First Video Blog (Vlog) Ever

Hey!

I recorded this on Tuesday night and it took some time to upload it because the internet sucks at my school. That's not the only reason its just going up. I'm so freaked out about doing this post lol. I hate being on camera (and I'm a journalism major, go figure!). So that means that I watched this video about ten times before actually posting it.

I hope you guys like it, lets not be too harsh :)

Feedback would be nice too. If you think I should do more like this then let me know. If yes, then I will do some posts as videos but I'll still rely heavily on written posts. If not, please tell me to quit while I'm ahead hahaha.

Thanks guys for your continued support


Aly

Quick Post: Hot Oil Treatment- Fail

My University had its Fall Convocation on Thursday, Nov. 15 (*proud annual Dean's list maker right here* lol) and I did a hot coconut oil treatment on my hair last Wednesday night in the hopes of waking up to wash it and having a "cute day" for Thursday. 

That did not work out :/

The hot water decided to be absent that morning leaving me with the option of washing my necessaries (TMI?) and squeezing the excess coconut oil from my hair into a towel. I went to the convocation and accepted my award with my hair in a bun. 

Guess who felt like a grease ball.

The up-side, I guess, would be that I had the coconut oil on my hair for a super long time. 

After the event, I ended up just doing a shampoo wash with the Shea Moisture shampoo and conditioned my hair with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner. I then left it to airdry.

Thanks for reading,

Aly

Update & why I've been gone.

Hey guys,

Its been since May that I last did a blog post. I have missed it, but I had to take the time-out to focus on other goals in my life, which I'll explain at the end of this post. But first, here is an update on my hair.

I have been doing my regular deep conditions, oil treatments and general hair care stuff. I just wasn't going hardcore on my hair like before, with growth aids and all that. I now use Herbal Essennce's Hello Hydration for my shampooing and co-washing needs, but I have experimented with the Shea Moisture line (which I like). I also still use the ORS Replenishing conditioner for my deep conditions, and the ORS moisturizer when I wear my hair straight. That doesn't happen very often, so I use a mixture of water, apple cider vinegar and any natural oil and then seal it with a oil at night. I airdry every time, so braid-outs and bantu knot-outs are my friends.

I have been on a holistic healthy life style lately so I mostly use natural products on my hair and skin. So I don't use the Hot Six Oil anymore, not because its not good but because I use coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, shea butter etc. instead. I've been getting a lot of questions about that oil.

Also, sadly, I still don't know how to lessen my split ends. lol So this winter I'm going in on protective styling.

Okay here are the pics of my hair:

I thought a red rinse would show in the sunlight (waste of $$$)

This was before my relaxer (relaxer day-Oct 20th)

braid out

Old braidout bun

protective style (no sock/bun filler)

After my relaxer (first one done completely by myself)

Loved my hair this day!

this was last  Monday, back to no heat styles

Absence Explanation

You don't have to care about this, since its not hair related but I wanted to share this with you guys.

Okay, so as I said I'm trying to be all holistic. So I put more focus on my body. The goal was to lose weight for summer, but that proved to be much harder than expected. For a minute I thought I had hypothyroidism because the weight just wasn't going anywhere. Long story short, I upped the ante by not eating meat anymore (its been a month), increasing exercise and lifting weights, and being positive overall. Its still not really a difference to me as far as reducing my size is concerned but according to the scale I lost 18lbs since about September-ish (if I count from me being super serious). I actually attempted to lose the excess all of July straight till now. But as I said, I think I got extremely serious after mid/late September, after not seing the progress I wanted.

I have 27 more lbs to lose, give or take. I'm not so much concerned about the numbers as I am about how I look. 

So here are my before and 'during' pictures:

Before:  About May/June when I just got back to Jamaica for summer vacation.

During: I think this is the end of September (girl in picture: my trini friend/roomie)

 

(peep my hair length by her boob woop!)

[girl in picture: St. Kitts homie lol]

Thanks for not unsubscribing guys! Even if it just meant that you didn't notice that I wasn't posting lol I'm glad you're still here.

Aly

My Scalp

Hello!

I recently visited my dermatologist about my skin issues. She is very expensive but she's good at her job. she said that I have eczema and it actually is on my scalp as well. Having eczema was not really a surprise because it was present on my body for as long as I knew myself. What I didn't know was that it was also in the scalp.

