Bantu Knot Out

I didn't want to look at my ends for too long while my hair was straight (referencing previous post) so the next night I put bantu knots in my hair. I moisturized my hair with Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter Moisturizer and then sealed with jojoba oil. 

I put in 5 bantu knots, secured them with a pin and then the next morning here are the results I got. 

Loved it! I enjoy bantu knot outs, but only when they are done on straight and dry hair. Under any other condition it is always a fail for me.

Don't Rush Perfection

This past weekend I had a formal event to go to so I decided to straighten my hair. I hadn't straightened my hair since my last texlax so I was excited for it. I also wanted to try a black rinse...If you go a couple of posts back you will see that I tried the Jazzing Clear Rinse and it worked so well for me! This time around I wanted to try a color rinse so I did my research and decided on the Clairol Professional Beautiful Collection in Jet Black Base Ash. My hair day plan was as follows:

• Prepoo with Coconut Oil
• Shampoo with Kera Minerals Smoothing Shampoo
• Deep Condition with some concoction (it ended up being Shea Butter and Almond Suave Professionals with a bunch of oils) because I was out of deep conditioner.
• Color Rinse
• T-Shirt dry
• Add leave ins and heat protectant
• Blow dry
• Straighten and Curl

Here's the thing... every time I have an event to go to as opposed to a regular outing, I am all over the place. I never set aside enough time and I always forget to do things until the last minute. Since I know myself so well, I purposely set aside 6 hours to do my hair but of course I forgot to get jewelry and I needed to go and help my boyfriend pick out a tie so I ended up only having 4 hours to do my hair. Sounds like a lot of time but it most definitely wasn't. I went through with my plan listed above but notice I didn't put how long I did each thing. I only deep conditioned for about 15 mins under a dryer which is the shortest time i have ever deep conditioned so my hair wasn't moisturized enough. I forgot to detangle my hair after washing the deep conditioner out in the shower so after I applied the black rinse my hair was super tangled. My carelessness made detangling very unpleasant...to say the least. I lost more hair than I am used to and it just put me in a horrible mood. I went on to blow dry (which I have to take out of my hair habits because my hair rebels when it comes into contact with a blow dryer) and then straighten and curl.

As I was straightening I noticed that my hair was very dry. I didn't get the silky and flowy results that I usually get when I straighten. At first I didn't know what to blame: my almost nonexistent deep conditioning or the black rinse. I decided to chuck it up to the deep conditioning partially because I loved how the black rinse came out. However, there are some people who had some bad reviews on the Clairol line of color rinse saying that it was very drying. I don't think i will give a review until i try it again in the future with proper deep conditioning.

After straightening I put in big curls with my 2 inch Hot Tools curling iron and i pinned up the curls while I got ready for the event. I didn't have any hairspray and the curls fell no more than an hour after I took them down (i'm not really a fan of this curling iron). I don't have any pictures of how my hair looked right after I did it, but I do  have pictures of my hair taken during the event. It got frizzy really quick..but it's ok.
Something I noticed while my hair was straight is my ends are just unacceptable.  I am trying to ease into cutting off my bone straight ends but I don't know if I can live with the appearance of scraggly ends. I am either going to cut a good amount of my relaxed ends off soon, or I am not going to wear my hair straight for a while. What do you all think?

The picture on bottom right corner was taken toward the end of the night. You can see the unacceptable ends I am talking about. :-/

All in all, I should have taken my time doing my hair and I would've gotten the results that I was going for...you can't rush perfection you know. I also would not have had the tangling and hair loss problems. Next time the boyfriend can go find his tie on his own. Lol. I don't mind how thick my hair looks though..don't mind at all. I also really like the black hair..I feel like my natural hair color can blend in with my skin tone sometimes lol. Some people can't even tell I did a rinse.. but I know the difference.

A Short-Lived Style: Crochet Braids

This past weekend I tried a new style! Crochet Braids! Crochet braiding is a technique of installing synthetic braiding hair into your braided hair using a crochet or latch hook needle. I had seen a couple of ladies on YouTube attempt this style and it caught my interest so I thought I'd give it a try.  I didn't do a tutorial only because there are so many great tutorials out there. The tutorial I followed can be found on ToysVoice's YouTube channel. She does a really great job at explaining how to install the crochet braids and her install came out beautifully.

The hair I used to do my crochet braids was the Freetress Water Wave Bulk Hair in 1B and 1B/30. I used 2 1/2 packs of hair. I cornrowed almost all of my hair straight back except for the hair around where I wanted my side-part. Here I braided my hair at a slant going toward my ears on either side of the part ( i am sorry I have no picture of that, I was in a rush!). While braiding my hair I moisturized with Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter Moisturizer and sealed with Carol's Daughter Hair Balm (love). After braiding, I proceed to crochet the hair in with a crochet I purchased at Walmart for $2.49. Installing the braids only took me 2 1/2 hours.

Here are some pictures of the crochet braids...

