Compliments and Cory Matthews

Some of you know that I've been working retail on and off since last summer (and I'm planning a post on it for next week). I see a lot of people come through our store who have curly hair and I always instantly have a connection with them--it just happens. But I never get asked about my hair unless I say something first, until today.

I had an older lady come in today to try on a bunch of outfits for a wedding later this month. I kept checking on her and bringing her new things and different sizes, and I could already tell that she was chatty. So, as I was ringing her up, she asked me if my hair was naturally curly and I said yes. She told me that she loved my curls and that she wished she could make her hair curl "forward" (apparently my curls go forward? I don't know, that's just what she said) like mine. I told her that it has taken me years to tame my hair--as you can see here--and that even today I was having struggles getting it to look right. But no matter how much I complained about my hair, she kept telling me how cute it looked and how she wished she had natural curls.

Isn't that always the case. People with straight hair want curls, and people with curls want straight hair.

Which brings me to the next part of my post. I'm a huge fan of the 90's t.v. show "Boy Meets World" and I recently found the seasons on DVD at Barnes and Noble. I love the relate-able story lines and the corny jokes. And Cory Matthews is my new curly haired friend.

There's this episode where Cory is feeling insecure about his curly hair and so he tries to chemically straighten his hair. And it turns out even worse. In some of the other episodes, Cory continues to have hair issues and gets teased, even being compared to a Brillo pad. I think it's fantastic that there is a realistic portrayal of a curly haired kid out there. Usually, the person is completely drop-dead gorgeous or a complete frizzy haired nerd, like Mia in "The Princess Diaries." There haven't really been curly haired characters that look completely normal, but still feels insecure and sometimes get teased.

Just another reason why "Boy Meets World" is awesome!

Remember, if you have any ideas for the blog, let me know! :)

In a slump

Okay readers, I need your help. I'm in a blogging slump right now and need your input. I've successfully maneuvered my way through the Curly Girl Method, and now I don't really know what to post about. Part of my problem is I have been busy busy busy with my summer job, but soon I'll be back at school and I'll be looking for a way to procrastinate (ha ha...but no, really).

Here's where you come in. Leave me a comment telling me something you want to see on the blog or if you have any other fantastic ideas. And it doesn't necessarily have to be about hair care. I'll keep brainstorming ideas on my end, but if I knew a little bit more about what you all are looking for, that would help me narrow and hone in on something.

Oh, and one last thing (if you want). Help a sister out and tell your friends about the blog. I would love to have new readers join in--not that you aren't all fabulous!

I hope I'll have some new, exciting posts soon!

Isn't it the truth

Found this on Pinterest today.

A Curly Journey

I thought it would be fun to do a post about my curly haired childhood and show all of you readers that when it comes to having natural curly hair, I've been through it all. I wish that I had some better photos where you can really see my struggle of coming to terms with my hair, but alas, I don't have them digitized yet--in particular my seventh grade school picture would be fantastic; seriously isn't it enough asking any child to go through junior high without the pains of having curly hair?

Anyway, these pictures should give you some sort of proof that I know what I'm talking about.

 

Let's start at the beginning shall we. This is a terrible copy, but this is me as a 1-year-old. Can you barely see those tight curls? Yep, this is why I have short hair people. It curls better when it's short, or when I have barely any hair in the first place. Sadly, my curls would really never be this curly again.

Now, I don't have any pictures of my elementary school years on my computer, but let me paint you a picture with words. The year is 1999. I'm in the fourth grade, and because I'm just a lowly nine-year-old, I apparently have no say in how my hair is cut or styled. One day, one of my older sisters--I won't name names, but you know who you are :) --suggested a certain style to my mother and the hair stylist, and that was the style I got. Let's fast forward to the next day on the Hillview Elementary playground, where a group of boys from my grade noticed my hair and came up with a nickname for me--Afro Queen. They followed me around at recess and sang disco songs at me. Now, my hair wasn't exactly an afro, but it had slight tendencies that way, and nevertheless, I still remember shedding a few tears that day. OK, OK, I bawled like a baby, but wasn't it enough that I already had a huge overbite, thick glasses AND curly hair.

Next, if I had it, I would show you my seventh grade picture. But again, I feel words may better describe what happened. I was waiting in line to have my picture snapped. I was wearing my favorite purple shirt, and had a sparkly head band in my hair; I was feeling pretty good about my potential picture, despite having enough metal in my mouth to build a railroad. Then a volunteer/room mom came up to me with a comb and some hair spray and said "Oh, here let me help fix your hair a little bit." Now, I had checked the mirror before this, and my hair had looked fine. A little crazy, but that's the point I was at with my curls. This woman, bless her heart, had no idea what she was getting into. The result was a bunch of flyways and a strand of hair sticking almost straight up from my head. If this wasn't bad enough, I wasn't quite ready for the photographer when he said smile (it takes me a while to get a good smile going, even to this day), so I ended up with frizzy hair and a goofy smile.

