Viviscal Update 6 Months

Hello everyone!  So, I finally got around to finishing up my video update of Viviscal.  I have been using Viviscal since June 2012 to help regrow my hair.  My last relaxer was March 2011 and A LOT of my hair fell out.  This is the reason why I went natural!

My spot is not completely gone, but it has shrunk.  The spot use to start about an inch behind my hair line and extend to the top of my head.  Then it went across to both my temples.  Now, it is only in the front of my head and the top of my head is filled in.    The two pictures below show my hair in June 2012 and December 2012. 

The left picture is my hair in June 2012.  The spot extend from the front all the way to the back.  In the picture on the right the spot is just in the front and I have to zoom in closer with my camera to get a picture of the spot.  My hair looks and feels thicker now.  As you can see I have hair growing on the top of my head.

Below is a video I made with my final results.  Please share your thoughts and let me know if any of you are considering trying Viviscal.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Bantu Knot Out on my Blown Out Stretched Hair

Bantu Knots and tough sleeping.

Hello everyone!  Can you tell that I'm not in school right now.  Even though I'm back to work, my grad classes don't start until February and since I'm waiting for my textbook to be shipped to my I totally feel like I have a ton of time for myself.  Yep pee!  Anyway, with this extra time I have been playing with my hair.  Which means I got to watch some YouTube videos and though, hey I can do that!  So, with my big fluffy blown out hair I did about 12-14 Bantu Knots all over my head last night before I went to bed with my satin scarf and for back up my satin pillow case.

I will admit that I watched one of KimmayTube's videos and decided to try her method since I had this blown out big hair going on.  In the morning I poured some jojoba oil on my hands and took the knots out.  After separating the knots a little (being careful to avoid frizz) I ended up with this finished look below.

Can I say luscious, wavy, cascading curls.  What more can a girl ask for from a Bantu Knot out!

Well, I absolutely love the results!  I got these cascading wavy curls and got to keep the fullness and volume of my big hair.  All I can say is WOW!  Now that hubby of mine was kinda pawing at me.  Touching my hair and sniffing my neck.  I thought he was going to take a bite out of my neck because he wouldn't leave me alone.   I first thought it was the delicious turkey pot pie I made today, which could of contributed to the sniffing.  Big hair I guess equals lots of attention, or he feels like he can pet me because usually I'm telling him not to touch (my hair) because I don't want my curl definition to be messed up.

Anyway, at school it was either "I love it!", or "What did you do with you hair?", or the safe comment "I like your flower".  I found that throughout the day I was constantly pushing my bangs out of my eyes.  Hello, that hasn't happened in over two years!  I find that with the Bantu Knot out, my hair continued to fall and get bigger.  The next time I try this I should probably do more knots or separate the knots less.  I don't know if I will get to wearing a bun this week.  With awesomely wavy hair and the cold temps, down may be in order.  Until next time...

Blessings!

Well I did it!

Happy New Year everyone!  I can't believe I let my son stay up until midnight last night.  He didn't get crabby and he loved watching the ball drop in New York Times Square.  We had some friends over that we hadn't seen in a while and it was an evening of eating junk food playing Sequence and catching up with some friends.  They are empty nesters and we have a three year old.  Surprisingly, our ages aren't that much apart.  They got married and had children young and the hubby and I didn't.

Anyway, I decided to co-wash and blow out my hair this morning.  After watching several YouTube videos about flat ironing and seeing how long that took I decided to use my curling iron instead of flat ironing my hair.  The process took almost two hours and my arms were exhausted by the time I finished.  I knew my hair wouldn't be bone straight  because I didn't flat iron, but then this is the closest I have felt to feeling like Dina Ross.

Wet hair before blow out.

So, I used my leave in conditioner Aussie Moist, but I added some Castor and Jojoba Oils to my conditioner.  I then sprayed some heat protector from the Aussie line.  I figured that since they are from the same line they should work well together.  I then sectioned my hair and used the tension method to blow dry my hair.  This method has some pros and cons.  I like that my roots are really straight, but I hated that it took a REALLY LONG time to dry.  I had my blow drier on warm and I ended up using my brush to get the ends straight.

Left my hair sectioned and right all done with blow out.

So, I took a little break after drying my hair to rest and cool off before I sectioned and started the curling process.  This was much quicker and I used a big barrel iron 1.5 inches.  My curling iron has setting from 0-25.  I set my iron at 19 and prayed that it wouldn't be too cool or too hot.  The heat protector says to use on wet hair and I made the mistake of spraying a little on my dried hair.  My hair started to revert back to it's curly state and I had to blow it out again.  As I ironed my hair I only ran the curling iron through my hair once.  I just wanted a little curl to bring the ends under and to give my hair some style.

I sectioned my hair, and curled each section under to get a soft big hair look.

So, after almost two hours from start to finish my hair is blown out and curled.  It's super big and lots of volume.  I will see how long I can wear it like this, but I have no plans to use any more heat to maintain this look.  I've been wanting to play with some buns and maybe this big hair is long enough to do that this week. 

