I think I'll blog today...

Most recent picture of my puff. Taken about 2 weeks ago...

Sorry it's been so long, I've been reeeeaaallly busy! But I do have some new news!!

1. As of Jan 1, 2011 I've stopped eating meat sans seafood of course (I've cheated on accident only twice and both times were less than an oz.) My cheat #1 was on Jan 7. Me and the fiancé went out to eat for our anniversary (officially 8 years y'all!) and the wait was soooo long that the manager bought out samples to make all of us hungry guests happy. I was too quick to pick up the little toothpick with the sample on the end and throw it into my mouth!! On chew #3, I realized that 'chicken marsala' had chicken in it! oops. Cheat #2 actually happened this past Saturday at the casino buffet in Motor City. I saw they had collard greens (say what?!) and HAD to have them. Got all the way to the table, put a fork full in my mouth and 2 swallows later realized I was eating shredded pieces of pork... ahh well! Can't build Rome in a day. And truthfully after 2 months and only 2 cheats... I'm doing great! Considering how much of a meat eater I am. Go figure a 'vegetarian meat lover'...

2. I've also taken a break from my holy grail product Shea Moisture. Although I still LOVE this brand and it smells so yummy. This winter was rough and their moisture intense shampoo wasn't doing much for my hair so I ditched the shampoo and bought some Yes! To Carrots conditioner and decided to only co-wash in the winters from now on. This was by far the greatest idea I had all year!!  I also invested in some vegetable glycerin and Aloe Vera juice. Another AWESOME idea. I replaced my conditioner mix in my spray bottle with equal parts water, aloe juice, and vegetable glycerin. Also after reading the ingredients of the Shea Moisture curl enhancing smoothie, I decided to make it myself. Extraordinary idea #3.  I melted down some Shea butter, cocoa butter, and mango butter along with some coconut oil, olive oil, vegetable glycerin, and Aloe Vera juice. After it was melted completely and mixed together, I let it start to solidify and about half way through whipped it with a spoon until it was fluffy. Soo needless to say, my Shea Moisture line has been replaced by an even more natural and cheaper version made by moi (that's french for me... I think). Plus Yes! to Carrots conditioner is only $7.99 at Target compared to Shea Moisture's $9.99. That's a McDonald's new oatmeal!! FTW!!

Random Side Note: McDonald's oatmeal is delicious and so is North Star's ginger ale. Thatisall

3. I've done some MAJOR cutting! One thing about me is I lack patience. I like things to happen NOW! My goal is by the end of May for all of my hair to be curly again and I am well on my way. This year the focus was healthy. Next year the focus is growth and length retention... I haven't posted pics of my hair in a while. My next post I'll load y'all up!

3. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my tangle teaser!! I went MONTHS without detangling and I did not have high hopes for that thing to get through my hair and it did! With minimal hair loss!! Now I use it once/week after I co-wash and my twists outs have been BANGIN! I actually washed my hair today and lost hardly any strands! I'm in looooovvvveee. So anyway they sell them at Sally's for $9.99.

Hair Experiences

So I wanted to update my blog and since this started out as a hair blog, I should probably start with that. Since I started working so much my hair has been neglected. womp womp. Also, for the purpose of this blog, I've decided to name her Sophia (after Sophia from Color Purple who didn't do what nobody told her to). Sophia is becoming quite unruly lately due to the lack of care, she's still pretty soft and shiny but the winter is taking its toll and she is quite dry.

For Christmas I got my huetiful hair steamer and tried it out the week after. Sophia LOVE LOVE LOVES it!! It is my new favorite appliance!! I haven't taken any pictures of me actually using it yet, womp, but I'll remember next time.

I also got a set of curlformers which I totally begged for all last summer. Less than impressed by these. I've used them twice and both times have been disastrous! I have seen people who have used them and gotten really good results but for me, I think my bantu knots are cuter than the curls I get from the curlformers. After I took them out and played with my hair I looked more like my name was [insert old country name here] instead of Tiffani. I've narrowed down what I think may be the problem. I think because I got the long and wide curlformers and I really need long and narrow or long and skinny (if those versions exists) I love huge hair with tons of small curls but with these, I seem to get small hair with big curls... not good! So I'm going to try them 1 more time and hopefully third times the charm otherwise I'll be putting them on Ebay. Also they suck to sleep in, they take too long to install (bantu knots are waay quicker and look better), and my cat thinks I have snakes in my hair and keeps punching me in the head.

Until next time... Peace, Love, and crab cakes...

Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful... Love this song!!

Hair Story- Stop Pissing me off!! lol

I promised some blogging and damn it, that's just what I'm going to give you!

So lately I've been getting tons of compliments on my hair. It seem everywhere I go somebody wants to touch it. Interestingly enough, it seems that I get the most compliments when my twist are aching to be done over. I have a few things to say about this...

