Happy Friday Queens! I can’t believe next month…well tomorrow (how is it already March?!) is the one year anniversary of my returning to natural journey. I remember last year being in such an unsure place with all the products and regimens and everything else that comes along with being a natural girl. My my how things have changed ;). Now, here I am one year in and 3 months post big chop! I’m finally in a place where I’m still learning every day but am now able to share some of my knowledge that I’ve gained along the way. It’s been an incredible journey to say the least and I can’t wait to share my reflection post with you guys next month! But today, we’re reviewing a product that has become a STAPLE in my routine. This right here is my crowns bff for real! The As I Am Coconut CoWash Cleansing Conditioner is is simply amazing!
Tag Archives: Hair care
Beauty Buzz | Shea Moisture + NYFW + New Cosmetics Line!
I KNOW I’m not alone in my obsession with Shea Moisture. I absolutely love this company and their products. I’ve even gotten my family in on it and bought the Mr. a few products from the Three Butters men’s collection and Shea Moisture Baby products for manman (reviews coming soon!). As a natural gal Shea Moisture is IT when it comes to hair care. Their branding is phenomenal and I’m pretty much obsessed with them. SO you can imagine my surprise and total ecstasy when I came across this article on Happi.com!
Hair Files | As I Am Leave In Conditioner
My loves! I hope you are all gearing up for Thanksgiving tomorrow! I’m so excited! I’m a sucker for all things related to Thanksgiving & Christmas. I mean there’s family and gifts and food and love and gahh!! So very much to be thankful for this and every day :D! Today I have a review for you and it isn’t a typical one for me. Ya’ll know I usually do makeup reviews but this natural crown of mines has me expanding my horizons so that meanssss more products to review for my queens! My product obsession is for ya’ll. For you <3. See what I did there? 😉
To start my new journey, of course I had to do some shopping. It’s only right. This IS a celebration after all. So I went on a mini haul to develop my new natural hair arsenal. While I’m still trying and testing new products, there was one that stood out to me. So much so that I’ve been using nearly every day. And when something is that good…ya’ll need to know about it! Cue As I Am Leave In Conditioner.
Here’s what the lovely people at As I Am say:
This natural wonder keeps tangles away and provides a great foundation for natural styling. It contains an organic strengthening agent, plus natural ingredients that promote hair growth.Here’s what This Brown Queen says:Man listen. It’s not everyday that I’m this excited over a hair product. This crown is picky. She don’t like anybody or anything. I’ve only found like one or two other products that I actually say my hair LOVES and this is one of them! It is absolutely divine. It provides great slip for detangling. Is the perfect leave in after cleansing your hair. And works wonders as daily moisturizer. Triple threat for real!
My crown is love, love, loving this leave in and that makes THIS brown queen a very happy natural! If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you go do that! Get yours at most stores like Target, Rite Aid, or online.Try it and let me know how it works! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!Peace, Love, & Blessings~Hair Love | Transitioning No More
Hello loves! Today’s post is dedicated to my crown (I like the way that sounds 😉 )…also known as…my hair. For my new loves and old ones who have wondered what’s happened, let’s catch up shall we? I officially started my transition to natural hair in March. My initial plan was to transition for a year. I salute all you naturalistas that were able to big chop from the door but I was not ready for all of that! So I thought a year would give me enough time to grow my hair to what I thought would be a comfortable length. My transition was…”rocky” to say the least. You can read allll about my trials  and recent triumphs here. But I was determined and I’m not the kinda girl who gives up so I was going to do this. Around the six month mark (September) I started getting antsy. I mean not only was I thoroughly over the transition, I felt myself really straddling the fence on the whole thing altogether. Either I was going to DO this or I wasn’t. After weeks of failing twist outs, major breakage, and sad scraggly ends, I made my decision. I couldn’t do this anymore. While standing in front of mirror this past Saturday night. I did it. I big chopped.  I had finally returned to natural.
The first question I was asked was “So, how do you feel?” How DID I feel. I mean, I just chopped my hair off. All of it. I have maybe 3 solid inches of hair on my head. How do I feel?? Crazy. But liberated. It is gone. Those last strands of hair signified so much. Holding on to my previous images and thoughts of beauty. Holding on to the last part of security I really had when it came to my hair. This whole thing is way bigger than one simple little post. I have a million thoughts and feelings post big chop that I can’t wait to share with you all. From my thoughts on hair typing to my husbands overwhelming support of this all. I’ll be visiting those topics later and also adding more natural hair posts in general featuring my updated regimen, styles, new products, and more. For now, I’ll get it to it and let you guys get a sneak peek (and the very first introduction ever) of my baby fro. I like her <3.
I’m a natural girl now…what does that even mean? Am I part of #sheabutter Twitter? LOL you see where my priorities lie.
