Blogmas with DOASAHM 2014 - Day 6

 OOooooo presents lol. I know Christmas isn't about  presents and it's important to remember the reason for the season but presents have always been a part of Christmas celebrations for me and when it came to opening presents My mum allowed me to open one present at midnight and then the rest were left for after dinner on Christmas day.
I talked a little about going to my Grandmas' house in the last blogmas post, being part of a HUGE extended family that meant loads more pressies to open. I always so appreciative of the presents I received from my family as I knew that we didn't have much money and the fact that someone spent their money on me made me happy before I even opened the wrapping to see what was inside.
I always carefully opened the presents, taking the cellotape of gently so it wouldn't rip the paper.... my family would laugh at me - always and my oldest cousin would tease me and tell me to just rip it or he'd open it lololol - oh the memories.
I would fold the paper neatly too and put any tags safely in my bag (the hoarding started early *blush*)

 

I kept the tradition up when I became a family and had my first child, and it continues now years later. I have added a little tradition of our own where I make everyone hot drink gift packs and we make the drinks while we open a pressie in our night clothes, will be onsies this year - apart from hubby who doesn't do onesies *guffaw*

Last year we didn't get to open our presents as My youngest was rushed into hospital in the early hours of Christmas morning - one of the most scary and horrible times of my life - When we were on the ward, people came and gave the children presents, it was so kind that they took time out of their day to make sick children smile. The hospital also provided a humongous sack filled to the brim with presents.
Our kids decided they wouldn't open their presents until myself and Bubba came home, bless them, and that was a week later, we had our Christmas day then and they opened their presents and it meant so much more after the rough time we had.

This year we will be having our first Christmas in our new house! Wow what blessing and feels like a dream. I can't wait to continue the traditions we have and make some new ones.

2nd Empties - used but would I repurchase

I decided to do a video for this round of empties, I actually published it in October but forgot to add it here *blush*





I am sooooo glad that I have made an effort to try and curb my Product Junkie tendencies. I have slight hoarder issues so not only do I love to try new stuff, I love to keep them too. Budgeting and getting my life in check has helped me to USE the products (instead of staring at them from afar and stroking the tubs/bottles/packs) before buying more.

Blogmas 2014 - Day 5 Favorite Christmas Food

 The fabby Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom is *hosting* 25 days of Christmas as her part of Blogmas, Day 5 is Favo(u)rite Christmas Food.

borrowed from net (royalty free)

 It has to be said, I do enjoy Christmas Dinner. When I was younger I used to love School Christmas Dinner. I hated every other day's meal but when I beacame allergic to whatever additive or oil they used I was soooo happy not to have to eat their food, until Christmas came round and I remembered how I enjoyed it and looked at my packed lunch with sadness lol,

Growing up we would always go to my Grandma's and all the extended family would have dinner together, being an only child I loved being part of the HUGE celebrations.
As a teen we went to both Grandma's and Step Grandmas in the same day alternating which order we went each year... Double celebrations lololol

My mum loves Christmas Breakfast and enjoyed Akee and Saltfish, green banana's, dumplings and yam. For me it was all about the Dinner.

borrowed from net (royalty free)

Dinner would always be an Embellished Roast, different meats, potatoes, parsnips, veg, stuffing, gravy, hard food, different rices, side dishes like macaroni cheese, fried dumplings, plantain and tuna pasta..... and my all time fave.... SPROUTS lol, I must have been the only child that loved Brussel Sprouts!! Kids would turn their noses up and allsorts but I would pop them like sweeties.

Even now as an adult they are my fave part of Christmas Dinner.
Now that I'm the mum I get to make the Christmas Dinner and look forward to the shopping, preparing, cooking and serving the yummiest roast of the year.

Christmas Dinner wouldn't be complete without the obligatory Turkey! I know a lot of people cant stand it as it's dry but I love a good few slices of Turkey Breast. Good for me this year as it's low in fat.

Another Christmas treat I look forward to is Mince Pies, although for the past couple of years I haven't really had the taste for the shop bought ones. maybe because I have lost a little of my sweet tooth but I like baking them at home - that way I can tweak the recipe to be less *naughty*

With all the reminiscing I didn't really answer the question haaaaaa

So my fave Christmas Food is:
Turkey
Sprouts
Stuffing
Mince Pies

 I'll go have a nosey at everyone who added their links, it's interesting learning about other peoples traditions, cultures and preferences.

Blogmas!! - Sort off

I really wanted to try blogmas - basically blogging everyday in December. I think it's fun and also a good way of encouraging consistent blogging, I really have good intentions to blog, and often plan to blog certain posts but life has a habit of butting in lol.

I didn't want to declare it on the blog as I really hate *faillure* and know there'll be times that I wont be able to post. I had it in my mind that I'd try to post for a few days and see if it was doable. Surprisingly, I haven't done too badly!
Sooooo I'll try and post at LEAST every 3 days in December and if I manage to do more whooooop Bonus!!

