Hair Mask of the Week: Shea Moisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Treatment Masque

If y’all missed my DevaCurl review last week, I wanted to test the full potential of just those products alone, and therefore skipped deep conditioning.

A stupid, horrible fucking mistake.

I could’ve taken pictures to show how much of a frizzed, tangled puffball I looked like by day 3, but I was so frustrated and embarrassed by how bad my hair got so quickly. I just shoved it all into an amalgamation of braids/buns until wash day. It was like an unholy cross-breed of Cousin It and Kuriboh.

Yeah, I’m too lazy to buy Photoshop. Just use your imagination.

So I learned my lesson the hard way. Never skipping deep conditioner ever again.

After pondering over my little dragon hoard of hair masks, the one which most caught my attention was Shea Moisture’s Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Treatment Masque. “Hydrate and Replenish Extra Dry Hair?” Well, let’s put that to the test.

This darling packet includes coconut oil, shea butter, mafura seed oil, honey, hydrolyzed rice protein, baobab seed oil, avocado oil, fig extract, mango seed butter, and aloe extract. It’s already off to a good start with some rocking natural ingredients advertised as the perfect blend of nutrients, antioxidants and what-have-you to restore and lock in moisture. The scent is very light with the coconut oil standing out the most– it’s very similar to their 100% Virgin Coconut Oil Masque and leaves your hair smelling so sweet and fruity. As usual, the masque has a wonderfully thick consistency and applies spectacularly to get those stray tangles you missed with your regular conditioner.

As an added bonus, this was the first hair mask where I tried out my new deep  conditioning cap I got for Christmas! My sister’s fiance got me a microwaveable cap from Glow by Daye, and from one use, it already works 100 times better at absorbing product than wrapping my hair in a turban and running a hair dryer over it. If you can make the investment for a deep conditioning cap, I definitely recommend it. It’ll make the perfect addition to your hair routine.

After rinsing, putting in stylers, and air-drying,  here are the final results!

So, sooooo much better than what my hair’s been in the past couple weeks; super defined, minimal frizz, soft and voluminous! I also styled with Shea Moisture’s Coconut Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie and Curling Gel Souffle which has proven to be the best styler combo for hold and moisture without heaviness or crunch. I’ve never been happier with my curls!

This was also a hell of a week to test my hair’s versatility with the sudden cold, rainy and windy weather here in Northern California. Given that I commute everywhere and have to walk forever to get to a bus stop, I was worried my hair would immediately suffer, especially since I had to shove it in a hood most days. But to my surprise, I didn’t have to add more of the smoothie until day 4 and only on day 5 did I have to put my hair in a protective style.

Here’s my day 4 hair for reference.

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God. Damn. I never had my hair last longer than 3 days without morphing into total a rats’ nest, so I’m thoroughly impressed!

The Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil definitely takes 100% Virgin Coconut Oil’s place as one of Shea Moisture’s best hair masques I tried thus far. If you’re really struggling to keep in moisture, you exhausted every other treatment, and the weather is being absolutely unkind to your hair, you gotta give this masque a go.

It’s a perfect 10/10 from me!

DevaCurl’s The Kit for All Curl Kind Review

Among my Christmas gifts, I received my first ever DevaCurl products!

This is a brand I held off purchasing for a long time mainly cause the price, even though I saw their products constantly recommended in curly hair videos. I see them from time to time in stores like Target or CVS, buuuuuut they’re technically not authorized retailers for DevaCurl. So there’s a high possibility those products could either be expired or bootleg. At best, they may just be surplus merchandise which an authorized retailer couldn’t carry for whatever reason, and they just gave them away to the first buyers. But since these are $20-$40 products, I’d rather be sure I’m getting the real deal and not kill my hair.

Thankfully, this set is perfect to test out DevaCurl before committing to the full sizes. It contains 4 travel-sized bottles with a No-Poo, conditioner, styling cream and gel. The scents across all products range from floral/herbal to sweet candy with just the right amount of subtlety. This brand is also vegan and completely sulfate, paraben, silicone and cruelty free. For this wash day, aside from a sesame seed oil pre-poo, I only used what was provided in the set.

