Sizzelle Giveaway Winners!!

Our Sizzelle Giveaway closed yesterday and with the help of random.org, we now have our winners!

Congratulations to Lemonie_ (winner of the Nothing But Intense Healing Mask) and AmakaAgbai & SimiJombo (they get one bottle of the Hello Hydration Moisturising Conditioner each)

Please email your delivery information to store@sizzelle.com and I sincerely hope you enjoy your products!

Many thanks to Sizzelle.com for sponsoring, and YOU are totally awesome sauce for participating!

More to come really soon! 😉

x x x x x x x x x x x

Product Review: Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Moisturising Conditioner

Happy Independence Day, my fellow Nigerians!

Like play like play, we’ve entered the final quarter of year 2014. Can you believe it?

In two weeks, I’ll be done with NYSC. It’s nice to move on but, where did the year go?

Anyway. This is not why we are here!

Today, I’m here to sing the praises of my favourite conditioner (for co-washing), the Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Moisturising Conditioner. This is probably not the first time I’ve talked about Hello Hydration on the blog, and I actually thought I’d reviewed it before, but I hadn’t. So here I am now. 🙂

I started using this in January to see what the hype was about. Since then I have restocked twice so I can tell you from my experience that the hype is well deserved. MeeMee agrees, and so does my roommate.

Lazy Sunday

Hey guys!

How are things?

AB here! It’s a very lazy Sunday for me in Calabar.

Earlier today, I co-washed and finger detangled Big Betty. She’s crazy soft, and her curls are poppin’.

I didn’t wash in twists which wasn’t a good idea now that I think about it, because I couldn’t give my scalp a good rub. I’ll fix this next week. After washing though, I finger detangled some more with my trusty Cantu Shea Butter Leave-In Conditioning Cream and put her in 15 twists, and then massaged my scalp as best as I could, with Jamaican Black Castor Oil. I moisturised my leave-out with Cantu, sealed with JBCO and twisted it up too. I intend to leave the twists in till tomorrow.

To co-wash, I used the Alberto Balsam Sun Kissed Raspberry Herbal Conditioner. I bought this on Wednesday at the Valuemart on Marian road, 500 naira for 400ml. I was hovering in the beauty products aisle, feeling the need to grab something. It was the cheapest and the best size value for money, plus it smelled really familiar so I just took it. It was good I did sef because I’m almost out of Hello Hydration and I didn’t want to use all my conditioner on this weave that’s over 3 times the volume of my hair.

Supermarkets aren’t my go-to place for hair products. I’m often disappointed when I read through the ingredients, but still I hover in the hope that I’ll find something good, and nice and cheap. This time, I think I struck gold with this conditioner.

On getting home, I smelled it again, and took to Google. Alberto Balsam is an Alberto Culver brand. And so is V05. No wonder it smelled familiar! Alberto Balsam and V05 are pretty much the same product marketed under different names in different countries. So if you’re a V05 lover, when you’re running low, if this is available instead, you could get it. (and FYI, Alberto-Culver brands are Unilever brands. Unilever acquired the Alberto-Culver company a while ago)

And the ingredients? No silicones, no mineral oil, no sulfates, no parabens! Yuup.

I’ll do a proper review when I’ve got to use this some more, but for now, from this co wash, I think it’s nice. It was good to my weave and the little hair I left out as well. For 500 naira, this isn’t a bad addition, and I already know I’m going to buy at least 2 more bottles (yep, opportunistic product junkie!)

Also at Valuemart right now are cute 200ml bottles of Herbal Essences Shampoo and Conditioners, for 500 naira each. I was about to bust a move when I saw that familiar blue Hello Hydration bottle, but on getting closer, I saw it was the Moisturising Shampoo instead, not the conditioner as I’d hoped. They’ve also got Tresemme, but not Tresemme Naturals. If you’re in Calabar, you might want to stop by.

