Wash Day: In Someone's Hands

Ok as you may have noticed, but didn't mention because you were being polite, my workout counter has only gone up by one this month because I was being a lazy bum.  After getting out of swim class on Saturday I was really tired and had literally no desire to do my own hair.  I did wash out the chlorine just in case I couldn't get in but after I made the call to see if I could get a wash and style I lounged for an hour and headed to the shop.

Let me just say I was glad that I washed my chlorine out because while the product used was great and my hair felt super clean it wasn't the in depth loving I tend to give my hair.  I sat under on those ionic dryers so my hair wasn't overly hot when I came from under it.  No need to blow dry and while the shampoo wasn't deep deep loving she was very careful with heat protectant and limiting the number of passes over my hair.  So I'm straight again, first heat on my hair in six weeks and so far so good.  I did wrap my hair with one of my new scarves--kept everything in place and added more of a whip to the slight curl.  Three days removed it still feels good and doing a quick moisturizing and sealing on it Sunday night still has it feeling good.  I'll probably do another one tonight.  It feels mostly grown back from the trim and fully recovered from clip happy chick when I first got here--who keeps texting me about her weave specials.  I need to figure out how to just reject her calls.  Yes I do have unlimited texts but if I haven't called you back from August you may want to leave that one alone.

To add to my take care of me day I got my first official facial and then got a pedicure which was much needed.  For some reason I didn't think about all the women who would want cute feet before Easter Sunday but who cares my feet are cute lol.  And I treated myself to a batch of smell goods as we used to call them.  I love Narciso Rodriguez to the point it's kinda silly.  I don't get that invested in that many scents but this one gets me.  And it was on sale so I had to grab two jars of lotion and a gift set.  I understand why people hate the jar.  While it's gorgeous the lotion itself is in a tiny tub that can be pulled out of the glass.  Bad for traveling via air since I'm thinking the pressure and that plastic tub won't work well together.  I could transfer it to a different container though even though it's a little maddening to pay that much for a less than stellar package design.  Anyway here's a shot of my For Her haul that was all on sale.

To recap:

No prepoo
Did a pre shop wash
Got an ok wash and ok scalp rubbing--I mean isn't that the whole point in going lol
Got a great flat iron with protection
Still feels and looks good

It's Review Time

I am totally off track with about 8 projects but since my wash day was a bit different this week I figured I could add in the reviews I mentioned and then revisit my very different wash day later.

So the first thing I was asked about was the As I Am Leave in Conditioner.  The As I Am line is meant for naturals but after learning more about what should and shouldn't be in my products throughout this hair journey I opted to give the line a try.  I have to say I have been happy with everything I've tried from them except the Moisture Milk but it could be that my hair just doesn't respond well to it.  It doesn't look like you can request a sample of items anymore but be on the look out for that on their website http://www.asiamnaturally.com to see if they are ever doing so.  You get enough product to make a good decision on what to buy or avoid.

As for the As I Am Leave In I love it.  I actually took more time to see how my hair responded to it since I knew I'd be doing this review.  But before I get to that let's talk about a few things.  An eight ounce bottle runs around 11 dollars at Sally's and the As I Am website.  It's under 10 bucks at Sally's if you have the club card.  It has a relatively light creamy coconut smell to it which isn't surprising since coconut is amongst the first ingredients listed on the bottle which looks like this.

The conditioner itself is pretty thick.  Which for me is a good thing as it feels like it penetrates my hair a bit better than thinner conditioners.  And as I noted a few weeks ago it actually helps detangle my hair a bit before I have to do much of anything to it.  My hair is VERY thick the further away from relaxer I get and this feels good without being heavy.  The photo below is what it looks like out of the bottle.  I use about twice that much on my entire head but I tend to be heavy handed with products.  I think it does a great job of keeping my hair protected and moisturized.   I just need to work on keeping my scalp from being dry and that has nothing to do with the leave in for me.  I do add Taliah Waajid's leave in as well but again as I was actually paying attention to my product application on this wash day I can't say I need it.  I just want to have it as a chaser as it were.  Truly I think the entire As I Am line is great for relaxed heads or naturals.  Just like anything though you have to figure out if your hair will respond to it.  As someone with dry hair I can say that my hair shaft tends to feel great till at least midweek when I use this product.  If I did more to baby my hair between washes it would probably last the entire week between was days.

