B&L UPDATE!!

Hello B&L's!!! I'm back to my regularly scheduled posts and believe me I've been soooo tied up! Sorry for that guys! I went out of town for the holidays and had sooo many things to do for the trip.

Okay, my hair is getting more and more difficult to deal with. However, I've been researching over on LHCF and Nappturality and gotten some great tips on how to detangle my hair without tearing out over half my head. The best way to detangle that new growth is to slather it down with conditioner while you're in the shower. Proceed to detangle and rinse out the conditioner. I will definitely make sure that I have my sections plaited off from each other (before I rinse) once I've detangled!

B&L's first give-a-way is right around the corner. There are a few more hours available to cast your vote on what you would like to see as prizes on here. I'll do different items randomly but the poll is for the major contests I'll feature on here. Stay tuned for details about the give-a-ways and contests!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday! I was in Atlanta...yeahh!!!! I loved it and everyone had a great time. I've decided to go ahead and put up that feel good Christmas music and hopefully everyone will enjoy. If you don't choose to listen to the music please press the stop button on the player!!! I put this up for those who enjoy to listen to music while they're browsing.

Special thanks to all of those who visit my blog and comment regularly! I appreciate it soooo much. I try to do the same and it means a lot when someone takes the time to read what you have to say. Take care everyone and I'll be posting some important stuff tomorrow so stay tuned!!!

Transitioning anyone???

I've thought long and hard these past few weeks about the state of my hair. I've joined another hair board and I've been researching and writing etc....everyday, every night about different hair articles. I must say, I have been living in a true fantasy the past few weeks. It's taken me some time and soul searching to come to the realization that I want to try transitioning again. I mean, really stick with it this time. I thought that relaxing my hair was going to satisfy my need for change in my life...but no, it hasn't.

So before I made this decision, again, this time I took the time out to write down and think about why I want to transition to natural hair. Here are some things that I jotted down:

Why do I want to transition?

I want to transition because I'm tired of trying to make my hair do what it doesn't want to do.....straighten. It seems as though my hair doesn't want to do it anymore...if that makes sense! I see soooooo many women that I admire with long beautiful hair that relax and their hair is as healthy as can be. One problem, it's their hair...not mines. No one's hair is exactly the same and that is what can be so confusing at times.

It's like saying to yourself, why does her hair grow faster or ect...what can I do to make my hair do that. This is a prime example of why I started my hair journey---to get hair like "hers." Only problem is my hair is a different texture and products just don't work the same. With that being said, I want to get to know MY HAIR. I want to wear a cute puff, see my cute natural waves, and wear gorgeous twist outs with my natural hair.

Becoming natural is something I've always feared. I mean seriously, what could I do without my straight hair? Come to find out you can do everything you do now with your natural hair also.... you must take care either way. I used to car what people think, now I'm looking to find myself and I want to start with my natural hair. It's me and I want a new beginning. I want to free of breaking my hairs bonds.

So, if there is anyone reading this and wants or is transitioning to natural hair....let's do this together. It's going to be hard but it's worth it in the end. I'll be looking to my K.I.S.S. Sista Bossay for help and I know she's good for it!

I'll have some more on joining my transitioning challenge later today!!!

Stay Browne, Stay Lovely!!!

Do you reply/respond to your readers?

I mean, do you really? Are you an active reader? Seriously, in this whole blog community on blogspot I find new blogs everyday that I want to follow b/c they're interesting for the most part. What I don't like is when I leave a comment asking questions and the people never give me a reply??? I understand that folks are busy but dang...I'm interested and the best way to keep me and others is to be an active author!

Anywho, thanks to all blogger that answer my questions, no matter how silly...thanks for taking the time out to help me!!

Building your Regimen-Steps 5&6

Step 5

We're gonna hop right into step 5 ladies or gentlemen! This will begin to be the actual formation of your regimen and as I said in earlier steps, if you find a hair twin try to see if her regimen will also work with you. Before you begin, you must do an assessment of your hair. Protein and moisture are the two main types of product categories. In step 3, you would have chosen some moisturizing products and protein based products also. To understand balancing protein and moisture, please read The Fine Art of Protein and Moisture.

Okay, now that you've read that continue with your assessment. Is your hair shedding too much? Are you suffering from too much breakage? All the questions you need to ask will be answered in that article above so I STRESS to you...PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING!!!


