From the category archives:

Hair gone wild

Emergency Hair Kit

by kcurly on May 9, 2012

in Hair gone wild,Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow (Random Hair Thoughts),Hair Tools/Other,Tips

Here are some things I absolutely can’t stand at work. First, hair flopping in my eyes. An errant piece of hair can be the most annoying thing on the planet. I have even gone so far as to borrow a paperclip to try and keep the hair out of eye.

Second annoying thing at work: Hair on my shoulders falling into patient beds. No matter how clean my hair is, it’s unacceptable for it to fall into the beds of my tiny patients with their fragile immune systems. To remedy this in the past, I have used a rubber band from the front office.

When I started dipping into the office supplies a little too much, I decided that it was about time I started carrying some backup.

Ouchless bands and headbands These are great for pulling the hair back into a puff (the remedy for any natural hair disaster) or just pulling it back from the face.

Bobby pins To tame that little piece of hair that always sticks up on the side of your head. Or that piece of hair that refuses to stay out of your eye. Oooor maybe you are not feeling today’s braidout and want to make a quick but stylish updo.

Spritz bottle Over the past, I’ve put all sorts of liquid in my mini spritz bottle. During the dryer months, I’ve used a leave in liquid conditioner to remoisturize on the spot. Right now, I have plain water with a few drops of lavender oil. Lavender (along with tea tree oil and rosemary) and water make a nice spritz post-exercise to refresh the hair.

Scarf  Maybe your ouchless headbands aren’t doing the job and you need a bit more backup. A scarf, for me, is a must have. Sometimes it’s not even a matter of needing to fix a hair problem. Sometimes, I just want to accessorize and didn’t have time before I left the house. I usually carry a black colored scarf for simplicity sake.

Gel With the loss of my edges due to post partum shedding, I find gel to be more useful than I have in the past. Until my “nubs” grow back completely, a little gel is helpful in smoothing back the flyaway poofs.

Moisturizer The pink bottle contains a creamy moisturizer. I don’t use this much but I do keep it on hand. I also use it when I run out of lotion for my skin.

Trimming Shears Yes. It’s that serious, folks. I’ve spent too many days examining the same split end over and over. If I see one, I want to trim that sucker. Overboard? Maybe. Genius? Definitely!

——–

So there you have it. The only thing I’m lacking is a rain bonnet. Although I rarely run for the rain, there are times when I still don’t want to get my hair wet.

Do you have an emergency hair bag? What “supplies” do you carry with you at all times?

{ 6 comments }

Kcurly’s Straight Hair Adventures–AKA A Hot Mess

by kcurly on November 1, 2011

in "Hair raising" Experiements and Recipes,Hair gone wild,Rollersetting,Straight Natural Styling,Tips,Updos

I’d said awhile back that I wanted to straighten my hair at the end of September. Well, I’ve had some interesting, er, experimentation since then.

I started off with a simple braid out. It was very soft and my hair felt moisturized. After a day of wearing the braid out, I say to myself :”Self, I bet if you took a flat iron to this incredibly soft and moisturized hair, it will straighten nicely and easily”.

Why do I lie to myself? This was the result.

Cute for a blow out, but not for flat ironing! Yikes.

I think the main source of my anger was because I wasted the time straightening. It was straight as I was ironing it, but then puffed right out once I tried to wear it all down.

Because I was so mad that I got it so wrong, I decided to try something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I wanted to rollerset my hair, then blowdry and then lightly flat iron. My main problem: Rollersetting has never gotten well for me. But it’s something that I need to practice so I thought, why not now?

I know to some of you rollersetting divas out there, this might look like a hot mess, but it is much improved from my prior attempts. I actually *gasp* let it dry completely over night after sitting under the dryer for about an hour. My hooded dryer is not very good and extremely cheapo so it would take hours for me to get completely dry.

I took the rollers out in the morning and I was surprised at how soft it felt.

As you can see in the picture above, I used a technique called “ponytail rollersetting” I saw someone do one years ago on some hair board or blog and have always wanted to try it. I have to say, it makes the whole process so much easier.

What is ponytail rollersetting? It’s the use of a band (I used small no snag bands) on each section of hair, near the scalp…hence the term ponytail. This helps to stretch out the roots of the hair before putting it the rollers in. It only took me about an hour to put the rollers in.