Now the Dr. Miracle's deep conditioner was not planned to be part of my product line up.  I had been using a deep conditioner from the As I Am line (Hydration Elation) but my Sally's quit stocking it.  An 8 ounce jar is for sale on the As I Am website for 16 dollars if anyone wants that though.  As I was almost out of HE I opted for Dr. Miracle's and hoped HE would be back before I ran out of the new option.  The new option's actual name is Dr. Miracle's Double Deep Moisturizing Masque.  It's retailing at Sally's for nearly half the price of the HE for a 12 ounce jar (9.99 w/o card, 8.99 w/card).

 It's labeled as both being new and a repair product.  I hadn't seen it before I bought it so I'll take their word for it but as you can see on the box it is also sulfate/paraben free.  The box tells you to leave it on your hair for 10 minutes under a cap but I tend to leave this on my hair for 20 minutes to an hour depending on how distracted I am.  My hair feels refreshed and smells great after I'm done.

 This is a bit more creamy than the As I AM HE was or the leave in conditioner is.  I don't find this to be a good or bad thing the texture is just different.  It also has a light pleasant smell so that you aren't overwhelmed by the scent of it.

If there is a down side to this product is it is often easy to scoop out more than you planned lol.  I ended up just applying this amount to my hair but didn't necessarily need it all.  I would consider it on par with if not better than As I Am's Hydration Elation.  Both do a great job but this product feels much lighter and gave my scalp a light tingle while it was in my hair.  Great product and you really can't beat the price.

Let me know if you have other questions, these are my first reviews lol.  Oh and for those that this would matter to the PH on the As I Am Leave In and Hydration Elation are 5.5.

Wash Day Delayed--sort of

So I washed my hair as scheduled but I got distracted on Sunday and sick yesterday so no post.  Wash day went off without a hitch.  I started my prepoo midday Saturday after running to the grocery store.  I let the Strong Roots warm up a bit before I put it on my scalp.  I put on my plastic cap and bonnet and then went about the rest of the day doing a bunch of nothing.  I did have to say goodbye to old bottles of Moisturefuse and 2 Minute treatment from Aphogee but that was during the wash not before.  I woke up earlier than I planned on it again on Sunday and stayed with the routine from last week

1. Washed my hair with Macadamia Oil Shampoo followed by Moroccan Oil Shampoo.  Noticed that there was no massive lathering on the first wash since I hadn't stripped it clean the day before with post pool wash.
2. Did my three step conditioner each for about two minutes: 
1. Moroccan Oil
2. Aphogee 2 Minute
3. Mizani Moisturefuse
3. Rinsed everything out and then t-shirt dried for about 10 minutes 
4. Deep conditioned with Dr. Miracle's deep conditioner for about an hour
5. Rinsed it out and t-shirt dried for about two hours
6. LOC'd my hair, 3 comb detangled (there was more hair loss this week but to be expected as I am getting closer to the two month mark post relaxer) & and then set it on flexi rods like last week--except this week I spent a bit more time trying to keep the parts straight and balancing out the flexi rods.
1. Spraid on a moisture mist
2. Added jojoba oil and an oil treatment from Tropic Isle
3. Added As I Am and TW Deep conditioners like normal
7. Covered it all up with a bonnet and have been chilling since about 1 

I also went on a short Wal-mart trip earlier in the week that ended up with an unexpected perk.  Everything in the photo below was a buck.  I spent about 20 bucks and got lots of new product to try, two toothbrushes but I donated one to mom for her trip, and a ton of head scarves.  It pays to be in a town without a huge Black population sometimes as I will see this happen every six months or so.  They just finally had stuff  I wanted to try for a change.  And I will never be able to say I don't have a scarf.  I may put a few together as a giveaway but haven't decided yet.  And I did take photos for the reviews.  I'll be putting those up in a day or two.  How was your wash day?

