FEATURE: Meet Mr. Sassafras

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Meet Mr. Sassafras, also known as MR. Honey Dip.  This is my boo. (I can't show you a full front view cuz he's too cute. ;))  I did his hair last night even though mine still looks a hot mess.  He's been complaining about his itchy scalp so I knew I had to handle it or kill him.  He was in serious need of a retwist too so I went ahead and took care of him.  He's enjoying my newfound enthusiasm for hair because it means he will get his hair done more often.  He's been a great supporter and an awesome guinea pig. LOL.
This is what I did for him:

• Brushed his locs.  I got this idea from youtube and decided to try it.  He was skeptical the first time I did it but he likes it now.  It works great to loosen the horrible flakes he gets sometimes.  He enjoyed the massage that the bristles gave.
• Baking soda scalp scrub.  I used a baking soda paste to scrub his scalp with a toothbrush.  This loosened the rest of the flakes.  I massaged it in for a good scalp rub.  I rinsed with warm water.  All the flakes washed away easily.
• Shampoo with liquid black soap.  The black soap that I won finally came in and hubby wanted me to try it out on him.  It had a great lather and was easy to rinse out.  (Remember I won it from one of the bloggers that I follow, A Happy Nappy Affair, a few weeks ago.  She said the soap came from Essential Balms.  I've actually checked out the website and I'm thinking about purchasing from them.)
• ACV rinse.  I added olive oil to the rinse and I didn't wash it out.
• Dr. Miracle's Tingling Intensive Deep Conditioning Treatment.  We both love stuff that tingles ;) so this conditioner is awesome!  He said it feels like his brain is breathing. LOL!  We let that stay on for an hour and rinsed with warm water.
• ORS Lock and Twist Gel.  This is what I always use on his hair and his hair loves it.  Anything else is too heavy.  We've tried other products but they usually cause serious buildup so I end up coming back to this.

He's a great sport for letting me take his pictures.  I love this guy.

Ok, enough about him . Back to me now.  I'm still on my rollercoaster and I'm really leaning toward combing my locs out this summer.  I figure it would be better to do it this summer since my hair is not at the length I want it anyway.  I could wear loose naps for a few months and then lock it back up by the end of the year.  But if I comb them out, does it make sense to retwist them this weekend?  I usually retwist every 2 months so by the time I'm ready for another retwist, it will be time to attempt this comb out.  If I don't retwist, I can wear curls and braid outs to hide my roots until comb out time.  Decisions, decisions.  Stay tuned to find out what I'm gonna do.

Hot Mess!!

Ok my head is looking a hot mess!!  The fuzzies are out of control and my scalp is a heap of horrible flakes!! My braid out is out of sight and not in a good way (notice the lack of picture. Lol!)  I need to wash and retwist really bad but I have a ton of school work to finish first. I got fro-locks going on.  You know, an afro with dreadlocks on top.  Not cute.  I told myself that I had to finish my work before I could tackle my hair.  Now the problem is finding some focus and concentration to finish this work.  Pray for me yall!

Ready to re-twist?

I think I'm ready to retwist my hair.  Not today but this weekend.  It will be 7 weeks Friday since my last retwist, which is about average time between retwists for me.  I got my Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap yesterday so I'm excited to try it out.  I'm still waiting on the black soap that I won to come.  I want to tweak my lock gel and see how that works out.  I'm getting a liitle excited about it mainly because I've been on an emotional rollercoaster with my hair/scalp the last few days.  I think it's because my scalp was itching like crazy a couple of days ago.  Maybe I tried too much 'new' stuff all at once.  I believe the peppermint oil has calmed it down though.  It still itches but not nearly as bad as it was.  I think I added too much peppermint oil to my oil mixture because it smelled so STRONG!!  But it tingled like I wanted it to. ;)  I gotta play with my oil concoctions as well because they're not smelling like I want them to.  I think I'm gonna try to make a spritz too. (I'm gonna be busy this weekend!)