The No-Poo is a co-wash and an alternative to shampoo which is often too harsh for your scalp. It contains grape seed oil, peppermint oil, wheat amino acids, hops extract, and rosemary extract— the most prominent scent— which are fantastic to clean your scalp without stripping away your natural oils. As it is a sulfate-free formula, there is absolutely no lather. This often trips people up on wash day, because we’re so used to shampoo having some lather for that deep clean feeling. I definitely used a generous palmful to feel the effects. Because it’s a co-wash and therefore thicker than your standard shampoo, you gotta massage into your scalp like your life depends on it. But after enough time and patience, it’s super refreshing and cleans your scalp splendidly. I probably wouldn’t use this every single wash day, but it works best for when you don’t feel like a total grease monkey or need a pick-me-up in between washes.

Next up, is the One Condition. This conditioner contains most of the same ingredients as the No-Poo with a little extra surprise of olive oil. It’s a little bit thicker than the No-Poo, and thankfully doesn’t require much to detangle. I was actually surprised the conditioner was sucked right into my hair within a minute or two, and that it was enough to get out 99% of my tangles since I’m usually detangling up to when I style. Maybe it’s time I try out olive oil to treat my hair. In any case, this is a fantastic conditioner, and I just may have to buy a full size bottle.

Skipping over a mask, I move straight to the Styling Cream. It contains hydrolyzed jojoba protein, hops extract, rosemary extract, hydrolyzed wheat protein, and hydrolyzed wheat starch. The jojoba and starch are most highlighted in the cream to deliver defined, frizz-free curls without the crunch, and of course, it doesn’t fail to do so with this lightweight cream. And this is the point where the products start smelling like candy, and boy howdy, do I want to eat them. It’s also wonderful when refreshing your curls in between wash days.

And to top it all off, I finish with Light Defining Gel. This gel contains hydrolyzed castor oil, hops extract, rosemary extract and hydrolyzed wheat, corn and soy protein. It holds incredibly well which I learned the hard way as I accidentally used a little too much. Nevertheless, it’s the perfect finishing touch for definition and hold, and the initial heaviness goes away after a couple days.

And after God knows how many hours plopping and air-drying, here are the final results!

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The first couple days were already a mass improvement from the sudden dryness I got during vacation. I had to go back with a detangling spray and oil mist to get out some leftover tangles and seal in the look, but it was serving me well so far. However, by day three, my hair was on its way to being a frizzy, knotted, puffball, and it felt like nothing I was doing for in-between treatments was going to help. Time to shove it all into braids until wash day.

That’s not to say these products don’t work, but I think one of two things (maybe both) happened:

1. I may be protein sensitive, and my hair just overreacted to the ingredients, so a full routine just on DevaCurl may not be the way to go;
2. I skipped deep conditioning, and my hair is dying of thirst.

I hesitate to do a full routine again with just DevaCurl since I don’t know for sure if I’m protein sensitive, but these products still work fantastic individually. The No-Poo is refreshing and cleans deeply; the One Condition is probably the best conditioner ever; the Styling Cream adds the perfect amount of moisture; and the Light Defining Gel is super strong and can last through most anything. I just really wish this set had a mask to test out the full potential of the brand, but at least I know what else to look for to see for sure if DevaCurl is right for me. And of course, I will test out different wash day routine combinations with DevaCurl to see where each product works best and how it bounces off of some of my lower-end brands.

Keep in mind every head of hair is different, and what may work out well for certain types may be a disaster for others. Some curly haired people swear by DevaCurl while others avoid it at all costs. I’m definitely glad I tried out this little set to get an idea how my hair reacts to it, and I can’t wait to see what else this brand offers. Hopefully in the near future, I can include their masks for my Hair Mask of the Week. If you’re at all curious on DevaCurl and have the money to throw down, definitely let it be on one of these kits. You’re guaranteed to find some surprises!

It’s a solid 8/10 from me!

How to Travel with Your Curly Hair Routine

So you have a big trip coming up. Going to the city for a weekend, visiting your family after finals, maybe traveling abroad. But, oh dear, your wash day is coming up!

You only have so much space in your luggage, and not all of your essentials come in convenient travel size containers. Do you put your hair in a tight braid and pray to God it’ll last for a few extra days? Do you gamble with whatever shampoo and conditioner your parents own? Do you just buy brand new stuff while on the go and make space during your traveling?

Well, have no fear, because I’m here to break down how to travel with your curly hair routine without taking up too much space or getting in trouble with TSA!