Step 6

Now that you've successfully done your assessment, you can begin to write down a simple and basic regimen. Don't attempt to do 4 co-washes and clarifying like crazy just because you get overly excited! It takes some time and tweaking to get to the regimen that will push you along the way to get to your desired length. The most important thing right now is getting HEALTHY HAIR. It makes no sense to have long hair with split ends that will eventually lead to you cutting off more in the future from the damage than if you had a simple trim before. All things come in due time.

As I mentioned in earlier steps, you can click on the Regimen tab on the menu bar and follow along with the steps as I post them. It takes time to develop a regimen that you feel will work for you and I want everyone who's starting out to take their time, read, and research what you need instead of diving in head first.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do I want to transition from relaxed to natural or vice versa?

Does my hair lack moisture or protein? If so, what needs to be the focus so that I can balance the two?

Have I researched any items that I don't understand?

Have I asked questions that will help me better prepare myself to develop my regimen?

These are just a few of the questions to ask yourself before you begin. I'm new to the hair game myself and starting off can be overwhelming because you want to have your hair look like "insert name's" and it takes time to get there. Any questions please feel free to ask and follow along with My Regimen as I build it with the steps. I have some more important tips coming later today with some articles that will definitely help you out.

Until then, Stay Browne-Stay Lovely!

Building Your Regimen- Steps 3 & 4

Step 3

Now that you've taken the time to write down your goals and current hair status. You need to write a list of products down that you want to try and make it simple. As I mentioned in earlier steps, finding a hair twin is a great idea. Although all the products your twin may not work for you, at least you have a good base to begin from.

Step 3 seems to be the most important step. I went totally overboard trying to try/buy everything that I saw others trying but if you're just starting out, this is NOT the way to go. You need several basic items to begin your regimen.

You should have one of each:

Moisturizing Shampoo

Clarifying Shampoo

Moisturizing Deep Conditioner

Protein Based Deep Conditioner

Protein Treatment

Leave-In Conditioner

Water Based Moisturizer

Natural Oils

Essential Oils

Heat Protectant

Visit Associated Content for detailed explanations and examples

Step 4

This ties in directly with step 3. Along with great products you also need great tools. Once again, don't go out and buy something just because "insert name" said it was good. Do your research! Whatever you want to get will be there tomorrow!!! Don't rush yourself, take your time and keep it simple when purchasing.

Tools:

Wide toothed seamless comb

Medium toothed seamless comb

A boar or soft bristle brush

Detangling brush (optional)

Hair pins/clips

Rollers (soft or regular)

Satin Scarf, Bonnet, and or Satin Pillowcases

Plastic Shower Caps

A pair of shears

A ceramic flat iron

A hooded dryer

A handheld dryer

Again you can visit the link I listed above to see some examples and more details over at Associated Content.

Stay tuned for more steps to complete you regimen! As I'm blogging this I will be participating by listing my regimen along with the steps also! If anyone notices anything I left out, please leave me a message and I'll list it ASAP.

Stay Browne, Stay Lovely!

Ears Free Head Wrap

Okay ladies, so I've stumbled upon this great idea online and looks like I might want to try this. I have a description from the website below and you can click the link if you're interested in ordering. I love the idea that this keeps my ears free especially at night! I hate having sore ears when I get up in the morning. IT's only $10+S&H which isn't bad. I will be ordering next Friday so I'll keep you guys up to date on that!


Description:

EARS FREE HAIR WRAP!!!

If you are tired of your hair wrap
coming off at night, the hair on the
nape of your neck being exposed to
dryness, and your ears being sore by
morning....
Our new and innovative product
called Ears Free is just what you've
been waiting for!.
Say goodbye to the days and nights of
your cap coming off, only to have
you disappointed when you wake up.
Yell adios! to your "kitchen" (nape)
area suffering from breakage
because the cotton pillow case
siphoned the life-filled oil from your
hair.
Now finally, wave sayonara! to the
pain emanating from your ears
caused by the pressure of yesterday's
products.
Eborya Enterprises Presents:
The one and only;
EARS FREE HAIR WRAP!!

Starting Off

Beginning a new regimen can be pretty tough. One piece of solid advice I can offer that's going to be 100% correct is:

Find what YOUR hair loves b/c everything may not work for you that's working for someone else!

Okay, so that was a long point and quite true. We always see other women with this gorgeous hair and we want it. No matter what it takes, we want to get our hair exactly like hers. Uhhhh, problem is that her regimen May or MAY NOT work for you.

You have got to take the time to research, record results, and have patience. If your hair is NL, don't set your goal to be WL within 6 months and then stress yourself out about it. (That's just a suggestion.) Keep your goals realistic and as you progress you will be able to see your results. I got some great advice from Bossay when I first joined KISS and she gave me some wonderful tips when I was starting out. So I'm here to share them with you!

