It’s a banana affair!

It’s been a minute since this veteran kitchenista indulged in a little mixology. For my wash day this week I decided to give my hair a deep conditioning treatment using bananas. I blended 3 medium sized bananas with a little water I think it was a quarter cup or less I wanted my mixture thick not runny and that is what I got. The idea was to keep the mixture overnight in the fridge and deep condition the next morning, I even added a tablespoon of white vinegar to avoid oxidization (didn’t exactly work I am afraid it still turned brown  I normally use lemon juice but I was sans lemons that night). Old habits they say die hard so as I was sitting on the couch watching a late night show on telly a thought occurred to me why not just deep condition and wash this night I mean you are going to be up for at least another two hours anyway so that is exactly what I did. There was a time when I was an exclusive “night hair washer”.

 

File photo

So I DC’ed for about 25 minutes on damp hair rinsed out and shampooed twice and then rinsed again. I did not put any products on my hair that night I planned to finish off everything in the morning since it was already 2am by the time I was done t-shirt drying turban style. Now the thing is of all the raw food DCs I have used bananas leave the most residues it’s nothing to worry about really but it’s a lot, little white specks everywhere no matter how well I rinse. I usually blow dry them away on cool and they are gone with the wind. The reason I still use bananas even with the extra specks removing headache is because of how ridiculously soft it leaves my hair. You can strain the bananas post blending you will still get specks but not as much as if one does not strain.  I did not use any conditioner to detangle since as much as I have a little new growth my hair hardly tangled thanks to the banana mix. I did not use any products post wash but my hair was still so soft in the morning. Easy to comb, easy to handle.

I ended up rinsing my hair out again the next morning while taking a shower to get rid of post workout sweat as I did a pretty intense sweat inducing workout that morning; and since I had no products in my hair from the night before I simply rinsed again with plain water and it was still soft and easy to handle. Banana DCs are the truth I tell you! I t-shirt dried turban style till damp again and then applied my leaves in conditioner, moisturized and sealed. I held my hair in a low bun for the rest of the day.

Fitness Fridays: update

Long time no update! So here’s a quick update I have managed to keep up with my workouts, I missed some days but for the most part I kept to my schedule. I discovered that on mornings that I wake up feeling tired, my body seems to “wake up” as soon as I start working out and I feel quite energized afterwards and ready to tackle the day ahead. It’s almost as if working out is the morning energizer coffee that I need these days, did I also mention the effect working out has on my brain? There are days when I wake up with what I call a lazy brain and as soon as I am done working out it is filled to the brim with ideas, future projects, solutions etc. I am currently doing Jillian Michaels ripped in 30; I am on week two at the moment. I love how she combines arm workouts, cardio and strength in one workout routine. Week one was pretty easy, week two is looking slightly tougher I dread what week 3 has in store! Still working on that tummy it has gots to go!!! I have been thinking of running a lot lately maybe I should start who knows I may end up doing a 5k marathon or something in a few months.

image source: Amazon

Random stuff;

I found out the other day that my sister in law’s mother is 76. I had always thought she was at least 60. I couldn’t believe it I kept telling her I have to see a birth certificate or something to believe her, she looks fifteen years younger than she is. Turns out she has been walking most of her life at least four times a week sometimes even more and also works on her farm. Even now at 76 she still walks and does what she can on her farm the woman looks so good for her age and so strong she could put some 20 year olds to shame with her level of physical activity. Turns out regular exercise is indeed the fountain of youth and a good diet too; she eats mostly what is grown and reared on her farm and it is organic.

So an aunt saw me last December at a family function wearing a fitted dress then she saw me again over Easter wearing a loose fitting dress. As she hugged me she goes thank God you are looking better now I don’t like how skinny you looked the last time I saw you! The thing is I still weigh the same give or take as I did last December; it just so happens that the fitted dress made me look smaller while the loose fitting one made me look bigger. Too funny:)

Hair update!

How is everyone doing? Good I hope. This wash day update is almost two weeks overdue I just couldn’t bring myself to blog no matter how hard I tried, writers block maybe? Well anyway better late than never. So two days after I got my hair trimmed I decided to get six jumbo cornrows done and to prepare for them I did a henna treatment since I was due for one anyway. Because my hair had been shampooed two days prior I didn’t feel the need to shampoo again on rinsing out the henna the plan was to cowash after rinsing out the henna but I ended up using a little bit of my liquefied African BlackSoap because my hair still felt quite greasy from my salon trip two days prior. I still conditioned with store bought deep conditioner after rinsing, rinsed that out, applied my leave in conditioner and then blow dried since I was going to get it braided and then moisturized. I oiled my scalp with my castor oil mix after braiding.

These jumbo cornrows stay good for a week. If you push it like I did they can go ten days but can stay good for up to two weeks if you tie a scarf over them at night and keep your hands out of your hair especially if you decide to wash them in between. The best way to wash them should you choose to before the week or two weeks are up is a shampoo or conditioner spray (either shampoo or conditioner diluted with water in a spray bottle) and then just let the shower water rinse everything out. I made the mistake of massaging the shampoo into my scalp and hair and ended up having messy looking cornrows after just one week. My scalp was itching though so I needed to wash otherwise I would have just gone the entire two weeks with just a braid spray cleanse.

I maintained them by tying a scarf at night, oiling my scalp with my castor oil mix twice a week, spraying the roots, hair and scalp with Crème of Nature Argan Oil Strength and Shine Leave in Conditioner which doubles up as a braid spray for me. I ended up wearing my hair in a braid out after taking out the cornrows and it made for a beautiful braid out. They looked so messy after my massaging wash that I couldn’t walk around with that mess on my head. I would definitely get them done again and take better care of them next time round. These are perfect for quick trips; which was one of the reasons I got them done in the first place, especially to the seaside if you will be indulging in plenty of water activities, rainy or humid locations when you don’t really want to deal with your hair while away for a few days but don’t want to install a long term protective style just yet. The tails can be styled into a bun, a big side braid/twist or just let loose; mine were waist length the longer the tails the better I think I will get them even longer next time. They took less than 45 minutes to install which was a plus!

Snip snip!

Howdy people? Did you get pranked today or did you prank someone? Well I thought I was very smart and had gotten away with not being pranked until my cousin sent me something about whatsapp messages being backed up on some site and all you had to do was key in someone’s number and you could read their messages, at first I was like no way that is a class action lawsuit coming up for whatsapp if true but curiosity got the better of me and I went ahead and clicked on the link followed instructions only to get an April fools message hahaha!

Anyway I finally caved in and got a trim. I went to my hairdresser friend and he snipped off about an inch and a bit all round and my ends look better for it. It had been over a year since my last trim so this was definitely needed. My hair was washed and conditioned with regular conditioner I didn’t have time for deep conditioning, he then set it with rollers I sat under the hooded dryer for about 30 mins. Once dry he proceeded to snip off the ends using hair shears one row at a time. He used products that were pretty new to me called Label.M. They are quite good I must admit but very pricey I checked them out online and they cost a pretty penny. Oh my scalp was itchy for some reason, just the middle bit after the hooded dryer session and he applied Vitale Lite Scalp Ointment again very new to me even though I am familiar with the hair mayonnaise deep conditioner from the same company; I really need to start paying more attention to products while shopping.  I did not check the ingredient list but it was very soothing and calming to the scalp and the itching stopped immediately I suspected there might be mint in the list of ingredients. 

Image source: Amazon

I do apologise for the very poor quality images. Let’s just say that technology failed us that day.

Before

 

After - I had it blow dried to get it straight as opposed to flat ironing. Thanks to my white shirt you can hardly see where it falls but I am still at shoulder length