Deviating a bit...

...well it all ultimately ties up to hair anyway. This post is just about documenting my quest for health.
I'm a curvy girl...have always been about a size 12(UK size)..and now I would say im a tight size 12.lol!

My kind of sedentary lifestyle didnt help to the few kilos I have picked up these last few months. When I think about it, I walk to my car, drive to work. Drive into parking. Sit at my desk all day. Walk here and there in the office. Then walk back to my car to go home.....not alot of exercise there..eeek!
I dont eat alot. I shy away from carbs...except for potatoes. OMG potatoes yall!!!  I LOVE them. So I try not to even buy them that often....but apart from that, I love my salads and tend to eat lean meats...except for when I go to Chisa Nyama!!!

I did start gyming last year. I joined the work gym and all was going well till I hit a slump after a surgery I had last year.....that was in July. There really is no excuse here. So this year, I trotted back to the gym and it felt like I was a beginner all over again. Huffing and puffing at the treadmill. Sweating like a pig on the exercise bike..but as they say it gets better.

I'm not getting any younger, but I want to make the most of the life I have...Eat healthy, Live healthy, Think healthy....I drink waaay more water now. I keep a big 750ml glass bottle of water at my desk at work. I make sure I drink 2 of these by the time I go home. Everyone who knows me, knows I hate the taste of water...eewww! But it has helped me kick my JUICE ADDICTION. "Hi, I'm Linda Jean, I'm a recovering Juice-aholic". I limit myself to one glass of juice per day with my supper.

So this year, I am focusing on health for my body. Feeling good from the inside out. and you know what a good side effect of good health is?..Good and healthy hair! now I aint mad at that!

I stopped combing my hair about 3 years ago...for real!

True story! Lol! Before u think I’m probably loc’ed or have a matted up hair...lol! that is not the case. My type 4b/c natural hair is definitely not tangled.

So there is method to the madness. When I was relaxed I used a lot of combs and brushes to keep my straight hair in shape.

But when I jumped over to team natural I ditched the combs and brushes. The relationship was no longer viable. I read somewhere that every time you comb your hair you are giving yourself a little haircut. eeek! It’s true. Combing and brushing contributes to breakage, so I would keep this to a minimum as much as possible. Many relaxed ladies have also given up on the combing.

So how do I keep my hair detangled?

Detangling for me is a process I do slowly and carefully when I am in the shower. I use a cheapie conditioner(usually my Herbal essences Hello Hydration Conditioner). I apply this to my hair, which I divide into 6 sections. I used to use a wide tooth comb to help work the conditioner through and to help detangle. I have now found that I can use my fingers alone to detangle my hair.(make sure you don’t have chipped nails that can snag your hair). I then moisturise and seal, and do twists in my hair to keep it from shrinking and tangling.

The only time I use combs and brushes is when I have weaves or wigs in my hair.

I believe ditching the combs is what has helped me with length retention over the last few years. My hair is now around APL (armpit length. Will post pic soon). Of course, all naturals know about shrinkage! So when my hair is wet its about neck length. I cant wait till have have a big bad fro!

In the mean time, I have a new protective hairstyle for the next couple of weeks. I was trying to keep busy this last Saturday. The plan was to get box braids a la Beyonce, but I ended up cornrowing the front and single braids at the back. I must say it turned out okay given it was my first attempt at carrot cornrows.

I am keeping this style in for 2-2.5 weeks max.

In general I do not like cornrowing(with extensions) but I figure since I never do it, and I have been a good girl, taking good care of my hair, this means I can do this once or twice a year. My go-to protective style is the wigs. This enables me to deep condish every week. But with the cornrows I wont DC for the next two weeks. I will just co-wash twice a week( I go to gym during the week and will do this on gym days). I have a braid spray I made up with purified water, glycerine, avocado oil, olive oil and a conditioner. This will keep my hair moisturised in between washes....

The Art of Mixology...

So anyone who has ever been to my house is well aware that I love mixing my concoctions! lol! Some have accused me of turning into a Mother nature freak. Well I cant claim that I am that, I still have chemicals that I use in my house, but where I can I do try to be as environmetally frienly as I can.

When I started my hair journey, I learnt alot about what we put into our bodies and onto our hair and skin. For example the mineral oil that is loaded into many of our haircare and skin products. While my skin is semi-okay with mineral oil, my hair certainly does not like this. Here in South Africa we dont have access to many hair products that do not contain mineral oil. Sometimes I really have to go out of my way to soruce them. But when I cant, I make use of the products that are more easily available to me.

I would like to share some of the recipes tat I have learnt from others as well as created myself.
How we can use common ingredients, many of which you probably already have in your kitchen, to make some yummy concoctions that will give you beautiful skin and hair.

A word of caution though: not everything is for everyone. I was so quick to jump on the Shea Butter bandwagon and began using it as a sealer for my hair....that didnt quite work out for me. But now I use it as a pre-poo, and getting much better results with it.
So try the recipes, tweak them around and see what works for you.

So here is my first recipe in the Mixology Series:

This is a very simple mix to start us off. I use this mixture as a sealer after I apply my hair moisturiser, but it also works so well as a hot oil treatment and my hair loves it this winter.