With all that being said I don't want to just post things for the sake of it but knowing my rambling brain and mouth I'll definitely have lots to say. I will enjoy reading other bloggers who are doin blogmas and it will keep me up to date with the blogs I love to follow as I haven't had a chance to read them for ages. I will also use this opportunity to find new blogs that I wouldn't have found otherwise.

I'm hoping to do some Blogmas Tags, challenges, posts and the like to keep me motivated to post and also I miss the blog hops, challenges and fun I used to have in *blogsphere* - now that I'm on the up health and emotion wise I will be doing these again, so I'm off for a little search to see which ones are around.

See you much sooner than usual lolololol

Wash Day - Hurray for Coconut milk powder and shout out to banana.

Coconut milk powder, why did I leave you?

I cannot believe that I left Coconut milk powder out of my wash days for so long. I don't even know why I stopped using it. I think because we have moved and everything is still all over the place, it's just been easier to grab whatever I come across.
It was when I was in Tesco and saw a sachet of CMP that I remembered it had been such a long time since I used it and dropped it into my basket smiling and looking forward to the next wash day.
Three wash days later and it's deffo back into my wash day regime, whether mixed into my Pre-Poo or added in my Deep Condish mix it has been welcomed open armed.

I have to admit that banana made a guest appearance last wash day and it was like a visit from an old friend. It made my hair so soft and bouncy. I'll be mixing up my handmade mixes more often. Honey, CMP and Bananas - and their many friends - will once again be found in my bathroom.

This wash day I wanted to focus as much on the leave-ins as I did on the actual wash and condish products and techniques. My hair has been a little dry of late and I always have the *day after wash day dryness* that makes my hair cry.
I know the washing and lovingly mixed condish leave my hair feeling great but I'm wondering if it's time to invest on some high end leave-in products.

I used my Hairlicious and EVCO overnight and didn't do a pre-poo the next day as I felt the oils were still in my hair and enough to double as a pre-poo.
I washed my hair with my sulphate free L'Oreal Professhinnel Serie Nature Riche Macadamia Shampoo, 
** (It just hit me that I haven't used it since we moved as I had to remove the cellotape I placed on it to stop leaks. I've used the shampoo I use to clarify every time I washed my hair. I need to clarify after my crochet braids/plaits, before I straightened and after I straightened too- could that be the reason for my dry hair? )**
It felt soooooo good I love the way this shampoo feels and I am dreading the day when it finishes as I don't even know where I can get it from again. I rinsed and then added some more and left it on while I showered. When I rinsed it out again my hair felt clean but not stripped, I dried it it a little then
poured my tea rinse over my head this time I used Rooibus, Sage and Peppermint this time round.
I blotted the excess rinse out my hair and proceeded to Deep Condish. I wanted to use my Baba de Caracol intensive treatment and applied it to my hair, I decided to layer it up with a Condish mix. I like to use it directly on my hair rather than mixed in with anything else but I like to add something creamy ontop so I mixed up Silicon Mix Intensive Hair Treeatment- so glad it's finished as the smell is overpowering, great results just too strong. - and Organix Hydrating Macadamia Oil Intensive Mask with a bit of my Hairlicious and applied that  to my hair in four sections, de-tangling and looslely bantu knotting each one. On went the gold conditioning cap and a scarf.

I left the mix on my hair for a good few hours and rinsed it out late in the evening and finished off with an ACV rinse and wrapped my hair up in a vest and let it dry for awhile.

I wanted to try a slightly different leave-in method so instead of putting my leave-ins straight away I waited till my hair was around 60% dry, put it into  8 sections and reached for my new Herbal Essences Strengthening Cream and sprayed it into my hand. - I had thought it might replace my beloved HE Beautiful Ends but the consistency is all weird, not thick enough to be a cream and not thin enough to be a spray -  I decided to use it as the liquid part of my leave-ins and as my hair had a little moisture from washing left it worked well.
I used my Hairlicious to oil my scalp, massaged it lightly and then smoothed Profectiv Mega Growth Break Free Daily Leave-In Stregnthener, through my hair. I used my wide tooth comb to de-tangle then sealed with EVCO and pure Shea Butter from Ghana. I worked on each section individually and twisted it up and moved on to the next. When I had worked through all of my hair, I covered it back up with my vest and left it to dry for a bit more.

When my hair was around 85% dry I was tired lololol, I then untwisted a section at a time, smoothed with my denman brush and African Threaded it up.
I massaged my hairline with Hairlicious and tied my small silk scarf, put on my satin bonnet and was happy to have finished.

Doing my leave-in like that seemed to have helped the *day-after-wash-day-dryness* and also Threading it up when it wasn't so wet gave me smoother results.
All in all a successful - if not loooooong - wash day.





After months on end of ummming and ahmming about adding my wash day to the #washdayexperience I am finally joining in. I have silently visited the lovely ladies who add their links and have found many great blogs that I read regularly that way so here we go, no longer hiding lol
Click the badge to visit the main page and have a look at everyones wash day,,, well ... experiences :)

 

Stretching My Roots.

