Braids wash day!

If only every wash day could be as easy as braids wash day my hair journey life would be so much easier. I had a half kinky twists half conrowed updo installed about two weeks ago give or take, this hairstyle that I found online was my inspiration. It didn’t quite come out exactly the same but close, I have tried to get a decent photo from angles but they all come out looking bleh so no photos for now I am afraid. For this wash day I simply diluted shampoo with water, wet my hair applied the shampoo massaging gently into my scalp and length of my kinky twists. Did that twice and then rinsed out the shampoo. I wrung my extensions dry and then t-shirt dried turban style until damp. When the hair was about 80% dry I sprayed on my Crème of Nature Argan Oil strength and shine leave in conditioner which doubles up as a braid spray on my hair and tracks and then let my hair air dry completely. And that was my very simple easy breezy wash day.

Fitness Fridays: Back on the grind!

Life happened in the last one month and fitness took a back seat for a while. I tried to walk where I could and take the stairs whenever I could to compensate for my lack of working out. There was hardly ever any time or I was too drained to work out the last 3-4 weeks. Thankfully everything has calmed down now and we are back on the grind. I still drink my warm lemon water in the morning and try to eat as healthy as possible. I feel a little heavier I must admit due to the lack of exercise in the past one month I am yet to weigh myself to see if there is an increase in weight or not. I love how my shoulders look even though I have taken a break from doing arm exercises for now.

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My sister brought me some brown rice and I must say that for me at least it is an acquired taste. It is said to be healthier than white rice although there are concerns about the level of arsenic in brown rice. It takes forever and a day to cook seriously it does; and uses more water. Where one cup regular white rice would be cooked and dry in under 20mins brown rice takes like an hour to cook. Where you need two cups water for one cup white rice brown rice needs about four cups water to one cup brown rice in my experience with this particular brand my sis got me. I am not particularly crazy about the chewy taste it has so I figured out a way to make it more palatable for me. I cook it in advance and freeze then make fried rice out of it whenever I feel like it. Tastes so much better for me than freshly cooked it does taste a bit like couscous made this way as well. Speaking of food I have come to the realization a lot of the time that it’s all in the mind. Most of the times when you pick something to eat or snack on outside regular mealtimes you are not really hungry but you tell yourself you are because the item is readily available or it is expected of you. For example you just had an early dinner on a Friday night its movie night at home you are not exactly hungry after dinner but still grab some buttered popcorn, order pizzas, grab a few cans of sodas or beers because that is what people do when watching movies they snack. So you see it’s all in the mind.

New conditioner....

Hi ladies! Feels like forever since I was last here. Hope you have all been well. Anyway last wash day was a henna wash day since I was preparing my hair for a braiding process. I didn’t get my new regular brand of finely sifted henna so I had to settle for the old  not so finely sifted one and do the sifting myself at home. Didn’t take too long I after which I mixed it with aloe vera juice fresh from the leaf, lemon black tea and a teaspoon of vinegar to aid in the dye release. I applied the mixture to damp hair and let it sit for almost three hours. Halfway through the process my aunt turned up at the house with some very ripe avocados and on impulse I blended half of one and applied it over the henna for the last thirty minutes. It’s funny how the universe conspires to turn our thoughts into actions; just a few days prior I was looking at avocados at the grocery store and thinking it was time for an avocado DC then I remembered that I needed to henna instead and  shoved that avocado DC life thought to the back of my mind then this happens!

Almost three hours later I rinsed out the henna-avocado mix, shampooed with TRESemme naturals and then conditioned with this conditioner that I picked up at the grocery store called Organics which is made in South Africa according to the information on the label, not sure if it is affiliated to any other “Organics” brand elsewhere in the word. I quite liked it actually, it provided great slip and detangling my almost 10 weeks post hair in shower was a breeze. The comb was just gliding through my hair I will definitely repurchase this conditioner it has aloe vera and herbs as part of the ingredients. I only wish it came in a larger size bottle; maybe It does I don’t know but they only had the small size 200ml at the store where I picked it up from on my way home one evening. It has a nice scent and is quite cheap as well but I would love the larger size bottle since I go through a lot more conditioner than I do shampoo. They had the shampoo from the same brand as well on the shelf; I may pick it up on my next trip to this particular grocery store. Back to hair, rinsed, shampooed, detangled, I t-shirt dried turban style and then applied coconut oil as a sealant on damp hair. I left every other product application to my hair and scalp for the next day in readiness for getting braided soon.

 

I am so in love with the texture of my wet hair

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”.

 

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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:)