From the category archives:

Rollersetting

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 }

Post image for Ask Kcurly–Hooded dryer/ heat damage/teen hair groups

Ask Kcurly–Hooded dryer/ heat damage/teen hair groups

by kcurly on May 2, 2011

in Ask Kcurly,Healthy Hair Tips,Heat Damage,Rollersetting,Teens and Natural Hair

Hi Kcurly! I stumbled upon your website, and it’s giving me even more encouragment to go natural. But I have a question. Is it ok to roller set my hair while tranistioning and then dry it with a hooded dryer, or would that change the texture of my hair? I’m wondering if the constant heat would make the natural hair straight over time as it grows out. (I didn’t want to do the big chop until a year or so of growing it out.) Thanks for your help, and I love your website!

Sincerely,

Kaity

Kaity,

Thanks for the email. If you’re going to use heat, doing a rollerset and sitting under a dryer is better than using direct heat such as a flat iron. There is also not a bunch of manipulation. However, it is still heat and therefore still has the potential to damage. Think about it, some of those hooded dryers get pretty hot and the rollers can burn your hand when you touch them.

Always use a heat protectant and try to use a “low” setting. You may even want to just sit under the dryer for about half the time you normally would and then let it air dry the rest of the way. Or you could just air dry completely.

Now, having said all that, some ladies can use high amounts of heat without damage. Though I personally would not risk it.

Thanks for reading

 

Hi.
I was reading your review on Bee Mine Deep Conditioner. I love that stuff. I was wondering if it could be used daily and if you do regular conditioner first THEN deep conditioner, or just one or the other.
Melissa

Melissa, I wouldn’t use a regular conditioner before I used a DC. I like to use a DC on relatively clean hair, whether it be freshly rinsed or shampoo’d because I feel it absorbs the moisture better.

As for using it daily…that would probably be too much for me. Not to mention too much money ;) However, that’s not to say that you can’t do it. Just be sure your hair is not getting overly moisturized. You will know it’s too moisturized when it feels mushy.

The best thing you can do is experiment. Just because it doesn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you!

Take care

Hi, my name is Stephanie. I’m 14 years old and have recently decided to go natural after realizing how beautiful natural hair is and how unhappy I am with my relaxed hair. I’ve been going at it for a little over a month now & it is truly a trial and error process finding the right products for my hair. Its been quite fustrating and aggravating. Honestly if it was up to me, I’d chop it all off right now. For the fact that I know how quickly society will judge me, I’ll be getting trims until it’s all gone. I’m just not comfortable yet rockin a TWA. Its times like this I wish I was older, but anywho.

I came across your blog by liking some facebook natural hair groups & they’ve been a lot of help. I saw the article you had on Teens going natural and enjoyed reading about people going through similar things like me. I also realized that I have no transitioning friends and barely any that are natural. I think it would be really good to have a natural teen group or somethin. If you know any of their emails or contact info I would much appreciate you giving it to me because I’d love to not have to just go through this experience alone. Have a blessed day & keep up your blog, its amazing. God Bless

Stephanie.

Thanks for the email. Congrats on your decision to go natural! I know high school can be a rough place in general especially when you are going against the grain. We 20 and 30 somethings think we have it rough changing our hair (and we do) but it’s a whole different animal doing it in a high school environment.

And please don’t wish you were older. Think instead about when you are older, how you will look back on these days and feel such pride that you went natural in spite of those around you.So anyway, on to your question. There are several great sources for teens out there.

Nappturality has a teen forum where you can interact with other teens going through the same thing. I like Nappturality for new naturals because there’s no straight or relaxed hair floating around to take your eye off the prize. Just remember, that they don’t allow talk of heat usage or texlaxing.There’s also a blog called Curly and Young. It’s a blog that caters to young ladies. I’ve checked it out and she’s got not only her own experiences but also features other young ladies.

Also, I am sure that there are probably some other young ladies at your school who would love to go natural but have the same fears that you have. It might be worth starting an after school group where you ladies learn and talk about natural hair. I know there are a few universities that have groups such as this.Anyway, I’m going to post this question on my blog to see if we can get some other suggestions for teen online groups.

Take care and thanks for reading!

{ 1 comment }

The Problem With Kcurly…

by kcurly on November 8, 2009

in Random Hair Pictures,Rollersetting

…is that she gets inpatient and lazy at times. Usually not with my hair, but rollersetting is usually enough to crack through my patience!

If you haven’t been a regular reader, you probably don’t know that I can’t rollerset properly. With this last attempt, I got much closer, but still!

Let me also say this about Kcurly. She hates having rollers in her hair, she hates sleeping in rollers. Wearing rollers is about the only thing you can do to your hair that you can’t really hide what’s going on under a hat or wig.

Anyway, here are the results, view them if you dare! I oil rinsed, DC’d, and then set with Aveda Brilliant Damage Control, coconut oil, and a bit of Aveda Anti-humtecant Pomade. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be using heat but I wanted to protect my hair just in case.

I post pictures of my successes as well as my failures because I think it’s important for people new to the hair game to know that there is a learning curve when styling your hair. I’ve gotten pretty good at doing mine, but there are still hurdles to overcome. So if you’re out there now struggling to do a particular style, please don’t give up. I’ll be right there with you!

Im being silly here, but I tried to make a face that properly displayed my dismay at having so much more hair to roll.

I'm being silly here, but I tried to make a face that properly displayed my dismay at having so much more hair to roll. Six in, fifty to go!

Here I am being smug, because I see the first couple turned out pretty nice. Yay, I can rollerset!!

Here I am being smug, because I see the first couple turned out pretty nice. "Yay, I can rollerset!!"

This is after I seperated the curls. It turned out nicely in the front...

This is after I seperated the curls. It turned out nicely in the front...

And then...Hmm...

And then...Hmm...

What the?!

What the...?!

Sooo…what happened?

I got lazy in the back. I started out in the front grabbing small pieces, making sure they were thoroughly wet, all that. By the time I got to the back, I felt rushed and I was ready to be done. Big mistake on my part. I also did not pull them as taunt as I did the front. Now, granted, the back portions of my hair are much more coarse and a tighter curl than the front.Which means that I need to start in the back first, when I am fresh.

I am not completely disheartened however. I did do much better than I have in the past and I’ve realized my mistakes. I plan to try this again in the next month.I’m going to stick to perm rods and try to just do the same type of curly ‘do as I think it will be easier.

I ended up flat ironing it with my maxiglide, which turned out ok. I am also going back on a No Heat Challenge for a few months.  My maxiglide and I have been meeting up far too much lately.

{ 9 comments }