Still being a semi lazy bum but my hair is clean

So I didn't do much of what I wanted to do today but I did enjoy one of my salads along with the last bit of pizza.  I just finished making fajitas for tonight and grilled chicken for the week.  And I even cleaned up the mess I made while I was cooking.  I did all of that after my hair though.

I woke up around 8 this morning after having another night of crazy dreams.  Don't ask lol.  Instead of going back to bed I got on up and washed my hair.  I did manage a prepoo that started about 11 last night.  It wasn't 12 hours but it was a good long time for me.

1. Washed my hair with Macadamia Oil Shampoo followed by Moroccan Oil Shampoo.  Noticed that there was no massive lathering on the first wash since I hadn't stripped it clean the day before with post pool wash.
2. Did my three step conditioner each for about two minutes: 
1. Moroccan Oil
2. Aphogee 2 Minute
3. Mizani Moisturefuse
3. Rinsed everything out and then t-shirt dried for about 10 minutes 
4. Deep conditioned with Dr. Miracle's deep conditioner for about an hour
5. Rinsed it out and t-shirt dried for about two hours
6. LOC'd my hair, 3 comb detangled & and then set it on flexi rods like last week
1. Spraid on a moisture mist
2. Added jojoba oil and an oil treatment from Tropic Isle
3. Added As I Am and TW Deep conditioners like normal
7. Covered it all up with a bonnet and have been chilling since about 1

So another wash day is in the books and I need to quit being lazy

The day before wash day or procrastination central

I totally should have done about 18 other things today that didn't come close to getting done.  I did however finish prepping meals for the week that I will cook tomorrow.  I also pulled out the stuff I bought yesterday to make salads too.  I grabbed two types of cucumbers and some romaine lettuce to go along with my carrots, spinach, and iceberg lettuce.  I had enough leftover after making my five salads and three extra ones for mom to enjoy a nice big salad with my freshly made pizza.  I swear to heaven whole wheat crusts are amazing.  The sauce was fine, a new one but nothing to write home about, but the crust and just right level of spice on the Italian sausage so damn good.  I need to quit eating it but it's delicious.  I have chicken and steak strips marinating in a variety of things.  I'll make them both tomorrow more than likely.

I'm going to start my prepoo in a bit but I also wanted to share my shopping haul with you while I keep up the procrastinating--I'm VERY good at that.  I ran to Ulta this week and they were having a buy 2 get 1 free sale on the Mizani products.  I needed Moisturefuse anyway so getting a free bottle means I don't have to replenish for a while and I can maybe go a little heavier than I have been during my wash days.  They also had a BOGO on the Organix products.  So while I don't need more shampoo I do like being prepared so I grabbed a bottle of the Macadamia Oil shampoo and the Organix deep conditioner that I needed.  I also grabbed a nail polish while I was there and left onl spending 45 bucks thanks to the sales and a coupon.  Sally's is never having a sale on what I need but I did stop there and get a bottle of both of my leave ins which awarded me a free feather that I will be giving away to someone at some point.  And as I was meandering through the grocery store to kill time while my mother shopped I noticed that a different kind of daily moisturizer from As I Am was on sale so I grabbed it.  I have to say that was a big step for me as I don't always think I need to moisturize between wash days as it sorta feels like cheating.  I'm going to pair it with the Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter to see it I can get that under control.

The product haul

The nail polish that was more expensive than the flipping shampoo

As you can see I have not hit the gym yet this month but I have done a few things to make sure I can get there next week--like prepping meals again.  And despite that I have seriously up my green intake with the number of salads I've had in the last week.  I've also been on a water kick, well Crystal Light tinted water kick.  I bought two larger water bottles (32 and 34 ounces) and try to get through at least two of them before I get home from work.  Days that I teach more that is easier to pull off but I'm still working on it.  So far I've managed to finish three in a given day which is better than my steady V8 Fusion intake.  I have also found a new veggie I like better in its fresh state, green beans.  Steamed or sauteed and I'm a happy kid.  Ok enough stalling.  Gotta start the prepoo now or sometime before bed.