Hi! My Name Is Kemi And I'm An Oil Junkie :)

Lol! I was staring at my dressing table one day and just shook my head laughing at myself. There was a time in my life when my dressing table would groan under the weight of my lotions and perfumes. These days, it's groaning under the weight of hair products - particularly oils!! I removed every single one of them and 'paraded' them on my dining table.

I sort of arranged them in categories of how I typically use them or what they are meant for. For instance pre poo, essential oils, carrier oils etc

So in the Pre Poo corner, we have:

1. Bringraj Hair Oil - Bringraj (Eclipta Alba) Literally translated to mean 'King Of The Hair' This herb has been used for thousands of years to grow, thicken and condition hair.

2. Brahmi Amla Hair Oil - This is a mix of 2 other popular Ayurvedic herbs. Brahmi (Gotu Kola) has been used for thousands of years to strengthen and add body to the hair and is known as Ayurveda's most potent hair vitalizer while Amla darkens, nourishes and strengthens hair at the roots to prevent excessive hair shedding. Great for conditioning, preventing split ends and enhancing hair growth.

3. Hair Trigger Explosive Growth Elixir with Cayenne Pepper - This as the name suggests is supposed to speed up your hair growth with a mix of potent growth stimulants. It contains Avocado, Castor, Sage, Jojoba and rosemary oils; Biotin, Silica, Black Tea, Cayenne pepper, Garlic and Onion. (yes garlic and onion lol) Garlic and onion are known for their high sulfur content which help to stimulate growth. A lot of ladies make their own onion and garlic juice and have reported good results. This product comes in different scents and this one is the Vanilla Pound Cake. It actually smells like toffee ( and is quite thick like melted toffee to be honest) As sweet as it smells, I found it a bit much and the oil, too thick.

The Hidden Gem That Is Palm Kernel Oil

Early on this year I bought a stash of natural products, oils and butters made/packaged by
SheaButter Cottage - one of such was Palm Kernel Oil which I have since come to love and use on both my hair and skin. I decided to do a bit more research on it and I'm amazed at how this excellent oil is not as popular as (or even more) the more main stream oils such as Coconut oil etc.

Palm kernel oil which is black and not red like the traditional cooking palm oil; has been used for years and years in Africa to treat ailments, prevent disease, enhance the beauty of skin and hair, and promote overall good health. The Yoruba's call it 'Adi Dudu', Igbos call it 'Ude Aku', The Hausas call it 'Manlade' and the Cameroonians call it 'Muyaga'.

....And I'm back in Protective Styling!

Channeling my inner Diana Ross 'I'm coming out! I want the world to know, gonna let it show! lolll

Phew! As much as I love pampering and caring for my hair, as it's gotten longer and thicker my arms have started to ache anytime I'm detangling, styling etc lol. I had planned to keep my hair out for 2 weeks maximum but because I wanted to try out a couple of new D.I.Y things (which I've brought to you) I ended up leaving my hair out for close to a month! No bueno! This year is supposed to be about protective styling for the most part.

Anyways, of course my go to style at the moment is crochet braids and that is exactly what I got! I've been wondering what big hair would look like on me so I planned on getting crochet braids with Marley hair but not doing anything with it (at least not immediately). We'd just taken delivery of some really soft Marley Hair called 'Jamaican Braid' and I knew it would be perfect for what I had in mind.

So I got hold of some, and cut the length into 2 so that I would get some sort of layered look going. Braid pattern was one going all back and the hair was installed pretty quickly. Used just 2 packs of hair and this is the result!

A Customer's KL's Naturals Transformation.

I think I shall be doing more of these types of post - where I showcase a few customers who come through and do a big chop or who by caring for their hair with our help, witness huge changes in terms of improvement in length and thickness of their hair.

This young lady is actually my cousin who apparently had stopped relaxing her hair over a year ago and had literally had it with dealing with 2 textures. She wanted to chop off the rest of the relaxed ends, get some color (she loves color) and style her hair.

Now, her hair is quite curly and she has medium textured hair - by the time we'd washed her hair, those ends looked raggedy with a capital R!

It was easy snipping them off and because she still had some color in her hair, we decided to leave that in and go straight to styling. She wanted something curly so I decided on a permrod set with a bit of weaving on both sides of her head to enhance the overall shape in a way that would suit her features.

D.I.Y Flaxseed Gel - Healthy, Great Hold AND Moisturizing!

