Product Review: Shea Moisture "JBCO Strengthen, Growth, & Restore Leave-in Conditioner"

Hello Lovelies!

One word: AMAZING. 

JAMAICAN BLACK CASTOR OIL STRENGTHEN, GROW & RESTORE LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER

Whats in it? The main ingredients are: Organic Shea Butter, Jamaican Black Castor Oil and Peppermint, but the rest of the ingredients are listed in the Shea Moisture website.

I love, love, this product. (find it HERE) I'm going to review it by how each of my senses (except hearing and taste LOL) reacted to it.

Touch/Feel:

• On hands: its thick, but not very thick.... like a yogurt, but not a pudding
• On hair: I have 4B (kinky, small spiraled, can't do co-wash) hair, and this product makes my hair feel SO SOFT, its AMAZING for finger detangling. It took out every tangle as soon as I smoothed it through my hair

Smell

• The blend of the peppermint and castor oil give it this light, almost desert like smell.... DEFINITELY aromatic (I love smelling hair products lol)

Look:

• It's a creme color and its very smooth looking... again, I would call it a hair yogurt

How I used It:

After I co-washed (washed my hair with just conditioner, no shampoo) I dipped my fingertips in the conditioner and ran it through small sections of my hair from tip to root. I did not need to comb it! (also amazing)

I thought I was going to need another product to supplement my leave-in conditioner, but I think this was all I used! I do like adding oil to my hair and scalp for a little extra moisture. Also, it made quite an awesome twist out after I let it set over night. 

I am SO excited to sample the rest of this Jamaican Black Castor Oil line. I will say that this is the best leave-in conditioner specifically for natural hair that I have used thus far. 

Have you been trying Shea Moisture's new products? What do you think about them?

Have you seen all the new natural hair Barbies they are making?

XOXO

Hair Yoga: Stretching & Twisting for Healthy Hair!

Hello Beauties!

My hair has been stressed and tense lately, and I needed to find a solution. I was fed up with the tangles, knots and uneven growth. When my body is tense, I can rely on yoga to loosen me up and make me less stressed. I thought that if yoga can do such good things for the body, why can't there be yoga for the hair? Then I realized - there definitely is such a thing as hair yoga! It's basically what most naturals in a blogosphere and on youtube have been talking about, but I thought a comparison to yoga works to remind me that I need to "destress" my hair.

Let me explain exactly what I mean. There are only two moves in hair yoga

1. Stretching: This basically means keeping you hair detangled as much as possible. This limits shrinkage and KNOTS. Knots have to by clipped, which limits growth retention!
2. Twisting: Putting your hair in two strand twists or braids as much as possible keeps your hair in a stretched state. Twists and braids also retain moisture (in my experience at least). If you leave your twists or braids in for a week or more, then you will lessen the amount of "handling" (brushing, combing, playing with) that your hair goes through, which then limits opportunities for breakage. 

This is all I mean by twists:

This "hair yoga" analogy is kinda corny, but helps me remember that I don't want my hair to be all tense and tangled. Also, I think it pretty much explains why everyone is so hype over protective styling. Protective styling really does help. Now that I have 5+ inches of hair on my head, I really gotten to know my hair type. Its EXTREMELY curly, and the curls are small, which means endless knots. To be honest, I think this 5-6 inch average height is awkward. I'm struggling with coming up with cute styles, and sometimes I just don't have time. Furthermore, I'm getting tired of knots, so over the passed couple weeks I've rarely been seen out and about in just a wash-and-go afro. I keep my hair in twists. I don't LOVE the twists aesthetically, but I've found ways to make them work for me:

• Tiny Twists: smaller twists tend to "adopt" to my curl pattern, while larger twists just hang.

Larger twists 

I didn't really like how these twists came out, they remind me of spider legs lol

Smaller twists

These took longer (way longer) to do, but I like them better

• Curling my twists: Using Eco Styler Gel and perm rods I simply curl and set my twists. Here's how it looks:

At the end of the week, usually a day or two before I shampoo my hair, I'll probably untwist and wear a twist-out. This works well because the twist-out lasts through Friday and Saturday - the days I might want to go out, socialize etc. 

I really hope this "hair yoga" plan works to retain my growth. I plan to take it on as a hair-lifestyle, instead than just a thing I'll do until I have x amount of new growth. Although... I actually would like to have about 5 new inches of growth by this time in December. *crosses fingers*

While I've been protective styling for a while, this particular blog post was inspired by Kimmaytube's video: "AFRO - Why I won't wear my hair in one!" WATCH it - its very informative.

Be beautiful :)

xoxo

Estelle. so unique and fly!