Shea Moisture Curl & Shine Shampoo!

I bought this shampoo last week and I am in love!!!!! This has to be the most moisturizing shampoo that I have ever tried in my life!!!!  It is so rich and my locs felt so wonderfully soft and this was before I conditioned! And my locs also felt clean too.  The shampoo has Coconut oil, Silk protein and Neem oil ingredients my hair loves and is sulfate, mineral oil, paraban, pthalate, proplyene glycol free. It's safe for color treated hair and it is vegan. The shampoo claims to hydrate and detangle hair for bouncy, healthy curls. I would definitely agree on the hydrating bit and as a loc wearer obviously the detangling thing is not a concern for me. I have to be truthful and say I've only used this shampoo once, but it was that amazing!!!!! I STRONGLY recommend my loc wearers to dilute this before using. I would suggest  at least one part shampoo to three parts water. I got mine from Target for about $10 and I think you can get it at Walgreens, Walmart  and I'm sure there are plenty of online retailers selling it just use good 'ole google. Have a great day Lovelies!

P.S. It does have a scent to it of coconuts that is yummy and light, there are no synthetic fragrances or colors though.

Using Neem oil

I finally had a full day to myself so chose to do a serious rinse and re tighten my locs. I was due for a clarifying rinse and chose to go the baking soda route again. Ladies and Gents I cannot stress how important it is to do a clarifying rinse once a month on your locs. I have a preference for baking soda but ACV is excellent too. The gunk that came out of my locs amazes me! And my locs always feel amazing and light and soft and my scalp amazing. I followed the shampoo by simply rubbing an oil mixture through my locs and that seemed to do the trick. It's been two days since I washed my hair and my locs still feel really nice and soft. I was hoping that I would be washing my hair with my own shampoo creation but after the disaster of last week, I used my African Black Soap. I've been playing around with different oils and mixtures and this latest one is awesome!!! The recipe follows:

1. Fill an 8oz. plastic bottle with chunks of African black soap to the top (I suggest getting applicator bottles from Sally's or any other hair supply store. The bottles are great and have measurements on the side which come in very handy.)

2. Pour in some Aloe Vera juice, since I am using those applicator bottles, I usually fill it up to the 2oz. then pour in distilled water to the top.

3. Add about 1/4 tsp. of Neem oil. Be careful Neem oil is extremely pungent!!!! A little goes a long way and if you use too much the smell could put you off from using the shampoo and the smell lingers. Follow by adding 5 drops each of your favorite essential oils, you will need this to cover up the smell of the Neem (My current favorites are Sage, Rosemary, Lavender and Lemon

4. Cover the bottle, shake well and leave overnight and you have a great moisturizing shampoo that gently cleanses your hair.

I followed this up by rubbing my hair with my oil mixture. I mixed into an 8oz. bottle about 3oz. Shea Nut oil, 3oz. of Almond oil, about a teaspoon of vegetable glycerin (I didn't measure), 1oz . of Castor oil, 1oz. of Jojoba oil a few drops of Vitamin E oil and your favorite essential oils.

I didn't use this as a hot oil but you could too and as I said my locs still feel really nice without a hot oil treatment. I'll save a hot oil for when I do the henna when my hair will need some extra strength conditioning.

Neem Oil is very popular in Ayurvedic medicine and cosmetics. It is said to help with dandruff, dry scalp, prevention of lice, encourage hair growth (by keeping your scalp healthy I would guess), help with hair loss, thinning hair, retard greying, leaves hair soft and strong. It also makes a great non toxic pesticide which is what I spray to great success on my plants. As I said earlier a little goes a looooooong way!!!!! I made this mistake the first attempt using it and gave myself a headache! I am not even mildly exaggerating. You can also mix it with other oils and use it as a hot oil treatment or just rub on your scalp, I think this will be my next move with it but for now I'll keep it in my shampoo. For those suffering from dandruff, dry scalp, thinning hair, psoriasis try it out. One caution though for women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant. I read somewhere that it might have abortive properties like juniper berries, wild ginger and myrrh. I ordered my Neem oil from Mountain Rose Herbs but you should be able to find it at any health food store or Ayurvedic store. I've added a great link that has a lot of information on Neem oil and its many uses. Enjoy Bellas!

Lye is Back in My Life!....It's Not What You Think!

