Protective style: Marley Twists

Hello my beauties

What protective style do you enjoy the most?

I like twist because they are so easy to do and maintain. I wanted to share pictures of my attempt at Marley Twists, which are extensions that look like extremely long TSTed natural hair. 

But first thing first!

Protective styling: This is important because naturally curly and kinky hair can easily be broken. In the winter us naturals lose moisture and we are more likely to wear hats, coats with hoods, scarves, or sweaters. All these things will likely snag and pull on your delicate strands causing breakage which leads to loss of length. No one wants to work hard to gain length all year just to lose it all during the cold months. So moisturize style, and hide your ends. Twisting and tucking ends will insure that you can continue growing through the winter.

Items used:

Marley Twist Hair,  Banana Clips, Water, hair cream and gel, JBCO for my salp, combs:

Check it out my Marley Twists:

Check out these YouTube tutorials for Marley Twists (and subscribe to these ladies!):

Cass <--- this chick has hair to die for!>

Marley Twist tutorial: http://youtu.be/Dxp6tBdzs8Y

A. Elle

Marley twist tutorial: http://youtu.be/Kd87jc8D8QY

Serious Shrinkage

Ok so this is serious...

I know that I am not alone in saying that shrinkage is the natural woman's worst enemy. I mean, black women are intellegent and powerful, we can cook, clean, and raise kids, we can build a home a pay for it. Its safe to say we can "bring home the bacon and cook it too".  As naturals we have already overcome the painful journey of accepting our whole selves and not letting the haters stop us from being the fabulous natural divas that we are! So it should be easy right? A breeze. A piece of cake...

But then we have shrinkage..   

 

Our hair can be down our backs when straightened or stretched but let us decide we need to Co-poo, our coils will be having a pow wow with our ears in a heart beat! Now I know that in my blog The ever elusive regimen (Part 2- practice) I talk about braiding down as you go along and that saves a lot of tears, but questions is: why can't I just wash and go?

 Now I have to add a disclaimer:

I love my hair and, while that has not always been true, I have reached a point in my life where I can safely complain about it without running the risk of being too rough, cutting it, or God know what else. We all need a chance to vent... right?? 

My wash and go literally turns into a TWA on the spot. I have to wash-braid-unbraid-GO just to get some definition! LOL :) Well it is what it is, I guess my curls just like being close to home.

Here are some tips to combat shrinkage:

1.          Moisturize- the more moisturized your hair is the less it will shrink. Water make my coils retreat no matter how moisturized they are so try some other water based moisturizers like:

Shea Moisture
Coconut & Hibiscus Moisture Mist

Kinky Curly
Knot Today

CURLS
Creme Brulee

2.         Braid, twist, knot!- do all that you can immediately after your co-poo session. Braid it out, twist it out, or knot it out! Bantu knot it out out, see ya twist it out out! Please play DJ UNK- Walk It Out as you do this. Trust me on this one, you will be done braiding twisting or knot-ing in a heart beat.... I feel inspired, I might make a little D-day sound track and share it with you all.

3.       BRING IT!- Just rock your shrinkage as another facet of your ever changing, ever evolving beautiful self! The best way to do it is the wear it "outted" or straightened one day, wash and wear a TWA the next day. You co-workers will be sooooo confused on how your hair went from long to short overnight and will ask you why you cut your hair, I know from experience. Hehehe.

What ever you choose to do, do it right boo boo!!! 

 Sincerely,

Luvin Life <3

The ever elusive regimen (Part 2- practice)

Hey beauties!

Relaxed or natural, straight or curly, everyone needs a steady regimen for their hair! I will try to share what I know works but this regimen is ever evolving and will not work for everyone... It works for me.

You are welcome to try out my hair care practices and tweek them to make it work for you hair. But first make sure you see the Part 1 - products blog and get the products listed. Then take a look at the glossary page so that you know what I mean when I write EVOO or JBCO or DBCS. 

HAIRDAY!

(I have at least two hair days a month, one to cleanse and style, and another for treatments/cleansing/and styling.) 

Conditioner wash- Co-poo (weekly(ish))

I currently co-poo with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration. I lather it in and rinse after about 2 minutes. I lather it in again, braiding sections as I go, and leave it for about 10 min then rinse, re-braiding as you go along. This will prep your hair for styling.  If my hair was really dirty, like old twist out I will follow up with a ACV rinse.

Deep condition (weekly-biweekly)

I currently deep condition with Shea Moisture Deep Conditioner mixed with EVOO or JBCO. After a good copoo I put this stuff on thick, braid down my hair in big chunks, and sit for 30 min to 8 hrs overnight. :)  When I am done I rinse with warm then cold water.

Cleansing- Prepoo (monthly)

Section hair into at least 4 parts
Spray with water then Coat each section with melted 
VCO or EVOO
Braid sections to make shampooing easier

Cleansing- shampoo (1x month)

I will be changing up this shampoo receipe soon!

Section hair into at least 4 parts
Coat each section with melted VCO
Braid sections to make shampooing easier
Make your shampoo
1 cup EVOO
1 cup DBCS
(or any 1:1 ratio more or less)

Mix ingredients into a squeeze bottle big enough to hold all of your shampoo and still be 1/4 empty. So if you make 8 oz of shampoo get at least a 12 ogz bottle. Shake gently. The mixture should turn into a creamy liquid. Un-braid each section one at a time to shampoo, rebraid as you go along.

 Un-braid each section one at a time, add conditioner Hello Hydration and finger detangle. Re-braid each section  while still drenched with conditioner before moving on to the next. Start over and rinse each section individually, re-braiding as you go along. This will prep your hair for styling.