Washed, not Cut

Wash day/quater of an hour on Thursday was very simple.
1) I pre-treated my hair with coconut oil overnight ( I feel like calling it a pre-poo is a lie, since I don't always shampoo after and it's purpose is more about protecting my hair from protein degradation in the water).
2) The next day, I wet my hair in the shower and then massaged some Apple Cider Vinegar diluted with (warm) water through my hair and scalp. Then rinsed.
3) Added some Garnier Ultra Doux Avocado and Shea Butter Conditioner and left on for 5 minutes, while I finished showering. Rinsed out.
4) Applied Aloe Vera Juice and Felix Capillus.

That's it.

My mini twists are getting to that age where they're really worn in and I love them and like to wear it down most of the time. I forgot that a few of my friends hadn't seen it when it was down, so after I washed it and let it shrink a up to my chin I got a lot of questions about whether I had cut my hair or not.

Course not! My ends are far too happy and I am far too focused to start lopping it off now!

The reactions I get when I wear my hair down can, in my humble opinion, border on the hilarious. The other day when I walked into class, one of the children exclaimed "Woahhhh! Quel coiffure!"

Translations: UK - "Cor, what a hairstyle!"
US - "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaang."

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Guess?

What's nearly 21 kilometres long, makes use of over 60,000 feet, drinks more than 50,000 litres of water and eats more than 4000 kilograms of fruit?

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Great Minds...

I haven't changed the look of my blog since it's inception because I already have an idea of what I want it to be. The most important and frustrating part for me is my header - I'd always imagined it as a woman somewhere pouring coconut milk from a coconut, maybe on an island or a beach, under a palm tree. And then I would change it up every season or something. It's because my blog was named both for the abundance of stuff I hoped to blog about, as well as a pun on my favourite chocolate bar - Bounty. So I imagined it in similar colours, of  blue and white, with highlights of gold, pale green and orange.

See, chocolate can be a source of inspiration!

Since I'm doing it by myself, it's taking me a while to perfect and learn the skills to make my ideas a reality (an amateur with perfectionist ambitions - the worst, right?)

Well, this morning, I was reading my e-mails and noticed I'd gotten one from Akamuti (a British based company that sells organic and fair trade cosmetic ingredients) about celebrating their  tenth year. I bought some oils from them a while ago, so I still get e-mails. I suddenly noticed their avatar:

Guys. My jaw actually dropped and I was hard pressed to pick it up. How had they gotten into my head and gotten that near exact picture?? (Only the hair is different - I was thinking more of a fluffy puff type thing). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - now I had a real life template for my banner, but I don't want to be accused of plagarism somewhere down the line, haha!

Here's their home page:

After clicking along the different tabs, I realised they had a similar template for the women, but the settings, skin and hair colours and accessories were different.

I promise they haven't sponsored me to write this - I was just blown away by the similarity!

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Mixology: Delicate Rose Aloe Moisturiser

So, before this month, this is the moisturiser I was using. I found it was a light, non sticky formulation, that could easily be used on both my hair and face for a quick blast of moisture. When I used it on my face, I followed up with some coconut oil, because it's winter, and also to break up the aloe vera gel 'cast' as well.

I found it was great for my fine hair that isn't a huge fan of butters and the like, though sometimes I needed to follow up with a sealant. I only ever made small amounts at a time, because I didn't use any preservatives- what is in that bottle sometimes lasted me a week, no longer.

It has a light scent from the Rosewater, and was just a relaxing and delightful way to start off my day! It's based off the Giovanni Direct Conditioner, but it's even lighter than that (hence, the need for a sealant), so I loved using it when I was a few days away from my wash day, but don't want to use anything heavier to cause build up or attract dust >.<

I didn't use measurements - I just did it by instinct, but it was always something like:

50% Rosewater
30-40% Aloe Vera Gel
10-20% Oil.

For my oil, I of course used my Felix Capillus, but if you try it and change anything, let me know how it goes!

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Not really a wash day & March Targets

More like two instances in the past week where I've spent more than 5 minutes in the shower.


Firstly, decided to lay off the shampoo for a week, because of my overzealous rinsing and repeating last wek, so this week, I just massaged some apple cider vinegar into my scalp reeeeally gently, as though I were trying to lull it to sleep. Rinsed and conditioned for five minutes, then rinsed the conditioner out. Applied Aloe Vera Juice on top of that, and then some shea butter, since I had the time to make some more up, last week.

That's it really, and it doesn't feel like a real post, so I thought I'd add some goals I'm trying to keep up for the month of March. I've noticed a lot of baby splits, which is probably a combination of the manipulation for the Curlformer set, then the constant manipulation putting mini twists in, combined with lack of any strengthening treatment since before Christmas or something like that. Plus the hair scissors I brought with me (£5 from Superdrug, because I lost my pair from -Sally's) are nul, so I'm not over eager to use them. Looks like I'll need a trim when I go back to England in May though! Until then, I'm minimising the damage as much as I can with buns and other protective styles.

 March goals

Exercise 3 times a week

Remember to bun to keep my ends preotected

Oil ends of hair twice a week with..argan oil?

Moisturise daily.

I already do all the other stuff, like eating well and drinking loads of water, so need to worry about that, and I spray my hair morning and night with a mixture of rosewater and aloe vera juice...It's mainly the exercise that I'm concerned about!

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