I liked it. I didn't love it though. There was nothing wrong with the style but for some reason I did not feel like I was in the 'mood' for such curly hair. This surprised me because I usually love big and curly hair! Because of this feeling, I told myself that I wouldn't keep them in too long. I didn't have to do much more convincing either because after a day of wearing the braids made my face feel really itchy. I have sensitive skin, but I didn't think that the braids would be so irritating (especially since I used to wear braids in the past).  It was was concerned for my skin so i planned to take them out after the weekend was over. My boyfriend really liked the style, so i let him enjoy it for a couple days lol! (he is the photographer by the way...). Something else that made me want to take the braids out asap is that when I was cornrowing my hair in preparation for the install I noticed my hair was pretty dry, even after moisturizing and sealing. My hair did not seem to be retaining any moisture. I still installed the braids because I was excited for the new style. I felt guilty, so again, I had no problem taking out the braids after the weekend.

I've Been Nominated!

I have been nominated for the Versatile blogger award! Three times! These nominations are my firsts so thank you to Southern Girl, Darrylon Evans, and Sdestra for reading my blog and nominating me! It's great to know that there are people who read and enjoy Pound Cake! 

As a nominee I have to:  

1. Thank the Blogger that nominated me.  
2. Share 7 random facts about me.
3. Nominate 15 bloggers who are relatively new to blogging.
4. Let nominated bloggers know they have been nominated.

5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award to my post. 

~~

7 Random Facts About Me!

• Black and white is my favorite color combination.
• My favorite TV shows are My Wife and Kids (hilarious) and Desperate Housewives.
• I love research.
• I am of Haitian heritage.
• My favorite meal if brown rice and oxtail or white rice, sous pois and oxtail (both when my mother makes it)
•  I have a chicken chest
• I change my nail color every 5 days

~~

I Nominate...

Fresh Lengths

Amber C.

Ashley the Fashion Guru

Greedy For Good Hair

Special K

Caught Between A Cream and Curl

Textured Strands

Ghanaian Emprezz

Relaxed Long Way 2 Grow

Ebony's Garden

Good Hair Diaries

My Own Beautician

Grow It Girl

Just Daisy

Fine Textured Hair

Mobile Post: Braidout Fail

My braidout didn't finish drying overnight and as a result I will be walking around with a puff for a while. *shrug* no biggie.

Wash Day: Carol's Daughter Monoi Collection, Clear Rinse, and a Failed Ponytail Roller Set

This wash day was interesting. I broke some rules. I had some success, and I had some failures.

Broken Rules

I tried a new product. Two actually. I just recently told myself that I did not need to stray from my staple products because I know that they work well...So what had happened was....I was walking through Macy's and stopped by the Carol's Daughter section to look at some products (just out of curiosity..I had not intentions on buying anything). My mistake was taking one of the products form the Monoi line and smelling it. This line smells amazing!! It also had some great ingredients (Monoi Oil, Bamboo Water, Hydrolyzed Silk, Hibiscus Extract). And I had a gift card! :-) I was hooked...so I bought the starter kit. Bad bad girl. Well the deed is done. I'll tell you how the kit worked for me later.

Carol's Daughter Monoi Repairing Collection 3-Piece Starter Kit

The second product I tried was Jazzing Clear Rinse. I bought this product a while ago after reading EbonyCPrincess's post about it, but I never used it. I kept it in the back of my cabinet..that is until I couldn't find plastic caps and I was digging for them in the back of my cabinet. I saw the rinse and thought "oooo I could use some shine and sealed cuticles..mhm." Smh..

Anyways... here is how the wash day went..

1. Shampooed with Carol's Daughter Monoi Sulfate-free Shampoo (2x)

2. Conditioned with Carol's Daughter Monoi Conditioner and left it in my hair for about 3 mins and rinsed.

3. Applied Keratin 2 min for about 5 minutes and rinsed. 

4. Towel dried and then applied the Carol's Daughter Monoi Repairing Hair Mask and left in on for about an hour and a half (30 mins of that time under my hooded dryer). Rinsed.

5. I then applied the Jazzing Clear Rinse to my hair and processed it under my dryer for 15 mins and then rinsed.

6. After t-shirt drying for 5 mins, I applied Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Reconstructorizer and Aphogee Pro Vitamin Leave-In Conditioner. I then applied a quarter size of Gernier Fructis sleek and shine serum to my hair for the next step which was...

7. I attempted a ponytail roller set and then wrapped my hair. 

It was actually a really long wash day...

Success

My first impression of the Carols Daughter Monoi line was great! The product promises 13x longer life after one use and prevention of breakage by  96%. Because of such a huge promise I was excited to try the product! The shampoo made my hair feel so soft and manageable which is not something that is often said about a shampoo. The shampoo is sulfate-free so it did not sud up but it did a great job at cleansing my scalp. The conditioner gave my hair a good amount of slip. I was able to run my shower comb through my hair with very almost no problem. After towel drying my hair I felt like I didn't even need to deep condition! But I went ahead and used the Repairing Hair Mask. I liked how thick the product was and I didn't have to use a lot of it to coat my hair. After rinsing out the mask my hair felt so strong! But soft at the same time! I loved it! Let me not forget to mention that the Monoi line smells so good! The smell definitely tops any hair product I've ever used. I wish I could have the sent as a body splash or a wallflower or something. Lol. But I don't want to go into any more detail until I try the products again. My first impression was a great one though!

