UPPIN THE ANTY PART DEUX

Okay let's focus this time...lol. So I bought the rosemary essential oil cuz i've seen it mentioned as a hair growth stimulator. We all want quick growth. I also bought a box of henna, walked past it twice til a sales lady helped me. I went back and forth on color cuz it doesn't show a picture on the label like regular color. I ended up with red. Hopefully it has good instructions cuz I don't know if i should do it on freshly washed hair or on product filled hair....o the confusion. I might try ginger essential oil too. I saw it in a recipe for scalp stimulation....yum. I'm kinda scared of what the henna will turn out like, I think I might wait for more growth before I do it.

I've been off sweets for a month as of today, I've lost 5 pounds, my hair is great, I have more energy and less pain (except for what needs to be worked out by massage....haha). I need to get up off my lazy and get back into a regular yoga routine. It's great for the body and mind but there are poses that take blood to the head (scalp) like downward dog. I did downward dog for a couple of seconds the last time I did a DT and oooooo automatic tingling in the scalp. If I could learn to stand on my shoulders that would be great. This pose is said to stimulate metabolism and of course the bottom half of the body is up so blood goes where.....to the head.

I'll leave you with a recipe or 2, let me know how they work for you:

Spa Scalp Treatment-

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons of fresh ground lavender (or essential oil)
2 tablespoons dried peppermint (or essential oil)

warm ingredients in small saucepan (do not boil). massage into scalp over damp hair. cover hair with shower cap to keep heat in. sit in the sun, if possible, for twenty minutes. shampoo (co-wash) and rinse hair. should be repeated once a month.

Stimulating Ginger Scalp Treatment-

3 drops ginger essential oil
3 drops rosemary essential oil
1 teaspoon vegetable or nut oil

mix oils together and massage into scalp for five minutes. shampoo (co-wash) and rinse. repeat at least twice a week.


FYI-------
rosemary--stimulates hair growth
swiss pine--halts hair loss
cedarwood--strengthens the hair and cleanses the scalp
lemon--adds shine to the hair (but be careful in the sun, makes u extra sensitive)
lavender--thickens hair
eucalyptus--fights dandruff
cyprus--clears away grease
chamomile--lightens the hair color

HAPPY EXPERIMENTING.....

OK SO I'M UPPIN THE ANTY (IS THAT SPELLED RIGHT....LOL)

Hey u hair enthusiasts out there....hope your hair is playing nice with you. I'm thinking that adding a weekly hot oil treatment might be a nice thing for my hair and scalp. Seems like it would just glow with joy (get the joke...yeah). Anyway, I've been doing a lot of emotional and spiritual repair....which goes a long way in healthy body function (hair, skin, etc). I'm actually quite peaceful right now. I'm noticing a thickening in the hair in the back, towards the crown area. I'll be glad when the top catches up but of course i cut that part the shortest. I try to do scalp massages when i'm sittin round watchin tv or whatnot, tryin to get the blood flow hoppin. FYI-regular massages u know the lay on the the table and drool kind are great for bloodflow throughout the body cuz a tight muscle severely limits smooth flow of blood. So imagine what those tight neck, shoulder and back muscles are doing to the blood and nourishment tryin to get to your scalp......AAAAAAAARGH! THE HORROR! (All joking aside....I'm serious).

So enough griping. I bought some rosemary today to add to my various hair luxuries (treatments sounds so medical, you know). I have a book called "Spa Magic" by Mary Muryn that shows you different recipes for creating a spa at home and she lists rosemary, cedarwood and lavendar essential oils for hair growth. Peppermint is not listed but yes it helps too. Tea Tree helps with cleansing and dandruff. I have read a lot of threads on naturallycurly.com that speak of the amazing powers of rosemary essential oil, so I figure why not. I also researched neem oil and will be adding it to my hair's oil bath as soon as i order it. I found some on amazon.....i love amazon.

I also take supplements....just for general well being. I can not stress the importance of supplements for health and hair. You have no idea how what we put in our bodies as food is depleting our nutrients....i know u don't cuz i didn't lol. First off, you need a good multivitamin everyday, not the stuff over there in the vitamin aisle either, it has fillers. It's not supposed to but it does. Go to the organic section or a health food store. Fillers in vitamins reduce the bodies ability to absorb the nutrients....simple test to see if that multi is worthwhile: put it in a warm glass of water (simulates stomach environment) and see how long it takes for it to start dissolving ...if it even does. A lot of the popular vitamin brands just sit in your stomach until they pass through the bowel.....hmmmm not helping the body at all. Our food has very little nutrients anymore so that's not a good source of nutrients. Medicines kill our nutrients left and right. Eat your veggies and fruit everyday and try to eat them raw as often as is possible. Get your biotin....straight biotin, not the mixes (you know hair,skin,nail mixes). The one I have says to only take one a day plus my multi has a certain amount of biotin as well. Fish oil and Flax Seed Oil supplements are good too for hair and health. If I can get myself motivated i will publish a couple of health papers on here and you will have a start at what you need to research and learn about as far as your health and hair. The more you know, the more you will grow. I started ranting so I'm gonna add a part 2 cuz this is getting long....lol.

