Just Because A Mudwash Sounds Crazy…

Hey guys!

The Natural Nigerian Product Giveaway is over, and our 2 winners Nafisat (@__Nafisat) and Sumbo (@_datrandomchick) announced. Please email your delivery info to me ASAP! Thanks to everyone who participated, I wish I had consolation prizes to give. I heart you a lot! ❤

I remember how awkward I felt the first time I put mayo and eggs in my hair. I only convinced myself to try because my hair was breaking and I was desperate! From there I graduated to clay. This thing called a Hair Journey isn’t a small thing oh! One of the questions asked was ‘Just Because A Mudwash Sounds Crazy, What’s the Weirdest Thing You’ve Ever Put In Your Hair?’, and I really enjoyed reading your responses! So much, I knew I had to share!

I asked, and you answered…

 “a mixture of raw eggs, honey, different oils and my deep conditioner”

“Mixture of Shikakai/methi powder”

“raw eggs”

“Palm oil”

“Never been that adventurous but planning to apply henna real soon…that’s about it for me..lol”

“Edible mayonnaise when I ran out of hair mayo *shiver * “

“Weed leaves aka Igbo..lool”

“I haven’t particularly put anything weird on my hair as I’m very low on the adventure scale when it comes to my skin and hair. For me though, the weirdest thing so far is a raw egg and honey DIY mix… needless to say my hair felt very stringy afterwards…lol”

“Palm oil and Zobo juice”

“Curry leaves”

“Zobo”

“Beer”

“Ogiri ( which I learnt was castor )”

“Onions and Potatoes juice (Extracts)”

“Bentonite clay”

“Onion juice”

“Egg and Honey (read online that it would help with dandruff)”

“Half Ripe Avocado pear, egg yolk and olive oil”

“Bananas that were blended with a spoon and it got stuck”

Raw Indian hemp powder mixed with Soulmate hair cream :(“

“Beer”

“I washed it with egg, milk, honey and lime juice”

“Palmoil + eggs + mayo + some weird hausa stuff.”

“Raw eggs and mashed banana mixture”

“Okra. Cos some naturalista ( I still think she’s a witch) said it was moisturizing”

“Palm Kernel Oil”

“Banana deep condition left a residual on my hair”

“Palm oil and raw eggs and mashed bitter leaf”

“Man shanu(cow ghee)”

“Handwash liquid x_X . I was too desperate to clean the dirt in my hair and there was no shampoo in sight *covers face*”

“St Ives body cream”

“I haven’t put anything outrageously weird on my hair because my hair is like my baby. I’m pampering it and loving up on it and using only stuff I’m sure of. The weirdest thing I’ve done however is to do almost 3 different types of deep conditioning at once.”

“Raw garlic paste. HORRIBLE IDEA. Couldn’t get the smell out!”

“Palm oil”

“Bananas…. 2 years ago I’d have slapped anyone who suggested that.”

“Nothing too weird, but I’ll have to say…honey”

“Eggs, vinegar, tomatoes, oranges”

“I would have to say Indian Hemp mixed with Shea butter”

“LOL…Garlic oil capsules???”

“Lime juice”

“Avocado, mashed bananas and tea. -_-“

“Urine”

“For me, Bama mayonnaise because I hate it but my hair loves it. If I can’t eat it well my hair can have it.”

“Egg, honey and mayonnaise mixture.”

“Weed”

“Crisco shortening. I used it as a sealant!”

“Stout and Egg mix”

“It’s not weird, but in my relaxed days, i actually used a mix of honey and shea butter (with more honey than anything) on my edges and dripped honey all day long!”

“Baking Soda and then MUD”

“Fresh tomatoes”

“A mixture of Bentonite clay and avocado pear”

“A black tiny spice used for peppersoup mashed in shea butter(ori).”

Wow. The lengths we go for our hair! I say this with NO judgment whatsoever; some of you have gone places I’m not sure I want to reach! :-p I understand the struggle all too well. Everything is probably the best thing you’ve never tried. May our endeavours to keep our hair healthy and happy on our heads be crowned with success! Say Amen!

Is your own weird/crazy thing not on the list? Share with us in the comments (you can be anonymous for today LOL)

You know I love you,

Xoxo,

AB

How To: Caring for Braids.