I’ll soon be flying down to Southern California to be home with my family for Christmas, so I knew when it came time to back, I had to make some executive decisions on what I wanted to bring for wash day. I actually will have a checked bag since I’m transporting Christmas presents, but I thought it’d be fun to explore options for a curly hair routine while traveling. Here we go!

Shampoo

If you’re like me and only wash your hair once a week or less, chances are likely it takes you forever to go through shampoo. Hell, I’m only just at the halfway mark of the first Shea Moisture shampoo I bought back in early July. As such, I don’t need to buy new shampoo just for traveling when for a lesser price, I can just fill up an empty travel size bottle with the shampoo I already have. As an alternative, you can also pack a solid shampoo bar and not worry at all about the strict fluid ounces guidelines.

For this trip, I’m packing the Shea Moisture Rose Oil Complex shampoo which I already have in travel size bottles thanks to the original packaging crapping out on me and spilling all over the goddamn shower floor. Yes, I’m still mildly irked about that ordeal. This shampoo is a bit more runny than I’m used to with Shea Moisture, but it still gets the job done for a clean scalp with a lovely rose scent.

Conditioner

I previously reviewed one of Garnier Fructis’s One Minute Hair Masks, and one thing I loved the most was that it was the perfect size for traveling at 3.4 fluid ounces. It’s also a 3-in-1 with a conditioner, mask and leave-in, so that’s already about half of your routine in one product. So I will use this as both my conditioner and leave-in. Instead of the goji berry mask, I will use the avocado one, which is advertised as a smoothing treatment. I don’t know how much differently it will perform (though I already do like the lighter fruity scent), but I’m still psyched to try it out. Again, you can also use a solid conditioner bar as an alternative to fluids and wondering if 3.4 ounces is enough for your curls. Shea Moisture also has a travel size leave-in treatment spray, or if you prefer to DIY, mix one part conditioner with two parts water in a spray bottle.

Hair Mask

Even though the One Minute Hair Mask functions as a 3-in-1, I need something with a little extra oomph to lock in moisture. And that goes to Hask’s Keratin Protein Smoothing Deep Conditioner. I’m thankfully not protein sensitive (at least knowing of the masks I tried so far), and this brand just does wonders for my hair. I can’t wait to finally get around to reviewing another mask from them. Hair mask packets are always 2 ounces or under and for super cheap, so this is the easiest thing to pick up for traveling. Hask and Shea Moisture always have an abundant variety of masks to choose from for your needs.

Styler

Stylers are the biggest pains in the ass to find in a travel size. Sometimes you may have to forgo them entirely so you can focus on packing everything else. But I was thankfully able to find one styler in travel size: Shea Moisture’s Coconut and Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie. This is one of the brand’s most popular lines with a powerful floral scent and a ton of essentials ingredients to moisturize your hair. Their Curling Gel Souffle is working wonders to hold my curl pattern without product build up, so I have high hopes for the smoothie.

Miscellaneous

You will also still need to pack the following major essentials for your hair routine, because you never know if your destination will only have terry-cloth fiber towels:

1. Plastic caps
2. 2 Cotton T-shirts (one to scrunch out water, one to plop at night)
   • If you have a microfiber towel and/or silk scarves, even better!
3. Scrunchies

And voila! You’re ready to go on your trip without skipping your wash day!

Of course, everyone’s routines and needs will vary, and you may have to sacrifice a couple steps or improvise with what you can find on your trip. I know I’ll definitely have to scourge through the kitchen for a pre-poo cause lord knows conditioning without will be absolute hell. Hopefully, these recommendations and tips will help make at least one part of packing much smoother.

Happy Holidays!

Hair Mask of the Week: Shea Moisture’s 100% Virgin Coconut Oil Rehydration Treatment Masque

Another long, long…. loooong, stressful week at the office come and gone. Just when you think things are going well, the universe throws another tidal wave of problems which throws a wrench in freaking everything. Just hoping the next week will go by much smoother and things will go according to plan. But before then, time to save my dry and stiff curls with a hair mask!

