I had every intention of fulfilling my blogging obligations today after successfully trying and loving a myriad of conditioners & stylers over this past weekend, which resulted in a pillowy soft, fluffy twistout.  And I will.

Just…not today.

How do I say…I’m tired. I need a break. And have been unable to fully realize that fact until just the other day while staring at my calendar & the remaining days left in August, continuing to pencil in errand after errand before the start of another semester of grad school.

Not sure how it happened, but this incessant need to stay connected to my PC, phone, Facebook, Twitter, internety things, social networking sites, Youtube, blogs, blogs, work…apparently it all does take a toll if you forget where the off button is.

…So off I go to pay the rest of my tuition bill, finish my Summer reading list, attend my college roommates wedding nuptials, lounge by the pool with girlfirends in Atlantic City, catch up on e-mails & actual handwritten notes, meditate on my future and hopefully…fingers crossed, move into my first apartment and feel blessed. I have tons to share when I return including a handful of product reviews that have been promised for a while, along with new goodies I finally decided to splurge on and reader questions that deserve their own post.

Hugs & Love for reading and kickin it with me so far…see you soon:)

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with different variations of the Eco Styler gel, and have stumbled upon another quick favorite, the pink formula which has a firm hold setting as opposed to a maximum hold.  Still love the clear gel formula, though after perusing several YouTube videos decided to give this one a go since it’s readily available in most drug stores in my area. To prep the hair this week, I pre-pood with a conditioner (*the name escapes me, but it’s seriously not worth mentioning, should just stick to the Suave or cheapie condish*), and cleansed the scalp w/Desert Essence Organics Fragrance Free Shampoo. Still a favorite poo to effectively cleanse, without stripping the hair! Followed up with Curl Junkie’s Deep Fix Conditioner.

*Usually, my deep condition routine would be to separate the entire head of hair, add conditioner to each section and immediately begin to detangle. This ALWAYS took up a lot of time, and much exerted energy. For the past few weeks, I aborted this method, and instead slathered enough conditioner over my entire head, donned a condish cap for 10 min (5 min w/heat) and THEN proceeded to detangle into sections. This has seriously saved me a lot of time and arm strength in getting through my coarse hair. After a week’s worth out in the elements I have a TON of shed hair and more than enough tangles, so anything to cut down on detangling time makes me very happy!

After detangling for upwards of an hour, cold rinsed while hair was sectioned into twists and applied my two stylers for the week. Normally I do not add a leave-in conditioner under any gel application, but after stalking a few Youtube tutorials, decided it can’t hurt to try one of my tried and true ones, Kinky Curly Knot Today. I still love the Knot Today and always have a bottle handy. It is still by far the best detangling leave-in I’ve tried to date. No lie! So, before shingling with the Eco Styler gel, I applied a tiny bit of Knot Today to each section, detangled fully with my Denman brush and then applied the Eco Styler (*pink formula).

Application took all of 45-50 minutes and with the lessening humidity in NYC , my hair was able to dry a lot faster. This morning before heading off to work I applied a bit of Monoi de Tahiti oil for a bit of sheen, shook the Fro and was very pleased with the results! Significantly less crunch after the hair was fully dry, so much so that I didn’t have to worry to much about moisturizing the night before and bagging. Less crunch did mean the hair was able to move a lot more and not stay stuck to my head much like the clear formula.

I’m still a long time purveyor of Youtube and their tutorials and came across a really helpful one from Think-n-Grow Chick. Love her blog and all of her informative videos.

My hunt still doth continueth for the Eco Styler with olive oil though! Looks like I might have to dig deep and order from an online retailer, because I cannot find this dang thing anywhere in the NYC area! Anywho…did you know there’s a blue formula Eco Styler?!  This one’s specialized for color treated hair, which normally means it’s less drying on your strands with even less crunch factor. I dunno…to be honest I never saw myself as a person who’d routinely style with a gel due to my past scalp irritations, but this brand is scoring some serious cookie points with me!

Thanks to Alice, I’m making up for time lost not listening to Janelle Monae’s new album Archandroid and couldn’t help but be completely blown away by her latest video Cold War released just yesterday.

Lately I’ve also been real excited by music being put out by talented artists such as Monae and new favorite introduced to me just a few weeks ago, Algebra Blesett. Thanks Chinye for the awesome rec;-)

Have a Great Weekend!