So the itching I had been experiencing all along was not just from your regular old dry scalp problems. I had been using certain oils that have been working for other hair bloggers (Jeni has some good scalp blogs here), but for me, those remedies were only covering up the underlying issue.

She went ahead and prescribed Ketaconozale tablets which is a drug used to treat various kinds of fungal infections including dandruff, and Triamcinolone, which is a cream that I apply to my face and scalp. She also mentioned that the cream aided hair growth so yaay for that bit of hope :). I'm can't be sure if its working yet, its only been six days since I started the treatment, so no feedback yet.  

As far as my hair goes, I am just twitching like the creamy crack addict that I am. I really want to relax my hair. It has only been 8 weeks, but because I started using my castor oil/cayenne pepper mixture in my second week post relaxer, my new growth just started appearing rapidly by the third week and my new growth never appears till like the 4th/5th week. That's good news for me but its a pain to detangle and my roots have been so dry since I've been in the hot Jamaican weather.  

I guess we'll see how long I go for.

Thanks for reading and for your continued support. I'll definitely give an update about my scalp again.

Aly

Instyler: Almost Like

Hello! This is my first time blogging from my phone. I actually like its convenience.

So I had brought the Instyler rotating iron for my mom because she has been going crazy for this gadget for as long as it's been out.

She, of course, loves it, especially since it's purple. I had always been skeptical of it because I thought it would be harmful to have a brush going though the hair multiple times alongside multiple spins of the hot barrel of the instrument.

They say it's less damaging to the hair than a regular flat iron. I don't know how to verify that.

So I tried it and it worked well on my frizzy airdried hair. I ended up just pin curling my hair but then I just put my hair in a bun because I didn't like how poofy my hair was. All the new growth seemed to come out to play.

I think it does it's job somewhat and I like how smooth my hair was after using the iron.

I, however, have an issue with this product and that is how long one has to keep the iron on the hair. It's almost like your doing 20 passes in one complete pass, if you know what I mean. Another thing is that the roots are difficult to get to and the process if very time consuming.

With a flat iron you can spend less time doing your hair and getting the roots isn't a task.

I'm not sure if I will over time completely like it.

Do you have any thoughts on the Instyler rotating iron? If yes please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading,

Aly

Two Awards!

Hello!

 I received two awards, one recently and the other since February. I had so much on my plate then so I saved it till I was free, which is now.


These awards are from blutifulblaqhair.blogspot.com and wishfullengths.blogspot.com, thank you ladies for thinking of my blog for these awards! :)

Both awards have basically the same rules so I'll just do it combined so that you don't have to read 14 things about me lol.

Here we go:

7 Random things about me

1. I am not sure what I want to do with my life. surprise surprise! lol I am 22 and a senior in college (fall 2012) and I am not sure what direction to take. I think I'm pretty good at what I do (Mass Com/Journalism) but I have no set career. which leads to number 2.

2.I'm a hippie at heart! I don't want to be tied down to one dream or career, so I have many leads on where I want to be but no definite path. I change my "style" regularly, I don't know yet what country I want to live in and I think you get the point.

3. I am in love with my boyfriend of 4 years (well July makes 4 yrs). Relationship life is usually left behind when I enter hair land but I plan to be his misses soon, so y'all can know that lol.

4. I am a bit of an overachiever which sometimes clashes with my hippie heart. I want to be the best and that means that a B on my transcript makes me cry.

5. I am a soca junkie! Soca/calypso is music from the other islands (Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, St. Kitts & Nevis, etc.) but Jamaicans aren't really avid soca fans. I believe that Kes' song "Coming Over" (the second verse is definitely speaking about me haha) I used to only like dancehall and reggae (Jamaican music) but I listen to soca now just as much.

7. I love peppery food. I didn't like it when I was younger, but now I put pepper on everything it can be put on.

6. I think I have hair-orexia lol thats my word for the inability to see my hair for how long it really is. In my mind my hair is short and thin.

Thanks for reading, and I tag everyone who is reading this and haven't done the tag yet!

Aly.

School Is Out..Hair is In baby!!

So as you probably guessed from the title, I am officially on summer break!! yaayy!!

