#Fitness Friday | Time to Get Back Into Shape

Getting and staying in shape for me has been a constant struggle. I can get on the workout wagon and even start to see some results, but,..somewhere...somehow...something always to throw me off.  Back in 2012 I was super proud of where I had come. I had joined boot camps, worked out on my own, ran my first (and last) 8K race. I had even achieved a personal goal of being able to do pullups/chin-ups.  Starting out, I couldn't even do ONE! I was slimming down and gaining strength. Now three years and 20+ pounds later, I am so eager to get back where I was.

It's been a slow start but I've been trying to get active and am hoping that joining the Fitness Friday linkup will help me get back and stay on track.

Since the start of the year I started off

Product Review | Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque

Product:  

Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque

Price:  

$11.99 for 12 oz jar at Sally's Beauty Supply

Ingredients:  

Deionized water, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter)*, Argan Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, Emulsifying Wax, Sea Kelp Extract, Panthenol (Vitamin B-5),Essential Oil Blend, Avacado Oil, Lonicera Caprifolium (Honeysuckle) Flower (and) Lonicera Japonica (Japanese honeysuckle) Flower Extract, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Hyssopus Officinalis Extract, Salvia Officinalis (sage) Leaf and Equisetum Arvense Extract, Soybean Oil, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Seed Oil

Promises:

SheaMoisture's Raw Shea Butter Deep Treatment Masque deeply moisturizes and repairs dry, damaged

Wash Day|More Experimenting with Tea Rinsing

In my last wash day post, I introduced tea rinsing back into the mix.  After noticing the reduced shedding, I knew that tea rinsing was here to stay.  I'm still trying to find ways to make it work within my regiment, however. I don't care for the drying stiff feeling that I usually get, so I've been playing around with my mix.  See below for the tea concoction that I used this time around. You'll notice that I used the same products as before with an extra addition....coconut oil!

Let's Get Into My Wash Day Experience....

1.  I'm not even sure if I should call this a prepoo. I applied Silk Dreams Wheat Germ Butter Conditioner on Sunday evening and detangled my hair with every intention of washing that night, but um....it was getting pretty late. Knowing how long it takes me to wash and blow dry, I knew I didn't have it in me. So in a bun my hair went. It wasn't until Tuesday night that I actually washed my hair. So I had a nice 2 day prepoo. My hair felt so moisturized.  

2. Shampooed with the last bit of ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo diluted in an applicator bottle. I get so excited when I empty product, because I know I have way too much (even after giving my mom several bottles of shampoo). LOL

3. I then applied my tea rinse mixture. This time I steeped only one tea bag instead of two and I added coconut oil to the mix.  My hair did not feel dried out or stripped. I really thought I was on to something with this mix.

4. After rinsing,, I deep conditioned under my heat cap with Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Hair Masque.

5. After t-shirt drying for a few minutes I applied my leave-ins which were Annabelle's Moisturizing Leave in Conditioner in the Vanilla Bean scent (My Giveaway win from Relaxed Thairapy. as well as Annabelle's Hair Creme in Birthday Cake Scent) and GVP Smoothing Serum.

I used the tension method to blow dry my hair on cool/luke warm temp. My hair seemed to dry faster than usual and felt a bit dry. I'm not quite sure what caused this. I think I should have sealed with a different product. I don't think I've ever used the GVP Smoothing Serum alone as a sealant when blow drying.  I also noticed that the bits of slippery elm and marshmallow root that seeped through the strainer were still in my hair and flying out as I blow dried, which was frustrating. I didn't notice this on my last wash because I used curlformers.  So now I have to go back to the drawing board with my tea mix.

I decided to just keep it simple and rock my usual bun.  I love low maintenance styles. 

All in all, it was a decent wash day. I've most definitely had worse. If you haven't heard any relaxer talk form me, then it must have been a good one. LOL

So how was your wash day? Head on over to Saving Our Strands or Just Grow Already and share your wash day post in the #WashDayExperience Link Up.

HHG!

Final Wash Day of 2014 - Operation Cease The Shedding

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! This passed Sunday was my last wash day of 2014.  I notice that every wash day I start pondering about what I plan to do, which products I'm going to use, and finally, how I will style my hair.  My wash days are a lot more calculated; there's a method to the madness. Before my hair journey, I never put any thought into this. My how things change when you start to really focus on your hair goals and learning about your hair.

