Introduction to hair typing.

• Type 1: Straight hair.
• Straight hair reflects the most sheen. It is also the most resilient hair of all of the hair types. It is hard to damage and next to impossible to curl this hair texture. Because the sebum (natural oil produced in the sebaceous glands of the scalp) gently works its way from the scalp to the ends without the interference of curls or kinks, it is the most oily hair texture of all.

• Type 2: Wavy hair.

• Wavy hair lies somewhere between straight and curly hair. It also imparts sheen, more than curly hair, but less than straight hair. The further down the wavy spectrum you go the less sheen the hair will impart. Wavy hair is typically more prone to frizz. While type A wavies can easily alternate between straight and curly styles, type B and C Wavy hair is resistant to styling. 

• Type 3: Curly.

•  If you pull a strand of a type 3 curly, you will notice it has a definite S shape. Granted, the S may be a lower case s or upper case S, or it may even resemble a Z on some occasions...however, there is a definite curl pattern in place, with our without products. This hair type is full bodied, climate dependent (humidity = frizz), and damage prone. Lack of proper care renders dull curls. 

• Type 4: Kinky.

• Despite many misconceptions, this tightly coiled hair is quite fine and fragile. It is wiry, and delicate by nature. Each strand usually has a zig zag pattern. Kinky hair is the driest hair type, thus it is more prone to breakage and requires a gentle touch. A misconception exists that this hair type does not grow. Kinky hair grows at the same rate as other texture, however, if not treated properly it breaks more than other textures. Treat this hair type like a fine silk blouse – cleanse gently, detangle softly, and avoid harsh chemicals. 

red head shawty.

I dyed my hair red!

Red and black to be exact. I absolutely love it without a doubt. In this picture it was at its reddish. Since then it has faded and I dyed it red again, but that red faded also. It's slightly red but not as bright. I'm going to lay off of the dye for at least a year now. But when I do dye it again, it'll go to the shop to make sure it's the red that I want. :)

Hope you like it. If you don't, I really don't care. Lol.

I just hope that this can give some of you a little confidence with your TWA's. Go ahead and try something new! The worst that can happen is cutting your hair again. You've already done it before. Just show people that women with very short natural hair can look just as beautiful as women with relaxed hair. We also can rocked the boldness such as color. Have fun with it! I know I am. Love you all! ♥

Going natural makes the news; Is a trend or much more than that?

At first I was a little thrown off by everything. I thought that something as complex as African American hair could not possibly be understood by others, such as white people. I recall awhile back when I posted about my white boss nit understanding what was going on with my new hair texture. I thought that the news headline would bring a negative connotation to negative hair but the more I watched it the more I loved it.

What do you think about it?

Natural hair Superstar!

This would be my cuzzo rockin' her huge fro!

Much love from Tennessee to Colorado.

Thanks for the pic. Love you much!

I Love My Hair Song: Sesame Street

I absolutely adore this!

Loc appreciation.

My natural hair game plan.

Time Line so far:

• Last relaxer: October 2009.
• Big Chop: May 29th 2010.
• First all over color: June 23rd 2010.
• Top color: September 2010.

Future plans:

• Continue to grow hair. Only trims when needed.
• When I turn 25 I'm getting locs.
• At 40, I'm cutting everything off and rockin' the short curlies until forever after. Lol.

12 months post relaxer.

October marks my one year anniversary of no relaxer. I'm not sure what specific day but I know for sure this month makes a year. I wish I had pics f my progress but I don't as of now. I'm going to wait until the end of the month to be on the safe side. Just thought I'd let you all know. :)

Random pic. Lol. :)

Thinking about this cut.

Yes or no?
I probably won't get it but I realllyyy want to.
I'm so bored with my hair, I'm losing my mind.
Patiently waiting for it to grow so I can do more things.

Flat ironed hair: FAIL.

My friend blow dried and flat ironed my hair but since it has been raining a lot lately, it poofed up really quickly. I do have pics of the new color (sorta) and my "blow out".

About 11 months post relaxer.

Update: Shiny hair and hair growth challenge.

Thanks to everyone for the tips on how to get shiny hair!

I haven't had a chance to actually do them because I'm busy in school now

but I will and let you all know how it goes for me.

Also, the "Grow an inch or more of hair a month" challenge has been hard for me being in school as well.

I started off great, taking the Biotin pills everyday (or twice a day if I forgot) and oiling my scalp with castor oil.

But over the past few weeks, I haven't been doing neither. :(

If you've been doing the challenge dedicatedly please please please let me know if you've seen results. 

Time for change.

Tomorrow I plan to color my hair again and straighten it for the first time.

I'm going to dye it a lighter brown than the one I did back in June and I believe I'm going to do two tone.

In case you're wondering, it's been 11 months since my last relaxer and about 3 months since my BC.

