Here's How I Did It: Heat Free Curl Out

I actually did this at the end of July, but I have had so many post ideas between here and CandyAppleSmiles that I have gotten a little behind.  Anyway, I mentioned in a previous post that one of the bloggers I <3 tried this tutorial for heat free curls and got cute results, and I loved the results I got as well(although different from hers), so here's how I did it:

Here's what I used:

I co-washed that day with Aussie Moist, detangled with the shower comb, liberally spritzed wet hair with Nature's Shine Oil, and let air dry to about 80%. Then I distributed about a palmful of ElastaQP Mango Butter and got started.

This is a plain elastic headband(no metal), I got a pack of 5 from my local beauty supply for 99 cents.  Part your hair wherever you like( I don't think it really matters where if you end up wearing it like I did) depending on if you want to do any pinning or flat twists or whatever to the front, put the headband around your head like a crown, and smooth your hair down as much as possible underneath.  

This is the twisting part....you are basically twisting your hair around the headband in a spiral shape, but grabbing a little more hair each turn, like you would if you were french braiding or flat twisting. Continue doing this until you get past your ear, and then do the other side of your head the same way. Here's a tip for a smoother look or if you are doing this on relaxed hair: put some tension on the new section of hair as you grab it, and while you wrap it around the elastic. This will help to have a smoother look if you wear this as a "crown", and more defined curls if you wear it "out".

 This is the left side, as you can see my edges got frizzy as they dried. I put more mango butter on them as I noticed it to keep them from getting too dry and breaking off.

 Now here's where it may get a bit tricky, at the end. So you have both sides twisted all the way to the back, and you have a little mullet of hair hanging down, right? The original video I saw of this said to just tuck that hair into the back, but to my thinking there would be no curl in it. So I take the two tails and continue wrapping them around the elastic without grabbing more hair(since there isn't anymore to grab). I wrap the tails together, pulling them through the hole in the middle(between your head and the headband) until there isn't anymore length to wrap around and then just make sure the end is tucked around too. If you run out of room on the headband, just slide the hair already on toward your ears a little to make more.

And this is what you get! I usually wear it like this for a day or two, and slide the part of the band that is on my forehead back to the top of my head so it doesn't show. Just wrap with a satin scarf for bed and be sure to moisturize each day.

This is what it looks like when I take it down. Please be careful taking the elastic out, you have intentionally tangled your hair around it and it may not come out easily! I put some oil on my hands to coat my palms then unroll my hair to loosen it from the band, and then take sections and pull them off gently.

 If I am wearing my hair in any kind of braid- or twist-out I am usually going for big hair, and this is no different. I don't like my hair too much in my face, so I wear the same headband to hold it back. It takes a little fussing with to get it fluffed how I want, but this one is a keeper for me, and a great alternative to sleeping on plastic rods!

On that note, I still love my rod sets and will continue to do them if I want a more polished looking curl, which this style doesn't not give(in my opinion). 

Another reason I love this style: my hair is about mid shoulder blade, and it keeps it up off of my neck without pony-tailing it or using a million bobby pins. Also gives me a blunt edge, so it looks like my hair is cut that length.

If anyone tries this and it works(or doesn't), or you have a suggestion on how to do it better, please leave a comment or email me!

Why I started...

I must preface this by saying that while I am choosing to grow my relaxer out, I am in no way criticizing those who choose not to. It is an intensely personal decision, based on the way that you take care of your hair and what makes you feel beautiful. So with that said....

I have had a professional relaxer since high school at least. I think I had a home kit before that, but I'm not sure. My hair was at about bra strap level(BSL) my senior year and I got it cut to my chin. I was so tired of the males in my life commenting about my long hair and obsessing over it more than I was. I had a hard time with it for a little while, I didn't feel as pretty without my long hair. Nonetheless I kept it short through freshman and sophomore year at college and then started growing it out again. Fast forward 5 years, still relaxed hair is about to BSL again, and I was preggo with MaddieBoo. I had it cut again, about to my shoulders. At this point I didn't have time or energy to mess with it much, and I didn't want to relax while I was pregnant, so I started getting my hair done every two weeks and kept it up until MaddieBoo was about 2. During the time sans relaxer I realized I had no idea how to manage my hair without a relaxer. It was like wild uncharted jungle at my scalp that felt rough and wouldn't straighten when I attempted to do my hair myself. My hairdresser at the time encouraged me to continue getting touch-ups, and would tell me at 6 weeks it was time for another making me think she really couldn't handle my natural hair either.