My last post I promised some news well here it is (cue trumpets!!!) I am starting my own hair care line specifically for women with kinky, curly and wavy hair!!! As most of you already know I mix my own products, leave in-ins, hair gels and I've been happy with them and my friends have too, so much so that one friend said I should be selling this stuff and she would be my business partner and ....... was born! I can't release the name because we haven't trademarked it yet aaahhhh the legalities begin. Soooooo based on my recipes we've got our leave in/ spritz, gel and of course we needed a shampoo. This is where the lye comes in. For those who don't know, you need lye in order to make soap yes that same lye we have shunned for years but this time to help create a product that would nourish our hair not violate it. The results were nothing short of disastrous!!!!! All our fault too during a key process when you mix the lye with the fat (our fats are all vegetable oils like jojoba, coconut oil, borage oil etc.,) in a pot where the concoction should then cook over 2hours tightly covered! We brilliantly already had the burner on and the mixture bubbled over and a mini explosion occurred. I thank my guardian angel that protected us from some serious world of pain and disfigurement. This hasn't dampened our spirits like that old adage if you don't succeed at first try, try, try again and that is exactly what we are doing. We know where we've gone wrong and trust that is not happening again. But I have to say this process is fun (not the explosion bit) as I've never ventured in entrepreneurship before and I do love hair. So far I'm happy that we've been able to only use organic ingredients and the wonderful herbs, oils and butters, the mixing, the coming up with recipes and also the feedback that we're getting from our informal test bunnies and yes I did walk up to perfect strangers to ask them to try our things (can't trust my friends, they'd only tell me they love the stuff). So any folks out there willing to be test bunnies (just the States, sistah has got to budget) let me know. We're aiming to launch by June 2010, cross your fingers for us because we're falling a bit behind our schedule. I've left some fun photos of my business partner and I, the wonderful ingredients for our shampoo (borage oil, macadamia nut oil, kui kui nut oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil,camelina oil,coconut oil and olive oil and all organic too ladida!) and the sad, sad, sad state of events that followed. We called it a day ate some pizza, had some wine and enjoyed Dancing With the Stars Lol!

P.S. One oil that I am still love, love, loving!!!!!! is Shea Nut Oil. I used it as one of the oils when I was making the spritz leave in and I noticed the difference my locs are soooo soft and smooth. I would recommend it for a hot oil treatment if you want a change up from the olive oil, coconut oil or whatever oil you are using.

P.P.S. I know this is a long post but if anyone ever has any questions about the oils, herbs or butters I mention give me a shout and I will happily answer your questions.

Baking Soda Rinse and African Black Soap

I was all over nappturality.com today and reading the raves from various loc wearers on the benefits of a Baking soda Rinse. Since I was going to wash my hair today, I figured I'd give it a try and see what all the hype was about. I also wanted to try using the African Black Soap that I have as a shampoo, I currently use it as my body wash and lurrrve it, and I thought hey why not use this stuff on my hair. I'm not abandoning my castile soap but a girl needs a change every now and then. I decided to use the rinse as a pre-shampoo. I mixed 2 Tablespoons of baking soda with 2 cups of distilled water. I poured the whole mixture over my locs, massaged it into my scalp as well, threw a shower cap over my head and left it on for about 15min. I noticed the water that was in the bottom of my shower cap was a light brownish color ewwww!!!!! But that is the purpose of the rinse get all that buildup out. I hopped in the shower rinsed my hair for a bit and followed by shampooing my hair with my African Black Soap (which I get from www.agbangakarite.com). I gotta say I understand why people are raving. My scalp felt clean, I mean seriously MY SCALP FELT SUPA DUPA WOW CLEAN! My locs felt tighter and they didn't feel dry at all, which I have experienced with the ACV rinse, in fact my locs felt nice and soft! I did rub some shea nut oil (from Mountain Rose Herbs), I repeat Shea Nut Oil NOT Shea Butter. This is a new oil I'm trying because I miss using Shea butter and had no idea you could get just the oil! So I'm letting the locs air dry while I write this and I keep touching my locs and loving the way they feel! If you haven't tried Baking Soda and are curious, I say give it a go! I'm lovin' it! For now I'm going to keep using the African Black Soap as a shampoo my hair seems to like it and it's nice to have another natural option besides castile. I'll keep you posted on what I think of the Shea nut oil, so far so good. I posted pics of what the baking soda solution looks like (the white liquid), my hair after the wash and the African Black soap. The soap comes as a solid but as soon as you add water to it, it liquefies. I cut it up put chunks almost to the top of the plastic container and fill it with purified water, shake and leave it for one day and the next day it's all mixed and ready to use. Enjoy bellas!

p.s.The bottle for the soap is half full because I've been using it as my bodywash, I didn't use half the bottle to wash my hair Lol!

Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap

I recently read about Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap helping to fund terrorists and they should be a product that should be avoided. Well I was disappointed to hear this and while I bounce around from using my Trader Joe's Castile soap (it's cheaper) I like to switch up because Dr. Bronner's has more options. Anyways my verdict, I think Dr. Bronner's products are safe to buy and you can do so with a clean conscience. Check out this article on Dr. Bronner's at www.straightdope.com just type in Dr. Bronner's in the search and the article about all that is Dr. Bronner will come up. The main source for what I believe to be the misinformation of the Dr. Bronner brand is Debbie Schlussel you can get a quickie bio of her on wikipedia. She also has a blog, which is very political and after reading some of her stuff have decided she's not exactly my cup of tea, but please feel free to check out her blog and yes I am purposely not putting her link here, I will let google guide you to her. So if you're loving your Dr. Bronner's but understandably don't want to inadvertently fund terrorism, I don't think you have to worry about that, go on and enjoy your Dr.B!