1. I have NO problem with people feeling or touching my hair but my hair is not a free for all. You do have to ask first and I have to say yes. You can't just come up and grab it and pull on it. Not acceptable. I appreciate the compliments and will answer any questions you have but last week a girl was sick (coughing, sniffing, etc) and came up grabbed a section of my hair without my permission and without sanitizer.  YUCK!
2. I HATE offside compliments. Why do women feel the need to do that? A lady told me, "I like your hair but I couldn't wear my hair like that to work"...*blank stare* First off, I see more natural hair in the professional world then I see in out in the streets. Second, It's implying that my hair is unprofessional simply because its in its natural state.  I hate that! We don't have to conform to be professional! My work speaks for itself not my hair. People told me when I got tatted I wouldn't get a job either and not one employer has ever asked or mentioned my hand tattoo (its a frog... super cute!)

3. Part deux of the offside compliments. Stop using this stupid "good hair" excuse! "You can do that to your hair because you got that good stuff" YIKES!! really? My hair kinks and curls more than the average person. My bad hair days are horrible ones just like the next person. In fact, I remember getting made fun of when I was younger because of my hair. If you use that hair typing system (I don't use it but I am aware of what my type is considered) I am technically a 4a/4b and those are not hair types that are typically considered "good hair." Good hair is not straight-er or silky-er hair! Good hair is healthy hair. Learn how to take care of what God put on your head! My hair became happy when I finally stopped trying to make it do what it was never supposed to do!  Example: I used to hate humidity until I stopped pressing my hair. Now it's my best friend. Your hair is telling you what it needs. LISTEN!

Not Now, I'm Busy!!

Haven't blogged in a while and I totally intend to blog this weekend but don't hold me to it. Besides it prob just me and like 5 friends who read this anyway so nobody is probably even missing it.

Where to start? Well for some over-eager reason I went from 0 jobs to 2!!  One fulltime and one part time that equals approximately 60 hours a week!! Well this is not exactly true, I was already working part time at OSU but now I'm also employed by the health department! So needless to say: Who in the sam-hell has time for blogging?!! I'm seriously just too damn busy!!

The crazy part is that I have already planned the use of my pay checks!! As we all know my wedding is coming up (in August 2012 but that's really not that far away!) and I have some major money to save. I hopefully will be buying my dress in January. I could wait on this part but I'd rather just get it out of the way plus I'm sooo super picky when it comes to my clothes (and wedding gowns. I pretty much hate every dress that I've seen at recent weddings... maybe not hate but I definately would not wear them and those seem to be current fashion... go figure, but I digress...) so I need to plan way in advance for this dress. I also need to save at least 2K so this summer when I find my venue, I can just pay it off (i really hate lingering bills). There's some other stuff I'm saving for too (like possibly a new car. My soon to be 10 year old car is so embarrassing. And I've definately caused some major body damage.)

In other random ass "I'm so busy" news... I've started writing again. I secretly my whole life have wanted to be a poet or a songwriter in my spare time (some people want to be models or musicians... don't judge me) so maybe in a future blog i'll showcase some stuff "Now keep in mind that I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my SHIT".

I've also tried some new products and want to give them a review when I find time, and still no heat to my mop (I think I'll give her a name soon because she really is an entity of her own to me. Can't use Shaniqua because that is the name of my uterus... I named her one day when she was flippin the fuck out on me during my cycle... yeah that was probably too much info hunh?...) but I'm bored to tears of these twist but I'm staying strong so I can be sure to get the amount of growth I want by May.

So God willing... Until the next post... Peace, Love, and hot sauce...

My Holy Grail Product- Shea Moisture Organic Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie

So I've tried a lot of natural hair products and I have found my holy grail moisturizer! It has super yummy ingredients and is thick enough to keep my hair moisturized for days! I will say that I don't notice any "curl enhancing" aspects but then again my hair is in twist so I'll have to update you on that come spring or summer...

Ingredients:

Deionized Water, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea

Bu@er)*, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Mangifera

Indica (Mango) Seed Bu@er*, Persea GraQssima

(Avocado) Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil*, Aloe

Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Silk Protein, Melia

Azadirachta (Neem) Seed Oil, Daucus Carota SaQva

(Carrot) Seed Oil, Caprylyl glycol, Sorbitol Esters,

EssenQal Oil Blend, Lonicera Caprifolium

(Honeysuckle) Flower (and) Lonicera Japonica

(Japanese Honeysuckle) Flower Extract, Tocopherol

(Vitamin E). *Denotes CerQfied Organic Ingredient.

Price:

$9.99 at Target

How I use it
I use an index finger full (awesome measurement hunh?) and rub it in my hands, distribute it through my hair and then seal with a mix I made of coconut oil, olive oil, conditioner, and water...

Still twisting...

Still twisting. I thought it would be hard for me to stay in twist all winter but actually I love it! It takes me about 3.5 hours to twist it all up and it last for about a month (well kind of, I usually retwist small sections throughout the month and retwist my 2strand flats at the front every two weeks) and takes me about 5 mins to do my hair daily after.

I also did some major trimming of my heat damage and I am so excited about that. I'm one step closer to all of my hair being nappy again! The funny part is that you can hardly tell that the front of my hair is drastically shorter than the back since I keep it flat twisted while it grows back. Here's some pictures:

Side note* The hair clipped in these pictures is wet! and NOT curly AT ALL! This should be proof that heat is just as damaging as a chemical relaxer! Use at your own risk but me personally... DONE! I'm just so happy that I'm about 90% curly again.

And FYI I'm am officially 6 MONTHS HEAT FREE!