Last week, I gave sesame seed oil a try as a pre-shower treatment, and it worked spectacularly to get out some of the worst tangles. Since then, I researched overnight oil treatments just so I wouldn’t have to get up early in the morning for a 2-3 hour hair routine. The night before my wash day, I coated my hair in about 2 tablespoons of sesame seed oil, massaging into my scalp and finger combing through this one stiff patch where I left it in a bun for 2 days. After that, I put my hair in a plastic cap, covered it with a microfiber towel, and kept it on while I slept… which ended up being almost 12 hours. But thank God I did it as an overnight treatment, cause it saved so much time in the morning, and made the rest of my routine go much smoother than usual.

But I digress. We’re here for another wonderful masque by Shea Moisture and their 100% Virgin Coconut Oil line! Of course, coconut oil is a massive staple in hair care, especially for curls, and when this masque promises to rehydrate and condition, it fucking delivers. This is my second time using this masque since starting my curly hair journey, and I’m definitely throwing down for the full size tub the next time I go shopping. It’s a fucking lifesaver.

Along with coconut oil and juice, this hair masque contains shea butter, hydrolyzed rice protein and glycerin. It doesn’t need much to get the job done, and those key ingredients are plenty to get out those leftover tangles from your regular conditioner. The coconut scent is very light and pleasant to the point where you almost want to eat it, and it lingers for quite a while in your hair. As always from Shea Moisture, the consistency is super thick and creamy with more than enough product to coat your hair and then some. Once again, if you want the full potential of a Shea Moisture masque, either leave it in for 30-40 minutes and apply an extra 30 seconds of heat. It helps a ton to absorb the product if your hair’s porosity is super finicky.

To help lock in the moisture, I also used Lush’s R&B Hair Moisturizer, and I switched up my usual Curls Blueberry Bliss gel with Shea Moisture’s Curling Gel Souffle, which I was lucky to find for cheap at a Marshall’s. It’s thicker than Jell-O, and a little goes a very long way to hold your curls without making them crunchy (a mistake I made last week).

And here are the final results!

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This was a pretty good day to test out my hair as me and my housemates went up to San Francisco the same day to the Museum of Ice Cream to eat sweets, take pictures, and play with some of the displays. My curls held damn well throughout the day, and by the end, my hair was very soft and fluffy. Even as it’s getting colder and windier outside, the frizz is still manageable enough for a quick, relatively painless detangle. However, because the masque alone is super moisturizing, you gotta be really careful on using too much leave-ins until your next wash day or else it’ll get mushy. I’ve been trying to cut back on the leave-ins and just stick with a detangling spray and oil mist, but even then I’m starting to feel some build up. Thankfully just a little bit of cold water is enough to take off some of the weight.

I can’t recommend this masque enough regardless of your hair type. It did wonders to save my curls, and I guarantee your hair will thank you. Another knock outta the park for Shea Moisture!

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Folks! I finally decided to get my ass in gear and create an Instagram! If you want to see some fun photos like my day at the Museum of Ice Cream, follow me @jellylizzy!

And while you’re at it, consider buying me a ko-fi!

From Pantry to Hair: Sesame Seed Oil Treatment

So instead of my usual Hair Mask of the Week, I thought it’d be fun to spice up my weekly hair care feature, especially when late autumn is quite brutal to my hair as of late. Masks and leave-in conditioners can only go so far until product build-up crawls out of the depths of hell. And I know there’s dozens of hair remedies easy to make with most anything right out of your kitchen, so I figured to test some methods out and see what works best to include in my hair routine.

Oils are usually a major staple for any curly hair routine: Coconut oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, the list goes on. But the one oil I never heard from all the beauty bloggers I follow is sesame seed oil.

Me and my boss got on the topic of hair care, and she mentioned that a common traditional treatment a lot of Indian girls use for volume, moisture and growth is sesame seed oil. Supposedly after long enough use, you don’t even need to regularly use conditioner. It sounded fantastic to test out, so the next day, my boss gave me a small sample of sesame seed oil to see if I liked the scent, and of course, I took it home to try out.

Now, I have sesame seed oil at home for cooking, but it’s the Kadoya brand which is super salty. I love this scent and taste to death and could drink the whole bottle if I wanted to. But it’s one of those ultra powerful scents you’re not quite sure if you want lingering in your hair for an indeterminate amount of time. Thankfully, the brand my boss gave me, Idhayam, has a much lighter scent.