This means I'm in Jamaica!!

I wanted to stock up on hair products before I left NY but I couldn't because of the weight restrictions.

I still wanted to tell you about the products I've been loving lately.

I am in love with Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Intensely Smooth Leave-In Conditioning Cream, Fantasia Hair Polisher Daily Hair Treatment and my new Annie comb.

Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Intensely Smooth Leave-In Conditioning Cream

I used this when I was in New York (it was still cold) and I have been putting it to use while in Jamaica (its extremely hot). I am completely nuts for this leave-in. I even use it as a moisturizer and its great. I have frizzy hair when I air dry, but this seems to solve the problems, and it smells great!












Fantasia Hair Polisher Daily Hair Treatment

I don't even know if I should be using this serum to seal my hair after moisturizing, but I do. It contributes to the smoothness immensely and the comb glides through smoothly. Plus it has a nice scent and it leaves your hair shiny.




















Annie Jumbo Comb

This comb is so bomb, I don't know why I was still using my other wid-toothed comb. Little to no hair comes out. This may also be attributed to my slowed down shedding and breakage since the ending of the semester. Maybe I was just stressed but I love the comb.










Do you guys like these products?

Thank you for sticking out the semester with me :)

Aly

Giving my hair some Lovin'

So I finally got serious with my hair after weeks of saying I'm gonna get back on the "hair growth and retention" road.

Last week I did an egg and olive oil overnight treatment. I put lime juice on my scalp to ease the dry and itchy scalp issues I've been having. I kept this on my hair for the night and half of the next day.

I didn't do a  moisturizing deep condition because I was lazy, so I thought my hair would be hard. It definitely wasn't, I know my hair loves protein so no real surprise there that I didn't need the moisture treatment.

So I just added my leave-in and left it to air dry.

I then clipped like a half inch off my hair, it took loads of courage to do this but my splits were crazy. They had to go.

So now I'm split end free and my hair is strong. yaay!!


This week I decided to go back to my crazy growth aids. I went back to the cayenne pepper & castor oil mix.

 I massaged that onto my scalp and then sprayed water on the hair itself and coated it with olive oil. I put a plastic cap and a winter beanie on my head and am now going to sleep. 

Thank God for Good Friday, its a well deserved rest and meditation day.

So, after resting, I'll co-wash and then deep condition my hair. I really want to do a flexi-rod set but I'm afraid it won't come out right.

Well we'll see how it goes.

Thanks so much for reading,

Aly

Relaxer Update

I did something I haven't done in over a year now. I relaxed at just 8 weeks! :0

I just had to, it was my birthday and my hair was shedding all over the place. I went to the dominicans in New York to get it done last weekend. As usual I was upset at them for being rough but very pleased with the result. Just my typical love/hate feelings towards the dominicans.

Anyway, I used ORS Olive Oil Relaxer and had it deep conditioned. I, after the relaxer, inspected my ends and realized that I have major splits....again!

I feel like my hair is spiraling out of control. I'm gonna have to push the restart button on this, maybe go over my old posts, when I had the fragile hair troubles.

I'm going to get a real trim soon (it's really a cut but that thought scares me).

So here is my hair on Tuesday afternoon --->

Its still long but it doesn't feel great. Again I may have to attribute the shedding to the stress I have to face right now, I think I just need to relax.

I'll let you know how everything goes though.


Thank you for reading :)

Aly

Hello!

I think I need some hair help. I'm not sure if its mind over matter or if its really happening, but I think my hair is excessively breaking and shedding. I have experienced one or the other but never both at once.

I have tried to fix the problem but I just can't find the correct balance. I've tried baggying, protein treatments, deep conditioning, and clarifying (just once). Its just not working.

I even did a strand test and the area on the strand that I tested didn't fail the test, but the end of the strand broke off really quickly.

I also found a few splits. So I did some dusting to get rid of them, but I'm afraid they'll come back.

I have changed some of the products I've been using because I've been testing out new products to do reviews. Maybe that is the issue, I should probably go back to my original staples. That just takes money and that's not something I have much of at the moment. I can't even identify the problem product.

Well its almost my birthday, so maybe I can squeeze some birthday money out of my people lol.

