How I did my wash and go in fall/winter

Fall/winter isn’t prime time for a wash and go. Wet hair is a major no-no when it’s snowing or just plain cold (unless you’re trying to catch a cold or worse…).  My winter routine was very similar to my usual wash and go with a few different (and important!) steps in the middle. However, my hair is too long for me to wear a straight wash and go like I did in my TWA days (I miss the good ol’ days..) So this is basically what I did right after I BCed (I BCed in the middle of winter).  


1) Follow steps 1- 6 but skip 5 from my wash and go tutorial   
                                                

2) Baggie over night! When hair is fairly damp (just past the dripping stage) put on a shower cap and make sure it stays in place with the help for a skinny head band. Place a satin SCARF/ head wrap over the whole thing.  To make sure your pillow won’t get wet; place a really soft towel or fabric of the like over your pillow. Another way to do this is double up on scarves/wraps. This will help moisturize your hair which is very important when it's cold and dry out.


3)  Night night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.


4) When you wake up in the morning, get dressed and carefully remove your scarf and shower cap. Carefully shake your curls out of the helmet matt you’ve created.  A spray bottle will make your life easier and help with getting the most definition. Then use a spray gel--this won't provide a lot of hold, but it will provide enough for a defined but fluffy wash and go--and gently scrunch. I used John Frida Dream Curls Curl Perfecting Spray but you can make your own by mixing some gel, oil and water together (working on a recipe for this as we speak!).


5) Take a blow dryer with a diffuser attachment, set on low, and dry until roughly 70%-85% dry. ONLY IF YOU'RE IN A HURRY! Otherwise, try to let your hair air dry.


6) Go about your business, eat breakfast, pack your bags, find your keys, etc. By the time you’re done, your hair is probably dry enough to go outside without fear of sickness.


7) Have a nice day!

If all goes well, this will last me about 5 days with day 5 being a semi-defined wash and go. For days 6 and 7, I usually wear a beanie or a hat with a satin bonnet. 

In REAL winter aka once the snow hits the ground or my big ol’ winter coat makes an appearance, I don’t bother wearing my hair out at all. I do all the steps above and then slap a bonnet under a beanie or scarf and go about my day. It’s too cold to bother with making my hair look defined. I don’t want my head to freeze and no one is going to see it anyways!

A collection of cute beanies REALLY makes keeping this fun and cute easy. But, if you only want or have the basic beanies, you can pin pins to your beanie or wear a patterned scarf under the beanie and let that peak out. Lately I’ve been looking at underscarves (I love youtube's very own makeup guru makeupadkit’s especially this one/combination and I've seen students at my school with some truly beautiful ones)  as another way to possibly jazz up my plain beanies. Not sure if this would be offensive or not though...

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198....199....200 followers! That's right 200 followers! Thank you so much everyone for reading, commenting, sharing your stories and asking your questions. This blog wouldn't be where it is now if it wasn't for your help. It's an honor to write for you all!

xoxo

    -Alice

Hair Idol: Le Coil

Le Coil is not a person.

It's a website showing many different street snaps, editorials, celebrities and event photos from around the wold with one thing in common. Everyone is natural. Some have locs, twists, fros, wash and gos and much much more. It's a great site when you're looking for hair style ideas and inspiration. What I really like about them is they tell you the persons name and if they have a blog or website, share the link so you can check them out later.

Product Review: Qhemet Biologics Burdock Root Butter Cream

Advertised: Lighter than the Amla & Olive Heavy Cream, this lusciously rich formula softens and nourishes normal to dry hair.

Ingredients: distilled water, olive oil, extracts of burdock root, nettle and oatstraw, msm sulfur, vegetable glycerine, cetearyl wheat straw glycosides, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, conditioning emulsifier, vitamin e, lactic acid, maltodextrin, phenoxyethanol & ethylhexyglycerine (Mild, Food Grade Paraben-free and Formaldehyde-free Preservative), essential oil blend.


Price: 2 oz $5.50, 8 oz $16.00


Review: It took FOREVER to get here. Seriously, I ordered this on September 30^th and I got it on October 13^th (When I write it, it doesn’t look so bad but I HAD TO WAIT FOR IT and I’m low on leave-in conditioner!!). Anyways, it got here and guess what. The jar was cracked. Yup, there is a big old ugly crack in the side. Luckily, there is a “jar within a jar” system (I don’t know what it’s called) and the second jar DIDN’T crack, so I think I’m going to be ok. I taped over it with packing tape and it looks normal now and seems to be holding up fine.


Sent wise, it’s really light. Faintly lemon-y. And it’s full to the brim. I don’t know how generous they usually are, but they were REALLY generous with mine (to make up for the cracked jar perhaps?) It’s really thick. It felt more like body butter than leave-in conditioner.


I did 4 flat twists on damp hair after applying this product and took them out when they were about ¾ of the way dry. Even without other products, it had a surprising amount of hold. My hair didn’t shrink up at all and frizz was relatively no existent. However, I think I used too much. My hair was CRUNCHY. Not the most pleasant feeling.

Test 2: Wash and go. I co-washed and slapped this in while my hair was damp and sealed with olive oil. My shrinkage was about half of what I usually get for a wash and go and it was completely frizz free! I used much less than I used last time, so my hair wasn’t crunchy at all. It was very soft, fluffy and shiny.
This product is highly concentrated, I only needed a little for twists and wash and goes. Otherwise, Crunch City. On the bright side, that means this might ACTUALLY last me all winter and into spring! 


