Hair Journal: Wash Day

photo credit: l’il ol’ me!

So today is wash day. Well, if I’m honest, yesterday was actually wash day, but I was too lazy to do it. I don’t know why. It’s not like I have tons of thick, unruly hair or anything.

I. Am. Just. Lazy.

Hair Journal: No-Wash Wash-n-Go

image credit

I never do WnG’s… Ever…  Because my hair is not trimmed and shaped nicely, I don’t like the way it looks when it is out. And when I say out, I mean not held in place by bobby pins, hair clips, or a headband. My hair is very fine and thin, so I avoid anything that will cause and/or highlight shrinkage. That means I’m relegated to puffs, ponytails, and very rare pinned updos. Boring…

But today I did a No-Wash Wash-n-Go.

A what?

Glad you asked. Here’s what I did:

• dampened hair by spraying with aloe vera/water spritz
• applied Giovanni Direct Leave-in, concentrating on the ends
• pulled leave-in through (kinda like raking) to make sure the hair was evenly covered
• applied light humectant pomade to ends only, scrunching
• showered with head uncovered to let pomade do its magic
• after shower, applied Eco Styler to ends, pulling through a-la-raking
• smoothed edges with leftover gel on hands
• started to pull hair back into a ponytail clip
• got side-tracked

The last step was totally unintentional. I actually realized that I should put on my sweater before pulling my hair back so that I wouldn’t have to retouch and resmooth the fuzzies. Once my sweater was on, I looked up and liked what I saw in the mirror! The curls were big, defined, and positioned nicely. And I didn’t look bald. Wow…

Really, I think the key here was the sequence of the products. Also, the rake-like motion helped clump my curls in such a way that they stayed bigger than they would if I had done a real wash-n-go, complete with head shaking.

SMH… But not hard enough to shake out my big, beautiful no-wash curls!

We’ll see how the style holds up today. If it does, the No-Wash Wash-N-Go will be a definite keeper!

Have you stumbled upon an unintentional style that is now in your permanent rotation of go-to dos? What’s your experience with the WnG?

Love You Like A Lush Song

I never intended to buy anything… I swear!  Honest!

But a friend and I were enticed into Lush, by… well… the Lush-ious smell (and the eclectic music) that was wafting out from the store’s open doors.  I’d passed the St. Catherine & Peel location about a zillion times before but had never gone inside.  Vee was looking at henna and I was just poking around.  And there it was… in all it’s glory… Revive and Balance Treatment (aka R&B) leave-in conditioner.  Can you hear the celestial voices and harps?  Or is that just me?

Empty R&B jar… I need to get more!

Here are the product highlights:

• Handmade by a dude named Dil, who actually works for Lush out of BC and whose face is right on the jar, the majority of the ingredients are natural/organic/fair-trade
• Rich, creamy consistency, a little on the oily side
• Specifically formulated for afro or curly hair, but apparently recommended for all hair types (thin straight hair should probably avoid – see above point)
• Decent overall frizz control
• Very sweet, citrus scent
• Pricey at $20.95 CAD per 100g

I’m in love with this product!  I use it pretty much daily (one jar lasts me about two to three months) and it makes my hair feel amazing.  Since it has glycerin in it, I usually put it in my hair before I get into the shower and leave my head uncovered while I wash my body.  I’ve also been known to put it on wet hair and twist it up for a twist-out-type style (though I don’t tend to actually wear my hair out, but that’s a discussion for another day).  It keeps my hair feeling soft all day and I don’t need to use a lot.  And more than once, I’ve been asked what perfume I’m wearing, only to realize that it was my hair that people were smelling!  Sometimes, if the wind blows just right, I smell my own hair and it just makes me happy.

I love the smell.  I love the consistency.  My hair loves the moisturizing… But that’s just me… Obviously, this may not be everyone’s dream product.

Oh, yeah… Vee heard the harps too.  She also bought a jar of the stuff and fell in love.

Try it yourself and you be the judge.

I highly recommend it.