Anyway, back to my emotional rollercoaster.  I've been seriously thinking about combing my locs out.  I definitely don't want to cut them because my hair has never been this long in my life.  My husband is behind whatever decision I make but I know if I do decide to it, it probably won't be until next summer.  I want to comb them out because I wanna see what my texture is like.  I never got a chance to play with my loose naps before I locked because I locked about 2 weeks after my big chop.  And during that 2 week period my hair was in comb coils, which is how I eventually started my locs.  I've been on youtube and nappturality.com and I've seen/read numerous stories of people starting their locks over.  My best friend has put me on youtube time out because I spend so much time there. LOL!  It NEVER occurred to me to start over or have more than one set of locs  (even though my son did it; he's now working on his 2nd set).  I always thought I would have this set of locs FOREVER!   But another part of me wants to see how long my hair will grow.  It's actually been a little bit longer than this (about 4 inches) but I've cut them shorter twice.  I regret doing that now.  My hair would be mid back or longer by now.  I don't know if I really want my hair that long but now that I know how to style it, it may not be an issue.  I'm not really sure what journey I want to be on right now so I'm just gonna leave my hair alone for now.

Have you been on a rollercoaster about your hair? If so, what did you do?

Essential Oils

So I ordered some essential oils from Amazon.com last week and they came in today.  I've been looking for something to add to my 'natural' concoctions to see how they work for me.  I added the lavender oil to my Organic Root Stimulator Nature Shine to make it smell better.  I had added ACV to it to help with mine and my husband's itchy scalps but it smells horrible.  I added the peppermint oil to my oil mixture to help with the itchies (and to get a tingling scalp).  I added the lemongrass to it for fragrance.  I just oiled my scalp with the oil mixture and it feels great.  I can feel the peppermint tingling.  I love it!  Hopefully it will stop the crazy itching I've been having.  So far so good.  Now I'm waiting on my Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap to come in. 

My braid out is holding up pretty well.  I wasn't planning on washing it out til next week but I'm not sure.  If the itching continues, I may wash before then.  I definitely want a fresh 'do for Easter.  Probably some curls.  I'm gonna be busy next month so that may be the best style for me then.  I'll keep you updated! ;)

Oh yeah, I have 5 followers now!!! YAY me!!

I'm about to wash my husband's hair cuz he's got some serious flaking going on. His twists have held up well so I'll probably just retwist the front.  Maybe he'll let me post pictures this time.

My head is itching SO bad!!  I just cleaned my scalp with Organic Root Stimulator Herbal Cleanse.  So now it's on fire!!  I gotta figure out what the problem is!  Maybe I need to wash it again.  Arghhh!!

Braid out results

So these are my braid out results.  I left the braids in for 48 hours.  It took me over an hour to take all the braids down!  I'm not really sure I like it.  I think it will have to grow on me for a few days because I don't plan on washing it out before the first.  I do like that my fuzzies don't appear all that fuzzy.  My husband is not feeling the fuzzy look at all.  LOL!  I also like that you're able to see how long my hair is which you couldn't really tell when I had my curls cuz they were super tight.
What do you think?

Something I've noticed: my hair doesn't like staying in ponytails too much.  I can't wear a pony all day anymore.  Before I tried that pipe cleaner set, my hair was in a ponytail almost everyday, all day.  Now when I put my hair up, it doesn't stay up all day because it's uncomfortable.  I wonder what that's about?!  Even if it's a cute style and/or I'm rocking one of my new lock ties, I take it down when I'm home for the day.  I think maybe because I've been massaging my scalp more lately, it may have become more sensitive.  I'm not sure but it's kinda annoying.  Oh well.

My scalp is still itching and I don't know what that's about either.  Maybe I should have just left my hair alone and be nonchalant about it like I have been for the past 6 years.  Ever since I been paying attention to it and trying to take better care of it, I'm coming up with all these issues.  Or maybe I just never noticed them before cuz I really didn't care.  I don't know but that's kinda annoying as well. :(

Diggy Simmons

Diggy - Made you look Freestyle (Flow Stoopid) from Diggy Simmons on Vimeo.

