Afro Hair and Beauty Show Live 2013: Haul

As many of you would've seen from my recent post, I attended the Afro Hair and Beauty Show Live on Sunday. It was great fun and my inner product junkie was truly excited by the insane amount of products and information. For me, someone who lives in a tiny village away from shops specialised in black and mixed race hair care, it was exciting to see many brands. I didn't actually BUY too much instead I was provided with a large number of samples which i'm pretty excited about. Either way I ended up with a lot of stash. 

Click below to see my haul

Afro hair and Beauty Show Live 2013: Review

Today I went to the Afro hair and beauty show in London, it's the first time I've ever been and I really enjoyed it. Tickets online were £10 and buy one get one free, although being a blogger ORS treated me to some complimentary VIP tickets so I would like to thank them very much for that!

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Me and my personal photographer AKA my mum, turned up when it opened, with very open minds and with no idea what to expect. The location is really nice and the business centre in Islington worked really well. As we entered there was a collection of jewellery and accessory stands. The Stand that stood out most for me was the "RYA-V" jewellery stand. I did end up buying a necklace from there for £6 at £2 off and I LOVE it. I will upload a AHB2013 haul and show it off. View the website here. The owner said they are updating the site with lots more pieces in the coming weeks.

See below for more photos!

Design Essentials Strengthening Therapy System Review

As many of you will have seen here, Friday I had the Design Essentials Strengthening Therapy System using the Transitioning mousse.  

I want to start by saying that before I went my ends were AWFUL, my last 'trim' was in January and it was so minor that after the trim I still had a lot of damage. 

The treatment requires a fine tooth comb so that the treatment coats the hair, this was a nightmare for my ends and they just had to go. Not only that but my layers are awful. The right side of my hair looks like a chunk has just been cut out of it so I was very happy to have that all sorted.

It cost me £150 and included a shampoo and conditioner. See here to find out some more about the treatment.

 Results

The first picture is from a few months ago, as you can see my hair is dull lifeless and flat. It looks dry here even though it really wasn't. This is a few days old flat ironed and curled hair.

I honestly think this doesn't actually do it justice. Please bare in mind I had slept on this hair and I have no idea how to wrap my hair so its gone a bit odd

My hair is so shiny now. I also wish you could somehow reach through your computers to actually feel my hair, because it feels literally like silk! Its amazing. 

Although for me, the best thing about it is that my hair MOVES so much, the strands slide over each over meaning my hair looks bouncy and REALLY blows in the wind. 

The result is what I expected  when I first got a relaxer. But its clear that breaking down the hair and damaging it isn't going to result in healthy results. This treatment builds up the hair and strengthens it.
 I like to describe it as a very very fancy conditioner.

Click for more photos and the process...

Newbie series Part one: Building a Washing Regimin

Many of my followers may not be newbies, but I get many E-mails from people who have not yet started their hair care journey, so this series of posts will be for you. Follow my blog for follow ups of the newbie series to healthy hair care.

Part Two
Part Three

Building a washing regimin

So you want long healthy hair, you've found out that its possible but now what? How do you achieve this?  Well the first thing I did, and the first thing I recommend for you guys to do is to create a regimin.
Something important to remember is that EVERYONES hair is different.

Just because this routine works for me, see here and a different routine works for her doesn't mean the same one will work for you. It's all about trial and error. Looking at other hair routines is always a good place to start.

Before, building your regimin I would recommend looking here, here and here. I know this seem like a lot of information but I recommend reading it/ looking over it over a few days.

Now you're ready to begin.

Click Read More...

Madamaia Natural Oil Gift Set for £30!

As you know I loved the Macadamia natural oil deep repair mask see here. And I've just seen that on  Groupon you can get a whole macadamia oil kit for £30. The cheapest I've found it is around £45 other than that. So if you want to try out the Macadamia Oil line this is a great way to do so. 

The offer lasts till the 2nd of June,  I amy buy it but am going to have a think about it over the weekend (attempting a mini spending ban)

Let me know if you choose to buy!

Feature: Nikky of Green beauty Channel

I got the chance to talk to Nikky and ask her a few questions. If you haven't heard of her you NEED to check out her videos on youtube, they are so informative and useful. Her blog, youtube page etc. are listed at the end of her interview.

1. Introduce yourself: 

My name is Nikky. I was born in Brooklyn NY.  I’ve lived in different parts of the county and currently spend most of my time between California and NY/NJ.  I’m of African descent, specifically Nigeria. I have a B.S in Finance and I’m currently pursuing a M.S in Statistics, hence my relationship with research lol.         