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Thanks for reading


Aly :)

Review: BSY Noni Black Hair Magic

Hey Ladies! Today is my blogger-versary!!! I didn't even realize it till I was at the end of writing this post. So I thought I would put it at the beginning. So its been a year since I first started my hair journey.  

Now for the review

 This can be found on Amazon for about $9 


These are the claims the producers have made:

Noni Black Hair Magic is formulated with herbal essense such as

• Noni
• Lingzhi mushroom
• Polygonum multiflorum
• Wild Ginseng

It has 6 advantages over normal grey hair treatment

1. No harmful chemicals
2. Easy application
3. Long lasting color
4. Saves time
5. Affordable Price
6. DIY- Anytime, anywhere, fast results

Other than blackening your grey hair, BSY Noni Black Hair Magic treatment has 6 other functions

1. Prevents Hair Loss. Double up as hair conditioner
2. Encourages healthy hair growth
3. Provides essential nutrients to hair roots
4. Eliminates dandruff
5. Treats scalp problems
6. Alleviates migraine headaches
7. SY Noni Enzyme has 4 miracle functions
   1. Powerful immune booster
   2. Repairing damaged cell
   3. Identifies abnormal cells. Medically proven in retarding proliferation of abnormal cells
   4. Eliminates toxins, restoring body’s ability to maintain itself in an alkaline state

My thoughts

Some weeks ago I used the BSY Noni Black Hair Magic dye the same day I did my relaxer. I am now four weeks post and my hair is still very black. I really love this product. Its really easy to use, you just work it in your hair just as how you would use a regular conditioner.

I had some reservations when I first saw the packet because it was all in some other chinese-y looking language that I didn't understand. Only the directions and the name were in English. Someone was also saying to me that I shouldn't trust it especially since I had just done the relaxer. After a little on the spot research, I was convinced that it was ok to use it. 

I thought the packet was small, but I really didn't need anymore. One packet was enough for my hair. Maybe if your hair is waist length you may need two, but my hair is  APL in "length check" stance and one was good enough.

It has a plant-like smell that you will experience for a week or so, but it isn't really bothersome. 

I thought that I wouldn't last long in my hair because sometimes I prefer to sleep with my deep conditioner in my hair overnight, instead of sitting under the dryer. When I did keep the conditioner on my hair, there was some color drain in the plastic cap. It didn't completely affect the color, however.

Overall I love this dye and will definitely be using it again. I mean, its dye thats good for your hair, what's better than that?

I hope this helps and Thanks for reading,

Aly

kinda long post, but if you miss me, even a little, you'll read :) <3

Hey ladies,

Its been what feels like forever since I last did a blog post. I apologize for my absence, but I've been  having the roughest few weeks.

First my comments are not on my blog anymore, so I now have to start over with the comment building. If  you are a blogger of any sort, you know comments are important for building the blog. So I decided to just continue the blog instead of remaining frustrated with the comment situation.

The second thing is that my college life became hectic in just a week after school resumed from winter break. I have an internship, a tutoring job, an editor position at the school newspaper and my regular scheduled classes. A lot, right? Also I have to maintain another blog for my online journalism class because my professor doesn't see this hair blog as "important". I'm joking, the hair blog just isn't "news-y", which is understandable. If you want to check it out, it's yaadspot.wordpress.com

I feel like I'm stressing y'all out with my issues lol, but this is the last one, I promise.

 I have been on an endless search for money to pay for school so if any of you, my lovely hair colleagues,  know about any scholarships for a mass communications, international student, who has a 3.67 GPA, just hit me up here . Thanks :)

--------------------

Next, I was given a blog award by blutifulblaqhair.blogspot.com and even though I'm not sure when I'll be able to do the post, I still wanted to say thank you publicly. THANKS GIRL!! :)

Ok now to the hair


I have been doing the same things to my hair. My routine hasn't changed, I deep condition every week, I only use shampoo when my hair feels dirty, or when I used products with ingredients I don't approve of. I moisturize and seal my hair every night. There was one period where I used heat two or three times, but nothing detrimental happened.

I still have to do the review on the natural hair dye that I used and my hair dryer. I also had the chance to use one of the Wen leave-in conditioners, and I want to do a review on that too.

Thanks for sticking with the blog even though I've been absent. It really does mean a lot that 32 people want to read what I have to say.

