Wednesday 31 December 2014

A sew in wash day!


Hey ladies hope you all had a good Christmas I sure did; I was the solo chef for 12 making 9 different dishes (I love to cook) I did most of the prep work the night before so it was manageable since all would be assistant chefs could only make it from 12noon Christmas day but it was all good because after cooking I got the rest of Christmas day off they did the rest; desserts, laying the table, serving and washing up they even mopped up the kitchen and cleaned the stove/cooker! Christmas over I finally got round to washing my synthetic sew in at 3 weeks post installation. I was meant to wash it on Christmas week which would have made it two weeks post but Christmas shopping and other activities got in the way.
 
leave out separated from weave
I separated my real hair (leave out) and held it away from the extension hair with a hair clip to avoid it getting tangled with the weave when washing. I brushed the weave to remove any tangles prior to washing and also combed my leave out.  I usually dilute shampoo with water in a spray bottle or applicator bottle depending on what protective style I have on my head to aid in the washing but realized too late when I was already in the shower with water dripping down my face that I had left my spray bottle in my room and I couldn’t be bothered to go out and get it. My tracks were braided front to back and the weave sown across it so getting to my scalp is not the easiest task but I managed to get as much shampoo as I could to create a good lather on the tracks and scalp using my fingers, massaged that in very well, added some shampoo to the length of the weave and rinsed. I did this twice and then when I was sure my scalp and weave were clean I proceeded to wash my leave out the same way and then rinsed the entire head once more with the leave out still separated by a clip from the weave. I don’t tamper much with my extension hair when washing in terms of handling I just let the water do the rinsing and finger detangle where necessary.
 
fresh out of the shower; this is how the hair looks like wet
Hair rinsed I wrung the excess water out and held it all up in a clip then towel dried turban style as I dressed to go down to my friend’s salon round the corner from my house to roller set. I don’t have a hooded dryer at home and I needed to get my tracks dry in the shortest (and less labour intensive) time possible so I decided to roller set instead of blow drying. Even though this weave is synthetic it can be roller set and blow dried as well. When I was ready to go and my hair damp I applied a bit of coconut oil to the leave out tied it all up once again and off I went. I carried a styling mousse and my DIY leave in moisturizer concoction (moisturizer, castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil,, glycerine, distilled water and a bit of white vinegar) I had the stylist spray that on my leave out, tracks and scalp and then she applied the styling mousse to the weave and proceeded to rollerset using huge mesh rollers. I sat under the hooded dryer for just a little over an hour. She started off with moderate heat but my nape was taking forever to dry so I asked her to increase the heat which helped it dry much quicker. We unraveled the rollers she sprayed my hair with oil sheen spray and styled it, she applied an oil or serum as well to the weave I can’t remember which it was I was too busy reading a magazine. I must admit the roller set came out very well it actually looks better than at installation. My leave out flat iron from installation three weeks ago lasted very well and I didn’t need to flat iron again prior to this wash day and because the entire hair including leave out was roller set there was no need to flat iron the leave out this time round.
 
Roller set done! I think it looks better than it did at installation see photos here
Thoughts on maintaining my sew in so far…
·         My scalp and real hair were more dehydrated than dirty because I have not quite kept up with spray moisturizing it, now you can see why I prefer long term protective styles where my scalp can breathe easy and is accessible with no fuss.  
·         Other than on wash days for me a store bought braid spray or moisturizer is better than a homemade concoction while wearing a sew in weave.  The nozzle of my spray bottle produces more product than I like so my tracks get wet and stay wet longer while store bought spray moisturizer or braid spray nozzle’s produces just enough product to moisturize and not leave my tracks staying wet if that makes any sense.
·         This hair hardly tangles so styling is a breeze but it sheds a little.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! IF GOING OUT TONIGHT STAY SAFE AND HAVE FUN!!!

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Size varies but roughly 12-15 inches long by 6 -8 inches wide. Colours available green as shown in photo, red, beige, black, brown. Please note the beading pattern and design on the top left corner will vary from bag to bag it will not be as shown on the photo. Bags with African cloth print flaps are also available (photos coming soon)

The Wash Day Experience

Friday 26 December 2014

Merry Christmas!!!

Have a blessed Christmas to all those celebrating!!!
Remember Christ is the reason for the season!!!
Be blessed!!!

Friday 19 December 2014

Fitness Friday: Why bother?



There is this man that goes walking round my neighbourhood every evening I have seen him on several occasions he usually walks in the late evening between 7-8 pm sometimes a little earlier. He does a back and forth sort of walk routine up the street and back again. I commend him for walking every day like he does he seems really committed, the only time I don’t get to see him walk is usually on Sundays I am guessing that is his rest day maybe.
He always smokes cigarettes during his walk I don’t know how many but it is definitely more than one I have seen him light up at least twice on one walk. I am sure some of you have seen photographs or ads on the adverse effects of smoking. I find myself asking why bother? Why bother to exercise at all when you are destroying your lungs it doesn’t make sense that is me being judgmental hey I am only human. Judging by how old I think he is he did not pick up smoking yesterday. From my observation and I stand to be corrected on this, most smokers pick up the habit early on in life either in their teens or early twenties and carry on throughout their life some quit along the way some don’t.