 Although I don't have the masterpiece of my seventh grade photo, I do have this beauty from eighth grade. The same sister who suggest the "afro" haircut was my hair stylist and make-up artist for this doosy (thanks again). I remember one of my friends said to me, "You kinda look like a hooker today." In terms of curly-ness, my hair wasn't too bad here, it was just really crunchy that day from all the products swimming around in there, and it was super poofy. And of course we have the signature bangs I rocked for many years. But can you see the pain in my eyes? Yes, that is coming from having crunchy hair and having to force a smile to come out from the elastics forbidding my mouth to open wider than a centimeter.
 

Ninth grade, where my curls started fizzling out a bit and became more like waves. This was probably the most normal school picture I had ever had. I was finally braces free and I had finally won independence when it came to styling myself for school pictures. 
 

It was about sophomore year where I went into curly haired denial for two years. I tried to straighten my hair as much as I could those two years, even having my hair chemically straightened once. This picture is from my junior year of high school, right in the middle of those straight years. I don't really remember this picture day, except that day was around 90 degrees outside and the sweater I was wearing made me really hot and sweaty, which probably made my hair start to curl in protest.

 

And then we come to my senior year of high school, where I came out of straightened denial and started to come to terms about my curly hair. But, the trouble with that was my hair was too long for these pictures, so it was only really curly at the bottom. I  tried my best, but here would start years of curly-hair strife, until a couple of months ago, when I started the Curly Girl Method.

Again, this is pretty much what my hair has looked like throughout my college career. This is the day before starting the Curly Girl Method, with semi-curly/wavy hair. But now, I'm enjoying and embracing my curls...

I finally have uniform curls and I love it! Of course, there are still some days where my hair just doesn't cooperate, but those are less. And I still have straight-hair denial. But I think that I've made some progress.

The Incredible, Edible--though not being used for eating--Egg

A few months ago, I got a curly hair tip/idea from my friend Rebekah (who is also has a fantastic blog called Head Over Heels. Check out the button on the sidebar --->). She showed me this link from The Letter 4 blog which suggests using egg whites as a gel and the whole egg as a conditioner. I liked the idea, but I haven't gotten around to trying it. Until now.

I started off by using the egg as a conditioner. I felt as though I was getting ready to make an omelet as I scrambled the little sucker in a liquid measuring cup. I made a quick shower playlist on my laptop (with just a few of my Showtune favorites) then hopped in. I made the mistake of washing my body before doing the egg-ditioner. When I dumped the egg over my head, it went dripping everywhere. So I ended up washing my body twice. I turned the water down to barely lukewarm, mostly cold temperature so that I wouldn't end up with a scrambled mess in my tresses. And I made sure to thoroughly rinse my hair as I belted out my Broadway tunes (On my own, pretending he's beside me....anyone else excited for the Les Mis film?). When I got out of the shower, I sniffed the air. It smelled slightly like cooked eggs in my bathroom. Hmm...I hope that doesn't last too long.

I couldn't really tell a difference between the egg-ditioner and my usual conditioner, but my hair did comb a little bit easier.
 
Since I did the egg-ditioner at night, I decided to wait until the morning to do the egg gel. But, since I was in the DIY/spa mood, I decided to do a little Internet/Pinterest research and see if I could find some sort of facial mask. On Pinterest, I found this suggestion to combine 2 tablespoons of honey with a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg and use it as a mask for 30 minutes. I didn't have any nutmeg, so I decided to find another mask idea. By typing DIY mask into google, I found this link for a bunch of facial masks made out of stuff you have in your fridge, and low and behold, one of them suggested an egg. So I decided to combine that with the honey/cinnamon to create something I would like to name The French Toast Facial.

Now, when I combined the egg, honey and cinnamon together, it looked a little like this:

 

Yep. It looks like poop a little bit. And I'm not going to lie, when I scooped it out to put it on my face, the mixture felt a lot like phlegm. So, I spread it over my face, making sure not to get it in my eyes.

 

And it looked like I had gotten a really bad spray tan. I checked what time it was and did some math to figure out how long 30 minutes would be. 

Well, let's just say, I did not make it 30 minutes. Whoever suggested putting cinnamon on your face for that long is a cold-hearted, evil being. It BURNS! After making it about 8 minutes, I was in a lot of pain, and after running around my house screaming for 2 minutes, I finally decided to just rinse the dang stuff off my face. The directions suggest to rub the mixture in circular motions to use the cinnamon to exfoliate, and I tried to, but all I could think of was getting the stuff off. 

Even after rinsing, my face felt like little flames were blazing everywhere; and as you can see here my face looked like I had a really bad sunburn (it even matches the shade of pink from my bathroom walls). I placed a cold rag over my face, which felt good for the moment, but it was smothering me and I couldn't breathe very well. So then I ran to the freezer and stuck my head in, which reminded me of that Friends episode where Monica is so hot she opens the freezer and just sits there in the cold air.

