HAIRSTYLE | Side bun updo

{tutorial}

GROWTH CHALLENGE | Week 3 "Mini" Twist and Out

Right now I have my hair up in "mini" twists. We have all seen mini twists before and as far as styling there isn't much to show. Its has just been pulled up into a bun of sorts. I will have to purchase a shower head to soften the water in my house because my hair always seems to dry out after a day. In the meantime I figured out how to keep the moisture in a bit longer. I took about 2 quarter size amounts of Hair Rules hydrating finishing cream, added water, a little castor oil, avocado, and rosemary all to a spray bottle and spritzed it on my hair.

 

After a week, I decided to take them out to see what sort of twist out I could do. I was NOT impressed. Although the curl definition was nice in the front, I didn't like how it turned out all around. Despite efforts to create volume by dividing twists more than others, I still wound up with hair that looks anorexic. I will just have to stick to bigger twists now that my hair is longer, and it seems my hair has more volume when I have semi straightened it rather than let it come off of wet hair. A note to the fine hair natural. Back to the drawing board, as usual.

HEALTHY BODY | What I am eating

I just picked up a lot of fruits and a few veggies for this week and next. I have found a local grocery store that only sells produce and meats from the area, so the prices stay down and I am getting more food for my dollar. I walked away with four bags of fresh fruits and veggies for $25! I tend to do a lot of shakes in the morning since I am usually out for most of the day. Then I have a light lunch and a dinner that are jammed with lots of veggies.

Green Goblin

Banana Berry

For breakfast this week I've been having the Green Goblin or a Berry Medley for a smoothie or something to do with eggs, like this oh so yummy Frittata. The great thing about the frittata is that once you cut it into portioned squares, you can freeze it and take one out at a time every morning and either pop it in the oven while you get ready for the day, or throw it in the microwave. For dinner, I just pop some cabbage in a crockpot while I'm at work and then couple it with some rice one night, or make a nice cabbage soup another night.

My meat of choice is chicken and I eat that once a week. Fish I'll have at least twice a week. Cutting down on sugar is seriously one of the easiest ways that I have been able to lose weight as fast as I did while doing light exercises. I substitute it with honey and that gets used sparingly because I do not need it for everything. If you have a juicer, fruits have enough sugar in them and getting the store bought juices only adds unnecessary sugar in my opinion. Grain is also something I try to hold back on because I love it soooo much. If I were given bread and water as punishment, I would not complain. But it also has sugar that is the last thing to get burned up, so on my days of no exercise, I lay low on the carbs.

Dairy. Oh man. I love it so much. But I switched from cow to soy when I do my shakes and when its that time of the month (it helps minimize my cramping). I prefer good aged cheeses to sandwich cheese so, I don't get this too much as aged cheese is expensive.

Anyway, that's what I have been eating. Stay tuned to see what I am doing!

Frittata
**all images from twopeasandtheirpod.com**

GROWTH CHALLENGE | Week 2

First week went pretty well. I did have somewhat of a protein crisis without realizing it. So I had to lay off everything except a moisturizer for the next few days until I washed my hair. After my wash day last week, I decided to try the method I used to get my curly fro in the previous post but use smaller flat twists. The outcome was less favorable than I would have liked but I am not one to put curls to waste so I took advantage of the texture they gave me for my next protective style.

 

HAIRSTYLE | Resting Style 1

Today is my wash day so yesterday for church I decided to sport a curly fro. I will do a tutorial soon on this, as it actually turned out nice and full looking!

GROWTH CHALLENGE | Week 1

Kicking it off with my first protective style of the HEALTHY BODY/HEALTHY HAIR Growth Challenge! To check out the tutorial head over to my channel for the step by step process. Only took me a little under 5 minutes to do!

Healthy Body Healthy Hair Growth Challenge 2013

After doing some research on past and present hair growth challenges I decided I wanted to do one that was on two areas I care about: health of hair and body. Nutrients we put in our body will not make it to the hair if the body is in greater need of it, so if your body is deficient in something, your hair will never benefit so long as the deficiency is present. So I decided to keep it simple and have things you would do for your hair mimic what you would do for your hair. This challenge will start February 1st and go for six months, so you have until next Friday to make sure you have most of your items. Those items are:

1. Shampoo (sulfate free is good if you plan on washing your hair often, but for those who plan washing their hair 1-2x/month a shampoo with sulfates works better, just remember to DC before applying.)

2. Conditioner (make sure its not heavily enriched with protein)

3. At least one carrier oil and one essential oil (I am using a mix of coconut (CO) and avocado (CO) for my hair and a mix of avocado, castor (CO), and rosemary (EO) for my scalp

4. A camera (this challenge is about documenting. Once a month is fine but feel free to do more and post them on your own blog and send me a link to it, my facebook page, or a video response on my YT channel.

5. A notebook/journal (write down what you are eating over the next two weeks and see what your body is not getting on a regular basis. also write down how your hair is doing at the end of each month and tweak as you go.)

6. Patience

Oh but wait, there's more!

For those of you who participate in this challenge and follow me on any one of my outlets (Blog, FB, or YT) will be entered in for your chance to win a gift from me at the end of the challenge for $50 worth of your favorite haircare products, plus some extra hair goodies from me to help you continue on your journey of healthy hair and healthy body! Go to my FBpage for bigger image of the chart below if this one doesn't show as well.