Living as a Curly Girl

So there's lot of randomness to share with all of you.  I'm taking a break from organized weight loss and meal planning until the week before classes start.  That's the plan anyway.  Next week it's back to before more deliberate about what's going in and out.  I'll be at a conference as well which means I'm normally moving around much more than I am at work so there's that.  Come August 13th it's time to get back on the grind though.  I feel a little fuller which I'm not digging and I would like to just have the health and mental wellness benefits that come when I work out regularly.  I'm giving myself between August 1 and December 31st to get back into the losing weight camp again.  If that doesn't happen I may have to cut all my hair off and move in with monks.  Okay that's not happening but I will be pissed.


I mentioned in my last post that I was doing a month or so as a curly girl learning to deal with my hair without it being in a protective style (a la twists).  That first wash was tragic in terms of shedding but each wash after that got better.  Products made a big difference.  I did test the Pantene Gold Series products I got from @influenster and @pantene but I had to supplement them with other products because we only got part of the line.  It wasn't horrible and did fine but it wasn't the same kind of love and nurturing my hair feels after Deva Curl/Kinky Curly combo.  I spent more time washing my hair in sections this last month as well.  That doesn't seem like it would make a difference but good heavens did it.  My hair strands really like each other and if I don't separate them from each other then they tangle up showing each other some love.  So keeping them separated and detangling each section was like amazing.  The first few post wash styles were hit or miss too because as I've mentioned repeatedly me and product are weird.  The amount I thought I'd need to use to really define my hair just seemed excessive.  So in those early washes I wasn't using enough and while my hair looked okay it just ended up in a puff cause it wasn't what I was shooting for ultimately.  This last wash day though I finally got over it and sectioned my hair, added enough product that I could visually see it and then twisted each chunk up and went to bed.  It felt a little moist in a few places when I got up so I hit it with a low blow dryer and though this will be amazing.  Yeah my curls ain't loyal.  The outside of the twists were good to go.  The inside of all but three were like we need a little bit longer.  So yes the puff returned but I noticed something on day three after untwisting my overnight hair.  My curls were good and defined in a few spots.  Like girl look at us we sexy defined.  I know I need to take as long as possible for my hair to get dry but I may have to skip the air drying and use that hooded dryer so I can let the curls run free.

I was going to wash my hair and clean it really well since my wash was on Sunday but yeah yesterday all the lazy that ever lazied entered my body and that didn't happen.  I pulled of my "Slap" cap from Grace Elaye and noticed my hair didn't feel dry or like it had gotten tangled in the fabric of my other caps.  That made me happy and instead of an abbreviated cowash and high heat blow dry I just added some of the Pantene Hydrating Butter Creme and some moisturizing spray so that I could detangle my hair before I got to the shop.  You never know who might be in a braid shop on any given day and not all of them love your hair the way you do.  There was some hair shed and my hair took a minute to really love on the moisture but there was little to no hair loss while getting my twists done again and that was really the thing I was looking for in the end.  Nice separated curls and good moisturized scalp.

And in miracle of all miracles the shop was almost empty when I show up about 15 minutes after 10 this morning.  The shop owner did my hair the first few times I went in and that's why I have kept going back because when she's on her game or another sister is there my hair looks CUTE and I'm not there for 12 hours.  Shop owner was there this morning along with another braider who was about half done with some small individual braids.  Shop owner said sit on down and jumped to my hair immediately.  I left at 1:45 and that was because she spent a lot of time making sure the stray hairs were off each twists otherwise I might have been in my bed at 1:55.  Y'all my hair has gotten ridiculously thick as a natural.  Thick to the point that as I've done my twists a few times to prepare for bed I completely understood why mom put a relaxer on my hair in the first place.  Mess is thick and unforgiving of your hand muscles.  And as you can see it's getting longer.  At the 3 hour mark we had a tiny section of hair to do.  3 hours 15 minutes hair was done and getting the once over.  3 hours 30 minutes hair was trimmed, dipped, paid for and I was getting in my car. I LOVE her y'all just don't know.  I had finished my errands by 2:40 and was in my house and braless by 3p.

I need to spend this install keeping my hair moisturized and edges babied but other than that nothing major is proceeding before the end of the year at least.  Let's see if I can have super healthy hair and a healthy waist line at the same time.

Hope everyone is well!