After about twenty minutes, my face finally felt better. And my skin did feel smooth and fresh. Probably because I burned all the dead skin away. I think that if I do the mask again, I will decrease the amount of cinnamon, and only leave it on for about five minutes.

This morning, I decided to try the egg gel, which will now be referred to as the Meringue Mousse. When I got out of the shower, I went into the kitchen and took out my eggs. I thought that I should use two, just to be on the safe side, since my hair is pretty thick. I carefully separated the yolk from the whites, and then started whipping the whites with a fork. It was probably from my lack of sleep that took me about two minutes before I realized that using a hand mixer would be a lot faster. I whipped the eggs to the consistency of hair mousse and then proceeded to my bathroom. I grabbed some of the mousse and worked it through my hair. I quickly saw that two eggs was way more than I needed. I now needed to blow dry my hair.

"But wait!" some of you may be saying, "if you're using the curly girl method, you can't blow dry your hair without a diffuser" and those of you who have read my posts before know that I don't own a diffuser. But while digging around in my sister's bathroom drawer last night, I found an attachment. Hooray! So, I dried my hair, but left it slightly damp, and then I scrunched my curls and styled it like normal. Let's just say, the curls looked pretty good, but they were a little crunchy.

I don't think I'll use the Meringue Mousse everyday, but I think a once-in-a-while occurrence may be in the future, especially when I'm running low on gel.

Who would have known that one food item could have so many uses.

Here are the directions for all three of the eggs-periments! :)

Egg-Ditioner:

1 egg

Beat the egg like you would for scrambled eggs. While in the shower, put the egg over your hair and work it in like you would your regular conditioner. Let it sit for about a minute, then rinse in lukewarm water.

Meringue Mousse:

1-2 eggs (depending on length and thickness)

Separate the yolk from the egg whites, and then whip the whites until they form a hair-mousse consistency. Work the mousse through your hair, and then blow dry using a diffuser. Scrunch curls into desired style. Make sure to wash your hair the same night, otherwise you might end up with some scary looking hair the next morning!

French Toast Facial:

1 egg

2 tablespoons honey

1/2-1 teaspoon of cinnamon (depends on your pain tolerance)

Mix the ingredients together until they form a runny paste. Spread the mixture over your face evenly, avoiding your mouth and eyes. Let it sit for about five minutes (or however long you are comfortable) and then rinse with water. While rinsing, scrub the mixture in circular motions over face and exfoliate your skin. Pat dry.

A new tip

OK, so I've been doing something a little different with my hair styling routine, and I think it is helping a little bit.

 

After I get of the shower and put my contacts in (oh to have perfect vision!) I've been waiting a few minutes before I put any styling products in my hair. I usually go and browse facebook or pinterest for about 5 minutes (or sometimes longer if I get distracted) and then I go do my hair. And for some reason, it's been curling a lot better. When I don't do this, sometimes I get this weird flat spot where my hair comes out from my head and it's flat and then it poofs out at the bottom. Not all that attractive. Anyway, I thought I would just give this little tip.

Song of the week: One Sweet Love-Sara Bareilles

I haven't done one of these in forever, so I thought I would do with this post. I couldn't decide what song I wanted to use, so I decided to let my Zune choose for me. I went into my song list and chose the song that I have listened to the most, and this was the winner. This is not a huge surprise to me. I love Sara Bareilles. I bought her first album when I was a senior in high school and I've actually performed some of her songs before (church talent show/humanities project), although I haven't done this song before. This is my favorite song by her because I love the lyrics and it's heavy on the guitar, which is different from her piano-centered songs.

 

OK, maybe I'm cheating a little by posting two songs, but I also love this cover of "In Your Eyes" that she did.

The Comeback

That's right. You're not seeing things. I finally have an update.

This is what my hair is looking like these days. It's doing a bit better because I'm using a new conditioner. Which brings to my sad news. My favorite conditioner, the Burt's Bees Shiny Grapefruit and Sugar Beet Conditioner is no longer being sold in stores. It is only available online until supplies last. Working in retail tells me that this particular conditioner probably isn't selling very well, so they are selling it at a lower price to get rid of it. Dang it! I loved this conditioner--not just because it smelled like those chocolate oranges you can get at Christmas time that you smack on the table and it breaks into slices--but because it did wonders for my hair.

After trying the Yes! brand of conditioner, which made me backtrack to frizzy hair land, I decided to go back to the Burt's Bees brand because it is amazing and advertises right on the bottle that their conditioners are sulfate-free. These are key-words to any Curly Girl method follower. Sulfates and Silicones are like poison to curly hair.

My new best friend.

So, I chose to use the Very Volumizing Pomegranate Conditioner, and my hair is starting to get back to curly, non-frizzyness that my hair was at in March. It doesn't smell as good as the Grapefruit and Sugar Beet, but as long as it gets the job done, I guess it's alright.