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Hellur AB readers! Can I just say how honoured I am to be featured here? Shout out to my haters and to the village people that gave me this dandruff curse. I have one thing to say to you: look at me now! So, yes, I battle with dandruff. This is one of the reasons I decided to stop installing weaves. Now, when I need to hide my twa, I either use a wig or have braids or twists done. With these, I find I can still care for my scalp. For the longest time, though, it never occurred to me that I could wash my braids. In the past, after the first week of having my braids in, I become anti-social. Why? My hair would have started to stink and I wouldn’t want to subject anybody to that horror. Fast forward to 2013 and I randomly decided to try to salvage my old, smelly braids (babes were broke. Desperate times… desperate measures). In case you are still wondering why I am here, today, I will be sharing with you:

How I Wash My Braids

Disclaimer: Frequent washing of braids causes them to age quicker.

What Do I Use?

Nothing different from my normal wash day regimen. WP_20140326_003 How Do I Wash?

I have learnt that my hair gets dry quickly when I have braids in. I have also learnt that with braids, the dirt just seems to stick very easily. To maximise the effect of the wash without stripping my hair of the very minimal moisture, I make sure to prepoo the night before wash day. Typically, I use olive oil for this. Why? It is the cheapest oil I have in my stash. Ain’t nobody trying to use up precious, precious JBCO or any other oil that is exclusively for hair TLC, on a prepoo.

Side Note: I have prepoo’d once with PAX Bitters and not only did it help to rid my scalp of dandruff, my hair felt softer with the first wash.

When prepooing, I aim to saturate my scalp and roots as much as possible or as much as I can handle. Forget that ‘dime size’ story that they tell everywhere. Notice that I keep saying ‘scalp’. It is important to remember that in washing your braids, your main focus is on your scalp and roots; not on the body of the braids. Wrap hair as one would at night and sleep peacefully, while the oil seeps unto my forehead, ears and pillow case.

On the day, I wash at least twice with either black soap or L’Oreal EverCreme Sulphate Free Shampoo. Rinse. I then wash once with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration Moisturising Conditioner. After this, I rinse with a mixture of one part Apple Cider Vinegar and one part water. Next, I line my scalp and roots generously with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration Moisturising Conditioner and massage evenly. I then pack up the braids and hide them inside a shower cap. Depending on how much time I have, I can either sit around for half an hour or go into the shower and bathe the rest of my body, while the conditioner works its magic. Rinse scalp and body of braids thoroughly and wrap wet braids in a towel like a beautiful damsel. Fin! WP_20140321_012 Are you disappointed? Were you expecting something more technical? It’s quite stress free and gives me such good results that I indulge every week. Scalp and hair are clean sans product build up and hair smells fresh. Like I noted above, one down side to this is that your braids, especially at the roots, start to look old.

Please leave your questions in the comment section and I hope this has touched someone’s life today.

Stay clean and fresh until I have something else to share with you.

Love and Light (or what does AB sign out with?)

Best Fran (Meemee).  

Help! I Want Short Curly Hair

kedike

Chidinma

Hello,

I recently cut my hair and I doubt that I am ready to grow it into anything serious. I love it being short.

Thing is, I would love to have my hair like Chidinma or like Solange (they look like 2 different hairstyles to me though but I am open to exploring) though it seems it might just be easier to do the Chidinma thing seeing as she is Nigerian and we probably have the same texture.

-Ada

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Hey Ada,

My hair was never as short (I was too scared of going low) but you can totally manipulate your low cut to look curly.

I watched a few YouTube videos. One girl got the look with just gel on wet hair, and another with a mix of Gel, Leave-in Conditioner and Shea butter. What both girls have in common though, is the technique. I don’t know how exactly to explain it, so here’s this tutorial from vlogger Stephanie Rae (just gel on wet hair):

You could try this with the products you already have (leave-in and pomade) or add gel to the mix, or try this with just gel. Anything you decide.

I asked my friend D and she was kind to share how she gets the look:
1. She wets her hair, uses Activator gel as a leave-in conditioner and seals with oil.
2. She brushes with a Denman brush (weavon brush)
3. And finishes off with a tail comb for the “koko” at her edges.

I hope this helps!!

🙂

———

So ladies.

I’m always an email away [ thekinkandi@gmail.com ] for your questions, or if you just want to talk hair! 🙂 You can also leave your questions on our Facebook page: The Kink and I.

From now on, I will be sharing excerpts from blogmail when I get questions on interesting things I haven’t already written about on the blog- and you know I love it when you chip in!! 🙂

If you have any more tips for Ada on how to make her TWA curly, please be nice and let us drink from your fountain of wisdom in the comments! 😉

Final reminder: The Natural Nigerian + The Kink and I Giveaway closes at 11:59PM tonight, Nigerian time.