When I straighten it I'll do a length check with a picture of my relaxed hair since it's obviously straight.

If you know of any great hair protectants please let me know.

I'm so terrified of heat damage.

I think I'll cry and go crazy if my lovely curls don't come back. lol.

Help!: I want shiny hair!

I need help with shine!!

The kinkier the hair the less shine because the cuticles do not lay flat. It's very difficult for the natural oils to reach the ends of every strand. This goes for 4A type hair, like myself.

I really hate not having shine because my hair looks so dry even if it isn't. I don't want it to look like I have a tumbleweed on my head. :\ I'll style my hair with oils and such to have shine but by the end of the day the shine is no longer there & when I do certain styles, I can't mess with my hair too much or I'll have frizz. It's really hard for me to oil and moisturize my hair without messing up the curls once a style is complete.

What can I do to achieve more shine that's longer lasting?

Hair growth challenge.

Grow an inch or more of hair each month.

Most of you may know that on average, hair grows about half an inch a month, 6 inches a year. Wouldn't it be lovely to grow a whole foot a year! I had gotten this from a natural hair diva on Youtube who had gotten it from hairlista I believe. But she said that it has worked for her so I figure, why not?

So here's all you have to do:

• Oil your scalp with Castor Oil every other day.
• Take one Biotin pill everyday.

Yep, that's it. I kid you not. I would advise that you eat right, drink plenty of water, and try to be stressfree as well.

If you do this challenge please let me know how it goes for you. :)

I'll be doing it as well and updating every month or whenever I can.

I apologize.

Not only to yall, but to my hair.
Just as I've been neglecting my my blog, I've been neglecting my tresses.

I haven't been moisturing, sealing, nor wrapping my hair up at night.  I haven't been co-washing nor deep conditioning. I haven't been detangling. I've been too lazy to do anything about my hair care.

DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

It's seriously a terrible habit.
Sorry for being M.I.A. but I shall return soon enough. I just have a lot going on in my life as some of you may know if you follow my other blog, lokei dreams.

& Hi, new followers!

Ignorance towards natural hair. [II]

Once again I'm faced with ignorance about my hair. The "Afro" pics I just posted, I also posted on facebook. I've gotten a lot of postive comments and "likes". I really didn't care what people thought about it, good or bad, I just wanted to show how bold and out of the box I am. I wanted to show that I'm not ashamed of who I am. I'm very proud of myself for those pics.

I was on the phone with my ex/best friend, Jeremy, and he said to me, "Bruh. When are you cutting your afro?" and started laughing. I was very confused by the question because for one you can't just cut off an afro and for two, I didn't go natural just for the kicks and giggles! I said "never" and his response was laughter again and "You are not going to be walkng around with an afro." Excuse me?? Why can't I? I'm not doing it to please you or anyone else. And no, I don't plan to wear an afro. I style my hair so that it curls. And he's seen my hair before, curly... So I'm like what the fuck. Please grow up for a second.

What people don't understand is that all black people/african americans have curly hair for the most part. There are things we can do to make our hair curl. Our hair is kinky and curly. The afro's people see are just combed out curly hair and that's exactly what I did to achieve that look.

Jeremy also keeps asking me what I'm going to do with my hair once it's longer. His small mind to natural hair is that I can only wear an afro when it gets longer. Natural hair is very versatile.

I seriously can't wait to prove everyone wrong. But once again I'm not doing this for them. This is what I want; It's for me.

I picked my fro out ! :)

I'll use these pics to compare my growth in a few months. :)

I just moisturized my hair so there was still a little shrinkage.

Next time I'll actually blow it out for the maximum fullness.

Btw-I'm two months post big chop and about 10 months post relaxer.

Sunday hair: Twist out puff (FAIL)

Twist Out Puff

(FAIL...sorta)

I tried to do twists for the first time since I've been natural. I figured my hair has grown enough to try to play around with it a little because I was sick of doing the samething every single day. Geez!

1. I parted small sections with my fingers (used clips to hold the rest of my hair back.)

2. Sprayed the section with water in my little ToGo spray bottle.

3. Used a little Shea Butter (because I dont want my hair to dry with just water)

4. Detangled

5. Two strand twisted. :)

After I twisted my whole head I just went to sleep with a satin head scarf.

Texture shot! Lol. All of that hair (above the twist) was dry tangled hair. Haha.

Another Texture shot. You can also see my color growing out! :D

The hardest time about twisting my hair was that my ends wouldn't stay! I don't know if I still have relaxed ends but they would not curl at all. I tried to used a curl gel on my ends to sort of seal it. Kind of worked.

I probably won't be doing this again for another few months, when my hair is longer.

It took my 2 hours to twist my whole head. But I kept stopping because I get restless a lot so maybe an hour to an hour and a half if I would have stopped fooling around.