Tweaked Things a Bit

Hello all...I'm still experimenting. Yesterday I did my weekly deep conditioning (trying to figure out how to fit 2 into the week) and I decided to tweak the ingredients a bit. So, here's where it stands for now----yogurt, honey, shea butter, aloe vera gel, castor oil, olive oil, coconut oil, coffee (ground), essential oils (tea tree, peppermint, lavender), suave lavender and lilac conditioner (my hair loves this) and oatmeal. I added the oatmeal for thickening because without it I have the mixture running all down my back (icky mess). My hair loves this mixture. I could only leave it on for an hour because of the runniness but oh my god, the results were wonderful. I stepped out the shower, after rinsing and a condition with the suave and i had hanging corkscrew curls in the back. Now this is an amazing feat because my hair is still fairly short......ooooooo I can't wait to see how it acts when I get some length. The softness is undescribable. I think we have a winner.
Oh yeah I cleansed before the deep conditioner, first time in 2 weeks, seemed like it needed it. I used Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure Castille Soap. the scent is lovely and my scalp tingled. Made my curls pop without conditioner.

Ingredients:

Water, Saponified Organic Coconut & Organic Olive Oils (w/Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Organic Peppermint Oil, Mentha Arvensis Extract, Citric Acid, Vitamin E.

Still Trying New Things

Hey all who might be following this....or maybe I'm the only one interested. Any how I'm still experimenting with my hair----YEAH!!!!! My Activator Gel is against me right now. I don't know what has happened but it just doesn't work like it did a few weeks ago...Oh well onto the next thing. Gel has always been a staple, I just don't like the crunchy it leaves. Today I tried my homemade leave-in for the first---Aloe Vera Gel, Shea Butter(raw!!!!!!!!) and Coconut Oil--(think I'll add honey next time I make it). I put it in after my co-wash/condition last night. This morning my hair was soft as feathers. I put more in with styling and added my gel. Well it didn't give me the automatic curls I was used to the first time I went natural;bout 2 years ago (although very little has been the same about my hair this go around). I'm thinking I may need a somewhat thicker gel to use with this leave-in. I'm going to give Softee gel a try. I'm also going to have a go at Suave naturals lavendar;since the Bio Balance conditioner (which I love) has mineral oil in it which has been said not to be good for skin (ie, scalp....YIKES!!!!);so I figured it's best to find an alternative. Looking to try the generic Biolage sold at Sallys Beauty Supply;been hearing rave reviews about it.

I must not have much porosity to my hair because it took until 4 pm (starting at about 7 am mind you) for my hair to really grasp the product and for curls to fully "pop". I'll try it with the stronger (I hope) gel and see how things go. Til later......

Success of my Deep Conditioner

I tried my deep conditioning concoction on Saturday. Well it went really well. I left it in my hair, under plastic wrap, for 5 hours. I did a couple of yoga poses during the treatment that required me to bend forward-----whoa-----what a rush of blood to the head. I felt my mixture heat up and start to tingle....excitement!!!!!!!! So, I washed it out and looked at it just to see what it had done if anything. Well my hair layed down so smoothly you would've thought I had wavy hair instead of corkscrew. I was pleased to say the least. Two things I would change---I would grind the coffee up and add fat (shea butter) to it as it is extremely hard to find yogurt with full fat. But, other than these 2 things, I think I have a mixture worth keeping.

Trying New Things

So, I tried a new conditioner yesterday and I loved it. It's called Bio-Balance. I thought I had read the label carefully before I purchased it but I guess I didn't because when I looked at the ingredients again when I was getting ready to use it, I noted that it contained - mineral oil (eeeewwwwwww) and some parabens (but no cones---Yeah!?), so I was skeptical to say the least. To my surprise I noted a significant difference in my hair before I even got out of the shower. I had very very raised waves swimming through my hair. Once I blotted my hair I had major curls forming (my hair is still very short so they were close to the scalp). The curls remained even through the night without any product. I'm thinking this is a new fave....so long Aussie.

Now I am in the process of trying a homemade deep conditioner as we speak. It consists of organic yogurt, ground oatmeal and flaxseed and coffee. Coffee has been used in many spa services recently due to it's ability to bring blood to the surface of the skin (which of course gives it nourishment) so I figure the scalp is skin why wouldn't it work there. I looked through a natural recipe book I have and saw something about ginger for scalp stimulation as well so I may be tweaking this with the addition of the ginger-we'll see. I've also added flaxseed oil capsules to my supplement routine (can't begin to tell you all the good things about flaxseed in the diet) so we'll see how this all turns out. I'll keep you posted.

By the by may be concocting a new styling aid as well....definitely looking to use it as a possible lotion so why not try it on the hair if not for a product then a leave in........we will see what happens.

I Tried Coconut Oil

So, i finally got the opportunity to try out coconut oil as a moisturizer yesterday. It worked great on my hair....I used it as a leave in before I used my activator gel. It made my hair curl very easily...even the parts that are coarse 4a type. Only a slight problem, at the end of the day my hair was slightly oily. So this will be something I do ever so often. Other than the oiliness it made for a great deal of moisture in my hair. I might just use it as a hot oil treatment from now on.

GOING NATURAL----ROUND 2

this is my second go at being natural. the first time was in june of 2006. i made it a little over a year before i went back to chemicals---it just got so hard to manage. i didn't have any real guidance at that time on how to care for my hair. this time i'm much luckier. i've found several sites and communities that cater to the interests of the natural brothers and sisters.....yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! i've gotten several good ideas andi'm going to apply them. one was for coconut oil as a leave in ---------mmmm yummy. i will keep u posted on how things go......til later peace and blessings