Slacking...

I used this week to recover from my week in St. Louis! I have tons of updates, and I'll start posting on Monday! :-)

Iiiiiiiim Baaaaaaaaack!

Okay, so I'm sitting in the airport as I type. I'll make this really quick. Trip was so so, but the great part is that I've convinced my sister to let her hair grow natural! Yaaaaay! I'm so excited. I also have 11 and 13 year old sisters who have never permed, and bc of my words of wisdom have no interest in doing so. Yay, we're a natural family now! :-)

I'll update later... have lots to tell!

Slow...

Star,

Okay, so I have to make a trip back to St. Louis (my hometown) for my sister's college graduation, and also to check on my family! :-) I'm trying to decide if I want to take any conditioner with me, or if I should buy it there... hmmm... I am personally not interested in checking any bags, so I think I'm rolling liquid free on this one. I stuffed my favorite Perfume and Eau de toilette into a little baggie, and that's about it. My sister just cut all of her hair off (and she had A LOT) I think she's going through a few things, but I'll see if I can make her a believer once I touch down! LOL

She has a graduates dinner that she would like me to attend, and I'm not sure how I'll rock the curls that day since my hawkie may not be appropriate. We'll see.... BUT, I WILL indeed rock the hawkie to the ceremony, and she can kiss my toots if she thinks otherwise. LOL

Until I return...

~Ceez

Make it last forever...

Star,

So today I realized that I woke up with the same pony/bun I've been rocking since Sunday! You have to know why this is exciting!

See.....I can NEVER rock a pony/bun for more than a day. I sleep entirely too hard, and I literally change clothes 2-3 times a day LOL (don't ask... just a girly thing). My buns have never survived the battlefield that I call my day. I wrap it at night, and the scarf slips off. I end up bare on the satin pillow, and that honestly doesn't help keep it in place either. LOL!

Anyway, to the point.... I'm on day three, and this thing still looks good. I wake up, add a little shea butter to my life, put the wrap back on until I'm ready to walk out and voila!

The only difference that I have made is that I add a little butter and water right before I go to sleep. I do a slight run with a boar brush, and then wrap. I sleep wild, and after seeing how well how this has worked I guess I have concluded that....when my hair is completely dry my scarf will never stay in place. So.... from now on moisturize before you lay it down.

I took these first thing this morning! :-)

~Ceez

I want a Pony!...

Star,

So, a few months back I had more than enough hair to throw into a thick cute bun, but in my case it was "hair today... gone tomorrow". Let me remind you that before a few months back I wouldn't let anyone put any kind of scissors anywhere NEAR my head, so my hair actually paid the price in the end. It grew out uneven, broken, surprisingly not too many splits, but nonetheless a good amount of the ends had to go. I can't say that I regret it because now I don't have an issue with keeping my ends hydrated. Nor do I have an issue with piles of frizz where there should be definition. I'm loving the state that my hair is in, but I'm praying for my pony! LOL! It's somewhat back in effect. After the trim I actually couldn't get it into the scunci at all. Now I'm halfway there. Go head! Go head! I'm not exactly sure what is promoting all of this growth (meaning I'm not sure if it's exercise alone), but I like it, so I'm not gonna stop! :-) I want my pony back pony back pony back pony

back! LOL

See pics below.

~Ceez

Good Eats...

Sup Star,

So.... I'm one of those people who are big on healthy eating, but usually fall off of the wagon after about a month.... beeeeeggging for excess dairy and sweets!

With this said... all the talk about a healthy diet and hair growth got me to wondering, so I tried conducting my own research. tehehehe.

I was always sure that this theory had validity, but I was more sure that it was valid in conjunction with decent hair care as well. I believed it had more to do with the actual hair care.

Soooo... I tried it....

I started working out on March 24, 2009 with my trainer. He keeps me on a STRICT diet with a daily intake of 1500 calories that consists of all the necessary food groups. I continue to take a mutivitamin, but, in order to see how effective this would be I stopped taking Biotin and MSM.

Down to the skinny...

I think this theory may have truth to it! I work 1 hour sessions 4-5 times a week. I watch what I eat... the most dairy I have eaten is cottage cheese lately (which I have come to enjoy...along with pineapples LOL). I have not taken MSM or biotin, but I have kept up with my mutivitamins.

I feel bad because I didn't take the best beginning photo's, but that's because I'm my own photographer in most cases

("The boy" isn't always around. LOL).

I'm posting both before, and after. I would say I've gotten about 2-2 1/2 inches of growth in one month... well, actually one month is tomorrow. :-)

So, this theory is...

SO TRUE

• I wet my hair for the before pic because I figured that the water would stretch it for me.
• I "renched" around and stretched it a little for the after shot LOL.... again, I'm my own photographer in some cases so bear with me. :-)

*if you have never heard "rench around" then you or your immediate family are probably not from the south. LOL

Before...

A little past... maybe sitting right on my shoulders.

After...

Well past my shoulders... about an inch or 2 away from APL. Great! :-)

I went to put on a white tee so you guys could see better....

I guess now that I see the correlation, I'm motivated to stay on the wagon this time! :-)

My 2 cents...

I think that decent hair care is still sufficient for healthy hair growth, but there is no denying that working up a good sweat can increase your progress. :-) Me... I'm a bit of an instant gratification kind of chick, so this works for me! :-)

~Ceez

Stylin' and Profilin'...

Stars,

Well... when it comes to styling, I admit, I'm a little lazy. I don't twist like most before bed, and sometimes don't even bother throwing it up. I have busy days, and even busier nights, not to mention I've never been nice with a comb and brush! LOL! I envy the girls who have no

problem in this arena, but I'm another case.... "See Imma let it do what it do babay!"