Results:

I was going to wear a straight twistout but when I took all of them down (with coconut oil) it just wasn't cute.

So I decided to push my headband faaarrr back. I've never been able to do that before but the twists helped stretch my length. That's about the only thing I loved from the twistout. I saw a little curl defination but not much. But like I said, I'll try again in a few months. :)

Blackfashion.tumblr.com

I would like to thank blackfashion for posting a picture of me of tumblr. I was really caught of guard when I saw my face. Lol. I already have 70 notes. :D

Um...yeah. Just thought I'd let you all know.

But I know I've been MIA for awhile but I'll be back soon. :)

Hi New followers!

Formspring.

Q: How many times have you dyed your hair ? And has your hair ever broken off as a result ? I just dyed my hair jet black but I wanna dye it a lighter colour again September/october...however I'm scared it'll all drop off or something and I'm NOT all for that.


A: A few weeks ago was the first time I dyed my hair...ever! Well besides hi-lights that I got Apr. 2009 but I never had a problem with my hi-lights.

As far as the color I have in now, I haven't experienced any breakage. I make sure to keep it moisturized. I don't plan on dying my hair again over the new color, I'll probably just touch up my roots every 6-8 weeks.

And for you I hear that it's fine to wait 6-8 to dye hair that has already been dyed prior. And since you said You just dyed it and want to wait until sept/oct then you should be good.

But make sure the color you want isn't too light to where you may need to bleach it because bleach is NO BUENO!

Hope this helped. :)

Formspring question: why did you decide to go natural? what gave you the motivation?

"To be honest, I don't remember. Oct 09 I made up my mind to cut my hair in a pixie cut that Dec. As the months went by I didn't get a relaxer so I thought that maybe I shouldn't get one any more and just go natural. So I decided not to cut my hair in Dec because the pixie cut aint cute on naps. Lol. So I started researching natural hair via youtube, google, blogspot, etc...and I fell more in love with it. I would have to say my biggest motivation is the other women on youtube who transitioned and cut their hair. I've watched their hair grow beautifully from when they didn't have any to big full curls.

I also love that I'm not like any girls my age. The long straight (weave or real) hair is so common. I'm the only girl I know with a fro. Lol. And I love it."


If you have a question you would like to ask me, feel free to on my formspring. The box is in the side bar somewhere. → 
If you have any ideas you would like to share, topics I should touch on, or you need motivation, I'm all for it. :)

Hair accessories: Beanie hats & Berets.

I love dressing my TWA up with different hats. I have 3 beanies/berets, well 2 now since my friend stole one. I plan to get a lot more colors this summer because I know I'll use them like crazy when fall comes. It's a quick and easy style I do when I need to go somewhere after I just wake up or something.

All I do is spray a little water on the front part and then add a little gel or moisturizer to form curls or just liven up that section. I'll use a comb to lift the roots to give a little height. Next I brush the sides back and throw the hat on. It seriously takes about 3 minutes. :) 

Shea butter.

We all know that naturals love shea butter. 

It's perfect for moisturizing our hair because it tends to dry out often.

There are two kinds of shea butters; ivory and yellow. 

Which one should you choose?

The colors are usually determined by the shea tree nuts used to make the butter. The color has nothing to do with the age of the butter; shelf life is usually forever as long as it is in a tub of some kind with a lid so that it doesn't dry out. In some cases, palm oil may have been added which may explain a yellow color. 

The yellow shea butter also has a faint odor to it whereas the ivory is pretty much odorless.

When choosing a shea butter make sure that it is "Unrefined". Some may think that "Refined" is better but in reality, the butter has been bleached, neutralized with lye, and heated it to very high temperatures. 

So which shea butter is better, ivory or yellow?

The answer is either! Both give the same results to heal, moisturize, and revive hair and skin. As long as the shea butter is "Unrefined" it's all good. The only thing you may want to keep in mind is the odor factor. I use the yellow shea butter and yes, the smell can be a little overwhelming but it's not a big deal. It's all on preference. But just know that I can sniff out shea butter anywhere now. :)

Impatient.

Call me crazy, but I wish it was this time next year. I hear from everyone that my hair will grow like crazy and like weeds, etc but I'm not sure I can agree with them yet. It's been a month 2 days ago since I did the BC--dang, it's been a month??

Hopefully time flies by this fast and I'll actually be able to see some growth. Yeah, a month isn't enough to see any growth at all because it's only about half an inch of growth; an amount too small for the naked eye to see.

I'm just ranting about wanting big hair now.
Don't mind me.

I dyed my hair: Chestnut Blonde.

Before:

After:

I hated it at first but now I love it!
The only thing I don't like about it at the moment is that my eyebrows are black. I think it's so tacky. I was going to dye them too, but eh...that probably was going to be terrible. But yes, here's the new look. I was getting tired of my TWA and needed something new. You like?

