly. So anyway, I thought this should be an easy transition since my hair was naturally curly (3c type) when I was younger and even a few years ago. WELL I GOT A HUGE SHOCK OF MY LIFE!! I used to flat iron my hair on the highest heat possible with silicones until it was smoking and sizzling and the past 2 to 3 years of doing that severly damaged my hair cuticle and 'relaxed' the curl into a 2b-3a. I long for my tight curls back and have been conditioning the heck out of it to restore it.

In the beginning.....

So after much delay, I have decided to officially enter the world of blogging. I tried this once before and then honestly I forgot all about it. lol, but I will try my best to stick with it this time and at least blog a few times a week, hey I may get 'obsessed' and blog every day haha. Anyway, the main focus of my blog is going to be about my "Curly Girl Journey." I will also share my passion for food, cooking and whatever else is on my mind at the moment. So I hope you enjoy and become a follower of mine :)