Tag Archives: protecting natural hair

Protective Style & Castor Oil Week 4 Update

Another week done Maicurlies!

Protective Style Challenge Week 4

I am on the last 2 weeks of my Protective Style and Castor Oil challenge and haven’t given up yet! 😀

For a recap of my previous weeks click below:

How did my fourth week go?

It went by well. I was able to protect my hair for 6 days and used my Castor Oil Mix 4 times in the week. I did a REALLY simple updo at the start of the week (I don’t want to call it “boring”) – the “Gibson Tuck” and then finished with what I call the “Chameleon Twist” (I liked this one!)

What Did I do?

I did my wash day routine on Sunday, a Henna Gloss followed by a moisturizing Deep Condition, moisturized and sealed before twisting 9 chunky twists.
Day 1 – After taking down the twists I massaged my Castor Oil Mix on my scalp, hairline, ends and put my hair in the Gibson Tuck with 2 two-strand twists on the side and a chunky two strand twist at the front – pinned as a “side bang”.

Gibson Tuck with two two strand twists on the side and a chunky two strand twist as a side bang.

Day 3 – I reapplied my Castor Oil mix to my scalp, hairline and ends.
Day 4 – I moisturized my hair with my DIY Creamy Leave-In Conditioner and sealed with my whipped butter mix. I then put my hair into my Chameleon Twist. To do the style I first did my “Twisted twist”.

Twisted Twist

– After making one big two strand twist from 7 medium twists held at then center of my head I tucked away the ends of my hair by wrapping it around the base.

Chameleon twist with pompadour

Day 5 – I took the Chameleon Twist down and massaged my scalp (as best I could), hairline and the ends of each of the 7 twists with my Castor Oil Mix then wrapped it back up.
Day 6 – At night took my hair down, massaged my scalp, hairline and ends with the Castor Oil Mix and pineappled to sleep.
Day 7 – Wash day routine and then got my hair ready to be set for week 5.

Castor Oil Challenge:

As mentioned, I used the blend 4 times during the week and my hair was suuuuuper smooth, moisturized, shiny and soft! I think my whipped butter sort of helped with that as well (particularly on my ends). I had been using my DIY Spray Leave-In Conditioner to remoisturize my hair mid week but decided to use the Creamy Leave-in and whipped butter for a change. My hair LOVED the combination of being moisturized and super sealed. I can’t say it enough, castor oil is the truth and when combined with other nourishing ingredients …bye bye dryness!

Looking forward to the last 2 weeks.

What do you think of the styles I did this week?

Maicurls

Protective Style & Castor Oil Week 3 Update

12 Replies

Good day Maicurlies,

I’ve reached the halfway mark of my Protective Style and Castor Oil challenge and I am still digging it!

You can read about my previous weeks here:

How did my third week go?

I must admit I sort of hit a little bump on the road in terms of how to style my hair but I figured something out in the end.

Protective Style challenge week 3

I did not plan properly, washed my hair late at night on Sunday and everything just got dragged out but I managed. Similar the my previous weeks I did 2 styles (kept the styles for 3 days each) and then washed my hair at the end of the week.

The styles I did were “flat twists” (I’ve mentioned before – flat twists and I are still trying to build a relationship) but I figured I would get to practice some more…

What Did I do?

To start the week I had washed, Deep Conditioned, moisturized and sealed before twisting my hair into 5 chunky twists.
Day 1 – After taking down the twists I massaged my Castor Oil Mix on my scalp, hairline, ends and put my hair in my first hairstyle: 3 really loose flat twists (one on either side of my head and one in the middle). I accessorized with different ribbons over the 3 days…to distract people from my not to neat flat twists.

First style – 3 loose flat twists and accessories (this was the last day before I changed the style).

Day 3 – I reapplied my Castor Oil mix to my scalp, hairline and ends.
Day 4 – I moisturized my hair with my DIY Spray Leave-In Conditioner and sealed with Rose infused Grapeseed Oil. I then put my hair into my second hair style: one loose big flat twist on the right and a two strand twist at the front which I pinned back to the right.