The clear rinse also had my hair feeling extremely smooth! Detangling was a breeze. There was nothing to detangle really. It also gave my hair a very nice sheen! To see more details on the benefits of clear rinses, read EbonyCPrincess's post about it! I will try this product again in the future and do a full review.

Failures

The ponytail roller set was definitely easier than the traditional mohawk that I fail at very often. I put my hair into six ponytails and placed 2-3 rollers on each ponytail and then went under the dryer. I spent 2 hours under the dryer which I didn't mind because I was also doing some crochet braids for my mom while I was under there.

Seemed like it was going fine..

After 2 hours I took out the rollers and the ponytail. Most of my hair was dry. The back to ponytail were still pretty damp though. I think this is mostly due to how horrible my hooded dryer is. 

My hair didn't come out as planned. Some part were smooth and others weren't. I probably need to use more rollers. Ugh. I cant even get roller sets right when I cheat! Lol. I just wrapped my hair and went to sleep. :-/

Not exactly the look I was going for..I'll keep practicing.

Enough about me.. how did your most recent wash day go?

I Am APL!! Texlaxed at 16 Weeks Post and Hair Update

I relaxed my hair on Saturday just in time for my summer challenge. Around April I had challenged myself (and my boyfriend challenged me) to reach APL by August 12th. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of what my length was in April but I was between full SL and APL. I was hoping to reach APL by August 12th so that when i get to my hair journiversary date (October 26th) I would be full APL. So, did I do it.? Here's how the day went...

1. Sectioned my hair into four sections and based my scalp with vaseline.

2. Applied castor oil onto my already processed hair and then roux porosity control conditioner on top. 

3. Parted and clipped 1 inch sections within those four parts. (My mom was helping me out with this texlax. She was going to work on the back two sections while i did the front two... so the clips were placed right where she was to stop applying relaxer...a little below the demarcation line. The part of my hair that was already processed was already protected with castor oil and roux porosity control so if she got relaxer on the processed hair I wouldn't have to have a heart attack. She didn't mess up, thankfully!)

4. Set my timer for 12 minutes

5. Applied the relaxer (ORS lye relaxer in normal strength) to my new growth for about 8 minutes and smoothed for about 4 minutes. 

6. Rinsed out the relaxer for about 5 minutes

7. Applied Keratin 2 minute protein treatment for 5 minutes then rinsed.

8. Neutralized with ORS Creamy Shampoo 3 times and rinsed

9. T-shirt dried for about 5 minutes

10. Applied ORS Replenishing Conditioner for 30 minutes with heat and rinsed.

11. Applied Aphogee Keratin and Green Tea and Aphogee Pro Vitamin Leave In Conditioner. 

12. Air dried for 30 minutes, blow dried, and straightened with one pass only. 

whew.. that was alot..

Throughout the whole process I was so anxious to see how my hair was doing! I hadn't straightened my hair all summer and I wanted to know if i made APL. And I did! I was so excited. I knew from the time I was washing the relaxer out that my hair was noticeably longer. As I straightened my hair nothing could take a huge cheesy smile off of my face. I could not believe it. I actually surpassed my goal for August; I found that I was about an inch passed APL! I must have done the happy dance in my bathroom for a good 10 minutes straight. I screamed for my brother to come see, I called my boyfriend, I jumped around with my mom, I celebrated with all of my biggest supporters. LOL! You would've thought i just won the lotto. Lol. But seriously.. I was very excited for my little milestone.

August 2012 Length Check (APL)

Although I met my goal, there were still some concerns. My ends were acting weird. They were a little more dry than the rest of my hair. They almost felt as if they had heat damage which didn't make sense to me because I had not been putting heat on my ends. I also noticed that I needed a serious trim...So I trimmed off about 1/2 an inch but it didn't make a difference..I wasn't ready to cut off any more inches right now though...I'll save that for October. I am going to need to make a serious game plan for my ends and I want to start by roller setting more often but it is just so hard for me :-(

I also noticed that my hair processed a little more straight than I wished for it to. I didn't leave the relaxer in for any longer than usual but I think I did spend more time smoothing than usual. I am thinking it appears so straight because the relaxer is so fresh? Maybe i'll see some more of texture for my next wash? I hope so. 

Wet Texture Shot

All in all i'm happy! I met my goals and I see my progress! As you can see in my wet shot, I do have a good amount of relaxed ends left over from before I started texlaxing. I will hopefully be able to trim off a good amount of my bone straight ends in October and still be Full APL. Right on schedule!

Length Check Comparison (Feb '12/Feb'12)

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from my April relaxer. I had relaxed early at 8 weeks because my new growth was out of control. My back half had not processed much because I had to wash it out after about 3 minutes because my scalp was burning a little. I didnt even straighten for that relaxer. I just air dried and bunned. Anyways...moving on...

Comparison Wet Shots (Dec. '11/Aug '12)

I am so happy that I found this wet shot in my picture folder on my computer. I forgot I even had it! This reminds me to always remember to take pictures!

All smiles :-)