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.....