How is this fixed??

Hey can anybody help me?

All my comments disappeared from my blog but they are in the comments section of the settings section.

Does anybody know how to fix that?

Relaxer Pt 3: Results

Huge delay in my results post but today was just a lazy day. You know the "ugh! School in the morning"feeling? That was me all day.

So when I  took out my rollers,  a choir did the best harmonizing rendition of the "haaaaaaaa" awe moment...in my head lol. I was genuinely pleased with my hair :D

see the black? 

reminded me of the Jeni curl lol

Thanks for reading!

Aly

Relaxer Pt 2 and The Dye Job

I am now under the dryer and I just wanted to do an update on what I've done so far.

:)

After the application of the relaxer, I rinsed it thoroughly then did a 2 minute protein treatment with the LeKair Cholesterol Plus. This product has mineral oil but it really doesn't bother me because I shampoo right after. I used the shampoo that came with the ORS olive oil relaxer kit and rinsed, then lathered again and left it on for two minutes. 

After rinsing I used my VO5 moisture milks conditioner because the kit only came with the Replenishing Pak deep conditioner and I really like using a regular conditioner before deep conditioning. After that I used the Replenishing Pak and sat under the dryer for 15 minutes, then rinsed.

THE DYE

Ok no warnings necessary, I only dyed my hair black. Also this dye is strictly organic, its made from the Noni plant. That aided in convincing me because I used to drink teaspoons of Noni every morning when I was younger. 

The dye is called BSY Noni Black Hair Magic. This can be found on Amazon for about $9 . 

Its so simple to use, just put it in your hands and lather it up in your hair. Leave it for about 10 minutes, rinse and voila--> Black Hair!

After that I applied Aphogee Green Tea & Keratin spray and roller set my hair.

When It's dry I'll come back with my update and maybe a length check.

Aly

Relaxer pt 1

After ten weeks of stretching my relaxer, I've decided to go ahead and relax. It is relatively early in comparison to how long I usually stretch. Lets just say I'm a little fed up of dealing with my new growth and I think its breaking.

I know almost every time I post, I have some sort of imaginary hair problem. I always think its breaking too much, shedding too much or too rough. I guess I'm just overly concerned, but I just think its breaking again, especially since I have so much new growth.

Well this time I'll be using the ORS Olive Oil Relaxer. Inside the box, there is the activator, the relaxer base (no-lye), Creamy Aloe shampoo, the Replenishing Pak, the Wrap/Set Mousse and the Oil Moisturizing Hair lotion.

I will do another post later. :-)

Hydrate Your Hair Challenge!!

Hey!

I started my 'healthy Aly' activities this week which includes exercise and healthy eating. Since I'm doing this I really want to make sure this benefits my hair as much as possible.

So my challenge to myself  and to you is to drink 8oz-16oz of (room temperature) water before eating anything in the morning.

Yes everybody knows that you should get your 8 glasses a day, but what you should also know is that drinking water as soon as you get up in the morning makes a major difference in your body.

• it helps to rehydrate your body after hours of sleeping
• it flushes toxins out of your body
• Water helps the vitamins you take for hair growth, to do their job
• it really aids in weight loss
• its a quick way to knock out 1-2 glasses of water for the day :)

Water will really hydrate your hair, which means it will look moisturized and shiny.

Now this isn't some thing I'm expecting you to sign up for, but I would like you to personally challenge yourself for at least the rest of this week.

However it would be nice if you comment and let me know if you're considering it. If you feel a difference in your body and hair then let me know too.

I hope this helps you. 

Thanks for reading!

Aly

Hello!

So guess what came in the mail today!!

My Conair ProStyle 1875 Hair Dryer! *Throws Confetti*

Sorry about not rotating the picture, iPhoto was not cooperating with me tonight.

I'm so happy its here, now my roller sets won't be so bad anymore.

Maybe that will also aid in repairing my hair issues described in my last post.

Thanks for reading, 

Aly

I give up on henna!!

Its been a few weeks since my henna experiment and I don't think henna is for me. I mean my roots (new growth) are particularly strong but my relaxed hair is ridiculously weak. I now have to be handling my hair with the extreme care I had to use when I just started my journey. I'm not sure why because I've been swamping my hair with baggying, moisture treatments and deep conditioning. My hair just feels weak.