Second style – One big flat twist (on the right) pinned down and a two strand twist pinned back.

Day 6 – I took down the flat twist at night, massaged my scalp, hairline and ends with the Castor Oil mix and pineappled my hair to sleep.
Day 7 – Wash day routine and then got my hair ready to be set for week 4.

Castor Oil Challenge:

I used the oil 4 times and think I might stick with just applying it 4 times. I do not think my hair will be happy with me if it is coated even though I have diluted the Castor Oil…I know my limits :D. I have my recipe and a video of the mixing process here.

Again my hair felt great throughout the week: moisturized, soft, smooth, less tangles and shine galore! While I am not really looking to “grow out” my hair, I will admit that I am interested to see how much length I retained/gained at the end of the challenge.

Week 4 here I come!

Maicurls

Protective Style & Castor Oil Week 2 Update

11 Replies

Good evening Maicurlies!

Protective style challenge week 2

It has been two weeks since I started my Protective Style & Castor Oil challenge and let me tell you, I am LOVING it!

Protective style update:

In all honesty I have always been a fan of wearing my hair out….”FREE” because it is so much easier for me to do a simple twist-out or braid-out, but I am appreciating this challenge. Is it a little difficult for me to come up with styles to wear? Yes. I have said this before and will continue to say this: I am NOT a styling guru and I am not “creative” in terms of unique styles however, I do what I know/can.

How did my second week go?

Similar to week 1, I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to “mess” with my hair too much, especially in the morning before work. I would lightly touch up my edges and be on my way. As always I slept with my scarf around my head at night and that sort of helped with the fly-aways. My hair felt really moisturized, soft and looked shiny (LOVE). I only moisturized and sealed my hair once during the week and felt that a light moisturizer (my DIY Spray Leave-In) was sufficient. I also noticed that I had less tangles than I normally would by the end of the week (winning!) I did two styles for the my Twist and Tuck Donut Bun (days 1 – 3) and my new Pinned up “Flat twist” AKA Seahorse (I shall explain below).

What Did I do?

To start the week I had washed, Deep Conditioned, moisturized and sealed before twisting my hair into 5 chunky twists.
Day 1 – After taking down the twists I massaged my Castor Oil Mix on my scalp, hairline and used a dab on my ends. I put my hair in my first hairstyle: Twist and Tuck Donut Bun.
Day 3 – I reapplied my Castor Oil mix to my scalp, hairline, ends and decided to accessorize the Bun with my DIY floral hairband.

Twist and Tuck Donut Bun (added accessory)

Day 4 – I moisturized my hair with my DIY Spray Leave-In Conditioner and sealed with Almond Oil. I then put my hair into my second hair style the (Pinned up “Flat twist”) that I kept for the remainder of the week. I don’t know if people would call it a flat twist because to me it looked like a seahorse before pinning. –Side note*: Flat twists and I do not get along at all! I suck at them but I did try and so far this is the best I have ever done!

Pinned up flat twist

This is the seahorse “flat twist” before I used one bobby pin to tuck away the ends

“Flat Twist” aka Seahorse

Day 6 – I took down the flat twist, massaged my scalp, hairline and ends with the Castor Oil mix and redid the flat twist again.
Day 7 – Wash day routine and then got my hair ready to be set for week 3 (this week).

Castor Oil Challenge:

I used the oil 3 times last week and actually want to increase it to 4 times. Eventually I might even increase it (but we shall see I don’t want to push it). I was always worried that my hair would be greasy and my scalp/pores clogged up but the mixed blend of Castor with Rose Infused Grapeseed Oil seems to be working out great. I have my recipe and a video of the mixing process here.