The sample she gave me was about 1-2 tablespoons, which was just the perfect amount to lightly coat my hair. I massaged some in my scalp and slowly worked it in through the ends, detangling the worst of the knots. Within the last month, conditioning has been an absolute nightmare which even the trusty Maui Moisture can’t get through. So I was really surprised that just a couple tablespoons of sesame seed oil gave me the perfect headstart for my wash day. As my boss advised, I left the oil in for an hour to ensure the oil would completely sink into my ends, and then I continued with my regular wash day.

Aaaand here are the final results!

 

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So since I left the sesame seed oil in for so long, I skipped my regular conditioner and just left in the Maui Moisture Agave Mask. It’s a little frizzier, but I also used a bit more gel than usual to hold as many curls as I could. I’m so happy it held for as long as it did (even though I felt the weight of product build-up before I put it in a bun on day 5).

My boss gave me a full bottle of sesame seed oil, and I can’t wait to regularly incorporate this in my routine, cause it’s what my hair desperately needs in this murderous winter. I looked into a few overnight masks with coconut oil, and will test to see if it has the same effect with sesame seed oil.

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Just in case you missed my last post, I’m moving my movie review Tumblr blog over here to WordPress. I successfully backed up and imported everything, so I don’t have to worry about reposting every single thing! However, I still gotta go through, edit tags and categorize everything, so please bear with as I come up with a system. I have some new reviews and analyses in the works, so I can’t wait to share all that on one platform alongside my usual lifestyle and hair care blogs!

Hair Mask of the Week: Garnier Fructis Color Vibrancy Treat 1 Minute Hair Mask + Goji Extract

Garnier Fructis, while inexpensive and wonderfully scented, is usually not a curly hair friendly brand. There’s some good stylers here and there, but all their shampoos have sulfates, a vast majority of their conditioners have silicones, and the natural ingredients are super minimal. And probably like many of y’all out there, this was one of my go-to brands solely based on the price and scents. So I made sure to avoid this brand like the plague once I began my curly hair journey.

But since getting into curly hair YouTube bloggers, Garnier Fructis still occasionally pops up in product reviews and hair routine challenges. In more recent months, they introduced silicone and paraben free conditioners and incorporated more natural ingredients like aloe vera extract. And one of their new products to surprise curly-haired folks is the 1 Minute Hair Masks.

These masks come in 5 amazing scents, and are available in 3.4 and 13.5 ounce jars. No silicones, no parabens, and vegan friendly! The stores heavily vary on what sizes and scents they carry. Some carry most, if not all, of the scents, while others only have two kinds, and you’ll be lucky if you can find the larger tubs. I hope the company gets more consistent with their shipments, cause it’s super rocking that they’re listening to customers and creating silicone-free formulas, and they really shouldn’t sell themselves short.

In any case, for this week, I used this line’s Color Vibrancy Treat with goji extract. It also contains soybean oil, sunflower seed oil, and coconut oil. As expected of Garnier, the berry scent is absolutely a-maz-ing, and it’s up there with Maui Moisture as products I would definitely eat. However, it is a bit strong at first, and some of the scents are a little perfume-y. But it thankfully doesn’t linger for longer than a day. If you’re not a fan of strong scents, give it a whiff before you buy, so you know what you’re working with.

These are also little 3-in-1’s, so not only is it a mask, but it can also be used as a conditioner and a leave-in treatment. So for this wash day, I used this as my leave-in instead of my Curls Blueberry Bliss.

The consistency is that perfect in-between of creamy light and buttery thick, almost like a Greek yogurt. As it can be used three ways, of course, it has to be lighter than your standard mask, so it won’t weigh down your hair. I was worried this little jar would be empty by the time I was done, but I was really surprised that I only needed about 2 or 3 scoops to coat my hair. A little goes a long way! The slip is pretty damn good to melt through the leftover tangles after conditioning.

I know it’s advertised as a “1 minute mask,” but let’s be real here, you’re not going to get anywhere close to a decent deep condition in just one minute. I know you’re trying Garnier, but my day 7 hair is too thirsty. Hell, I don’t even leave my standard conditioner in for just a minute before rinsing. If you really want to see the full potential of this product, leave it in for about 20-30 minutes.

After rinsing, I used a small dollop of it for my leave-in. Again, melts through the tangles.

Let’s see the before…

That face that only white people do apparently

And after!