2. What is your current hair status?

 I’m currently natural.  According to my Green Beauty Complete Hair Typing System (above), I have a ‘S’ and ‘O’ curl pattern and an extremely tight texture.  My hair’s density is thick, so I have a lot of hair strands on my head.  And my individual hair strands are also thick.  Finally, and most importantly, on average I have a balanced porosity.    

It’s important to test your complete hair type rather than to assume.  A better understanding of your complete hair type will help you make better product and handling decisions with your hair.  Watch my three part series that goes over (in detail) how to properly test your hair and fill out your chart.  

Hair Type (Part 1) ~ Current Flawed Hair Typing System & Why Hair Typing is Needed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbzEcTH4qc

Hair Type (Part 2) - Green Beauty Complete Hair Typing System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdDf6wzwxLs

Hair Type (Part 3) - Good Hair & Bad Hair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYhqquqQoPA

Click below to read more.

Liebster Award

A while ago now I was nominated for a Liebster Award by dominique, go check out her blog and thank you for nominating me!

Six rules of Liebster Award

• Thank the Liebster Blog who assigned you the award
• Write 11 random facts about you
• Answer the 11 questions from the person who nominated you
• Pass the award on to 11 other blogs
• Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog

11 random facts

• I study Psychology at university.
• I'm a cheerleader (flyer).
• I live with 5 boys and 2 other girls, and next year am living with just 5 boys.
• I have a boyfriend.
• I'm half Bajan, quater English and quater German.
• I went to an all girl secondary school and sixth form.
• I'm from the country side.
• I've never watched any of the God Father films.
• London scares me slightly.
• My favourite song is "she will be loved" by Maroon Five.
• I have a terrible memory

Click "read more" to continue reading and find out if you're nominated!

How to contact me!

If you have any questions, want to share your stories or want to guest post please E-mail me. I have been slacking a bit at e-mailing people back due to exams but now they're over I'll happily answer any questions you guys have.

 You can E-mail me here


I'd love to hear from more of you!

May wants

So I thought I'd try something new this month with a basic 'wants' post which includes items other than haircare.

Click "Read more" to see details

Why I won't buy MUJI make-up storage, and why you shouldn't either!

I'm sure many of you have heard of MUJI for the clear acrylic beauty storage that is very popular. I have always liked the storage but held off buying them for a bit, and I'm glad I did! MUJI states that is an eco-friendly organisation however it continues to sell shark fin soup!

Watch this video for a great explanation.

Click "Read more" to continue reading.

Inspiration

Recently, I got into instagram and have found a lot of inspiration on there. In particular, there is one page I wanted to share. It's great motivation and inspiration for all curly girls! Here is a small collection of
photos.

Click "Read More" to view some of photos

Exams Are Over!

My university exams are over! So i'll be back to blogging asap!

How can I prevent frizz?

Source

So you're loving your curls but the second you step out the door it looks frizzy and crazy, as if you didn't just spend hours and hours styling it. How can we stop this annoying habit of our curly hair?

Cut Down Shampooing
Every time you shampoo with a SLS shampoo it strips your hair completely and clean hair is typically frizzy because it has nothing to weight it down. Instead try co-washing (washing with conditioner).


Use a moisturising conditioner
Adding moisture to the hair has been really significant in reducing my frizz. Before I had a routine focused around moisture my hair would frizz up when I went out to night clubs with my friends. This was basically a disaster because my bone straight extensions would remain bone straight whilst my natural hair would frizz up by about 5X. So it just looked super odd. When I started deep conditioning and moisturising my hair this stopped happening.

source

Using oils
This is particularly useful when there is humidity in the air, I just put a little bit of coconut oil or grapeseed oil  throughout my hair and it seems to prevent it.

Don't touch your hair when it's drying
If you keep fiddling with your damp hair it just creates frizz, try just leaving it alone.

Don't brush dry curly hair
Not only is this damaging but it also frizzes hair up, just leave it alone!

Quick Update!

Hi guys!

Source

Quick update, I've got one exam left which is in a weeks time so I'll be back to blogging after that.

(Click here for some info.)

Just thought I'd let you all know that I'm going to get Design Essentials Strengthening Therapy System on May 24th!

It's basically an amino acid system, it doesn't straighten your hair like a relaxer and its not permanent. It's similar to a Brazilian Keratin Treatment but without all the horrible cancer causing chemicals. It wears off in 6-12 weeks and it basically smooths and strengthens. From what I've heard it doesn't change curl pattern (I'm going with the transitioning mousse not the elongation mousse) it just changes how it looks once straight.

I've got a wedding in Croatia in early July so am hoping it holds up so that I can have my hair down without it getting curly when I dont want it to be.

If you're thinking of getting it do some research, follow my blog and I'll keep you all updated.