So, all jokes aside... I made an attempt to twist in order

to style this morning, and the results were self astonishing. I actually can't believe that I did it... I'm feeling really unbrella ella ella ay right now! Chhhheeeea! LOL!

Night:

I sectioned my hair into 4.

Added an itty tiny bit of DevaCare One Conditioner to a section

Then twisted

Once I finished twisting the section

I rolled and tucked

finished the other 3

....and that's about it...LOL, and the best part is that it only took about 5-8 minutes. LOL

Morning:

I unrolled and untwisted each section

I fluffed it (not so much to avoid excess frizzies)

and added 3 clips to the side

played with the look

... and again... that's about it! LOL Took 10 minutes top!

Results below:

Pic 1: taking the twist out

Pic 2: light fluffing

Pic 3: end result

Pic 4: side clips

Pic 5: front action

Pic 6: side action

~Ceez

Still in love...

Stars,

I told you I would come back and review Herbal Essences Hydralicious after I tried it again right?

Well... safe to say that this stuff is....

the sugar honey iced tea baby!!!!

Now....my hair isn't too fond of wash and go's, but for lack of time I did one with this stuff today....... Whoo child!

Nice!

My hair feels nice, and babay does it look nice. Let me try to explain it...

Ok! If I won the lottery.... then I look like I feel....

or maybe something like....

I'm in LOVE! I'm about to have the baby, and the daddy's name is Hydralicious*! LOL

*Not to be mistaken with Delicious on 110th and Inglewood... that can be YO baby daddy! LOL LOL LOL

That's how serious it is!

My results below:

Conditioned....

Stars,

This is directed at one of my friends in particular... you know who you are, but for now we'll just call her Jo...LOL! We had an intense conversation about textured hair yesterday and I don't believe that I said everything that I really wanted to say for fear of being pinned as a "radical natural". She knows that I'm putting this out there so... for the record I'm NOT putting her on blast! LOL.

The conversation went a little something like this.... (btw not all verbatim... more like my best recollection, but the statements in quotes are verbatim LOL)

Me: I like being natural. I feel like there is so much more to me now. What's funny is 5 years ago you would have never heard the word natural come out of my mouth... well in reference to me anyway.

Jo: Yea, your hair is cute, but girl everybody ain't growing hair like that... "You know I got that nappy *expletive* " [laughs]

Me: "No, I don't know... explain."

Jo: "My hair doesn't grown like that. I think you got white or something in you, cuz regular black people don't have hair like that."

Me: "Wait, so regardless of my ancestry... black people don't have curly hair or wavy hair? I actually thought black hair was typically defined as tightly packed curled or coiled hair?

Jo: "Girl that's just another way to say nappy." [laughs]

Me: "WOW! Are you really serious right now?"

Jo: Yes, all I'm saying is that most black peoples hair doesn't grow like that. "Think about most of the black women you know. It's either short and spiked, shoulder length, or weaved up."

Me: "Okay, so then why do you think that is?"

Jo: "I don't really know, and to be honest I don't really care."

Me: No seriously, let's talk about this... I'd like to know why you feel the way you do.

Jo: "Why, so you can try to convert me into a nappy zulu dashiki wearing chick?" [laughs] (the way she said this was *HAAAALARIOUS* spelled wrong on purpose)

Me: "No, I just think it's interesting." I mean I can understand where you're coming from because I used to perm too, "but I don't ever think I thought that my hair wouldn't grow. I knew that growing it could be more of a challenge, but I don't think I ever thought my hair wouldn't grow."

Jo: "I wasn't saying it like that. I meant it won't grow like that. My *expletive* grows straight nappy!" [laughs]

Me: "Oh, so again... you're saying that black people don't typically have waves right? Well then what about dudes? Remember when guys used to brag on their waves... Unless they're rocking texturizers [laughs]... that's all natural. How do you explain that?"

Jo: "That's different."

Me: "No, it's kinda not."

Jo: "Whatever. All I know is dealing with 1 inch of hair is different from dealing with 10."

Me: "That's true, but the point is that it does grow like that it's all in how you care for it. Remember how the guys used to walk around with their brushes. They slept in the wave caps, kept their grease in the car? [laughs] It's the same thing, only it's longer. You have to learn to pamper your hair the same way. I spend more time with my hair now than I ever did before. That's ALL I do."

Jo: "Okay... like I said... your hair ain't regular. You can keep talking, but that's real."

Me: "Okay "Jo"" I'm not even about to go there with you tonight [laughs] Matter of fact Imma put this up on my blog. I want to remember this conversation when you're natural [laughs]"

It went on a little further, but that's the jist of it.

I want to keep this really short, but I do want to make this point...

Those feelings of inadequacy are much deeper rooted than your hair. I wish that you and others who feel this way would truly wake up and see that. You say that you see it. You talk about it like you know it exists, yet you do nothing to stop it. I personally don't think you notice it. I think you have been conditioned. You are conditioned because your ancestors were conditioned. Feelings of inadequacy have been passed down through generations of our people. I for one will NOT continue that "tradition". This feeling is NOT inherent...... it is learned, and it is up to you to recognize it so that you may change it. Change it for the betterment of yourself, but most importantly for the betterment of your children. We as a people HAVE to wake up!

Forgive me for getting all preachy. LOL

*Call me radical if you'd like... I speak the TRUTH! If you won't say it... hand me the mic; I WILL!

Truthfully,

~Ceez

Comments Function Fixed...

The problem with comments has been fixed thank you for bringing it to my attention! :-)