Growing Mane

Hello Loves!

Thank you for reading my blog! I have been missing in action for quite some time due to different changes that have been happening in my life. I graduated university and started working at an accounting firm and I have to say that my free time has been very limited. However, I think that I am over due for a blog post because there have been so many changes!

My biggest hair change is that I decided to go natural! At the time I started this blog, I knew I wanted to stretch my relaxers and use less heat, but I did not know that I actually wanted to go natural. At that time, going natural seemed very scary. I had my first relaxer when I was 11 years old and my last relaxer at 21 years old. So going natural was very new and I had a lot to learn. I will get into the details in another post but I'll just show you some updates to my hair below.

Let me know what you think!

Bun

Tried Henna

Hi Ladies!

So as I stated in my last post, I am 9 months post relaxer and I have bad split ends. I decided that I wanted to go back to reduced heat but still be able to have my hair look presentable. I decided to rod my hair and see how it would turn out.

At first I was not pleased with the results because the rods I used were really small so my curls turned out really tight. Not the look I was going for. I decided to stretch m hair in a head band and that really helped to make my hair look more like how I wanted it to. Then, I decided to separate the curls a lot and I was able to achieve this look. That I call my faux puff.

The puff is very cute and can be worn for many occasions. It's also very low maintenance. I simply tie my hair at night and then my hair is ready to go the next day.

Here are some pictures of the finished results

Hey Ladies!


I know it has been a very long time since I have made a post. Things have been really busy this summer but now that I have a little free time I decided to make this post!

I am currently 9 months post relaxer and I am considering going natural. My graduation was last month and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my hair. I wasn't sure if I wanted to braid my hair, wear my wig or just do something with my own hair. I decided that I wanted to try flat ironing my natural roots since it had been 9 months since I last flat ironed my hair. This was a very risky decision because I had no idea how it would turn out. Sometimes when flat ironed, natural hair looks a bit poofy if the right tools or products are not used.

I decided that I would try to make the best of what I had so I flat ironed my hair and pinned it up.

The Good:

My hair got straight and I was able to pin it up and my hair became more manageable.

The Bad (perhaps even terrible):

I noticed I have a lot of split ends all the way up my hair shaft. Im not sure if they were there before I flat ironed my hair. But I definitely noticed them after I flat ironed my hair. So I'm basically back to square one of my healthy hair journey. Seeing all the split ends was definitely heartbreaking.

Final Thoughts

Here are some pictures:

Thank you for reading my post!

Do you have any suggestions for flat ironing natural hair?

- Sarah

Hello Ladies!

So a few weeks ago I did kinky twists for the first time. I really like them and I'm gonna compare kinky twists to box braids in this post. Keep in mind that I braid my hair myself so some of my pros and cons are more beneficial for someone who braids their own hair.

Kinky Twists

Pros
Cons

Box Braids

Overall

Do you prefer box braids or kinky twists?

Hi Ladies,

If you read my post about Shine 'n Jam you would have seen that I wasn't wearing my usual box braids. I went home to Toronto (I go away for school) a couple weeks ago and I decided that I wanted to try kinky twists. I really love how kinky twists look and I just wanted to change it up a little bit. I think it turned out well and I really love it!

I like braiding my hair because braids are a great, low maintenance protective style. This is 4th time I braided my own hair and I definitely see an improvement. The saying "practice makes perfect" is definitely true, although mine is far from perfect you get the idea. This style didn't take very long to install at all. You can compare this to the first time I braided my hair myself here.

Have you ever worn kinky twists? Did you like it?

Hi Ladies!

I have been wearing my hair in braids for the past 5 weeks and my edges are really starting to grow out. Also, when I braid my hair, I try not to do the front very tight so sometimes I end up leaving some of my edges out.

I've tried doing the whole headband/scarf thing but sometimes it just doesn't look right and I don't have the perfect plain black scarf that would go with every outfit I choose to wear.

Here is a picture of what my edges look like at 5 weeks in braids, usually right after I wash my hair. Yea I know I have to take my braids out soon lol.

Do you have any tricks for extending how long you wear your braids for?

Hello Ladies!

I know I am a bit late but I hope you have a great new year! I especially hope that this will be a great year for your hair!

About 3 weeks ago I did my own box braids for the first time and really loved it! You can read that post here. I decided to take out my braids because I did it big and it was starting to look untidy. Once I was done taking out my braids, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. To me, my hair looked like blow dried natural hair. It definitely had me thinking about going natural. It felt like natural hair and was very full like natural hair. It didn't feel or look like the traditional braid-out at all.

