Review Yo Mada: Asherlee Natural Hair Butter Cream

Kurly Feature: Elvy Soltau

Health, Hair and Happiness: May Newsletter

Good morning gentle people!

Introduction| to my Hair Textures

This past weekend I had my wash day (yes people I haven't done anything related to my hair lately) and took some snaps of my hair texture. I wear my hair in protective styles as many of you may know already and so my texture is typically stretched out. I have about four different hair textures; wavy, spirals, tight curls and a cloud/no definition

Where this textures are found:
1. Wavy: to the nape area
2. Spirals: Just above the nape towards the middle of my head
3. Tight Curls: Middle of my head
4. Cloud/no definition: front and top of head

Hello Youtube

Giveaway Time! (Closed)

Hilow!

I'm hosting my first giveaway in celebration of 1 year of blogging. Woop! Woop! (covers face and peeks through one eye) Even though it was from June 21 but better late than never.

Challenge has began!

Hilow!

Remember that No Length Check challenge I had introduced earlier in April? Well, it has officially started, today. Woop! As noted it is a 8 week challenge; it will be challenging especially for freshies but we can do this. I got my hair cornrowed for an upcoming event and the challenge. Hair was cleansed and blowdried for the style. Here is a link to my previous blow out. Will update, look out for my Wata de Scalp post and tips for this No Length Check challenge.

No Longer Hidden: Alopecia Monocularis

I really started to notice that I had less hair on the right side of my head in high school during 2nd form/8th grade. I thought that I was seeing double or my eyes were merely fooling me. It wasn't until 5th form/11th grade that I saw that I was almost completely bald on that side. It made me very insecure and I felt that everyone was always staring at my bald spot (imaginary audience). I did some research and gathered that this was called Alopecia areata Monocularis. Which is baldness in only spot of the head. It was when I started my hair journey in November 2010 that I visited many forums so as to find remedies for it. I've done:

• Garlic rinses for the area
• Rubbing the area with garlic
• Massaging area with castor oil
• Olive oil infused with rosemary leaves
• Tea tree and Lavender essential oil massages

 The garlic rinses didn't do much for my alopecia nor my hair and it had become a pain to my regime. Rubbing my scalp with the garlic required me to wash my hair frequently and that wasn't working too well. Castor oil seems to make my hair shed more and so I stopped using it on my scalp. The olive oil with rosemary leaves wasn't too bad but yielded very little results. I went on to a website and started reading up about EOs. Tea tree and lavender oil were recommended for hair loss and other ailments and I found a combined blend by Now Solutions. I started using coconut oil and a few drops of the above mentioned essential oil (EO) and that was when I started to see results. When I first started using it, I irritated my scalp as I didn't dilute the EO properly. Over time I narrowed it done to 7 drops of EO to 2oz of coconut oil. I oil and massage my entire scalp with this mix; however, do a thorough massage on the alopecia area. There is a type of tingly cool feeling when I apply this and massage the area. I also add the essential oil to diluted shampoo so as to properly clean my scalp as the essential is anti-bacterial. The first picture in the image above is not the beginning of my alopecia; I had a picture where that section only had a little speck of hair and it was "very bald". But I lost that image. My alopecia is inherited but my tight pony tails and relaxer burns on the area were contributory. I try to avoid putting a lot of tension on this area whenever I do flat twists I do not use a rubber band to hold the flat twist at that area. That is where the halo came into play; it was my way to mask my bald area. I have a longer way to go but here's my alopecia story.

Now Solutions 100% Pure and Natural Lavender and Tree Tea
Benefits: renewing, cleansing and stimulating
Mixes well with: lavender oil, eucalyptus oil, rose absolute oil
Extraction Method: steam distilled from leaves and flowering tops

Challenge Time: No Length Checks Until September 2013

Sidenote: Being on my hair journey for over 2 years I've created a challenge for myself; and I've been doing it for over a year now. Prior to this everything revolved around my hair and I was impatiently waiting for the day I'd have long hair. Pulling at my strands to see how far they had grown, as such I challenged myself to not check my hair for xyz time. So I've decided to share and invite others to participate. My previous length check shows my length retention after my challenge. I've decided to do official length checks twice a year because I have a better illustration of the length gained and retained.

I've started this group because I know from experience the anxiety and disappointment that I went through by frequently tracking and checking my hair length. So..

I will not be implementing a lot of strict rules other than 1 LC over the period of this challenge.

The challenge will begin July 23, 2013 and ends September 17, 2013

This will be a 8 week challenge

Rules are as followed:

• Stay Hydrated
• Massage scalp to encourage blood flow
• Take vitamins
• Low Manipulation
• Maximum of 2 heat passes  
• Protective styling (optional)

Whenever you start feeling frustrated or that temptation to check:

Read a book

Call a friend

Write a blog

Cook some food :)

Find something to occupy your time so that you wont do so.

Additionally, if you're on hairlista you can join the challenge using the following link

http://www.hairlista.com/group/no-length-check-until-november?xg_source=activity

Also I've decided to start a google page for the posting of starting pictures and after completion.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/106888882845343832050?cfem=1

Check out my Article over at Beauty With Jocel

New posts coming soon but in the mean time check me out out over at Beauty With Jocel. I'm a Guest Blogger
http://www.beautywithjocel.com/2013/04/so-you-want-to-go-natural-guest-post-by.html
 Happy Wednesday everyone

Poetic Muse

Irie! Shout outs

Sidenote: I'm up trying to complete an assignment for my counseling class. I took a break to make some adjustments to my browser and decided to search for kreamykurls. I was looking through the search results and realized that I was featured on DiscoveringNatural's facebook page. I was so surprised and couldn't help but smile. Thank you so much and indeed I really appreciate the love and support.
Big up yuhself

Have you check out her page? You wont be disappointed.

2 years post Relaxer=====> Wow

Protective Style: Empress hair with a touch of love

Moisturizing and Sealing

Natural hair, texlaxed hair, relaxed, zyabp hair, we all experience a bit of dryness time after time. Dry, dehydrated hair will result in breakage and so it is necessary to incorporate and have a balance of moisture. Whenever we moisturize this increases the hair's elasticity and decreases the level of breakage experienced. Today, there are many different moisturizing and sealing techniques. There's the LCO method and LOC method. Which means Liquid, Cream, Oil and Liquid, Oil, Cream respectively.

When I first started my hair journey I used Wave Nouveau has I was following Sunshyne's regimen. I didn't like it and gave it away. Then, I used the Olive Oil Moisturizer by ORS and my hair didn't respond well to it either. I was unable to go about buying other moisturizers for trial and error and so I just used water and a oil. That oil for me is coconut oil. The water is my moisturizer and then the oil seals in the moisture. I soon started to use shea butter. Technically I do the LOC method but I refer to call it LOB :). Since the shea butter isn't really a cream shrug*
Since I've been transitioning I don't moisturize and seal everyday. I'd estimate once per week. Previous posts will illustrate that I was experimenting with the Cantu Shea Butter Leave In but I am still not 100% sure of my thoughts.

Mist with Water + add Oil+ add Butter= HAppy Transitioning Hair for Blue
Have any other thoughts on M&S? Leave the comment below.

P.S. One of the reasons why I continued transitioning was because I have alopecia monolocularis. CAn you see it in the picture above.
Thanks for passing by
Blue

Transitioning Updates and Thank you