October 2018

I really love that I’m slowly getting more kinky curls, and this is some pretty decent volume. Leaving the mask in longer was definitely worth it for the softness and shine. It was wonderful at detangling and moisturizing for a new week, and thankfully, the strong smell didn’t last too long.

While the consistency was enough to get through my hair, I’m not sure if it’d be enough for those with thicker curls. I only needed a couple handfuls, but with the travel size jar, that’s already halfway gone. If you want to try this out, but you’re not sure if you’ll have enough product, throw down for the larger size for more bang for your buck.

Overall, I’m thoroughly impressed with Garnier stepping up its game and creating curly hair friendly products which work. Keeping my fingers crossed for what they’ll dish out next!

Hair Mask of the Week: Maui Moisture Strength & Anti-Breakage + Agave Hair Mask

I used to use the Maui Moisture hair masks as leave-in conditioners when I was still figuring out a proper routine. It definitely gets the job done to lock in moisture, but it’s too heavy as a leave-in and builds up over time, even if you’re extra careful to use as little as possible. I switched out my leave-in conditioner for the Curls Blueberry Bliss instead (which is serving wonderfully for my hair), and am strictly using the Maui Moisture hair masks for their intended use.

When I first tried out this brand’s masks, I started with their Heal & Hydrate line. This time, I picked out the Strength & Anti-Breakage + Agave hair mask. This particular line includes agave, hibiscus oil, and pineapple extract, the last of which is the most dominant scent. Of course, it smells absolutely delicious, and I’m instantly craving the fruit and wanna shove it in my mouth.

While too thick as a leave-in, the consistency is just perfect as a mask. And it’s much more convenient stored in a tub to control how much to put in your hair than fiddling around with the pouches to make sure you don’t waste a drop. This brand is just wonderful at getting out all those leftover tangles you missed, and I definitely recommend it if you’re struggling to detangle.

But what really surprised me about this mask was how much my hair just sucked up the product after leaving it in for 30 minutes under heat. I usually have a lot of excess mask to rinse out, but this is really damn fantastic at locking the moisture in the strands. And the results are just as phenomenal!

Jesus Christ, what is that?

Ah, much better!

From greasy mop to refreshed and defined curls!

This is the best mask I tried so far for curl definition, and it leaves my hair super soft. The pineapple scent doesn’t linger for too long, but if you’re not wild about strong smells, this is definitely worth it. However, I noticed a couple sections of hair dried up much too quickly than others. Given how much my hair absorbed the mask, I probably didn’t use enough for the best possible results. But hey, if my only complaint was that I needed to use more, that’s gotta be good, right?

I can’t recommend Maui Moisture enough, and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store!

My New Curly Hair Routine and Products

If you didn’t see my last post, I began a curly hair journey after years of just barely managing it all. As such, I completely switched out my shampoo and conditioner and stocked up on new products to discipline myself into actually taking care of my hair. Now, everything I use is sulfate and silicon free with more natural ingredients, and they work fabulously to improve my hair’s health and curl pattern.

Shea Moisture: Smooth & Tame Shampoo and Conditioner

Shea Moisture is a safe go-to brand for curly hair with many items catering to those with Afro-textured hair. Most of their products go for about $12 each, so it’s a little more on the pricey side, but it’s definitely worth it. And there’s a hell of a variety in scents and ingredients suited for your hair’s needs. The Smooth & Tame line contains argan oil, shea butter, almond milk, and marshmallow root extract.

I only have to wash my hair once a week— maybe a co-wash in between depending how tangled my hair gets until then—, so after about three months, I’m just barely halfway through the shampoo, and I finished the conditioner. They’re absolutely perfect to rehydrate my scalp and hair after a week of grime and dry skin without stripping the natural sebum. I usually use two palmfuls of conditioner to detangle my hair which feels pretty standard. And of course, the smell is absolutely wonderful!

Maui Moisture Shea Butter Hair Mask

Next to Shea Moisture, Maui Moisture is another safe brand for curls. The main ingredients for everything are aloe juice, coconut water, and coconut oil, and each product smells so good you could eat it– even the label has to warn you against eating it, which is fucking hilarious. The price ranges depending where you get it, but it’s usually between $7-10 per item. However, since it’s still a new-ish brand, it doesn’t have as wide variety of products like Shea Moisture, but you still get the major basics to start off.