Peace, Love, & Blessings
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Curly Transition: 10 Things!
So I’m into my 3rd month on my transition to natural hair. It’s probably one of the hardest, liberating, refreshing, dramatic, and frustrating things I have ever attempted. I’m learning. I’m failing. I’m learning some more. I’m failing again. Repeat. I’m going to post my official regimen and current products soon but since it’s been a minute since I’ve updated you guys on my crown I decided to give you guys this quick update on THIS curly queens transition. Ready, set, GO.
1. My edges stand alone. They are independent. They don’t care what the rest of the team is doing. They gonna do them.
2. She likes water for moisture. Dassit. Mixing with anything else serves no purpose. Don’t add any oil. Leave the conditioner out. Plain old water is what she likes.
3. I don’t have a hair type. I have hair TYPES. The middle is reckless. I’d say 4B. The sides and front on some days can legit qualify as 3C. The rest 4A. So yea. That’s at least 3. And I’m sure there are some more I didn’t come across yet.
4. I have YET to find THE ONE. You know the product I can’t live without, swear by, staple, whatever you wanna call it. I have not found it.
5. My ends will be the END of me.
6. I’m literally going on at least 10 weeks heat free! If nothing else this is a HUGE accomplishment for me.
7. I think other people like my hair more than I do some days. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my hair but I get those awkward moments where I’m just like…O_O but then someone is like GURRRLLL your hair and then I’m like 😀
8. If I don’t prep my hair at night, there is NO hope, absolutely NO HOPE for the next day. Don’t even try. Wear a hat, turban, or just stay in the house. Don’t do it.
9. I must not be detangling right. It doesn’t take me long at all. So I must be missing something…right?
10. I don’t know how to “save” my twistouts. Yup I retwist every night. Bad news: I retwist every night. We covered that. Good news: I can do it fast now. Like REAL fast.
That’s all I got for now. Regimen, products, and more coming soon.
Peace, Love, & Blessings,
~
This Brown Queen
What Are We Teaching Our Sons?
As most of you know, I’m about 2 months into my journey of transitioning to natural hair and I have my good days and bad. I think it’s safe to assume that, anyone who has been on this journey experiences moments in the beginning where you’re just not sure. Not sure about a lot things. If you’re me, your unsureness would go something like: Am I using the right products? Will this leave in work? Did I do those twists right? Does this bantu knot look nice? Do I look crazy? Why am I doing this? Whatever the case may be, you go through it. This past weekend, I was having a particularly rough time with my twist out. I’m somewhere between the point where, I “like” my natural texture, but I still don’t really know how to handle it. I’m wishing that I could just NOT have the relaxed ends anymore because they make me frustrated. I find myself trying out styles and loving the natural curl pattern at the root and just being utterly disappointed at how my relaxed ends just don’t hold up. BUT I still can’t really grasp the idea of cutting it all off. It’s a catch 22 I tell ya.
So, I did a twist out using my method that I talked about here. It was a success! I was feeling pretty confident and loving my big hair, don’t care. The Mr. was loving it. I was feeling myself…And then I had an interesting moment with my 4 year old prince. Now in case you’re new around here, I used to be relaxed, super relaxed, like every 4 – 6 weeks touch up relaxed. Thought I was gone with the wind fabulous *insert Kenya twirl*. This is the mother my son always saw. So now 2 months in to my natural journey…my prince spoke up. We’re in the car and he says “Mommy? Are you going to get you’re hot bun back?” (that’s what he calls a bun). I say “Why? You don’t like my hair?” Prince Shawn replies in a ever so sweet way “Well…I do…but…your hair just looks a little crazy.”
Now. HOW would my son know what crazy looks like? I feel it’s safe to assume that his idea of “crazy” had to come, at least in part, from me. I felt disappointed. I had inadvertly taught my son the very thing that I was now trying to go against. Why must my natural hair look crazy? I thought I was WERKING it. And I WAS.
That brief, and probably super insignificant to him, conversation got me thinking. What am I teaching my sons about natural hair. I’m the first woman they encounter in life. What do I want them to learn? To remember? It’s definitely not that natural hair looks crazy. So while I’m still unsure on many things, what I am sure of is I’m on the right journey!
Peace, Love, & Blessings,
~
This Brown Queen
Twist Out Success!
Finally Queens! I did it! I am too hype. It’s crazy. I have done twist out after twist out. Flat twist, two strand twist, chunky twist ALL to no avail! I was getting frustrated. Like for real. Wth was I doing wrong?!? Then I figured it out. If it is one thing I am learning on this natural hair journey is: what works for her…might not work for you. You can watch one hundred thousand billion Youtube videos, but that doesn’t mean what they are doing will work for you. They are a guide. Not a must do manual. I get that now.