I didn’t have time to flat iron it so I put it up in an updo while I went to one of DS’s extra curriculars.  I have no idea how I did it, it just happened lol.

I then flat ironed lightly.  Since I’d applied flat ironed less than 2 weeks prior on the braid out, I didn’t want to overdo it with the heat.

I really wish I’d taken pictures right after the flat ironing, but my husband wasn’t available to be my photographer. My five year old attempts is but his finger is usually in the shot or the angle he shoots at makes me look like a giant. By the time hubby was able to take a picture, I’d worked out some and had some reversion. Has anyone else noticed that it gets harder and harder to take pictures of your hair once it grows a good amount?

Anyway, here’s the picture. I think I’ve had a bit of growth and I’ve realized that my hair grows in a “V” shape as much as I was trying to get it to grow in a blunt shape. Oh well. I’m going to straighten again in 2-3 months and maybe trim then. I am just barely touching waist length, especially when I pull it down a bit more. I’m not going to claim WL yet though.

Here’s the breakdown of everything I did, if anyone is interested:

  •  Shampoo and DC  and detangled with  Lustrasilk Shea Butter Plus Mango
  •  Rollerset with Nexxus Leave In and ponytail elastics (the little black snagless ones). I used hard rollers with roller pins.
  •  Let hair dry completely.  Take out rollers.
  •  Blow dry each section with comb attachment and Pure Elements Blow Dry Creme
  •  Flat ironed on about 300 degrees with GVP flat iron
As usual, I continue to tweak my hair straightening game. My hair is very coarse and wiry, so I’ve learned that, contrary to what I used to believe, more heat doesn’t always equal straighter hair for me.
My future plans right now are to practice my rollersetting! Thanks for reading :)

{ 6 comments }

Hair update–Some breakage

by kcurly on August 13, 2010

in Hair gone wild,Progress-Length and Health

Well the aftermath of the braids continues! LOL!

First, today’s hair. I did a twist out on wet hair about a week ago. It’s almost time to redo it, but it still looks pretty good.

I used Darcy Botanical's Transitioning Cream (review incoming, once I try it out more) as a leave in and then Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer

I did about 20-25 twists, and let them dry about a day.

I love the way it turned out. I’ve been sleeping with my Satin Sak to preserve the style.

Anyhoo, while twisting my hair for this style, I found a partially undone braid (maybe about an inch braided)…I mean, I called myself detangling, but I guess I missed this. As I attempted to unbraid it, it became a big tangled knot. When I say knot, I mean the kind that sailors use on boats! Horrible!

I struggled with it for a minute, added some more moisturizer, but it was a no go. I finally just got out the scissors and cut it out. So, there’s an inch sized stub somewhere in the back of my head.  *Pours out some Frank Juice in memory of my missing hair*

It’s not very noticeable, thankfully. Looking back, I did not add enough moisturizer before trying to undo the partial braid. Live and learn!

On top of this, my fragile edges have suffered as well. I remember being concerned about my edges when putting in the braids because they felt so thin. I was correct in my concern.

As you can see, it’s much shorter than the rest of my hair. This was common for me when I had a relaxer, but they’d recovered nicely since I’d gone natural. The picture is of the right side. The left side is still ok.

Overall, not a big deal. I have seen worse happen. It’s also the first major setbacks I’ve had since going natural. But still it makes me cringe :/

Am I done with braids? Hardly. This is just a learning experience. I will try them again and correct my mistakes.

{ 6 comments }

Rollerset gone wrong!

by kcurly on March 18, 2009

in Hair gone wild

I post pictures of hair styles that I am proud of , but I think it’s just as important to post pictures of my mistakes. I have never been a rollersetting gal, even when I was relaxed. I have been trying to perfect it as I want to use it as my main means of achieving straight/semi straight hair.

This was my first rollerset where I learned the important lesson of letting the hair completely dry before taking the rollers out. LOL.

I took out the first roller. I was anxious, still not dry, but who cares, right?

I took out the first roller. I was anxious, still not dry, but who cares, right? It can't make that big of a difference.

Or can it?

Or can it?

There you have it, folks: My first rollerset as a natural. Haha. Learn from my mistakes.

{ 13 comments }