There are countless ups and downs many  naturals face during and after the transitioning phase, for the first time your mind wanders into unfamiliar territory, different hair textures…differing opinions and disclaimers from friends/family/coworkers. For a long time I’ve wanted to feature a person who’s transitioning from relaxed to natural hair, most importantly to share with those who are currently embarking on a similar journey, but also to keep me sane and informed as to what’s going on in the minds of those going through such an questionable phase. For the next couple of weeks Natasha will be sharing her journey to natural hair, chronicling the ups/downs, inevitable hurdles as well as the foreseeable successes.  Here’s her story:

I have hair issues. I don’t know how else to describe it except to say that straight or natural, my hair does nothing for me. Or rather, I haven’t done much to treat it as I should. I’ve always been a little lazy when it comes to dealing with my hair. As a child, it was the bane of my existence when I had to sit down each week or two to get my hair washed and braided (to this day, I still fret when it is time for me to wash my hair). Pain is not an accurate enough word to describe this experience. There wasn’t any blood pouring out of my tender scalp but there might as well have been. It hurt that much! And when I started getting the relaxer treatment during my teenage years, I would inevitably suffer from burnt scalp, breakage and a myriad of other problems. But, as long as I could run a comb through it without snagging anything and as long as my hair laid flat and did what I wanted it to do, I figured the trade-off wasn’t too bad. Lately, as I have been making the transition to becoming natural (which for me simply means not getting anymore relaxer treatments) I have been rethinking my position regarding this.

For much of my adult life I have subjected myself and my hair to less than gentle treatment thinking that with a relaxer, I had to suffer a little to achieve the convenience that I strive for (with relaxed hair, I could comb out my wrap and be ready to go in no time). It never occurred to me to do anything different. In fact, I’m not entirely sure why I stopped getting relaxers at all. Maybe I was tired of the attitude of Dominican stylists towards natural hair. Anytime I let my hair grow out past three, four, or five months (which became the norm over the last few years), I would inevitably hear the same phrase “you need a perm” every time I would go in for a wash and set. I grew to resent this idea that because my hair was not a certain texture or looked a certain way that it somehow needed to be helped. But, letting my hair grow out as it was is not a form of rebellion on my part. It is more likely that as I have matured and taken stock of myself, I’ve simply decided that I want to do better for my hair and appreciate it the way that it is, that it is meant to be.

In mid-June, I passed the year mark when I got my last relaxer. I remember the occasion well. I was getting ready to go on a much-needed vacation and in addition to shopping for some new clothes, my hair had to look good. Back then, that meant a fresh relaxer and a cut. Now…it is what it is. I like to know that I have the option of a blowout but more often than not, I’ve been taming my mane with headbands and ponytails. I am no closer to figuring out how I want my hair to look than I was when I was getting regular relaxers but as more and more of my natural hair pushes through, I am getting excited over the many possibilities from wearing it straight, curling it up kinks and all, or rocking a fro. I’m not too particular (yet) as long as it’s not just hanging there, lifeless.

To learn more about Natasha and her life’s adventures, visit her blog. And If you’re currently transitioning or thinking about embarking on the natural hair journey and would like to share your hair woes or concerns, submit your story to: info@backtocurly.com

I’m willing to admit something here that I’ve had a hard time realizing and coming to grips with over the past few weeks. I am officially in a funk! I could easily sit here and scrunch my face and try to deny it all I want, but over the past few days I’ve needed saving from the all too familiar redundancy of life, to questioning whether or not grad school was really such a great idea. Boo.

“Blah….BLAH!” I have these thoughts generally when my heart is either in fear of change or so damn ready for change that it hurts from frustration. What I want is some assurance that this recession will ease up on this girl once she has that thing called a Master’s Degree, and that my growing desire to hightail it out of New York is only just a fleeting feeling. Generally it’s during times like these that I’m truly able to feel all the more free when it comes to how I wear or style my hair. Yesterday during wash day, I did not want to worry about the perfect conditioner to use or what styler would give me the best definition or moisture…I simply wanted the ability to make my hair grow….and GROW some more and not care whether it offended any bystanders (as if!), blocked someone at the local theatre, or stood out once again at my company’s weekly marketing meeting.

I care not, and yesterday to prove it I did whatever. I prepoo’ed, cleansed my scalp and styled with whatever was lying around. Thankfully, most of what’s been lying around my home are products that I’ve tried are nicely compatible with my strands.

This morning after untwisting a little over 10 chunky twists, I stood in front of the mirror and questioned what it was I wanted to achieve….knowing that if I were to feed Fro and tease her till she ballooned, the likelihood of reaching 7 day hair would be dead before it even started…

…With a touch of Monoi de Tahiti oil to prevent stubborn frizz, I shook, separated and continued to tease my hair into an amazingly circumference bouffant. I could not get it nearly as big as I would’ve hoped due to first day hair, but my heart was a little lighter this morning walking to the train station knowing humidity and my ‘hand in Fro’ disease would do their job.

:sigh:

I have no doubt this funk will pass sooner than even I expect or hope…but in the meantime I Love my Fro…I’ve loved her from the time she was a teenie weenie TWA to moments were it reached mid back length and we both wondered ‘what next?’ Today while undergoing yet another mundane/busy Monday at work…I was still able to feel blessed. Happy I’m still gainfully employed, able to afford lunch on a daily basis …and even mildly amused when both my folks call me at high noon demanding why I do not call as often as  I should.

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