Remember I said this year I'll be doing a whole lot more natural stuff in terms of hair products? Well my latest venture in this regard was making my own gel from flaxseeds and it was very very simple and straightforward!

My hair crush Naptural85 has had a video on this on YouTube for a while but it was only last week that I finally got round to trying it out and I'm glad I did.

I've actually used flaxseeds for years but not in my hair - in my food. They are a rich source of Omega 3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids, lignans and fiber. The fatty acids have a heart healthy effect, the lignans have a plant estrogen and antioxidant effect (the plant estrogen is particularly good for ladies as its been proven to help prevent breast cancer and also block receptor sites against estrogen so the body does not have an over abundance of what could lead to the development of types of benign tumors such as fibroids)

And of course fiber is great for making you fuller for longer, helps maintain a healthy weight, maintains bowel health and lowers cholesterol levels. I would normally sprinkle a spoonful of the ground seeds (if you can't get your hands on the ground seeds, simply grind the whole seeds by using the mill that comes with your blender) on my early morning cereal or smoothie. They can also be added to pancake mixes, bread, yoghurt etc.

Bentonite Clay Wash Day.

I'm a Rhassoul clay kinda girl but today I decided that I was going to use Bentonite Clay instead - just because! (Plus I have this pound of clay that's been sitting in my bathroom for ages) I wanted to keep it simple so my liquids of choice were Aloe Vera Juice and Apple Cider Vinegar. Didn't add any oils as that would come later in my regimen.

I don't really measure stuff - just eyeball them as I go along so I added some clay to my mixing bowl then poured in a little Apple Cider Vinegar. When you add ACV to bentonite clay, it creates a sort of frothing action before settling. When it was settled, I added a little Aloe Vera Juice at a time till I got the consistency I wanted (not too thick and not too thin either)

The night before, I'd pre poo'd with my Bringraj hair oil but I didn't want to put clay on dry hair so I first misted my hair with water to get it a little damp - that way it would be easier to get the clay through my strands without struggling and even damaging my hair.

After I'd gotten it all over, I covered my hair with some saran wrap and went about a few house chores for about 30 - 40 minutes. I then rinsed it out with warm water and I was pleasantly surprised!!! Now I hadn't even deep conditioned my hair and I know bentonite is meant to cleanse, clarify and detoxify your hair so I had prepared myself for the possibility of dry strands but nope! My hair was soft, it was easy to separate and most of all, curls were very defined!

Playing around with my Hair

I decided that this week I would not put my hair up in a puff - it's so common for me these days that it's made me creatively lazy. So on Tuesday I wore my hair out in an afro after taking down the braids I'd put my hair in the day before to allow to air dry after washing.

Wednesday, I took out a banana clip and created a u part in front of my hair, made 2 chunky twists and pinned them down. Then I put the rest of the hair in the banana clip and created 2 flat twists with the hair that was in the clip.

Naturals In The City 10 Is Here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly kudos to Natural Nigerian for her consistency in organizing these meet ups which have now extended outside Lagos to Abuja, Calabar etc!

So this Saturday the 7th of March 2015,  the 10th edition of Naturals In The City will be holding at The Social place, 33 Sinari Daranijo, Victoria Island, Lagos from 1.30 pm - 5.30 pm. The theme is 'Making The Best Of What You Have'.

Somehow I was unable to make the last one as I was swamped with work but I'm hoping (fingers crossed) to make it this time - even  if it's just for an hour or so.

There will be product swaps, talks on styling your hair, load of vendors for hair/skin products and healthy foods. Gate fee is 500 Naira.

See you there!!!!!

Trying out Temporary Color.

If  you've read a number of my posts, you'll know that I'm not a fan of coloring hair because of it's tendency to dry out our kinks which are already susceptible to dryness. That is not to say I don't like the look of it - at various points in my life I've had my hair dyed blonde, redhead, chestnut and copper lol!

Each time though, I had to chop off my hair and start afresh because of the damage it caused.
Now I know better. Even though these days there are more ammonia and peroxide free coloring products to lessen the harsh effects of coloring hair, I have no inclination to go down that route (at least not yet)

So imagine my surprise and excited interest when I came across an array of temporary 'spray on' colors at Casabella - the beauty supply store  at The Palms. I made sure to go online to read reviews and also to watch a few YouTube videos of people who had used it and I decided to go ahead and purachase one in 'Auburn'.