Mimi's Mini Ayurvedic Treatment

So today we went mini hair shopping, got some great stuff by the way. Carolyn needed to go to Walgreen's & Target to find the Shea Moisture Curling Souffle, and I needed to go to our local Indian grocery store to get a couple of Ayurvedic powders. I ended up buying the Hesh Neem (2.89) & Shikakai Powder (2.99); all totaling 5.86 (I think). After driving for an hour trying to find a store that was still in stock of the curling souffle, finally finding it at the Target that we always buy hair products from and should have went to in the 1st place :(,  I bough some plain yogurt there to mix in with the powders [ and winter edition Oreos ;) ].  

Since this was 1st attempt of trying the mixture, I kept the ingredients to a minimum. Wish I had taken a pic of the treatment.

 1. 2 teaspoons of the plain yogurt

2. Added warm water didn't measure but probably 3 big teaspoons. ( or whatever you feel that's needed.)

3. 2 teaspoons of the Hesh Neem Powder. 2 teaspoons of Hesh Shikakai Powder.

4. Mixed it all in a plastic bowl with a plastic spoon and let it sat for 5 minutes.

5. Massaged the mixture in my hair and covered with a plastic cap.

6. Kept it on for 15 minutes, got in the shower, and co-wash with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner and Suave Rosemary Mint conditioner.

The results....

I will defiantly do this treatment again, but I'll add some oils or something to cover that yogurt smell because it made me nauseous. Anyway, my hair was soft and shiny, and my curls were looser with the help of the henna from Sunday (Godrej). My hair is dry right now and it still fills good. Oh, and dandruff is taking care of, too. Again, this stuff was GREAT! :D

Here's the powders description. 

Neem - "The Trusted Antibacterial & Anti Dandruff Powder"- Powerful natural Antiseptic, Cures skin disorders, Controls Natural oil balance of skin, Clears dandruff. ( I'll try it in my facial clay mask).

Shikakai - " Dirt Buster For Your Scalp"- Provides new life to hair strands, Strengthens hair roots, Clears Dandruff, Keeps the scalp and cool ( Does what it says).

My First Henna Treatment

Today I decided to henna my hair since my bantu knot out didn't last as long. Marilyn had previously henna the day before and had more than a half left over so I decided why not try it.

The henna we used was the Godrej Henna that Mimi mixed with coffee, Herbal Essences Hello Hydration, Tea Tree oil, & Castor oil. After mixing all the ingredients together with hot water, she put it in the fridge overnight. So for me it's been sitting in the fridge for two days. I was kind of skeptic about it changing my hair any. You know what, it did do something.

Before

After

I don't know if you can see the color change, but my hair is actually like a mocha brown or darker. I don't know if it loosened my curls any, but my hair is shiny from the henna and suave conditioner. I actually trimmed and twisted my hair after. So I'll be defiantly doing this again, and I'm happy with the results. For more info on henna, you can check out http://www.curlynikki.com/search/label/Henna on Curly Nikki.

My Wash Routine & First Bantu Knot-Out

Thursday I wanted to try something different with my hair besides twist outs, and since it was wash time and didn't have to go to school, I decided try a bantu knot-out. Marilyn's been doing them and I wanted to see if I would get the same results, and I thought this will be a good time to try out my Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding.

Products being used:
Shampoo: Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition
DC mixture: Shea Moisture Yucca & Baobab Deep Treatment Masque, Herbal Essences Hello Hydration, EVCO & Peppermint oil mix, EVOO, Kinky-Curly Knot Today(KKNT), Suave Rosemary Mint conditioner
Detangling Conditioner: KKNT
Styler: Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding

Wash Routine:
1. I use Kinky-Curly Knot Today on dry hair to detangle. As I'm detangling, I'm twisting my hair using Naptural85's method. (click link to see method)
2. After detangling and twisting, I get in the shower and wash my hair with the twist in. By washing my hair this way, it stays detangled and I don't have to worry about it knotting up as it's shrinking.
3. After shampooing, I put deep conditioner on. I have 2 ways of doing this that depends on how much free time I have. I leave the DC in b/w 30-45 mins.
    A. For in a Rush: I just put DC on the twists w/o taking them down.
    B. No Rush: I take down twist one at a time and put DC on and retwist. (This time not doing Naptural85's method) I will do this while in the shower.
4. Once through DC'ing, I rinse it out. Depending on if I did A, I will retwist hair using Naptural85's method. B, I will leave in.
5. Then I let my hair air-dry.

Now, since I was styling my hair in a BKO, I took the twists down. I took medium sized sections and combed through, applying a dime sized amount of Curly Pudding on hair. I retwisted my hair and did the knots. I tried doing Naptural85's BKO, but my knot wouldn't stay twisting it that way. Have to wait for my hair to get longer.

Afterwards, I Let it air dry overnight, but some of the twists weren't completely dry. Luckily, i didn't have to go anywhere so I left them in on Friday. Then today I had to take them  down since I was going out today. I used my mixture of EVCO and peppermint oil to help take it down and separate , and here are the results:

So I like it, but I don't think I'll be doing too many of these just because I don't have the time. Then, I'm more of a twist out girl. The Curly Pudding did pretty good, my hair is a tad bit crunchy, but that's OK since it's suppose to have hold, so I'll be using it more often. It did give me some shine too and it has a strong scent, but after a while I got used to it. So this was an experiment gone right, but I'll stick with a twist out for a while.

9 Months Today

OK, so it's been A While since we last posted, but school has been extremely busy. Anyway, today is my 9 Month Natural Anniversary! Since my BC, my hair has grown a lot and people are getting adjusted to our hair. They are now trying to adjust to our constant style changes which change with the weather. Here are a couple of pics from my 8th month.

Here are a couple of comparisons