Steps 1 & 2 for building your hair regimen:

1. Buy a notebook to record your results, product pros/cons, and anything you research.

This is ESSENTIAL to do because how do you know if your doing anything right? When I began I didn't right down anything so I got lost pretty quickly with all the information that I was trying to soak up. Plus, I just dived in with no sense of direction. My point is, don't get lost in the dream of having "HER" hair. As I mentioned above, patience is the key component of holding your hair journey together. Don't shatter it with overly high standards, no research, and the wrong products.

2. Don't develop Product Junkieism.

I started off as on and this is soooooo not good for your hair. It really serves no purpose to go out and buy every single product that you see someone else is using. While reading Hairlicious,Inc. I caught an important article from our dear Sunshyne and she was basically asking how did you build your regimen. A key part in beginning hers was following a hair twin (someone with similar texture/type of hair as you) and biting off pieces here and there tweaking them as she went along in her hair journey. Click on the link above to read the post!

As you can see, Sunshyne's hair game is on lock and very beautiful indeed. I'll be posting the steps in increments this week so that we can start this off slow!

Stay Browne, Stay Lovely

Oooooooohhh, Honey Child

Thanks to Ashley over at K.I.S.S. I have tried the honey once again and I'm currently pre-pooing as we speak. Honey seems to be quite popular to use with conditioners at the moment. Honey is a humectant that can be added with your favorite conditioner. It's suppose to help make your hair sleek and smoother. I just started using this so I will see how it goes. If you decide to try, remember not to expect "SUPER" results after the first time. Give your hair time to adjust and take everything slow. Often we expect our hair to look like "insert hair idol's name here" and we've only been doing the regimen for a week. Will update you ladies later with some after pictures.

Stay Browne, Stay Lovely

I'm so....

lazy about doing this product haul..I hate going through stuff just to see what I have, what i don't need, what's sucks, what's great, what I don't have..blah, blah, blah.

Well, I guess I'll get on it tonight seeing as how the holidays are coming and I can't keep looking like I'mma bag lady. I do indeed look a mess. I'm off to buy a wig today to get me through the holidays!! I used to wear them back in the day for fashion but I think that I will get my hair braided down and chill with all the combing for a week. I'll still wash and moisturize my locks and keep that scalp clean so no worries there.

I'm going to the hair store on my lunch break and hopefully get some pics of what my final wig is!

Stay Browne, Stay Lovely

Oh yeah, is anybody else getting weird vibes from McCan't supporters still??

Healthy Textures vs. Healthy Textures??

Hello B&L's!! I'm back to my normal schedule for posting...I'm trying to get the newly revamped blog up and running again! I have so many spots to get info in!

Anywho, so I got a email on October 31st, assuming that many of you did also stating the new location of the site and also the blog. I took a few minutes on Saturday night to check out the new HT and I must say that it is impressive. The format is very easy to navigate, easy on the eyes, and it just looks great! Sad part, she's charging $9.99 per month, 24.99 per quarter, or 99.99 per year (two months free with yearly fee). :O( Sorry, I won't be joining but it was nice to see the progress that she's made, so congrats to Marcherie.

Now, the reason for this post is that a new Healthy textures has been formed in place of the other one on the ning social network. Click on the link to take a closer look at what I'm about to tell you. Apparently someone has formed this group near the same time the network was taken offline. Now, I'm an avid stan for all the free networks, which are listed under My Social Circle on my sidebar ;O), but I must say that I can not support whomever made this site. Yes, I know I've put out a message which may lead to more traffic but I'm just here to state my opinion!

And I will not join nor support this site (the fake HT) because it's misleading and it's taking away from someone else's brand. I did not really care for the atmosphere at the original HT but hey, it lead me to the great sites that I'm a member of now. So, to anyone reading this now and in the future...please beware that this link is the new Healthy Textures Although I think it's absolutely ridiculous to pay that much per month for a site, please choose the correct site for yourself. I can't stand by and let women who want to seriously improve their lovely locks, choose a place to join simply because they were mislead.

As I said, I am an avid fan of the free sites, free blogs, and the LCHF...the difference is -- they all created their own brand instead of using someone else's ideas. I find it tasteless and rude. Be creative and start your own network. Don't mislead ladies to join your site! Marcherie worked hard for hers and so can anyone else.

Remember to donate to the free sites so that we can help keep them free!!

Take care Ladies and as always HHG!