Lately, I have been experiencing more shedding than I care for.  I had not done a tea rinse in so long; in fact, I haven't done a tea rinse at all during 2014.  To be honest, when I was doing them I wasn't even really convinced that it was helping at all, but the main reason I omitted tea rinsing from my regimen was to save some time and steps on wash day. I really don't enjoy shower hopping.  Well, this wash day, I thought I'd bring tea rinsing back into the mix.

Green Tea|Marshmallow Root|Slippery Elm Bark|
Peppermint Essential Oil|Rosemary Essential Oil

My Wash Day Experience:

1.  I started off by massaging my scalp with a mixture of coconut oil and JBCO.  I then did a hot oil treatment with some Tea Tree Oil that I was trying to use up.

2. Next, I took a moment to prepare my Tea Rinse mixture which consisted of two bags of Green Tea, steeped with a little bit of marshmallow root and slippery elm bark. I also added a couple of drops each of peppermint and rosemary essential oils.  I was hoping that this mixture would help combat the drying effect of the green tea and help with detangling.

3.  I then shampooed my hair using ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo.

4. Next I applied the tea rinse using a color applicator bottle.  My hair still felt a little stiff despite my adding the marshmallow and slippery elm.  I may need to play around with the measurements a little more to get better results.

5. I deep conditioned using the last of my Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque which I mixed with a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil and JBCO.  I deep conditioned under my heating cap for about 45 minutes and allowed to cool before rinsing.

6.  I hopped back into the shower to rinse my DC and then applied It's A 10 Miracle Conditioner to help soften and detangle my hair because it still felt a little stiff after deep conditioning. It helped a little bit. I should have grabbed my Aussie Moist, but I was ready to get out of the shower and be done.

I then t-shirt dried my hair for a few minutes while I pondered back and forth on whether I wanted to blow dry my hair or go with curls. I decided on pulling out my CurlFormers.  My leave-ins were Jessicurl Too Shea Extra Moisturizing Conditioner, GVP Smoothing Serum, and Jessicurl Confident Coils Styling Solution(to help set my curls). It did take me a while to install the CurlFormers because I had to spend a good bit of time detangling each section.  I definitely think the Too Shea Extra Moisturizing Conditioner helped to soften my hair for easier detangling.

I left the Curlformers in overnight to allow my hair to air dry. It wasn't too bad sleeping in them this time around.  I think I had the CurlFormers too tight at the root last time so I tried to make sure they were more loose this time around. This definitely helped.

Tea rinsing was definitely the star of this wash day.  I can truly say that this time around I am 100% certain that tea rinsing definitely works for reducing shedding. For the past several weeks, whenever I would run my fingers through my hair I was constantly pulling out shed strands of hair.  After tea rinsing, this has not been happening.  Tea rinsing is definitely here to stay.


How was your wash day? Are you battling with constant shedding? How does tea rinsing work for you?

Wishing everyone a very safe and Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

Looking Forward | 2015

We are closing in on the last few days of 2014 and many of us are reflecting on this passed year and focusing on new goals for 2015.  I haven't blogged very much this year since settling into my new home and studying for my exams.  I haven't been documenting very well, but have still been very much on this hair journey of mine. I haven't reached the length goal that I would have expected this year, but I definitely think that I've been fairly successful with managing the many textures and maintaining my hair during this stretch, which is the longest I've ever gone.  I'm actually starting to lean toward calling it a transition now! :)  I thought my last relaxer was in February, but I could not remember what day it was.  Based on some pics I found in my phone, I think my last relaxer was actually March 21 which would put me just over 40 weeks post.

I'm definitely starting to think about the year to come and the things that I want to work on throughout the year.  I want too start working on mapping my plans to successfully achieving the following goals in 2015.

