Ghanaian Emprezz

I honestly don't feel my routine has changed that much ! On the contrary, I enjoy my hair more these days.

Let's see how March went.


I big chopped and it wasn't anything spectacular. Been there and done that. However, I'm much more relaxed about growth now. In fact, I'm not on the mane choice again. I loved it but the breakout was nasty.  Will I take it again? Not sure. Since taking then separately in the day helped,  I'll see. 
Use up products: I used up the cantu sheabutter co wash and I'm now on the cantu conditioner. I have the superfruit to use up.
I created onion shampoo, hibiscus  black soap shampoo, hibiscus leave in and thereby ended up saving some money. When these ones finish,  then,  I'll consider the store bought ones.  The reason being that my hair isn't long enough to use 50gh worth of product on it.  In addition,  I plan to use up products faster too. Now,  the kinky curly knot today leave in conditioner is finished. I've switched to…

I've been taking the mane choice manetabolism Plus vitamins for about 30 days now. 

https://youtu.be/uQFsT6et8dc

Hibiscus in our local language is "Sobolo" or "bissap" and that is what I used to create a new shampoo. 

The onion shampoo is finished thus I had to prepare a new batch of black soap shampoo for my hair. I added hibiscus for its moisturizing abilities and a few spoonful of glycerin. To give  the shampoo extra boost, I mixed in a bit of Sulphur powder. This mixture is enough for a month. I hope there wouldn't be any pungent smell like the onion shampoo.

Moisture

My moisturizing and sealing routine has been crazy. I used to use just oils to seal but my natural hair drinks up the oil. I began using the hair wonder cream and my hair seems to have calmed down.

The wash 

Shampoo with black soap and hibiscus.

Deep conditioned under a steamer with the aphogee balancing moisturizer for about 10 minutes.

I used  the kinky curly knot today leave in conditioner and sealed with sulphur oil and cocoa butter. 

At night, it's aloe vera, hibiscus leave in and rose water spritz. I a…

So,  this is the first natural Hair products haul for 2o17.  


Since I want to switch to organic products for most part of my routine,  I decided to get Ayurveda stuff. Check out what I got.
PS: We are 6 subscribers away from our goal.  Could you help? Click on the subscribe button on the video. 

https://youtu.be/5_3wbp7hu3s

Yesterday, I shared the facial scrub that helped vanquish the acne breakout I had.The sulphur oil mix consists of a variety of natural oils such as coconut oil,  Aryan oil,  avocado oil,  Babassu oil and pistachio oil.



My face with the acne.

After washing the face,  I use a cotton ball dabbed in Neutrogena toner to clean.  When the fave dries up,  I use a bit of the sulphur oil. I do this at least once a day.

With the acne Acne gone, I use just the oil mixture which also has essential oils. I'm on the watch for a good facial cream so let me know your recommendations.

After the treatment in a week.



I've also been taking the mane choice one in the morning and one in the evening. This has been working pretty well so if I decide to continue with the mane choice,  that will be the routine for taking it.

Source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/182861-the-use-of-sulfur-for-skin-care/

You are wondering  what kind DIY facial scrub can get rid of acne, right? Let's  get the back story first.

Because  the manetabolism vitamins gave me a bad breakout,  I had to revisit my facial routine that I'd neglected for weeks.  The one thing I endured was using the facial cleansers daily.  What was happening was the acne persisted. I had a eureka moment when I realized I didn't have a facial scrub and at this time of the week,  it wasn't possible  to go to shop to get one.  I had to create a facial scrub for temporal use.  That turned into my beat decision so far regarding my face.

In my kitchen,  I had cinnamon  and baking soda as well as brown sugar.  I mixed these three up,  wiped the make up off my face and began the scrubbing.  I didn't measure each ingredient but I used a generous amount of each. I scrubbed for about 10 minutes.  The granules of the baking soda are quite gentle on the skin.
A week later






12 hours later, the huge pimples had vanished fro…

For my old readers, you would remember how I got into caring for my hair. It took a prayer out of frustration with my hair to log on to google. Six years down the line,  I've seen my hair thrive in the most unprecedented way.


I believe in prayers and I know God answers my hair prayer each time. Even when I've cut it 5 times.


Here's a video of Daphne sharing her hair prayer.

https://youtu.be/Lb0rZN0MfKc

The 4c TWA journey is full of learning curves. The first thing I faced was dry hair after the big chop. Four days later, I ended up discovering a solution.




I used a heavy oil which was the Vitamin E oil. The texture is like Jamaican Black Castor oil.
Cover with a satin bonnet and call it a night. 

My hair felt soft after the first trial and that's how I retain moisture during sleep. I'll either get sheabutter or use Jamaican black castor oil to seal and see how it goes. For now, the vitamin E oil works and it's a great opportunity to use it up whilst nurturing my hair in its infant stage. In addition, the hair wonder cream is also quite thick to use to seal in the moisture.

 The oil doesn't really matter, what works is the bonnet. Protecting the hair with a satin bonnet prevents moisture loss at night especially if you sleep on a cotton pillow case.