• 3 tablespoons olive oil (Preferably Extra virgin)
• 3 tablespoons avocado oil
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil (also preferably the extra virgin variety)
• a few drops of an essential oil of your picking (do your research first)

The first 3 ingredients work so well and are able to penetrate the hair shaft. no other oils are able to do this as efficiently as these 3. Heat these 3 up in a double boiler. Stove top or microwave may result in these being heated to a very high temperature. Please be careful in heating these oils.
Once they are warmed up, apply to your hair, section by section, from root to tip. pay special attention to your ends as these are the oldest parts of your hair and they need more TLC.
 Cover your hair with a plastic showercap. You can either cover with a warm and damp towel, or a heated conditioning cap for about 20-30minutes.
Rinse this out of your hair with a little bit of shampoo or conditioner. (Beware of slippery shower floors)
proceed to style as usual.

There you have the first simple recipe, all from ingredients you can find in your kitchen :)

My hair hates winter....

Like for real! The last few weeks in Joburg have been cooler and I have brought out my trusty winter boots!
I am trying to cope with the shorter days and longer nights...as I have gotten older I prefer summer months to winter months.
Anywho, my once juicy locks turned to dry twigs overnight. For real. My hair got dry and dull all of a sudden. I moisturise and seal daily, sometimes twice a day but that just was not working.
 I have found that as my hair has gotten longer it requires a bit more love and attention.
So I set to fix the twiggy locks. The first night I literally bolted off the couch and just shoved my hair under a tap and quenched the hair with water and I co-washed with my Tresemme naturals conditioner.
I then dried it off and used my SCurl Activator as my moisturizer, sealed with my olive/coconut/avocado oil mixture. Then followed up with a hair lotion as a cream.
This worked for like 12 hours and the next day my hair was like straw again! Sigh!

Lets try this again.....

A few days later, I decided to do an oil treatment. I mixed up the avocado, coconut, olive and castor oil.  I applied this to my slightly damp hair, covered with a plastic cap, covered this with my silk bonnet and went to bed. In the morning I did my usual moisture and seal routine. My hair was quite soft, and I repeated tis a few days later and my hair was back to being softer and more manageable.

I feel that the oil treatments have injected some quality nutrients into my hair and this has helped it deal with the cold.
Right now I am pre- pooing my hair with my oil mix and I added some shea butter this time. ( I realized I had stash all the way from Ghana). I am going to wash this out with my cheapie conditioner (Aussie Moist) and then apply my Aphogee 2 Minute Protein Conditioner...that's a whole other post so watch this space....

So what did I learn? Some of us do have to switch up our winter hair reggies. I will be including a whole lot more oil in my reggie: in the form of pre-poos, oil rinses, oil treatments and new for me will be adding oil to my cowash conditioners.

Have a great week and keep warm...bbrrrr!

Supplements

*Please consult your doctor before taking any supplements. Any advice given in this blog does not constitute for professional medical advice, and the effects of supplements differ from person to person. There may be interaction between any supplements and medication that is being taken*

So I am a supplement junkie. Lol! There was a time i was taking a handful every day. I decided to cut down and have my nutrients in food form where possible. E.g. i stopped taking Omega 3 oils in capsule form and decided to increase the amount of oily fish i eat in my diet.

I curently take 3 supplements a day:

1)      Skin, Hair and Nails: This is a one a day tablet that aims to improve the condition of your skin,hair and nails. I have consistently taken these over the last 8 years. I can't say I see a marked difference in my body. I have tried about 3 different brands at this stage. Why do I continue to take tham? Just in case im missing any nutrients from my current diet. I have never really had any real issues with my skin. I am a freckle faced gal with very smooth skin. I have never suffered from acne or any skin conditions. However earlier in the month I did notice my skin had a few tiny bumps. This may be a result of the MSM that I introduced to my routine...

2)      MSM ( Methyl-Sulfonyl-Methane (a natural form of sulfur): I started taking this at the beginning of April. The dosage I have is 1500mg. I got the Doctors Best brand which I got over the internet from the UK and had my Mum bring down for me. My first couple of days taking these were terrible. I had very bad stomach pains. I did a bit more research and found that some people did struggle with taking this supplement. I increased my water intake to help alleviate the side effects as well as to help with the distribution of this throughout my body. Upon further research I found that a lot of people who took MSM also took Vitamin C along with it to assist with the uptake of this into the cells of the body. As long as I take my MSM pills along with my Vitamin C and keep drinking about 2 litres of water daily, I have found this pill to be agreeable with my body. My nails had been damaged by a few rounds of gel manicures and were looking weak. They were in a very bad state. At this stage, a month into taking MSM, my nails have grown and are much stronger than they were four weeks ago. As for the effects on my hair, that is yet to be determined. I must say that over the last few months my hair has been growing well. Its current around armpit length when stretched out.
I hope the introduction of MSM will help my hair grow like weeds!!! Lets give it a few more months.

3)      Vitamin C: As mentioned above I take this to aid with the uptake of the MSM that I am taking. In the past I would only take these at the onset of a flu, but now I take them daily. Please be aware of the dosages of Vitamin C that you can take if you are on the pill. Vitamin C may affect the effectiveness of birth control.

As mentioned, talk to your doctor before you start stocking up on supplements. Not everything is for everyone. Do your research!!! Find out what you can. I believe the body is a temple and it is important to be aware of what we put into it.