Ok so let me explain natural queens what was happening to my twist outs… They just weren’t. I know. That sentence don’t make any type of sense but I’m for real. They just weren’t twist outs. I mean, yea, my hair was in some type of twist…overnight…then the next morning taken out. But it wasn’t no twist out. I think a combination of things were occurring.
One, my ends were HORRIFIC. I mean like for real. They were all over the place. I browsed tons of blogs…and videos…and google images (have you ever google imaged a split end? Creepy pictures…I don’t like them) on how to spot split ends. And even still, I don’t really know how to spot them, I don’t know if I have them, but I will tell you this…my ends just weren’t right. They ain’t look right, feel right, and they damn sure ain’t act right! Two, my hair is thin, straight, and super relaxed. So…if you combine these things you have incredibly resistant hair trying to hold a curl. It just was NOT happening. My fake twist outs were coming out like some half hearted excuse of a loose wave. There was just no curl. To make matters worse my hair was so thin and ends so raggedy you could just “see through” the fake curls. A Mess.
I don’t know what made me do it but while attempting my thousandth (okay not literally but that’s how I feel) twist out, I decided to trim my ends. And not those little baby trims I’ve been doing. I mean really trim them. Each section that I twisted, I cut them. Where the hair got raggedy, I cut it off! I could have done even more than I did but baby steps queens. Baby steps. I also decided that the two curl creams I had tried just weren’t it. I love the way my Cantu Coconut Curling Cream smells and feels. I mean its heavenly, but it just is not working for me yet…I say yet because I have hope that it will. I needed something more. I decided to use my eco styler gel in addition to the cream. Lastly, I used those pink perm/wave rods on the ends of each twist.
I DID IT. #Boom I love mahhhh twist outttt :-*
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This Brown QueenHow My Husband Feels…
…about my natural hair! Me and a natural friend of mine were lounging around talking about all things Natural Hair. We were comparing types, products, going through our journey, our feelings, thoughts. It’s really great to have friends that are going through the same journey as you! We’re both at different stages in our journey and our lives so it was interesting to have this Natural discussion :). I’ve known this girl going on a decade and her going natural was a complete surprise to me. She is the one who taught me how do my own weaves in college! She has always told me how much she loves her weave…And now she’s natural!?! I am so amazed and proud of her. She’s a bit farther in her journey than I and she’s a single independent Queen! One of the things that came up of course was learning how to embrace our hair in its natural state. She made a comment when I said her fro was cute that went something like, her biggest obstacle was learning that her hair WAS cute. Getting out of the mindset that long and straight is not the end all be all to be beautiful is tough when you’ve been accustomed to this way of thinking for so long. I understood where she was coming from as I’m sure many of us that decide to go natural experience this in the beginning. She then continued to say that for me, it was different, I didn’t have to worry about being cute because I was married, she had to find someone who would embrace her natural hair in a society where the majority of us brown queens have weaves down our backs. I kindly told my sister that NOOOO it was harder for me because my husband met the relaxed Queen. The one who paid hundreds tor “Remi”, and hundreds to get that remi sew-in. The one who had hair down past my bra strap. That’s the Queen he married! So for me to go natural was scary because…what if my husband DIDN’T like it. What then? Do I stop? Do I tell him get over it?
Thankfully that is NOT how my husband feels 🙂 🙂 :). He’s yet to see it in person but we skype everyday and of course there’s Instagram ;). To put it simply he LOVESSS it. Yesterday during our daily skype session we were chatting about the kids and his tour coming to an end when he interrupted me midsentence to tell me how much he is loving my natural hair. He said it’s gorgeous and he only wishes I would have had the confidence to do it while he was home. He then did a little dance singing about how much he loves his natural queen. Then did a victory dance about never having to spend money on weave again and proclaimed that he never ever wanted to see me in a weave or relaxer again. Gggoosshhh do I love that man <3! He is so supportive. And honestly I think he’d support whatever decision I made with that same level of enthusiasm because that’s just the kind of guy he is :)….nevertheless I can still be elated that he is supporting this journey of mine!
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This Brown Queen
Curly Haul!!!
This is going to be a problem. I’m in love with natural products already! This is bad! I’m already on a makeup budget but now I have to create a hair budget. Or else I will lose it all Queens ;).
This is a mini haul of natural hair products I picked up to help with my beginning journey. I’m still in the very early stages of transitioning and actually getting to know my hair so I mean, it’s only right I go through a couple products. I’m learning my hair right? That’s my reasoning and I’m sticking to it! I actually did good though because I only bought what I actually needed and I am happy! I didn’t even leave with that sad “Yup, did it again feeling.” I love non guilty product indulging!!