When you start out on your relaxed hair journey, it can be quite confusing when you have to decide on the different treatments your hair will need.


We know about moisture deep conditioners which are menat to infuse moisture into your hair and protein deep conditioners to strengthen your hair and replenish lost protein. Now, the question is whether to use protein treatment during the relaxer step or after relaxer.

What my readings have taught me is that any of these two works depending on your end result. When you want to strengthen your hair right after relaxer, there's nothing wrong with that. However, a moisture treatment infuses more moisture back into the hair rather than protein. What about using both? I prefer using a deep conditioner with both uses such as ORS replenishing  conditioner. This provides both moisture and protein and that's a sure way of enjoying both benefits.

The key thing is to deep condition your hair before relaxing, then either during or after the rel…

This collab was done with a couple of amazing Ghanaian youtubers.Be sure to subscribe to support us.

You'll find more of the Ladies in the description of the videos.

https://youtu.be/68gYjyjP41s
Maame Abena

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=zWPZpAho6FY
Miranatural233

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=QsxL-epPu6g

Want to know how I prepare the onion shampoo? A post will be up soon.

Shampoo: Washed twice  with onion shampoo.


Deep condition : I used the last bit of dark and lovely Amla legend mask. The first jar is now empty.

Leave in: kinky curly knot today leavr in, rose water glycerin sprtiz and hibiscus. Sealed with oil mixture.

Air drying is definitely the only route now. 

I got the opportunity to test out my wig cap. I'm still contemplating on whether to wear to work or not.

When you see such a post, it may seem so irrelevant but when you have dry hair, especially, 4C natural hair, then, you know you have seen a life saver Lol.



So what did I do to achieve moisturized hair for 3 days in a row?


First, I'd sprayed my hair with rose water  before sealing with the cantu sheabutter gel oil. Now, the hair felt crunchy after that so I added a bit more of regular oil.

The gel oil feels like gel so once the regular oil was applied, the crunchy feeling was vanquished. By the end of the day, the hair felt the same way it was in the morning.

 Like I'd just washed it. Wet but not too wet, soft and soft. Well, in the night I slapped some aloe vera gel on the hair. Generous amount of oil gel and aloe gel kept hair moisturized until weekend.

With such a result, why wouldn't I keep using this combination? Lol. I'll use that for a couple of weeks and see if the results are consistent. I sure do hope they will be.

How do you keep your moisturized?

When you decide to jump on the biotin for hair growth trend, you may be disappointed by your results compared to others. The reason might be:

You are not taking it as directed. Some require you take with food preferably with your main meal or others require you take with just a meal.
Different dosage for each one. Each brand of biotin has a dosage to be taken. In addition, you may find that each dosage varies in potency too.
Your body needs other Supplements you are deficient in to have the boost it wants. Switching full supplements like mane choice, nature's bounty, Mielle, beautifully bamboo among others will be of more benefit.
Not drinking enough water translates into your body not being able to fully excrete excess  biotin. This leads to acne breakouts.
Last one is about what your own hair routine. If you take all the supplements in the world yet your hair routine doesn't cut it, you won't retain any growth you get.

As I mentioned in one of the posts, this March, we are using hibiscus leave in conditioner. Why?

Hibiscus provides the hair with moisture and though my hair is very short, keeping it moisturized right from this satge will guarantee less dryness as it grows.



Preparation

All I did was boil water and poured the fresh hibiscus into it.

A lot of ladies are hyping its effectiveness so stay tuned for my own update.

Watch the full video

6 weeks progress.



That's Hair Wonder which happens to be available in Ghana. You can find them on Facebook too.


Virgin Hair Fertilizer one month progress. Quite interesting!





Bamboo Hair Vitamins




I've already made provisions for them so stay tuned for updates. The bamboo vitamins will arrive in some few weeks time.

My TWA 


Cantu sheabutter conditioner for cleansing my hair
Carion shampoo for cleansing
Dark And Lovely Amla Legend Mask for deep conditioning 
Cantu sheabutter anti frizz leave in conditioner 
Cantu sheabutter hair mousse for styling 
Avery Naturals hair oils ie Babassu,pistachio, avocado oils. 
Avery Naturals Glycerin
Jamaican black castor oil
Shikakai powder
Avery Rose water 
Eco styles gel
Insta Argan Oil
Now tea tree and peppermint oil
Hair Wonder Hair cream( new addition)
Cantu sheabutter gel oil( I want to use it on the natural hair too and see how it works)
The Mane Choice manetabolism Plus


These are the ones I can account for. Most of them would be used up by the end of 2017 so it's all good. 

Do you use any of these products?

You don't want to miss this fun series so click on the link and enjoy reading it.



http://beyondlifestyle.blogspot.com/2017/02/annoying-things-about-ghanaian-women.html

After trying turmeric and milk, I decided to try turmeric with honey facial mask. 

Get all the details about ingredients, steps and results in the video and please subscribe ( we are almost at 1000 subbies)



https://youtu.be/2LKiWXS9xOY