Bye boos,

AB

xx

Hair Vitamins: Yay or Nay?

Hey ladies!

Hair Vitamins are one hot topic in the Black Hair Community right now, natural and relaxed. You’ve probably heard of Hairfinity? African Hair Accel? Biotin? Manetabolism? No? Okay.

Many of us want that Rapunzel hair, and most of us wanters want it fast! Hair Vitamins promise to take you to healthier and longer hair, quicker.

How Hair Vitamins Work

No need to get too Science-y, here’s what I understand:

Food is body fuel, and different parts of the body need different nutrients to function; Vitamin A for bright eyes, Iron and Folic Acid contribute to the blood… Your hair benefits from Vitamin A and Iron and Folic Acid too, but here’s the thing. Hair isn’t an essential organ. Nutrients get grabbed by the other parts, before the hair gets its share. So if you aren’t eating well enough, the little you eat may not get to your hair.

Hair Vitamin tablets are thus a concentrated selection of vitamins that are believed to be beneficial to hair, packaged in doses for daily consumption. They’re just like any other multivitamins, but these are chosen/formulated specially for the benefit of your hair.

What Are They Really Promising?

Marketing gimmicks aside, these supplements aren’t claiming to have Chemical X or any magic at all.

Hair grows, no doubt. Depending on several factors (genetics, how healthy your lifestyle is, diet, etc), some people grow hair faster than others. Still, it is said that on average, we can expect our hair to grow half an inch every month. Hair Vitamins promise to strengthen your hair and to give it a boost, help it grow faster than it usually would.

Okay AB, Why Are We Talking About This?

Curiosity got this cat. Very recently, I received one month’s supply of Hair Vitamins from African Hair Accel, to try out.

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I will do a length check before I start taking the pills, and I’m also going to put my hair away in a protective style for the one month I’ll be taking them, to eliminate the chances of breakage from combing or any manipulation.

There isn’t a lot of information available about these things on the internet (probably because they are “just” Vitamins), not as many reviews as I’d like. My Acne situation is already very testy, I hope it isn’t aggravated (popular side-effect of Biotin) Also, I’m naturally very hairy so I hope the vitamins will concern themselves with ONLY the hair on my head! ( ._.)

Expect a review soon (honest and unbiased as usual), the pictures will speak for themselves.

But till then, what do you think about Hair Vitamins right now? Are you taking any? Please take the poll below- and you could also share a little (or a lot) more in the comments!

Love,

AB

xx

For An Optimist, I Can Be Pretty Pessimistic

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Hellurrr!

As you know, I’m wearing Finger coils at the moment and I love them! This is a little funny because I was SO ready to give up on all of my three attempts. I started on Saturday as I watched Pocahontas. At the end of the movie, I hadn’t achieved much :/

Sunday, I loosened Saturday’s work because I wanted to wet my whole head. I figured spraying would be too much work when I could just rinse it. But guess what? My roommate made jollof rice and I ate too much and couldn’t achieve much after that.

My negative goggles were proper thick last weekend shaaaa! I just couldn’t see any good coming out of what I was doing. To my eyes, my coils were too poofy, too rough, not pretty. The hair itself was looking dull to me, like it wasn’t dark enough, like it had no shine. I was whining, wondering if all the stress was worth it, but my roommate kept encouraging me (thank you, F!!) So Monday I stayed home and finally finished the work.

On Tuesday when I woke up, I actually wasn’t sure I could make it to work (real vain, I know), but after a while, I decided I would risk it, pulling out my makeup bag for morale support. Who else does this? I don’t usually wear makeup to work, it’s much too hot! But I stepped into the light (literally), looked in the mirror, and saw that I didn’t NEED makeup to pick me up. My hair was cute, not bad at all for a first attempt, I was good to go! AND my hair was dark and lovely and shiny!

Up close

Yes indeed!

How did I not see that? I really wonder what was happening over the weekend!

I’m happy I kept going. One more style I like, one more style I’ve learnt to do!! Yay!

Today’s lesson, kids: Don’t let doubt and negativity hold you back from trying something new in life or hair. Don’t obsess about being perfect, just keep going, Keep Moving Forward!! 🙂

Yours truly was featured on Queen of Kinks over at NenoNatural this week! Please go check it out here, thank you 🙂

Love & Lots of Positivity,

AB

xx

And oh, just in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a new page on the blog- Need Help? FAQs. I’d like to know your thoughts, please and thank you. 🙂