Everything in the Dry, Damaged Hair line is made of shea butter and macadamia oil. The hair mask doubles as a leave-in treatment, and I used it more often as the latter while I was still figuring out how to deep condition. It’s especially amazing in between washes to maintain the frizz and keep the curl pattern in place. However, as a leave-in, you have to be careful not to use too much or else it’ll build up and weigh your hair down. It’s been a bit challenging to gauge how much product I actually need to get the job done— especially with this awful summer amplified by California wildfires—, so it’s best to start a little at a time to see how your hair reacts.

Curls Blueberry Bliss Curl Control Jelly

Another curly hair friend actually gave me this because they’re not too into gels, and I was missing another styling product. This is another more expensive brand with the gel alone ranging about $16-18, but I definitely won’t might throwing down that money the next time I have to buy gel or anything of this brand.

The gel contains hydrogenated castor oil, blueberry leaf extract, aloe leaf juice, shea butter, mango seed butter, and argan oil– all the good shit your hair needs. It’s very light, and for my hair length, I only need a small palmful to comb and scrunch through to achieve softness and shine. And it smells like berry cotton candy, so if you like something sweet, this line is just for you. I only use it once a week on my wash day, but I definitely need to up it since my curls only last so long in the heat and wind.

Promise Organic Argan Oil

Because clearly the shampoo and conditioner weren’t enough, I also have straight up argan oil. My mom gave me this ages back, and it was good to maintain frizz when I remembered to put it in. This may or may not be a discontinued product since I can’t find any prices, but the Promise Organic brand ranges about $8-12, depending what you get. It’s the perfect finishing touch after showering to get in an extra bit of moisture.

I use this daily for scalp massages and hydrating in between washes— sometimes detangling as well if I don’t feel like getting my hair wet—, and only need 2 or 3 pumps. This is another product you have to be careful on overdoing and making sure it’s all evenly distributed, or else it will weigh down your hair. My scalp gets a little itchy the longer I go without washing, so oils help phenomenally to soothe and resist the urge to over-shampoo.

So the first major steps of my curly hair journey is complete: going sulfate and silicon free and getting more moisturizing products! I also finally set myself in the habit of deep conditioning once a week and checking out different packs every time I’m in CVS within the past month. I’m definitely going to bounce around products depending on what’s available and what sounds great to test out. I’m also working on an in-between wash routine, and will post the results once I finish testing out some methods.

Until next time lovelies!

My Curly Hair Journey: 2 Month Progress

Since my sister explores more skin and make-up products—which you can find on her blog, Marina Dove—, she occasionally finds some neat hair care stuff to send to me and her fiance for us to take better care of our curly hair. One YouTube video led to another and another and a couple runs to CVS, and I can’t believe I went 22 years without really knowing how to take care of my hair or what it could look like. And I wanted to share how the start of my curly hair journey is going!

These were from when I was 4-6 years old

I always had thick curly/wavy hair since before I could remember– definitely waves more so with a touch of curl at the ends. Sometimes I got more curls on my own without curlers or taking braids out, but it never stayed long in between washes. I figured out early on I only needed to wash my hair every other day or it got too frizzy. Any time I cut my hair short, I instantly looked like Shirley Temple or a Roaring 20s flapper.  I loved my hair, and I still do, but, of course, it was a bitch to manage.

Brushing was always an ordeal because it hurt so much, but hey, how else was I supposed to fix the rat’s nest? My mom often went back to brush the spots I missed while I whined through the pain. Over time, I got better about actually brushing my hair, but it still got frizzier as I grew up. Through middle and high school, I was kinda lazy on taking better care of my hair. Sometimes I remembered to spray in OGX oils or my hair would be miraculously fine on its own, but I still had full on Hermoine Granger hair on other days. I wasn’t too self-conscious on having curly/wavy hair, but it was really annoying that it just wasn’t staying neat. If I really gave up, I just threw it all into a ponytail or a braid— I honestly can’t remember a day through all of middle school where I didn’t have my hair up except for when I cut it short in the middle of 7th grade.

From when I donated my hair 3 years ago

For the longest time, I thought I had dandruff— which it turns out was just a standard dry scalp—, so I used Head & Shoulders since I was about 9 or 10. I stopped using it sometime after I turned 20, because it dried out my scalp too much to the point where zits broke out along my hairline (yes, it’s as horrible as it sounds).  From then on, I jumped around with Garnier Fructis cause it was a next cheapest thing, and I paid more attention to the nice smells than what I actually put in my hair.