Since I had to cook today I ended up pulling my hair back and clipping it to get it out of my face.  This process has allowed me to look at my hair and see that my ends are pretty healthy.  After spending several hours straightening my hair I don't think I want to do this again for a long time.  I can wash my hair, condition and two strand twist my hair in half the time it took for me to blow dry and curl.  This just reminded me that I don't want to be a slave to a hair drier, flat iron, or curling iron ever again.  Please let me know your thoughts, just be nice.  Until next time...

Blessings!

Two Strand Twist Out for Hubby's Birthday!

Hello everyone!  I'm feeling very blessed to have some time to blog!  Last week I finished up my first semester of Grad classes and earned straight A's.  I did so well that my adviser is recommending me to do another independent study with a very well known gifted and talented author and teacher next semester.  She is currently writing four books and teaching!  Wow!

Christmas was a blast here in cold MN and even colder in ND.  Christmas day was -7 in ND and I was missing warm and balmy MN that was 9 degrees.  I feel very blessed to have wonderful friends and healthy family, but I need a vacation from my vacation.  Anyway, I haven't posted anything about hair in a while so here is my two strand twist out I did today for my hubby's birthday. 

Dec.29, 2012 two strand twist out.

My hair is getting longer and I'm noticing that my hair grows faster in the summer and slower in the winter.  No complaints from me.  I'm just happy that my hair is healthy.  I could live without the fairy knots (single strand knots).  I looked back at my blog and saw that I haven't done a two strand twist out on my entire head since this past summer.  Below is a picture of the last two strand twist out.

June 12, 2012 two strand twist out.

As you can see my hair has grown a lot since June 2012.  When I pull the curls down in the front, my hair is now curling around my chin.  Almost ten inches now and I'm thrilled!

My birthday is in a couple of weeks and the hubby out did himself this time.  I'm huge on quality time with the ones I love and since I don't need or want for any material things the hubby arranged for me and 25 of our friends and family to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children on the Saturday before my birthday.  What better way than to pack food for hungry children all over the world for your birthday party!

On a different note, I'm considering flat ironing my hair for my birthday.  Of course my mother wants me to relax it again (NEVER happening again mom), but maybe a once a year thing during my birthday month .  I'm not sure yet.  Kinda scary to go this long with curls and then risk the possible damaging effects of flat ironing.  Pipe in and let me know what you think.  I respect my natural hair readers, just be nice.  Until next time...

Blessings!

Light at the end of the tunnel

Just a very quick note since I haven't posted in over a month.  I'm finishing up my last project and I'm on page 20 of my write up.  It's due Wednesday and I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  My advisor is so pleased with me that she wants me to write my thesis next semester to get it out of the way, then finish up my classes this summer and fall 2013.  That would mean that I would be done next December 2013 instead of spring 2014.  I promise I will post soon and I have missed you all.  If  I don't post before Christmas, I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

I think I'm in love...well at least a style I really like!

Hello everyone!  I'm totally loving my hair in flat twist outs!  I find that I can control the direction of how my curls will lay better with a flat twist out then a two strand twist out.  I have also learned to cheat a little by just re-twisting just the front.  The results are that my hair gets fuller and fuller as the days go by.  In the last two weeks I think I have worn my hair in a flat twist out on about 10 of those days.

I took these pictures last Thursday and my son demanded to be in a picture.  So, I swooped him out of the tub, tossed a towel on him and snapped a quick picture.  Of course he is chewing on his new car from grandma.  My son loves it when I take a picture of him with my digital camera and then show him the picture.  Until next time...
Blessings!

Flat twist out and loving it!

Ignore my wierd face, I'm just trying to get a good picture of my hair.

 Hello everyone!  The hubby and I both had teacher convention today so we got to spend the day together and actually have lunch alone without our toddler!  Last night I was debating what to do with my hair because I usually co-wash on Wednesdays, but didn't because I was loving my two strand twist out.  So, since my two strand twist out was getting fuzzy I decided to try some flat twists. 

Last night I put nine flat twists in my hair, sprayed a little water (focus on little) on the twists and went to bed on my satin pillow.  This morning I decided to take the flat twists out before I got in the shower to see how they looked and I was in love!!  I still thinking this is the bomb!

 As you can see from the collage, I'm loving this style!  It was wet and drizzly so my hair is even bigger than it was this morning when I left for the convention.  I think plump is a good word to describe how my hair felt after being outside.

Flat twist out before misty weather made it fuller.

I liked the (wet) two strand twist out, but this flat twist out is awesome.  My hair is stretched a little, the curl pattern is lovely and my hair is soft and bouncy.  It only took me about 20 minutes to install the flat twists and that was because I was trying to make the front parts consistent and even.  The back was just part and twist.

This look will easily start coming into the rotation of styles, I just need to figure out how to maintain it for a couple of days.  Until next time...
Blessings!