I'm not even sure about the issue it is having because its not dry (like it has a protein overload) and it isn't mushy (like its over-moisturized). I just don't get it.

I was thinking maybe its because I didn't do a claryfying shampoo wash, but I didn't do it because I didnt want to dry out my hair after using henna, which is said to be very drying.

So I've decided that I won't be using henna again. Its a wrap for that.

I guess I'll just have to baby my hair till it regains its strength.

Henna Time: Results

I'm sorry for the delay but I didn't feel much better after having the flu for days, and I'm back at school with the beginning of a hefty workload.

This is just  a quick post to give my final thoughts on the henna.
I followed my deep-con with the application of my Aphogee Green Tea leave-in and a roller set. Maybe it didn't help that my roller-set was air-dried, but I just wasn't feeling any better. In the morning I took the rollers out and pinned the curl in the shape it formed from the roller.

I don't think I noticed a lot of changes in my hair directly after the henna.

The next day I combed out my curls and did a half-assed bun for my flight. After one of the worst flights ever and a painful ear popping session, I was finally in New York.

When I tried to comb through my hair that night to prepare for my journey back to school, I noticed subtle hints of reddish/brown and my roots that seemed to declare a rebellion.

Though I didn't see a difference after the henna on my strands, my roots feel like champions lol.

Since getting back to school I've been baggying/green house-ing my hair, not for any "henna hardening" reasons but just because in my mind that helps my hair grow and keeps my ends well moisturized.


I'm not sure how I'm going to stretch my relaxer really long this time, but I'm gonna try!

Thanks for reading!!

Aly

Henna Time Pt.2

So I've been sick for a couple of days now, so I literally forced myself for apply the henna. I was a little concerned about the color of the henna when I finished mixing. It wasn't green like what I saw other henna users using. Every other site was saying "beware of black henna". My mix wasn't black, it was more dark brown. I did a google search and found a picture of a mix that resembled mine. Also the supplier's site that I purchased it from said it was body art quality, so I figured it was safe, hoped for the best and applied it.


1st half:                                                                                                     whole head done (kinda dark):

 

I figured it would have been better if I allowed it to touch my skin rather than my shirt because I really have no shirts with me here that I can mess up. Plus the henna would just wash off.

 One dilemma was that I only had one glove to use so my other hand stayed in the paste more than I wanted it to.

just showing how messy it is

I still have the reddish stain on my palm (sorry about the bad camera quality).

After that, I wrapped up my hair in plastic and went to bed. I mustered up enough strength to get up about 10 or so hours later. I'm not sure how that affects the henna or my hair but whats done is done.

After that I shampooed twice, I mostly just allowed the water to get rid of the henna instead of shampooing a lot. I applied a moisturizing conditioner and allowed it to stay while I watched The Real Housewives of Atlanta. After rinsing I applied my ORS Olive Oil Replenishing Conditioner and some coconut oil to deep condition my hair. I've had the ORS in my head for hours now because I don't have a dryer and I need it to penetrate my hair as much as possible and because I'm lazy! lol

Anywhoodle,


I'll be back with my results! :)

Thanks for reading,

Aly

Henna Time!

Happy 2012 Ladies!

Yea a little late but its my first post of the year. :D

If I were my hair I would be super mad with me. I have thoroughly abused my strands with heat. I know that my last post had something to do with me treating my hair better because of my flat iron frequency, but I fell back from that yesterday. Its just that there are so many events at holiday time!

So I had some henna that I bought from eBay a while ago and figured I would redeem myself.

I found a few videos on YouTube about how to mix the henna. They had the basics but some used different 'extras' like lime juice, apple cider vinegar or conditioner. So I just took the things I had in stock to make my own.

For my mix I used:

• henna (1 pack)
• water
• conditioner
• lime juice
• a tad bit of grapeseed and olive oil

after mixing to a yogurt-y texture, I put the bowl on a plastic bag and left it for 24hrs (and then some). Apparently that is to release the dye.

I'm not doing this henna treatment for color, but I just wanted to do what experts said was right. 

Here's a very helpful video from MopTopMaven on YouTube about benefits, mixing instructions and application.

I'll be back with the application and the results!

thanks for reading!

Aly