Soooooo, I did in fact try stretching my roots with cool air last wash day and while I did like the ease of styling it gave me, and the fact that I could finish up my wash day in the night rather than overnight I'm not sure if it was better cool dry or air dried.

I think it was better in the case of it being good for me to get on with other stuff and not as bunched up the next morning but it was still a little on the dry side in the morning.

I did enjoy having my hair nice and stretched. I may well try another rollerset as I've seen some videos where ladies have stretched their hair by using rollers both with indirect heat and without.


hmmmmmm. Maybe I'll try it again but I'm now on the look out for a method or product that will make my hair feel moisturised after a wash day. Like maybe a great leave in. I used my Mazuri Olive Oil Softening Mud during the week and it was great for keeping my hair nice and soft but it does have a greasy feel to it.

I have been using the pure Shea Butter that my lovely friend bought back from Ghana and that has been delightful!! seriously, it's miles better than the stuff in the tub from the hair shop. It's creamy and soft and not strong smelling at all. It's funny because my hair really didn't like Shea butter in it before pure or in whipped form - it loved products with it in them but not raw form - but now it loves it.
The only thing that makes it not so great is that it causes my haor to have that tacky feeling, like build up but not quite. hmmmm I really don't want to buy one of the expensive products but part of me wants to give them a try, it's times like these that makes you yearn for the deals they have in America, and the great priced stores like Target and walmart etc. I did think about ordering from Amazon.com but the shipping and tax makes it not worth the good price as you end up paying way over in the long run...... Anyone going to *the States* anytime soon? Or anyone over there coming here? lol one can hope.

Catch Up - Straight hair routine.

Wearing my hair straight was soooo odd. I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually missed my curls and puff. In the end I couldn't wait to wash my hair to fully revert.
Coming from someone who used to go to all kinds of lengths for straight hair that's saying a lot.

Another thing I've realised is that my straightened natural/transitioning hair acts VERY different to my relaxed Straightened hair did and the ends do. Reversion is crazy! My hairline actually reverted the same day and ten the front of my hair the next day.
I was much more laid back about my hair losing it's straightness too. I didn't run from every drop of water or shield it from every wave of humidity lol.
I noticed that it wasn't frizzy like my relaxed hair was just reversion. I also loved how thick it was now.

My routine changed a little during my straight hair "stretch" and so did the products I used and the amount.
I didn't use my moisture spray as much as I didn't want add to the reversion and I used My Herbal Essences Beautiful Ends as my moisturiser which I haven't for a long time. I used it every day, mostly at night and if I needed it in the day.
I found I wanted a heavier oil in my hair like a serum but using my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum or Chi Silk Keratin Infusion daily was too much. I found an oil that I picked up in one of the pound shops - it was a macadamia one and it was great.... it made my hair silky and was heavy enough to make it glossy but light enough to let it flow..... for a few days it was great, but then it felt odd, coated, I thought it may have been all the silicone ... then it spilled and when I was clearing it up I looked more closely at the bottle and saw Mineral Oil.... gahhhh. I thought "well I've used it now" and was planning to use it but I couldn't lol plus it made my hair coated and odd feeling so I threw it away and reached for my Organix Argan oil of Morocco Penetrating Oil..... Awwwwwww Bliss.

So that's what I used for every day styling.

I didn't plait or twist my hair at night as I didn't want the crinkles but the wrapping wasn;t working for me. I wrapped it the first night as I wanted to *set* the straightness and I wrapped it a couple nights but the roots were puffy in the morning.
When alot of the hair was not as straight as it was I went back to threading and it was lovely and flowy in the morning, my hair was stretched and really nice.

When the front of my hair wouldn't lay flat any more I just flat twisted the front and wore the back out a few days, then I just had the back in a ponytail or bun.

I can't lie, I did like the convenience of straight hair. I took less than 1/4 of the time to style my hair in the mornings. No detangling, no taming the shrink or fighting the puff lololol and at night it was a doddle when it came to M&S - again No heavy detangling or fighting involved. One particular night, I was soooo tired and I put it in a bun and just slept, I didn't even M&S when I woke up my hair was fine and I just M&S before I styled, there's no way that I could do that with my puff..... no way atall atall.
I can see the attraction of being a "straight natural" but I know using that much heat on my hair will not do it any good, my hair just doesn't thrive with heat. I'm not sure if its just my relaxed and now transitioning hair that hates it and maybe when I'm fully natural it might be different but honestly after the loooong time it's taking to transition from relaxed I don't want to cause irrepairable(sp) damage and have to transition from that too.


Washing wise, I didn't wash my hair after 1 week as usual but stretched to 2 weeks as I wanted to get my GHD worth lol. I did feel the difference on my scalp and it was begging for water so I realise my hair has gotten very used to weekly wash days.
I have been thinking about maybe stretching my roots with cool air next wash day and see how it makes my hair feel. One of the bloggers I follow does that every wash day and her hair hasn't deteriorated in fact it's thriving.

All in all I am happy I straightenend my hair as it gave me a visiual proof that my hair has grown and gave me a different style option but now my heat pass has been used, the GHDs go back in their pouch for a long time.