Thankfully, I had no patience for dryers and irons, so I avoided too much heat damage. I only straightened or curled my hair 3 or 4 times a year at most for formal events like a school dance or if my mom was really itching to find more ways to play with my hair. And I hated using a blow dryer after a shower because I was too antsy to sit still for 10 minutes to dry my hair.

Within the past year, I noticed my hair was getting awful to manage again. I often didn’t put it up when I went to bed, so I sometimes woke up to my own hair strangling me. There was also always one patch on top of my head which got so dry and tangled, and I spent eons getting it out– God forbid, if I forgot to brush it out and realize it’s there later on in the day. I almost went at my hair with a pair of scissors cause I was so tired with it being a mess.

March 2018

The first video my sister sent me was Gillian McLellan’s Curly Hair Journey. It was freaking mind-blowing to see her go from the Hermoine Granger frizz to all these intricate ringlets framing her face. Of course, one of the big things she mentions is sulfates and silicons, so no wonder my hair was always so unmanageable– I might as well have been washing my hair with battery acid.

For any newcomers, sulfates are compounds which makes shampoo lather. They’re common in all kinds of soap including laundry detergent, but it can strip out moisture in your hair if used in excess. And if they’re combined with other chemicals like alcohols, you’re just setting up for disaster. Silicons are advertised as protective coating for your hair to make it shiny and less frizzy, but they are non-water soluble and prevent your natural oils from getting through, therefore, your hair gets frizzy regardless. The only way to get out silicons is with sulfates, so you’re in a constant cycle of endless frizz.

But it’s not enough to just change the your products. You also have to change how you wash your hair and take care of it in between washes, which requires a lot of time and patience to get noticeable results. Since I was in the middle of moving and didn’t have the time to completely change my hair routine— much less the money to throw down on Deva Curl—, I extensively researched some more.

After Gillian’s video, I came across CurlyPenny’s YouTube video “How NOT to Care For Curly Hair.” And wouldn’t you know it? The biggest curly hair sin is brushing your hair dry. So I wasn’t overreacting when I was in pain! My hair was yelling at me for moisture! And no freaking wonder that brushing did little to nothing to get my hair neat and would just frizz out. Now I don’t use a hairbrush anymore; only my fingers to comb and detangle, and it gets the job done just fine.

Since following CurlyPenny, I also stopped putting my hair up in towel turbans and use a cotton T-shirt instead. I put in conditioner when my hair is off my back and shoulders (which also prevents product residue on my skin and breakouts). I washed my hair less and less, and now I only need to do a full wash once a week with a rinse or co-wash— which is washing your hair only with conditioner—in between depending on the summer weather. I even bought silk hair wraps on Amazon to put my hair in when I sleep.

As for new products, that’s when I got into BiancaReneeToday and her collab with CurlyPenny in “How to Shop for Curly Hair Products” and “Conditioners Under $10 for Curly Hair.” Those put me into the habit of checking the ingredients on the back instead of blindly trusting the packaging or getting sucked into the scent. They’re also incredibly informative on what brands are and aren’t curly hair friendly which makes shopping so much smoother.

September 2018

After a few runs to CVS with enough coupons, I successfully replaced my shampoo and conditioner, and I supplied on leave-in treatments, oils and more to get my hair healthy! I know two months isn’t a long time to make a difference compared to the beauty bloggers on YouTube who spent years reversing damage, but compared to what it was before, my hair is noticeably curlier and so much easier to manage. I still have a long way to go, but thank God, I’m on the right track for actually taking care of my curls.

If you’re looking for ways to treat your hair better, I definitely recommend starting with the videos linked above, regardless of your hair texture. These women know their shit and go into a ton of detail on the do’s and don’ts of hair care. If you have more wavy curls like me, I also recommend India Batson and see how her routine differs. YouTube is also a wonderful hub of resources for Afro-textured hair, and it’s wonderful to see other bloggers try out these methods too with amazing results.

The three keys to a new hair routine is patience, experimentation, and balance. Not everyone likes the same products, and even the best break some major rules from time to time. Make your best judgement from your research, work in new methods and products bit by bit, and let time do the rest.

Stay tuned for the next post where I share the products I’ve been using!