 About this time my baby girl got a HORRIBLE case of ringworm in her scalp. When I say horrible, you can't even imagine. I wish now that I had taken some pictures because none of the doctors we saw had ever seen anything like it either, but it was so severe it makes me get goose bumps thinking back on it almost 3 years later. Turns out she was allergic to the actual ringworm fungus, and that made her have pockets of pus under  her scalp that would burst and ooze and caused scarring that we thought would leave bald spots where her hair would never grow back. Thankfully we got the right combo of meds (after consulting with her primary, an allergist and 2 dermatologists) and her hair is thick and healthy as ever with no permanent bald spots. Anyway, after that ordeal and the harsh chemical shampoos that we had to use on her hair everyday her hair was a super-dry brittle damaged mess. I decided then to be very aware of what kind of products I was putting on her head so I started researching natural hair products for kids.

Fast forward another 2 years or so, and I had changed hair dressers, had my hair cut short again and started growing it back out, and was pregnant again. I had been getting my hair done every two weeks again, and hadn't even washed my own hair in months by the time I was 6 months along with my son. I was in Target(one of my favorite stores) and saw a whole endcap dedicated to "ethnic curly hair" products, and on it was a few products from Miss Jessies. I saw the baby buttercreme and thought I would try it on my daughter until I saw the nearly $60 price tag, and that was the only size they had. So I went home and did some research, found a salon where they sold the other sizes and got some (along with a few sample size jars of some of the other products). Let me tell you a year later I still LOVE this stuff for my daughters hair. It tames it and keeps it moisturized....highly recommend the stuff even though it has mineral oil which is supposed to be bad for black hair.  Their website is where I first heard about transitioning and the idea that natural black hair could be curly, and not just a frizzy 'fro. I started to look closer at my new growth(since I was preggo and couldn't relax there was more than I had ever had before), and noticed some spiral curls. What?!  That was when I thought I should see what my hair was like. I felt so ashamed that I had NO IDEA what my natural hair was like. I don't know what I really thought it was like, but never would have thought actual curls. I had one last touch up in January 2011, and have been off the "creamy crack" since.

 So far this has definitely been a journey, some days harder than others, but I am determined to stick to it. I have decided against the Big Chop for now since a ponytail has turned out to be my good friend when all else fails, although it is tempting as my hair grows out more and more. I can't wait to just be natural me, no chemical altering, no "extra pieces" for length or thickness. The freedom that comes with that is part of my motivation....

What motivates you to take better care of yourself?

Perm Rods Be Gone!!

Pretty excited right about now(once again) about finding something new with hair styles. I subscribe to A LOT of blogs....most of them photography or mommy related. So The Paper Mama  had pics up showing the results she got from following a youtubers no heat curls tutorial, and I thought the results were super cute on her. At the same time, I am well aware that her hair is NOTHING like mine, and while she achieved flowy waves I would most likely get a bush of knots unless I straightened with heat first(defeating the "no heat curls" idea anyway). Last week it was near 100 degrees everyday, so no point in trying to do anything to my hair. I made a crown (one flat twist on each side all the way to the back and then pinned the leftover) and wore it for 2 days. When it was time to re-do it I said what the hey and tried her method(with some modifications for my hair type). Let me tell you it looked the same as my crown, but so much easier! So I rocked that for 2 days, and when it was time to take it down to re-do I was pleasantly surprised!!

Looks super similar to a rod set, except no sleeping on a head full of plastic rods all night! SCORE!

One thing that I don't care for...this flat area in the back.