I was also happy that my hair still appeared to be even since my trim in October. That means that my hair hasn't really been breaking and I may be retaining length. When I took my braids out I had a lot of shed hair but my hair was relatively moisturized. When I took each braid out, I applied some shea butter and combed through each section to get out all the shed hair.

Here are some of the pictures I took after I took my braids out. Sorry about my messy mirror!

Merry Christmas! This year my Christmas gift to myself was being able to braid my own hair. I was definitely one of those people who thought people who braided their own hair were crazy, until I tried it for myself. Although I did my braids big, it took a lot of time and patience. It took me three days to do it all. I took lots of breaks of course. Realistically, I could have finished it in one day but I wasn't in any rush. I'm on vacation visiting my grandma and I couldn't get the brand of braiding hair I like and usually use, so I had to buy a different brand which was X-Pression. This brand is very smooth and doesn't hold each plait together at the ends so I had to knot it before I placed the hair in hot water. I usually use the Outre 100% kanekalon hair which is a bit rough, shown below.

Hello Ladies!

With the official start of winter fast approaching, protective styles are must. They ensure that your hair doesn't dry out due to change in climate. They also ensure that you don't get unnecessary breakage, like getting your hair caught in your favourite cotton scarf.

Conveniently, I have recently regained my love for buns. Before last week, I hadn't worn a bun for maybe 7 years (yeah, I know an extremely long time). I think my problem was that, to me, my hair was always too thin to put in a bun. There would always be those awkward spaces and sometimes I couldn't get my hair smooth enough for my liking. But I decided to try bunning my hair again and I love it!

These days I do messy buns. I wash my hair and when it is around 70% percent air dried, I put my hair up in a bun, allowing the ends of my hair to be textured. For me, this eliminates those awkward spaces. I also love to accessorize with headbands. I need to be more careful with my headband choices because the cotton ones that I love always break my hair. Because of this, I often try to wear my satin scarf as a headband (I don't think the material is actually satin, but I'm not sure what it is. A picture of it is below). These types of scarfs look cute, conceal new growth, keep my edges laid, and don't break my hair!

Here are some pictures and in these pictures I am about 2 months post relaxer:

Do you live the bun life? What other protective styles do you use?

Thanks for reading!

- Sarah

Hello Everyone!

This will be a short post on a protective style that I did last week. I decided that I didn't want to use any heat and I didn't want to do a twist out. I experimented with my hair for a bit and finally decided on a style that can be a protective style. A protective style basically hides the ends of your hair or "protects" them from drying out or breaking. Protective styles are perfect for the winter since the temperatures make our hair dry very easily. I did a cane row (braid) down the middle of my head and used a hair tie at the end to keep it from unraveling. To make this a true protective style, you can fold the ends of your hair into the hair tie. I found that this style was very easy to do and lasts effortlessly throughout the day. To add a little something to the look, I decided to wear a head band. Give it a try!

How it looks when taken out of packaging

Inside

Adjustable string

Part that attaches to your blow dryer

Attachment on my blow dryer

Length of the hooded dryer tube (It's about a meter long)

Me with rollers in before I went under the dryer

Hooded dryer attachment on my head (before turning my blow dryer on)

Hooded dryer attachment on my head, after I turned my blow dryer on. It's much bigger that it seems

Pros

• The price 
• A lot of the hot air was not escaping. With traditional dryers, there is a big opening and I find that a lot of the hot air gets wasted
• I can easily carry this with me when travelling
• It is easy to store and does not take up much space

Cons

If you have purchased this before, please let me know your experience with it! 

Hi Everyone!

After washing my hair, I sometimes like it to be straight. When I go to the hair dresser she would usually flat iron it or put some setters (rollers) in my hair and then stick me under the dryer.

Last year, I went on a no heat challenge but at that time I was wearing my hair curly so I didn't really need the heat. Now that I'm wearing my hair straight, I have been exploring different options to straightening my hair with no heat or with minimal heat.

I decided to simply wash my hair put some rollers in and air dry it. I'll show you what I did through pictures. If you have any questions please leave a comment!

Step 1:

Wash and condition my hair with the Cantu Shea Butter Shampoo and Cantu Shea Butter Rinse Out Conditioner. When I'm done washing my hair, I add the following things to it:

• Cantu Shea Butter Leave in Repair Cream
• ORS Incredibly Rich Olive Moisturizing Hair Lotion
• Coconut Oil 

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Do you have any special techniques for getting your hair straight without heat?

Thanks for reading!

- Sarah