My Goals For the New Year | 2015

Goal #1. Continue with my hair goal. This time I want to get back to my focus on retaining length, but health will always be the number one concern.  My plan is to avoid big cuts. I think I will start micro-trimming every few weeks or so to keep these ends in check.  Of course I will need to keep these ends moisturized and protected so that I won't need those big cuts either.  I'm hoping I can reach MBL by the end of next year! :)

Goal #2. Finding the perfect skin care regimen. I feel like I've tried everything, but somehow I still get pimples, breakouts, and blemishes.  I know what some of the contributing factors are (diet and lack of water intake...shame on me).  The products I'm using could also be the problem. I think I will do a separate post to discuss my plans to improve on this.  I did recently purchase a facial cleansing brush that I saw on Groupon and it is on the way.  Looking forward to seeing what it does for my skin!

Prosonic Glow facial brush

Goal #3. Getting back to my fitness goals. I fell off the wagon hard. I don't know what happened, but all the weight that I had lost over a year and a half ago seemed to find it's way back to my lazy behind. LOL! Time to hop back on that wagon to stay.

Goal #4. Upping my fashion game. Ya'll may not know this, but I don't have one! LOL! I can put something together every now and then, but my wardrobe is pretty boring. Most days I am a Plain Jane. Lol.  I will try to challenge myself to be more creative with my wardrobe and incorporate more of the latest trends.

I am looking forward to another new beginning with the new year to come! Wishing everyone an amazing and blessed 2015!

What goals have you set for your self for 2015?

Thanks for reading!

Have a Very Merry Christmas!!!

I just want to wish everyone a very safe and wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

Happy Holidays!

Wash Day and Length Update

I don't know what it is, but I am constantly wanting to cut my hair. I don't want to cut my hair, but I want to cut my hair....if that makes since. I never feel like my ends are as thick as I'd like.  I think my last trim was around August and I think I cut quite a bit; around 2 or 3 inches. With my wishy washy transitioning/stretch (LOL) I guess my lack of length retention might be expected.  Going from bone straight, to texlaxed, to maybe natural...my hair is probably as confused as I am!

Since I really wanted to go ahead and get this trim out of the way, this wash day was all about protein and moisturizing in preparation for my flat ironing and trim session.  Here's how this wash day experience went down.

The Cast of This Weeks Wash Day Experience

Silk Dreams Wheat Germ Butter Conditioner|ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo|
ORS Hair Mayonnaise|Curl Ecstasy Hair Tea Conditioner|Argan Oil|
Kinky Curly Knot Today|ApHogee Keratin and Green Tea Reconstructurizer
GVP Silk Remedy

1. I parted my hair into four sections and applied Silk Dream's Wheat Germ Butter conditioner as I detangled. No particular reason for this, I was just trying to use up product.

2. Shampooed with ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo to clarify my hair.

3. Deep conditioned under my heating cap with ORS Hair Mayonnaise for a protein boost.

4. Next I applied Curl Ecstasy Hair Tea Conditioner and Argan Oil to seal in the moisture. I had planned to steam rinse and blow dry, but I was so tired I ended up leaving it in overnight.

5. The next morning I sat under my hair steamer for about 20 minutes with the conditioner and oil in my hair and allowed my hair to cool off before rinsing.

6.  Next I towel dried my hair for about 20 minutes, then I applied my leave-ins which were:  Kinky Curly Knot Today, ApHogee Keratin and Green Tea Reconstructurizer, and GVP Silk Remedy as my sealant and heat protectant.

7. I blow dried my hair using the cool setting which feels more like look warm when I turn up the air speed on the blow dryer.

8. Finally I flat ironed using the comb chase method and trimmed my ends.

I clipped about 1 to 1.5 or so inches from each section as I flat ironed my hair, so I didn't get a before and after comparison pic.  I figured it would be quicker to trim as I flat ironed so I didn't have to go back through all over again.  This was my first time trimming this way.  I wanted to make sure to trim off any thin, damaged, or split ends.  After I finished trimming by section, I pulled my hair back in a low pony tail and snipped a little off the tip. I don't think it turned out too bad. I could probably trim a little more.

Looks like I'm still at APL, which is about where I was back in October.  This year I haven't been so concerned with my length retention as much as just overall healthy hair and learning about how to manage my natural texture.  My nape has also been a major focus. You can read about my most recent update here.  My ultimate goal is still to reach a long thick and healthy MBL length and I definitely plan to get there.

So how was your wash day?  Have you met any of your ultimate hair goals for 2014?

Thanks for reading and HHG!