Sights and Sounds at the Afro Hair and Beauty Live 2014 Show.

A few weeks ago I was flipping through the April/May edition of the Black Beauty Magazine and saw an article for the upcoming 33rd edition of the Afro Hair and Beauty Live show coming up on the 25th and 26th of May 2014 and I was determined to be there. Moreso because I had originally planned to be at the World Hair Show in Atlanta back in April but due to a few work issues, I couldn't make it.

Anyway, so after making sure the salon was running pretty well and had no issues that needed my immediate attention, I left for the UK on Friday the 23rd - wanting to give myself one day in between my arrival and the dates for the shows.

I found out later though that apparently the day before the show, there's usually another hair show that's targeted towards natural hair! I found this out by chance on the first day of the Afro Hair and Beauty show when I sighted, went up to, introduced myself and struck up a conversation with Mrs. Bukky George (MD Healthplus and Casabella) who had also come to the show to get great inspiration for products for her store!

As much as it pained me that I missed this years show, at least now I know and in the coming years I will definitely have it bookmarked in my calendar.

First Official Length Check 2014 plus inversion results.

I should have done this a couple of days ago - I apologize but here we go!

Okay so I'll start with the inversion results. The inversion method basically is a process for gaining an inch of growth in a week where for 7 straight days, you're supposed to massage warm oil into your scalp, turn your head upside down for 4 minutes so the blood rushes to your scalp, feeding the follicles and encouraging growth.

You should wait at least 3 weeks in between each 7 day period (don't think you can gain an inch every single week lol) otherwise your body will get used to the extra blood flow and the method won't work anymore.

Now a lot of women have reported an increase in length using this method but I didn't particularly see a change in length - that may be because some nights I used warm oil and other nights I was too tired to bother warming the oil ( I think I actually missed one night in the 7 lol) I really need to figure out ways of combating how tired I always am at the end of the day. I think it's time to look for a manager for the salon.
Anyhoo I digress.

Wash day using new products plus my puff with a twist!

Puff with a few rolls on top

My wash day today was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than last week's near disaster. One of my suppliers gave me a box of goodies from the Tropic Isle range a few weeks ago and I decided that I would try some of the products and see if there was anything I liked enough to incorporate into my regimen.

Truth is I started to use some of them last week but the whole detangling fiasco kinda took away from the shine of that and I was in no mood to talk about new products.

Anyhoo, so last night I pre poo'd with 2 oils - Njoy's Long Healthy Hair growth oil on my scalp and my Alma/Brahmi oil in my hair. I made sure I massaged my scalp for a good 5 minutes till my scalp was all warm and tingly then proceeded to my hair where I finger detangled every strand and then put everything up in plaits.

Oiled and detangled

In the morning I washed with the Tropic Isle Shampoo  and my hair was oh so soft! It's so weird because I used this same shampoo last week and I didn't care for how my  hair felt at all! It kinda felt coated and not as soft as I'd have liked. I'm now not sure what was so different between last week and this week - I used the Brahmi Amla oil last week as well (although this time I used a bit more, saturating my strands) but the results I got were much different. Oh well. I'll try it again next wash day and see what results I get.

Channeling my inner Minnie Mouse using Marley Hair.

Have I said how much I love YouTube and get a lot of inspiration from there? If I haven't well there it is! I have a few favorites I follow, and a few randoms I just happen to stumble upon - and sometimes its those latter ones that make you go 'Aha!'

So I came across this absolutely cute bow during one of my trawls on YouTube and had been meaning to try it out. Finally I got my hands on some Marley braiding hair and there was no stopping me!

It's my 2 Year Nappi-versary!!!!!!

May 9th 2012 after my big chop - I was still shy :)

Whoop whoop!

Exactly 2 years ago to the day, I sat down in front of my mirror, drenched my hair in conditioner, grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off every single scraggly, straight, damaged strand from my head of hair. It was scary, it was liberating and it was one of the best things I'd ever done for the health of my hair.

I had been trying to grow my hair long in its relaxed state but too many years of abuse had damaged it so I decided to start from scratch and somewhere along the line, I went natural :)

I spent the first year of my journey being a product junkie extraordinaire whilst trying to find out what my hair liked and what it couldn't stand. I went through my Dominican product phase ( Silicon Mix (original) Silicon Mix (bambu) Crece Pelo, Baba De Caracol, Suela Y Canela, Salerm, Apretadora, Lacio Lacio etc)

Then the oil phase (Whale Sperm, Gro Aut, Mahabhrigaraj, Amla, Brahmi, 'Castor Oil on Steroids' i.e. boiled with garlic and onion)

 then the 'all things natural' phase ( eggs, mayonnaise, avocado, boiled potato skin water, boiled herbs e.g rosemary) lollllllllllllllll you know as I'm typing all these things out, I'm laughing out loud at the lengths I used to go to in order to get the perfect product for my hair. Mini madness I tell you.

My (near) set back!

I am so upset with myself!!!

I'd had my hair in twists using extensions for about a month now - I wasn't ready to take them out (surprisingly) but I had started to break out which is something that happens to me when my braids get old and start to rub against my cheeks. I took them out on Saturday and didn't bother combing out as it actually looked kind of pretty (like a 2 day old twist out) so I just let it run wild and free Saturday through to Sunday with the intention to prepoo Sunday night and do a proper wash day on Monday.

My twists styled into 2 buns

Now normally when I pre poo with my oils, I use that opportunity to detangle my hair but this Sunday I was sooooooo tired after the  long weekend (made even longer by the busy Thursday 'cause of the Public Holiday) and literally just applied oil to my hair and scalp covered with a cap (didn't even braid as i normally would) and went to bed.

Following morning, I still didn't detangle before I started washing and deep conditioning ( protein first for 20 mins and then moisture for about an hour) I then started the detangling process while rinsing out my deep conditioner and that's when I realized my big mistake.