My hair did not feel dry at any point during the week. I did re-moisturize my hair mid week just because that has been my habit but I only used my light leave-in so there was no worry of product build up, plus moisturizing is always a good idea. My roots felt so super soft, the ends were smooth and I think the Castor oil blend helped to avoid extra tangles. My individual strands basically glided across each other instead of wrapping, trapping and clinging onto one another. Overall I am loving this challenge!

Here’s to week 3!

What do you think of my Protective challenge styles? Do you like my Castor oil blend? I would love to hear how you use castor oil.

Thanks

Maicurls

Protective Style & Castor Oil Week 1 Update

12 Replies

Good Morning Maicurlies,

It has been a week since I started the Protective Style and Castor Oil Challenge setup in Napturally Curly.com’s forum.

How did my first week go?

It went really well! I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to do too much with my hair in the morning. I literally just fixed the top of my hair (I slept with a satin scarf which sort of helped keep down fly-aways). “Fixing” didn’t take long and I was out the door. My roots felt super soft and I only moisturized my hair 2 times the whole week.

What Did I do?

I washed my hair the day before the challenge started (which was the 21st September), moisturized, sealed and then let it air dry in twists.
Day 1 – First hairstly: After taking down the twists I massaged a little of my mixed Castor/Rose Infused Grapeseed Oil with Peppermint on my scalp, hairline and a tiny bit to my ends. This is the style I did for the first 3 days.

I put my hair in a ponytail, made about 8 twists, wrapped them around to make a bun and held it in place with bobby pins.

Day 3 – I reapplied some castor oil mix to my scalp and hairline.
Day4 – I re-moisturized my hair with my leave-in conditioner, again massaged my scalp and hairline with the castor mix and also put a dab on my ends and changed my hair style to this:

I put my hair in a ponytail and then rolled my ends up and under towards my head. Using bobby pins I keep my ends tucked underneath.

I put my hair in a ponytail and rolled my ends up and under – towards my head. Using bobby pins I kept my ends tucked underneath and used a ribbon for a little added color.

Day 7 (yesterday) – Washed my hair and did a henna gloss;

I put my hair in twists to air dry, pinned them down for the night and will be styling my hair for the next 3 days!

Looking forward to the new week ahead!

Thanks

Maicurls

Over The Last 4 Years… Transitioning to Natural

2 Replies

Hi Maicurlies,

From my Transition to my Natural Curls

Last night I was reminiscing by going through photos of my friends, family and I and started going as far back as the year 2000! As I was going through the photos I kept on cringing the further back I went…why you ask? Well apart from some of my “fashion sense” which were questionable and cringe worthy at times… I noticed how my hair looked! Now I really do not know if at the time I was living in my own little bubble (I do remember not liking my hair at all) but I never seemed to be at the point where I wanted to hide indoors because of my hair. Although looking back now I maybe should have! Anyways so I was clicking through photos and decided to collect a few of them to make a sort of “montage of time” (I miss developing actual photos…technology!)

I simply did this in the hopes that it might help motivate someone out there that is considering going natural, transitioning, recently Big Chopped or Newly Natural (perhaps even already Natural!) It is funny looking back at how my hair has changed since going natural. Apart from the obvious drastic improvement after I stopped using relaxers and actually taking care of my hair I notice a change from when I finally stopped using chemical dyes. I was a dye FREAK! I went through colors like people change clothes! It did have its toll on my hair which is why I personally choose to stop. Anyways ladies I think the pictures summarize what I am trying to say :)!

So if anyone is reading this and is in need of a little inspiration…I hope this will be a form of comfort. I started out with what I now call a bit of dry, brittle, fragile, thin and strangely colored straw-like hair (after my last relaxer and transition) to what I proudly call Maicurlz!!! 😀

I have posted the same picture in a new page under the “Mai Hair Journey” Tab called – ‘(2009 – 2013) Summary Look’ but added some details of each row.

I would LOVE to hear from you! What has your experience been? Have you gone through photos too? Are you considering going natural? Transitioning? Big Chopping for 2014? Let me know!

Thanks

Maicurls