Wassup y'all, I decided I was going to try my hand at flat twisting. I know how to flat twist, but I've never actually flat twisted my whole head. Now that Spring is in the air here in N.Y.C. I wanted to try a new style and I happened to be on Tumblr when the idea came to me. A picture of Beyoncé at the Grammy's popped up on my dashboard and the wheels began to turn on how I could recreate that, but on my hair.
I started out with this old janky puff I had been rocking all week. It looked fairly presentable so I rocked it, not to mention I was short on time most of the week, so I didn't bother to cowash it nor make an attempt to detangle so it's safe to say it was a hot mess in there.
Because I was blowdrying my hair I wanted to make sure that my hair and scalp was completely free of any previous product and cowashing just wasn't going to cut it so I whipped out my Chagrin Valley Extra Honey Beer Shampoo Bar, I ordered a bunch of sample shampoo bars about a year ago and they've lasted for quite sometime. Even though they're sample bars I was able to cut each bar twice leaving me with a total of 4 bars. I bought 4 sample bars for $2.70 each, Extra Honey Beer, Coconut Milk, Mud & Clay, and Babassu Marshmallow. I also cut those bars down too, so I have more than enough shampoo to last me a while. If sample bars aren't for you, they're full sized bars will run you $7.95.
The Extra Honey Beer Shampoo Bar is amazing, it's my second favorite from Chagrin Valley. For those of you worried about harsh and damaging ingredients you won't find any of that in ANY of they're products.
They're FREE of:
- Detergents
- Synthetic Colors
- Artificial Preservatives
- Artificial Foam Boosters
- Alcohol
- Petroleum Products
- Synthetic Additives
- GMO's (Genetically modified organisms)
The ingredients for the Extra Honey Beer Shampoo:
- Organic Coconut oil, hydrates and protects while adding curl definition.
- Beer, the alcohol acts as a cleansing and shine agent as well as giving hair a much needed boost in softness.
- Jojoba oil, because the chemical complex is some similar to our skin's sebum it reaches deep into our pores and hydrates the hair from inside out.
- Raw Honey, a great moisturizer and conditioner that imparts a lustrous shine to dull, dry hair.
- Mango Butter, much like shea butter this butter has amazing emollient properties in turn softening the hair and helping to seal in moisture.
Once I shampooed my hair felt amazingly soft, but it wasn't left feeling stripped or like it had just been washed and wrung out to try. I twisted my hair up in chunky twist and allowed my hair to air dry over night. Because I was blowdrying I wanted to minimize the amount of heat I used on my hair, I felt that blowdrying damp hair would be too much stress and tension on my scalp so I opted to wait until my hair was about 95% dry it just so happened that it would take a whole night.
I picked this up at Carol's Daughter flagship store in Harlem for $24.00 a few months ago and I can guarantee that it'll last me for at least a year because a little goes a very long way and I don't blow my hair out often. I have a love-hate kind of relationship with this blow dry cream, because I forget that a little bit goes a long way and I'm heavy handed so I end up using way more than I need to. For this particular style though I got it right and it came out great.
This product had NO:
- Parabens
- Petroleum
- Mineral oil
- Artificial Colors
The ingredients of the Chocolat Smoothing Blow Dry Cream (straight from Carolsdaughter.com):
- Cocao Extract, helps smooth hair cuticles while adding moisture and improving condition.
- Vegetable Protein, works to help rebuild hair to be naturally more smooth and sleek.
- Soy Protein, adds strength to hair and controls frizz.
I know my blow dryer is by Conair, but I can't think of the exact name or type. It was $10.00 at my local beauty supply and it's been going strong for sometime now it came with the concentrator nozzle, diffuser that doubles as a nozzle that makes waves in the hair. I applied a dime sized amount to each section and detangled before blow drying each section. I didn't use my comb attachment because I didn't want my hair too straight, I wanted texture. I simply ran the blow dryer down the length of my hair with the concentrator nozzle on.
Once I blow dried I instantly saw the shine and sleekiness that the cream helped my hair maintain. I twisted each section up an prepared for styling. As stated before I've never flat twisted my whole head so I wasn't sure how the parting situation would work, but I tried my best and instead of using a comb to part I used my fingers to separate each section. You'd think it would make the process 10x harder, but instead it was much easier and it made separating upon take down much easier.
I mentioned this previously when in a haul post, I picked this up at my local beauty supply for $4.99. And I like it, but I don't love it. It does the job though, it helps with elongation of curls so if that's your goal this is definitely for you.
The ingredients:
- Water, your hair's #1 moisturizer.
- Shea Butter, deeply moisturizes while conditioning your hair and scalp.
- Mango Butter, helps to soften the hair and seal in moisture.
- Argan oil, restores while helping promote hair elasticity
- Coconut oil, hydrates and protects hair from heat and chemical damage.
Once my hair dried in the morning the twist plumped up nicely, but my end were all over the place. Next time I do this style I'll be adding perm rods to the ends to add some weight to my twist so that they'll stay down. I'll also be trying another twisting butter for this style even though I used a dot of the Shea Butter Miracle Bouncy Curls Pudding I still felt like it was too much. This product wasn't like a cream it really is like a pudding, a wet pudding I don't know how to describe it, but the it feels wet? Does that make sense?
Middle parts don't work for the shape of my head, but side parts do. I absolutely love how my hair came out, flat twists are a go from now on. I didn't even need to fluff and separate much.
- Carol's Daughter stores
- www.carolsdaughter.com
- Sephora
- ULTA Stores
- www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com
- Your local beauty supply store
Check me and them out on Twitter and Tumblr:
- @ariegogetit
- ariegogetit.tumblr.com
- @carolsdaughter
- @chagrinsoap
- @myafricanpride
Posts