Note: I couldn't find good pictures of the product alone, so here is a collection!

Rant: Zahara Jolie-Pitt's hair

Background: Zahara is a 4-year-old Ethiopian girl adopted by The Jolie-Pitt Clan. And she’s as cute as a button.

See, cute as a button!

But, she’s been getting a lot of flack lately (I know right, who bashes a 4 year old!) because her hair isn’t “brushed” or “done” or “covered in barrettes” like a normal 4 year old. 

You know what I was doing when I was four? Sand box. Swing. Mud pit. Repeat until bedtime. Maybe throw in a bath for good measure. I don’t remember when I started school, but I think it was around three and it still went as follows: sand box. Swing. Class. Lunch. Sand box. Swing. Home. Mud pit. Now, I'm pretty sure the daughter of two celebrities isn't living like I did, but I'm pretty sure a wash and go works for her just like it worked for me. Why? Because no 4 year old wants to be bothered with sitting perfectly still for 3+ hours doing her hair. Period. 

Seriously, she’s FOUR. There is no reason to be going OMG DO HER HURRR! What if she WANTS her hair to look like that? What if she LIKES it!  I wore my hair out, natural and loose ALL THE TIME when I was little. I used to CRY when my mom made me “wear it up” (seriously, I was NOT having that when I was little.)

And don’t even think about suggesting a 4 year old relax her hair. Don’t. Start. With. Me. That’s a whole ‘nother rant itself. 

But what REALLY got to me: 

"Zahara is not even old enough to know that her hair looks dry and damaged as it stands straight up on her head. But there will come a day when this beautiful little African girl will understand what it means to be an African-American woman in this society and realize unlike her younger sister, hers is not a wash-and-go world."

WAIT?! SERIOUSLY!? I LIVE IN A WASH-N-GO WORLD. ARE YOU TELLING MY REALITY IS FAKE! HAVE I TAKEN THE BLUE PILL!? You know what else I can do in my world? I can have a Mohawk all weekend, a wash and go Monday, braids on Wednesday, Fro on Friday kinda world. And you know what else my world is?  It’s FABULOUS. 

The only advice I have for her family: you might want to look into a better leave in conditioner. Occasionally her hair looks dry. Also, according to your interviews, she’s already starting asking questions about why her hair doesn’t look like Mommy’s. PLEASE instill self-confidence in her now, tell her she (and her hair) is beautiful. Give her the strength to stand up for her afro when she gets older (if SHE choose to keep it that way) because she’s going to have to deal with ugly people saying ugly things about her hair. 

She looks happy. She looks healthy. She looks like she WANTS her hair to be in a wash and go. Who are you to fume over the fact she doesn't want 40 bajillion hair ties, a press and curl or twists?

Source

More Responses:
Everything that comes up on Newsweek's "Good Hair" tag (where the article was originally posted)

An open appeal to the Jolie-Pitt Hair Police

[EDIT] YAY! The coding errors are fixed =) 

For other bloggers that post product reviews:

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren't typical.

The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit.

Testimonials have to spell out what consumers should expect to experience with their products. Previously, companies had just included disclaimers when results were out of the ordinary -- such as a large weight loss -- noting that the experience was not typical for all customers.

Testimonial advertisements can be effective for consumers since they show others talking about their experiences, giving hope to the consumer that they'll have that experience too. But they are misleading to consumers if they don't disclose what they should truly expect to experience, the commission said.

For bloggers, the FTC stopped short of specifying how they must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be "clear and conspicuous," no matter what form it will take.

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I'm not sure how many of you this will effect, but it's good to know.

More here:  ap FTC: Bloggers, testimonials need better disclosure

Essential oil: Lavender

Lavender oil has been used in perfumes and aromatherapy for ages. It’s known to make you feel calmer and lower anxiety levels. Medicinally, when it’s vaporized it’s been known to cause cough suppression, easy sore joints when used as massage oil and even help with sunburn when mixed with your favorite carrier oil.  

Personally, I love it when I’m stressed out. I just open the bottle, take a wiff and I’m suddenly more relaxed and focused. (If anyone knows the science behind aromatherapy, feel free to tell me. If not, I’ll go do my homework myself and post about it!)

Distilling lavender flowers makes lavender essential oil. To do this, you use steam distillation and once the distillate is done, the essential oil will float to the surface and all you have to do is scrap it off the top.

Like peppermint oil, you should avoid lavender oil in the early stages of pregnancy or if you are allergic to flowers and plants.

I LOVE using this in my leave-in and deep conditioning mixes. My hair always smells lovely and it lingers for the perfect amount of time—unless you get the dilution wrong @_@.

Reader input!

 I'm trying to make my blog even better, prettier, more fun, etc. But to do that, I'm going to need you to answer a few questions for me. You can post your responses in the comments or you can email them to me at diaryofakinkycurlytransitioner@gmail.com.

1)What do you like about The Diary of a Kinky Curly Transitioner? What don't you like about it?

2) What is your favorite feature/tag? What do you wish I could/would do differently?

3) What would you like to see in the future? More interviews? More rants? More articles? More pretty pictures of natural hair? More about me and my hair?

Be as detailed as possible! I kept the questions deliberately opened ended so you could write whatever you wanted without feeling constrained.