Smokers are generally less fit than non smokers due to the increase in lactic acid caused by tobacco smoke binding to the red blood cells, displacing oxygen and thus hindering delivery of said oxygen to body tissues and muscles. This causes fatigue and heavier breathing among smokers. Smokers will get tired quicker than non smokers while performing even the easiest form of exercise (Source click to read more). Other readings online say that exercise can actually help those who want to quit the habit to do so.

What do you think about smoking and exercise?
Fitness Friday

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Sew me up!



The last time I had a sew in weave was in November 2011, I decided to take a temporary break from them because I was becoming too dependent on sew ins. The temporary break turned into 3 years. My hair stylist cousin installed it for me, synthetic as usual with leave out hair. My other cousin was also getting her hair touched up while we were in the salon so stylist cousin used the remaining bit of her relaxer to touch up my leave out. She used Vitale Princess by Nature with Olive Oil for the leave out. She has finally grasped the concept of texlaxing so I think I can trust her to texlax my entire head. This relaxer is perfect for texlaxed heads as it doesn’t relax bone straight…maybe unless one leaves it for much longer. So she texlaxed my leave out shampooed and conditioned (I did not get the name of the products she used), blow dried the hair, then did front to back cornrows and finally installed the hair. I had prepared my hair for the install by deep conditioning three days earlier. She flat ironed the leave out and it blended in well with the “human hair look” synthetic hair.
 
Image source:Amazon
Because of the way the cornrows were braided oiling my scalp will be a nightmare so I will just stick to both store bought and homemade braid sprays to moisturize my hair and scalp. I plan to keep the sew in until the end of the year or maybe into the first week of January and will wash it every two weeks depending on how long I have it on. I must admit I was ready to take it out by day three since I had gotten so used to my scalp breathing freely while in braids but I kinda like the hair so I will keep it a little longer. This hair is synthetic but can be blow dried on low heat and roller set under a hooded dryer…flexi rods can also be used to achieve curls.  


It blended in pretty well



I mixed two colours



The Wash Day Experience

Wednesday 10 December 2014

A Clumpy Affair!



I have never had a DIY fail using food ever since I started blending my mixes until the other day. So I blended my homemade banacado mixture 2 bananas and half a small avocado and kept it overnight in the fridge. I was making a smoothie late at night so I thought why not just blend my homemade deep conditioner at the same time instead of the next day to save me from washing the blender twice – yes I can be lazy like that sometimes. The next day in the early evening when I was ready to deep condition I realized that the mixture was just a little bit too runny for my liking so I decided to hand mash half a banana and add it in to thicken it up a bit, this was my veteran mixtress mistake number one. I proceeded to deep condition for about 30 minutes and then hopped into the shower to rinse it out. I hopped into the shower at 6:15pm and usually on DC days I can take anything between 30 minutes to an hour in the shower depending on what I used to DC. So I rinsed out all the banacado or so I thought then applied regular store bought conditioner to help detangle and then I remembered I had to drop off something somewhere before 7:30pm so I told myself I will detangle when I get back to save time, that was veteran mixtress mistake number two. I rinsed out the conditioner, t-shirt dried turban style as I grabbed some clothes.


When I was ready to go I held up my hair with a hair clip I was only going to be out on the next street for less than 15 minutes. I never bothered to look properly at the state of my hair in the mirror I was more concerned with dropping off the item before the stipulated time. So I dropped the item got back home in record time and sat down to detangle and that is when I discovered clumps of hand mashed banana still left in my hair especially in the middle. Huge clumps! Blended fruit based DCs normally leave fibre in hair which fly away on blow drying (I blow dry on cool setting to get rid of them) in my experience banana leaves more fibre than avocado; here I was with huge clumps of banana still left in my hair! I hand removed whatever I could and then got a wide toothed comb to slowly comb out the rest. I decided to co wash in the morning so as to fully rinse out any remaining clumps that may have been missed. The next morning I co washed and detangled in shower and got rid of whatever tiny clumps that may still have been trapped in my hair and then proceeded to blow dry away the fibres and I was banana clump free at last!
Lessons learnt;
·         No more shortcuts always blend mixtures. If I had added the half banana and then blended again I wouldn’t have had a clumpy situation.
·         When using fresh food based DCs always comb detangle with conditioner in the shower no matter what. If I had done so I would have gotten rid of the clumpy situation in shower.

All co-washed out; nice and clump free hair

Have a non clumpy wash day everyone!
The Wash Day Experience