Too much for a title ;)

Tonight I washed my hair because my scalp would NOT stop itching.  I don't know what the problem was/is.  I've only used natual oils on my hair and ORS Scalp Cleanser.  I also wanted to wash it because I wanted to try a braid out.  So I washed with the peppermint soap I used last week and rinsed with ACV.  I brushed my hair before I washed hoping to soothe my scalp and get any lint out.  I put a little olive oil in the ACV rinse and my hair is so shiny.  I love it.  I also got rid of the buildup that I noticed last week after washing.  Yay! It took me about an hour and a half to braid all my hair.  I did not retwist my roots and I did not use any products on my hair.  I didn't retwist cuz I'm embracing my fuzzies right now; my hair is so soft.  I haven't decided when I'm going to take the braids out yet.  They will definitely be out for church Sunday and work next week. I'm excited to try this style and I can't believe I've never tried it before.  I wonder how long I'm gonna be in this excited stage. LOL! 

Lately, I've had to combine a lot of locs that are too thin.  I'm sure the 165 locs that I started out with last month are probably now down to about 150.  I hope this is just the natural maturation process and not a sign that my hair is thinning.  Other women in my family have experienced hair thinning, including my mother.  My mother even went natural because of it (she has TWA and it's salt and pepper and SO cute).  I haven't had a perm in 7 years so it's probably genetics.  Boo!!

On to better news: I have 2 followers now! Yay me!!  And I know of 2 other people that have read my blog but are not following at the time.  It's nice to know someone cares.  It's easy for strangers to look at my blog but (to me) it's different to look at someone's blog that you actually know.  You get to know them on a totally different level and you learn things about them that you may not have otherwise known.  It might  be a good thing or a bad thing but hopefully it's a good thing for my friends.  Thanks to all those who have visited, whether you decide to follow or not.  ;)

And even better news: I won a contest today!  A fellow blogger, A Happy Nappy Affair, offered some Black Soap to her followers if they posted why they wanted to try it.  I posted a comment and she picked me and another follower.  Yay me again!! I can't wait til I get it to try it out.  You know I will post about it.

One last thing: I have gray hair!  I've actually had a few gray hair strands for about 10 years now.  I remember specifically naming 3 of them (my ex-husband, my son, and college!)  I haven't really stressed about them until now (I think I'm having a pre-mid-life crisis).  I have this one strand that does not want to follow directions.  I don't know how many strands I have now but most of them are in a loc somewhere.  This one strand just hangs out smack dab in the middle of my head and tends to stick straight up.  It does not want to loc with anybody.  It does not want to lay down.  It just does its own thing.  I can't stand it.  Why won't he go somewhere?!  I think it's bad luck to pull it out so I just leave it alone and try to smooth it down. LOL!  Even when I had my curls, it wouldn't curl and it just stuck out.  If you look closely, you see several other grays around it but they don't cause me any problems; just this one soldier.  BTW, I'm loving the texture of my hair right now and I've even considered combing my locks out but that's another story for another time.

I feel pretty. . .

Today was a totally unproductive day!  I had plenty of other stuff to do but it did NOT get done.  Instead I spent most of the day in the mirror.  :)  The hairstyle came about when I put my hair up in a high ponytail when I jumped in the shower.   My regular rubber band broke so I grabbed my lock tie to put it up.  When I got out, I just rolled up the ends into a little bun.  How cute?!  I got out my matching earrings that I just got at the beauty supply store and presto!  I also bought some fake eyelashes to try out cuz mine are busted and I wanted to test them before I wore them out this weekend with my girls.  That lead to me putting on lipstick too.  My husband flipped out.  He didn't want me to leave the house! LOL!  He said was I was too beautiful. Awwww!  I normally don't wear makeup of any kind so all of this is new to me (us).  The only reason I even own lipstick is because it usually comes with a free gift with purchase from Clinique. So this is the look I had today to just hang around the house.