If you try to do it, or at least watch the video you can see why that flatness occurs...I don't have any ideas yet on how I may combat this problem to keep wearing this style, but I'm thinking about it.

Pros:

• no perm rods!!
• took about 20 minutes
• can actually be worn as 2 styles, so at least 4 day hair
• no heat styling
• no worries for weather/humidity
• my hair was very soft and bouncy
• makes big hair, lots of volume
• natural looking spirals

Cons:

• The flat part in the back
• makes big hair(pro and con to me, depends on the look I'm going for that day)

I am going to attempt to get a "tutorial" on here, hopefully within the next few days.

Braid Out

Score!! I washed and deep conditioned, and actually slept in the conditioner overnight(if that was bad then oops, but I was sooooo tired). The next morning I rinsed the conditioner out in the shower, and put on some Miss Jessie's Quick Curls. The result was a 3 inch fro with relaxed ends straggling along, not cute :( .  So even though in the past I have not liked the way braid outs looked when I saw them on some youtube tutorials I went ahead. I grabbed random sections and braided them as tight as I could so the roots would catch, and then rolled the ends on sponge rollers and left them overnight. One thing to mention-my hair was 90% dry(air-dried) when I started, and I didn't put enough quick curls on to saturate but I did put quite a bit. I prefer to have my hair out of my face since it's so hot where I am, but I think I would have left the fron as is if I was going out.  Here are the results!

I think next time I attempt this I may put some Eco or something on my edges, they look extra raggedy from the side....

The short parts at the edges are areas of  breakage from relaxers :( , a big part of my decision to transition.

A test of my commitment

So tonight is going to be the first test of my commitment to this whole "natural" thing. I rod set my hair on wednesday night after watching a youtube video from napturallycurly, where she said that she could never have made it through her transition if she hadn't had goto styles that didn't require re-doing every couple of days. I had just done my second set with the twisty rollers in 4 days, and was really not feeling that level of time and work. SO here I am on saturday, still rocking my rod set and feeling pretty cute with my curly halo. Here's where the test comes...I am going out tonight. To a club, with some friends I haven't seen in a few years. The itch to wash and straighten my hair was so intense I had to distract myself(with natural hair blogs and youtube videos). Up to now I've been thinking I'm doing a kind of funky cute thing, and it feels different with my past shoulder length hair hanging out around my ears...but I guess I had a panic thinking that other people won't think I'm cute, and the need to have my long hair out was almost overwhelming. While running errands I went into the mall and looked for some fun big earrings, and got a tube top to have some tasteful skin out. So I have built my confidence back up(I think) and realized that tonight, unlike back in college when I went out to clubs, I am not going to impress people and look for someone of the opposite sex. Tonight I am going out to celebrate my girlfriends birthday, hopefully have a drink, and laugh an awful lot. And tomorrow, with any luck, my little curls will still be poppin.

Here we go!

It has been 6 months since my last touch up, and from what I hear this one of the hardest times in transitioning. I have about 3 inches of new growth, and am trying to do this without "the big chop". I haven't seen my natural hair texture since before I was in high school, and even then my hair was kept braided or ponytailed so I'm not sure I'm going to like what I see when this is over.
I really consciously decided to transition after a conversation at a party. I had just gotten my hair done and it was awesome(with a few little pieces in the back to add length), and I was getting compliments on it left and right. My stylist was there, and I commented that I don't even wash my own hair anymore because it takes so long and is so much work. At the time I said it without a second thought, but later I really thought about it. I didn't even have shampoo at my house for emergencies, and I really used to be a product junkie. I had watched the documentary by Chris Rock Good Hair last year, and it got me thinking. I was really addicted to the creamy crack, and actually scared of trying to manage my own natural hair! So I have laid off of the relaxers, but still get my hair done(straightened) every two weeks. It's summer now, and hot as blazes! Getting my hair straightened is not really practical, especially with 2 kids that need to be outside for hours a day for all of our sanity. So I am left with the option to try to figure out styles I can do on my own that also last more than a couple of days. I anticipate this to be a journey, and the purpose of this blog is to document the adventure and hopefully help/educate/inspire someone else.