Btw- I just this dye:

If you would like, I'll do a video review on this dye, what I liked and disliked about it, would I recommend? Just any questions you may have.

Bandwagon.

I've noticed that when I was transitioning to become natural, a lot of other women were doing the same, and most of which started their journeys long before I even thought about going natural. It's becoming a "trend" which is really cool because honestly I think we all should go natural. :)

My boyfriend loves my TWA and runs his fingers through it and plays with the little curlies. While he had 'Fingers in Hair Syndrome' one day, he said to me, "You know what, I'm going to grow my hair out with you." I looked at him like, "Boy quit playing." because this boy stays getting his hair cut in crazy designs and paint and the list goes on. So I'm thinking there's no way he'll last because he's going to be itching for his next design.

It's been awhile since then and he told me the other day that he still hadn't gotten a hair cut. "Are you serious about this?" "Yeah I'm serious." I asked him what he's going to do with it when it gets really long, because I'm obviously growing my hair out to be long and if he's going to grow his hair out with me, it may get pretty long, and he said he really didn't know, that maybe dreads are an option. I, for one am gung ho for dreads because I'm a sucka for em. :)

Anywho, yes my boyfriend is "going natural". lol. I may post a few pics of his journey. :)

fuckyeahnaturalhair.tumblr.com

Just a little inspiration. :)

Solo.

Do yall see this bomb ass weave/wig that Solo is rockin'
But I must know where I can find one just like it, a brand or something.
This TWA, I love it, but it's getting so old right now.
I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE. :)

& that dress is bad too!

Natural hair in the workplace.

I cut my hair the night I came home from work and it was going to be another week until I worked again. When the next Friday came and I got ready for work I realized that my unisex uniform would diminish my beauty. Lol. I put in cute earrings and a cute head band with a flower just so that I may look more like a girl.

As soon as I got there I got right to work because there was customers to be tended to. As I was ringing up orders, I looked in the corner of my eye at my boss looking at me in confusion. When he saw me look he quickly turned his head.

My sister, she and I work at the same place, told me later on that he asked her "What happened to Shelby?" or "What did Shelby do to her hair?", somewhere along those lines. Her response was "She's going natural." You cannot tell an older white guy what going natural means! In some cases I'm sure they may know what it is but this white guy was confused.

Before I was fully natural, I had read that natural hair isn't really accepted in the workplace or certain professions and I started to feel what they were talking about last Friday. No, this isn't a serious case of natural hair not being accepted but it did put a light on it that people just don't know how to deal with a black woman's natural hair or how to react to it. I just pray to God that when I graduate from college, my concern isn't "Am I not going to get the job because of my hair?"

Thank you!

Thank you all for my birthday wishes!

I had a great day.

To read about it visit my other blog.

Lokei Dreams is more live and frequent than this one 

because this is my hair blog after all.

I really wish I had to time to discuss the topics
I mentioned in the last post but I really don't have any time.

Today I'll make time since I get off work at 6.

In the meantime stay blessed and beautiful. :)

I'm legal!

TODAY I'M OFFICIALLY 18!
*breathe in, breathe out*

Ahhhhhhh! I'm so freakin excited!

Gotta go do stuff!

Bye! :)

Btw- I have a few topic's I want to touch on including 
"Natural hair in the workplace" and "Shea Butter" so stay tuned for that. 
I love yall!

Hair comparisons.

April 2010. & June 2010.

I'll do this every few months to see the progress of my hair. :)

My first week natural.

What I love:

• I'm free of the relaxed ends! They were so hard to deal with. I cant imagine how those women do it for years. Whew!
• How soft my hair is.
• My curls make me really happy. :)
• It was supposed to rain yesterday. My friends and I had plans to go to the park. All of them were worried about the rain but me! It never rained though.
• The positive reactions and feed back from my friends and even a few people I don't know.

What I hate:

• The shrinkage!
• I wake up in the morning looking sooo busted! I cant throw my hair in a bun when I'm too lazy to do anything else.
• My curls aren't as defined as I would like.
• All I can do is the puff thing with the headband.

What I have learned/still learning:

• I need to learn how to define my curls.
• I need to learn how I can do twist outs on my length.
• I've learned that this is something new to me and I have to get used to it. 
• I've learned to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! By the end of the day, my hair is very dry.
• I can't get rid of some frizz in the middle. 
• I do detangle like I should. In the shower with conditioner. 
• I still need a regime to follow. Right now I'm kind of experimenting.

Here are a few pics (Im the shorty in the middle):

The back. :)

These were all taken last night at the park...where it was supposed to rain.
Yesterday was also my best hair day so far. ;)

Bonus pic!

Sandi & I.

"Bald by choice not by force!
No hair don't care!"

btw-We didn't plan to match. It just happened. :D