I really like the lashes.  They're cute and don't look super fake.  The lipstick even matched my shirt perfectly.  Now I gotta get some eyeliner to play up my eyes (and to camoflauge the lashes).  I'm loving the look though. I'll post  new pics when I go out this weekend.

My scalp has been itching all day. I guess I need to put some oil on it. It really hasn't itched like this in a while.  I need to get some fragrant oil to add to my oil mixture cuz it doesn't smell too pleasing.  The locs that I retwisted are holding up well.  They're not crunchy anymore and they look really nice.  I had to combine a few locs in the area that I did (the front).  I'm wondering if my hair is thinning there.   It seems to run in my family.  I also gotta figure out how I want to combine them.  Do I want to twist all the way down or just let my two headed dragons emerge? Do I want to sew them all the way down?  I did sew a few last week and it was really time consuming.  But I also don't really like the two strand look in a sea of locs.  They just look funny to me.  I don't know.  Maybe I need to stop trying all the new stuff I've learned all at one time and go little by little.  LOL!  It doesn't matter; I'm enjoying myself and I'm not hurting anybody.  ;)

Wash Day

Yesterday I washed my hair.  It's been a month since I washed it although I cleaned my scalp several times since then.  I tried a new routine new which is what I've been looking to do.  I did the baking soda cleanse first.  I didn't put the baking soda in conditioner because it was so hard to wash out when I did my husband's hair.  I just made a paste with water.  That was so much easier. Then I tried a peppermint soap that I found at the beauty supply store.  It's made by Nubian Heritage and has all natural ingredients like shea butter and aloe (among other stuff).  I bought it cuz I thought it would give my scalp a little tingle but it didn't.  It did have a very good lather though, which I liked.  After that, I did the apple cider vinegar rinse (I did not rinse it out).  Then I put on Dr. Miracle's Tingling Conditioner.  It felt divine!  I left it on for a little over an hour and washed it out.  My hair felt so soft and clean that I didn't even want to retwist it.  It even had a little shine to it.  I did end up retewisting the first few rows so the front would look neat.

I retwisted mainly because I wanted to try a new twist gel that I concocted.  I mixed aloe vera gel with honey and added a little olive oil and tea tree oil.  It went on nicely but my hands were a little sticky afterward.  This morning, my locks were hard and crusty (but not flaky).  I think I added too much honey.  I don't know what proportions I used; I just put stuff in a jar. LOL!  As the day has gone on, the locks are not as hard anymore but I don't think I'll be using that gel anymore until I figure out what to do.  I think I'm gonna add more aloe vera gel to it and see if that helps.  I've seen on nappturality where people use AV gel (and honey) to twist their locs so I know it will work.

I noticed that my hair has grown, especially in the back where it was last cut.  I'm excited about that.  I don't want it down to my butt but I do want it to my mid back (I think). When I looked at a ruler and saw how long 6 inches is (the average amount that hair grows in a year), I got excited again.  I can't wait to see how long it is at the end of the year.

I think I'm going to wash my hair again soon because I noticed that I couldn't get all the stuff out.  That's another reason why I wasn't stressing about twisting it.  I still have buildup where the new growth meets the locked part and I gotta figure out how to get it out!!  I need to get something that does a better job of clarifying.  Maybe I can get hubby to help me rinse next time.  I rinsed my hair twice and the stuff still wouldn't come out.  Oh well.

I liked what I tried this time and my hair and scalp feel great.  The only thing I would change is the lock gel.  I might just stick to what I've been using (ORS Lock Gel).  I don't think I've ever spent this much time on my hair myself.  It felt good. :)

Another thing I noticed is how different my hair (and scalp) is from my husband's. He normally has a itchy, flaky scalp and I don't.  I washed his hair Wednesday cuz it was itching so bad and it's flaky again already (but it's not itching).  I think next time, I'm gonna try a hot oil treatment on him to see if that helps with his scalp. I realized I can't do the same thing to his hair that I do to mine because it doesn't always work.  But I'm enjoying the learning process.

I'm addicted. To my hair!