Moving forward, I’m going to be making more hair buys from supermarkets. Not huge hauls, but one interesting thing now and then. The ingredients may raise brows but all those things- can they really be all bad or all useless? What’s the worst that could happen? If my hair feels like hay after, I can always reset with my staples. And they’re relatively more affordable, so it won’t pain me so much if I buy something and it turns out to be actually skreps.

P.S. if you sent me an email, please don’t eye me lol I promise to reply all emails by the end of tomorrow. 🙂

Love,

AB,

Xx

My Stash

Hey guys,

I’m in a different city (Calabar) and in the process of unpacking and settling in.

This time, my hair products are taking up more space than usual so I thought I’d just do a quick post, for record’s sake, about my stash- the things I will be using this year.

Of course, the welfare of your hair is way more influenced by what you DO, than what you use- and I’m definitely not going to use everything at once!

I tried to get a family photo of everything, but it was just too clumsy abeg, so I tried just a cross section and that worked 🙂

*Riri voice* this is just the half of it

CLEANSERS

ORS Curls Unleashed Lavish-in-Lather Shampoo (2000 Naira. from Perfect Trust Cosmetics, Wuse 2, Abuja. Full address in Directory)

L’Oreal Ever Crème Nourishing Shampoo**

VlaeXotic Handcrafted Shea Butter African Black Soap

CONDITIONER

Herbal Essences Hello Hydration ($6.29)*

Hair Fruits (250 Naira, I’m pretty sure you can find this anywhere)

LEAVE-IN

Cantu Shea Butter Leave-In Conditioning Repair Cream ($4.99)*

Jack 5ive Curl Activator Gel (800 – 1200 naira depending on where you look)

STYLING

ORS Olive Oil Edge Control ($4.11)*

EcoStyler Firm Hold Styling Gel (Pink) **

ApHogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer (from Perfect Trust Cosmetics, Abuja. Can’t remember how much exactly, but it was less than 2k)

SEALANTS

Olive Oil

Cocoa Butter (Natural Nigerian)

Parachute Coconut Oil (175ml bottle for 375 naira, and 500ml bottle for 880 naira- from Park and Shop [SPAR] )

DEEP CONDITIONING

Organics by Africa’s Best Hair Mayonnaise (850 Naira. Enumex Cosmetics, Calabar)

Raw honey

Goya Olive Oil

A LITTLE FANCY

Bentonite Clay (1500 naira. The Kinky Apothecary)

Hibiscus Powder (500 naira. The Kinky Apothecary)

–

* products from Duane Reade, via the Bestie

** products dashed by the Bestie 🙂

WATCHING/WAITING FOR/ON MY WISHLIST

Aloe Vera Juice

Jamaican Black Castor Oil

Nothing But Intense Healing Mask

Taliah Waajid Curl Sealer

My Honey Child Type 4 Hair Creme

–

Am I a Product Junkie?

Maybe. Maybe it’s a phase. Trying new things is great and a lot of fun, but I AM trying to identify some staples. As you can see, in the Leave-In category, I only have my tried and tested faves of 2013. Every now and then, you try something new and wonder where it has been all your life (e.g. Taliah Waajid Curl Sealer).

I wonder how much time I’ll have to try or finish all this though as I’ll be protective styling for most of the year, keeping manipulation down to a minimum.

Still, more is definitely better because I’m in Calabar now and finding hair products when needed may not be a walk in the park. So, call this stocking up if you will. 😀

ANNOUNCEMENT, ANNOUNCEMENT!!

Jos curlies, our most recent addition to the list of Natural Hair Stores in Nigeria, KayDee Kurls is in your city and they’re just one call or email or bbm away! They also deliver to all parts of the country. For deets, check the Directory! 😉

AND. Natural Nigerian products can now be found at the HMedix on Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja.

What’s the state of your stash? What was the last hair product you purchased, and where from? Which products are you using or do you hope to be using this year? Give us the juice!

Love,

AB,

Xx