Motions & Potions: A Product Review

 As I told you before, I have a stock of different types of oils and I'm eager to see how my hair reacts to all of them. About a week ago, I mixed 2/3 water and 1/3 coconut oil in a little spray bottle that I have. I'd spray this in my hair throughout the week when my hair was feeling dry, usually at the end of the day. Water is the number one moisturizer but I added coconut oil for 2 reasons: 1) For trial purposes; to see how my hair reacts to the combo and to the oil in particular. 2)To seal (per the oil) as it is moisturized (per the water). Don't I sound like a pseudo-hair chemist...lol. FYI, when I made the mix, the oil sat on top of the water so every time I wanted to spray my hair down, I had to shake the spray bottle for the oil and the water to come together.

Last night I tried a new concoction to set my hair in braids for them to be undone today as has been my habit for the last couple of days. I sprayed my hair with the coconut oil and water mix and then applied Softee Mango Butter which smells so good by the way. When I unraveled my braids in the morning, my hair was very moist and my kinks were very well stretched. Yay!!! I have another product/process success. Tonight I'm going to just use the Softee Mango Butter by itself and see what happens.

Again, I am not a natural hair=only natural products person. I will use what works. Sulfates, cones, petrolatum, and mineral oil worked before when I was little. There is no reason it can't work again  as an adult. Maybe when my current collection of products runs out, I'll try the all natural route but for now I'm committed to using up the too many darn products I already have. I figure with all the stuff I have, something's got to work. I have too many financial goals to spend unneccsary amounts of money on hair products. I haven't bought any hair products in a month. However, I do miss the rush of buying and trying a new product. I guess junkie, as in product junkie, is the right term because I am definitely going through withdrawal symptoms.  SMH. When I go to the Walgreens or Target near my house for household items, I glide through (read: torture myself) the Black hair product section and plan my next purchase. I'm thinking I won't need to buy products (shampoos, conditioners, deep conditioners, oils, dryers, wigs, moisturizers, grease et al) for the next 6 months. The only thing I'll keep buying is the Monistat (MN) because that's proven to be a great growth aid that needs to be applied every night (it doesn't have to be every day but that's what I've been doing)  and I heard that storing it and keeping it for a long period of time can trigger the side effects-headaches, increased tenderness, inflammation of the scalp- all of which I haven't had since I started using it a month ago. And no, I do not dilute it with water and other oils.

As if you care, my go-to style is the puff. I wake up later than I should to style it any other way and I don't like two-strand twists-not at this length. The puff works great for the workplace as well. However, Black Girl With Long Hair, my favorite natural hair site, has a great post about some nice updos that I may try this weekend.

I have fell off the wagon with my water regimen. I was downing 100oz of water a day (possibly too much) for my hair growth/weight loss goals.  One of the effects of not drinking enough water is short nails. Nails say a lot about your health with long, strong nails representing optimal internal health. Well, the upside of short nails is that when I touch my hair, no strands get snagged on my nails and no nails get split by my strands (i.e. less breakage). Yay!!! I know. I can still drink water, have healthy nails, and just keep them trimmed. But hey, I'm enjoying being (slightly)unhealthy (I am eating lots of fruits and vegetables) right now.


Oh I have a new mathematical equation for you: natural hair woman = part-time chemist. Really, with all the trial and error, and being your own guinea pig, finding the right product and process  is very similar to the scientific method that we studied in 3rd grade-question (will this product work for what it advertises?), gather information (thank you YouTube and hair blogs), hypothesis (it might work), test the hypothesis (buy the product and use it a couple of times being sure to consider other variables-weather, diet, other products you're using with it, how you're applying the product, styling technique), analyze the data, draw a conclusion, publish (tell others about its results). When a natural haired Black woman has carved out her regimen and has figured out the right products for her hair, it is no small feat. She literally deserves a degree.