My goodies, my goodies, my goodies:
1. Tresemme Naturals Vibrantly Smooth Shampoo (Low Sulfates) with Coconut Oil and Jojoba Extract. I was looking for a mild shampoo and I’ve heard good things about the Tresemme Naturals line. Most people speak about their Nourishing Moisture products but I wanted to give this a try. It says it helps with frizz…and I need help with frizz!
2. Tresemme Naturals Vibrantly Smooth Conditioner with Coconut Oil and Jojoba Extract. I needed a conditioner other than my deep conditioner. I thought about the Aussie Moist but decided to go with this…it was on sale if I bought the shampoo and I did.
3. Jamaican Black Castor OIl. Don’t really know what I’m going to do with this. I don’t really have any intentions on using it right now. I’ve heard nothing but good things about it though since transitioning and before! I’ve seen a lot of my favorite bloggers using it for some type of challenge. I’ll do more research and see how I want to incorporate this.
4. Cantu Shea Butter Coconut Curling Cream. I had the Motions Define My Curl Cream but I didn’t like it. Okay I can’t say that because I only used it once but I just did not like the consistency. It was a cream but was wasn’t creamy. I like my other Cantu products and the reviews on this were awesome so we’ll see!
5. Eco Styler Gel. Everyone needs a styling gel. I like it! Pretty much cut and dry for me there.
6. African Royale Hot Six Oil. I used to use this oil a few years ago when I was relaxed. I loved it. Don’t know what made me stop using it but I was not feeling my Olive Oil that I had. I have straight EVOO but I wanted some kind of oil blend and so I got this again. Still love it!
I have tried some of these, but I’ll have reviews coming in the future. I want to really get a feel of how I like the product.
I LOVE HAULS!!!
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This Brown Queen
Transitioning: The First Week
This week was the official start to my natural hair journey. I had decided a week or so ago that I was going to go natural but I hadn’t taken any steps. I have a hundred thousand billion things to do on a daily basis and I just hadn’t gotten a chance to research some products or regimens or anything yet. So I’m in the store Monday picking up some household items and I came across Pantene’s new Truly Natural line. I figured…I gotta start somewhere! I picked up a few things and started that night! I’m VERY new to this. I have no idea what I’m doing. But I think that’s the beauty of it! So now I’m going to share with Queens what I did for week 1 so far. My products, my thoughts, and my plan for week two. I’m not going to review any items I used yet because I simply do not have enough info. I will give my intial thoughts though just in case ya wondering :).
Week 1:
1.) I used Pantene’s Truly Natural Clarifying Shampoo. Lathered twice because I hadn’t washed my hair in awhile.
2.) I conditioned with Pantene’s Truly Natural Deep Conditioner. I didn’t actually deep condition. I more of conditioned then left it on in the shower for about 15 minutes and rinsed. I detangled after I rinsed out.
3.) I moisturized my hair with Cantu Shea Butter Daily Oil Moisturizer. Parted my hair in four sections and applied liberally to each section.
4.) I sealed my hair with African Pride Olive Miracle Growth Oil.
5.) I did not blow dry. I am hoping to go at least 1 month without heat (that is my first goal. I set my goals low. I’m new at this!). This is a BIG DEAL for me as I have tried no heat before and I absolutely HATE my hair with out heat. It’s very difficult and dry and sucks moisture like nobody’s business. Instead I put my hair in a high ponytail, not to tight because my edges are weak like super weak, and kinda wrapped my hair around and pinned it down (think one bantu knot).
6.) I used Palmer’s Oilve Oil Gro Therapy on my edges and to help “slick” my hair into the ponytail. I don’t know I now know alot of natural Queens are against products with Petrolatum in it, and I believe this is one of the top ingredients in this…but I liked it…so…yea…
7.) Used a satin scarf to tie my hair down and went to sleep.
For this whole week I wore a bun. If you visit my Daily Face post you can see my hair. That’s how I’ve worn it all week. I am pleasantly surprised with the results so far. My hair is not dry. It retained the moisturizer quite well. Doesn’t look brittle and is actually cute! I moisturize and seal every other day and if it needs a little boost in the monring I used one of my Olive Oil products. What I don’t like are my ends. I hate them. They are so weak and brittle. I anticipated transitioning but I can’t help but toy with the idea of just cutting it all off! That’s how much I hate my ends!
For week 2 I plan on Co Washing and trimming…ok more like cutting a lot of my dead ends off. I’m not sure if I’ll change the products any. I think I’ll stick with this for now with the exception of adding a conditioner for the co wash. For styling…I’d like to attempt two strand twist on Saturday. We’ll see. Don’t be a quiet Queen! If you have any advice or tips or need to warn me that I’m using something that’s gonna set me back pleaseeeeee comment! Much appreciated!
Until next week Queens!
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This Brown Queen
This Brown Queen 