So I've told you before that all my free time lately is spent on youtube looking at hair stuff and nappturality.com.  Today I found a tutorial on making your own loc tie.  It was so super easy to do so I had to make one. 

I love cowry shells and I had a huge one so I figured it would be perfect.  Whatcha think? 

I was immediately excited so I had to try it out.

I just did a simple basketweave in the front and put the rest in a ponytail. As you can see, I still have a ton of curls that just won't go away. ;)  This style is making me want to keep my curls for a few days longer.  I love that the tie is not too tight but big enough to hold all my hair.  I'm going to go thru my jewelry box to see what pieces I currently own that can be used for more ties.  Before I started out on this 'style craze,' I ALWAYS wore my hair in a ponytail.  If I use a cute tie, it won't be so boring, that way I could change it up some.  I feel so dumb that it's taken me almost 7 years to find all these cool things to do with my hair.  But now I have no excuse for not doing something to my hair.  Even if it's just jazzing up a simple ponytail.

I also have more pictures as a result of playing in my hair the other night.  My phone now has a ton of pictures with my hair styles on it!  LOL!

This is a style I found on youtube.  I wore a variation of it (no curls) to the Robin Thicke concert a month ago. I like it but it looks so much better with curls.  It has basketweaves in the front and the back with the middle simply hanging down.  On the back view and close up view, I tied the two sides that were hanging together so it looked more like a fancy ponytail.  I love that all the styles I've tried don't use any pins; I just simply tie locks together to hold it in place.

Oh yeah! I tried the baking soda cleanse on my husband last night.  I did the one where you add baking soda to some conditioner.  He has been complaining about his scalp being super itchy  and flaky so we wanted to try it to see if it would work for him.  I found that the conditioner was extremely hard to rinse out so I may just use the baking soda paste next time.  I followed it with the apple cider vinegar rinse (I didn't rinse it out).  Then I used Dr. Miracle's tingling conditioner.  He really liked that.  I retwisted it with the usual OSR Lock Gel because I haven't made any homemade lock gel yet.  We will see how well it works out for him.  I'm glad he let me try it out on him and that he was being supportive about it.  He's a little skeptical when it comes to trying weird stuff but he was really a good sport.  His hair looks great today!  Maybe he'll let me post of pic of his hair. 

I have a follower! YAY! (and other stuff)

I just noticed today that I have a follower! YAY me!  And it's somebody I don't know.  That is so great! I'm excited and I hope we can inspire each other. :)

I've been playing in my hair again (and on youtube).  Today, I tried the loc bun hawk.  This is my version of Nialanas Loc Bun Mohawk. I couldn't do it like hers because my hair STILL has too many curls.  I kinda like the view from the side.  It's not a style I would wear to work or church but I would wear it on a date with my honey or out with my girls.  I was originally trying to do Shawta715's loc hawk but I don't know what I did wrong.  She did hers with curls and it came out cute.  Oh well. I like trying out people's tutorials and it turns out different (often better).  That just goes to show that everything is not for everybody and everyone is unique.  I'm sure if I tried this style again, it would still come out different.

Right now, I'm addicted to nappturality.com and youtube.  I spend most of my free time on those sites.  My husband thinks I'm crazy for looking at pictures and videos of other people's hair. I regret not  playing with my hair sooner.  Maybe I wouldn't have cut my hair shorter the 1st time.  It would be SO long now! I regret it every time I look at someone else's long locs.  I should have done styles when my hair was shorter. Oh well. That's in the past and I can't change it now.  All I can do is take care of my hair so it grows to the length it was.

I think I'm gonna wash my curls out this weekend.  I want to try the baking soda/ACV rinse and some new lock gel I'm making.  I'm so excited I almost can't wait til then.  My husband is ready for me to try the BS/ACV on him as well.  I might do his hair Friday and my hair Saturday.  I'm gonna do the pipe cleaner curls again but make them looser.  Chesaleigh put up a new video where she only curls the ends and I think I'm gonna try it.  We'll see what happens.

Thanks new follower!! You have made my day!