ellaei.

The results from this DIY mix were unexpected and I was very impressed about how moisturised and strong my hair felt. My coils and curls felt very healthy! I hope you give this a try and share your experience if you do!


Happy Hairdays

Emmanuella 

Notes:

• If you don't have fresh aloe near by or you don't want to harvest any, you can also use 1/2 a cup of fresh aloe gel from your local healthfoods store and the moisture levels will be just as great :)
• Fresh aloe vera has a short lifespan so it is advisable that you use the DIY mix immediately or store it in the fridge for no longer than 3 days. 

Reference

Aloe Vera: A Potential Herb and its Medicinal Importance

 There are 10 more days until 2015 ends! Wow. I have worn my natural hair out for the longest period in my natural hair journey: 3 months! 

My hair regime thus far is still a work in progress but here are the details. 

I try to wash my hair on a Saturday and co-wash on a Tuesday. In between, I moisturise with my water-mix and whipped shea butter. 

I like to work in 4 sections.

I pre-poo to remove tangles from my twist-out. I find that pre-poos with coconut oil provide enough slip and after my shampoo, my hair is extra soft and shiny.

I don't use shampoo every week. I alternate between ACV rinses and a sulfate-free shampoo. The idea behind my wash day is to cleanse my scalp thoroughly. I also want to keep my hair's natural oils so I reduce the amount of shampoo I use on my strands.  I have found that my hair does not have a straw-like feeling but is soft and tangles less often.  

This week I tried a sample of BabyBliss Sulfate and Paraben-free Argan Oil shampoo. Love it!

I used the HydraSource Biolage Mask and mixed this with Avocado and Coconut Oils for a nourishing deep condition.

Once my scalp is cleansed I deep-condition for 30 minutes - 1 hour. I then rinse my hair, detangle with a wide-tooth comb  and apply a generous amount of shea butter and natural oils to prep my hair for stretching. I mostly stretch using twists but I have tried African Threading and banding method too. 

Look at the kinks and coils :)

To co-wash, I currently use the Organix Vitamin E conditioner. I also use this day to do any protein treatment, hot-oil treatment, or any other treatments that I want to do. Of course, I detangle my hair during this process too. I tend to leave my hair in twists throughout the week or until I'm ready to wear my Afro Puff :)

I prep my hair for twists with Carol's Daughter Alcohol-Free Gel, Castor Oil and my Shea-Butter mix.

So far so good :) My hair is doing well despite this dry summer heat. 

I can not wait for the rest of this journey. I am still learning new detangling and stretching techniques too.

Sometimes I want to put my hair in box braids and leave it in for 3 months, call it a day. But healthy hair needs work and I can not use protective hairstyling as an excuse to neglect my strands. 

Have you modified your hair regime lately or do you plan to in the coming year? 

Happy hairdays,

Emmanuella x

I find that the only disadvantage with an afro puff is that it can dry out our type 4 hair if we wear it too often. I find that my hair looses more moisture when my ends are combed out and my ends are more stretched. My theory, is that there is more surface area on the hair strand for moisture to escape into the atmosphere. It could be why these puffs tend to be more drying to our ends than puffs with more texture.

A combed out puff like this looses more moisture than the one with texture below.

To combat dryness, I make sure to apply generous amount of leave-in and creams to lock in the moisture on my hair strands.

Here's a quick tutorial about how I go about doing this:

I wear the puff twice a week using this method. My hair is always soft and fluffy when I loosen the hair band.

Next time you wear a puff, try reducing the amount of times you seperate your twist out and/or avoid combing out the ends of your hair. I hope you give it a try and tell me what you think about it :)

Happy hairdays,

Emmanuella x

EVO Hair products are an Australian brand, so it is not necessarily a 'natural hair' brand/products. They target (presumably) Caucasian/straighter hair.  As I live in Australia, I like finding products intended for straighter hair that work well with my hair texture too. My mum, sister and I used to have the assumption that products not intended/marketed towards black hair is not meant to be used at all. We mostly stuck with Dark&Lovely or ORS hair products. 

Since going natural, I have not been scared to experiment with these products as well. I figured some of the ingredients are similar to that in black hair products so, why not give them a chance?  

I initially received their Mane Attention Protein Treatment as a sample and of course had my views and biases. I had never tried an actual protein treatment product so I gave it a shot. 

I washed my hair and applied about 3/4 of the sample I received onto my wet hair. I left it on for 5 minutes whilst in the shower.  I then followed with my regular conditioner. 

I was impressed. I had less breakage and knots after the protein treatment (which probably meant my hair was crying out for one too). 

The EVO protein treatment is the first Aussie product to make it's way into my staples basket.  It is not such a harsh protein treatment as I initially thought it was. I liked to use it after I removed a set of braids to reduce the breakage that would follow during the next braiding session.  

I decided to buy the whole product. I ordered the protein treatment online, along with the EVO moisture mask.

The EVO moisture mask was not as great as the protein treatment in my opinion. I used it alone after a wash. It was an awesome detangler and gave my hair great slip. But I have not repurchased it since. 

Now that I do not intend to wear long-term protective hairstyles anymore, I use the Mane Attention twice a month due to my current hair regime.

As naturals we tend to dismiss hair treatments not aimed specifically for natural hair or ones that are not as popular within the natural hair community but it's good to be open sometimes. Especially if you live in a country that does not really have much black hair care products floating around. 

Some of these products are gems that no one knows about and I want to share them with you too.