And the verdict is..

I've decided I AM going to go natural again; for the second time. But this time around might be a little different. Instead of growing my hair out, I'm going to rock a fade for quite sometime, until I get tired of it. My faulty stage is the "awkward stage" where your hair isn't long enough to do certain styles, but short enough to stick to one style and as you all may be able to tell, I'm very antsy when it comes to my hair. During that "awkward stage", I find myself getting extremely bored and annoyed with my hair. "The whole point of going natural is to finally be satisfied" quoted from Pilar from Pennyfrmheaven on YouTube (my biggest inspiration, btw.) That awkward stage is NOT satisfying and definitely plays with my self-esteem.
So in a way, yes I am skipping the 'growing out my hair and loving all the trials and tribulations that come with it' but it's really about what makes me feel sexy and ultimately, what makes me happy. I've had a short caesar before so I'm not scared whatsoever. The only difference this time is I will be embracing it more, instead of "waiting for it to grow out".
When you have a fade or any short haircut, it really allows you to face YOURSELF, flat out. There's no hair to hide behind so its just you, yourself and you. If you have the confidence to rock a fade and still be sexy, ALL power to you. There's nothing more bold than to cut all off your hair off and still look like a bombshell diva.

Here are some of my inspirations; divas that rock their short hair cuts with confidence and exude beauty:

Pilar- www.youtube.com/PennyfrmHeaven
Bri-www.bombshellbrii.tumblr.com
& my new found hair obsession:
Zeinabou- www.theshoegawker.com

Hold up, didn't you just relax your hair again?!

Yes, I did, I did. And for the past couple weeks, I've been subconsciously regretting it. I MISS MY NATURAL HAIR! I feel like I just went through a bad break-up and my natural hair & I aren't speaking..but we really want each other back. As I said in my first post, I loved my natural hair but I just wanted to switch it up for now. Well, I think I'm ready to switch back LOL. My relaxed hair is healthy, but I'm just experiencing some light shedding and dryness. While thinking about how to rectify it, that voice in the back of my head said "When you were natural, you ain't have to worry about that girl!"

Now its time to address some of the issues that caused a lot of frustration when I was natural, so that this time around, I'll be fully equipped.

• Not enough moisture- It seemed like no matter how many moisturizing products I used, my hair just drank it all up and the next morning I'd end up with a dry, ashy head of hair. 
• Solution: Moisturize and seal nightly!

• Little to no protective styles-  After watching protective style tutorials with twist designs and braids, when I tried them I looked like I was 5! I didn't know what else I could do besides kinky twists, box braids etc. and those take hours, hours I didn't have. 
• Solution: Wigs. 

• Product Junkie-ism- I bought so many products that I used different ones every time I washed my hair.
• Solution: Sticking to a regimen is extremely important when it comes to caring for hair. Find products that work and stick to them!

•  Flip-Flop Regimen- Sometimes I'd wash my hair on Wednesday then wash it again on Sunday. I'd moisturize randomly, often when I didn't need it.
• Solution: Stick to one wash day, co-wash day, etc. and follow it.

• NO PATIENCE- This has to be the biggest cause of a lot of my stress with my tresses. I was comparing my growth to other naturals which only led to frustrations.
• Solution: No head of hair is the same, embrace your growth and its pace. Listen to your hair. Love your hair and it will love you back.

That's all for now loves,
Briana

Product Reviews!

Happy New Years Eve Everyone!

First let me start off by saying I think I've found my staples. By God's grace every product I purchased worked for me last night when I did my wash. I purchased the Aphogee ProVitamin Leave-In Conditoner and Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructurizer earlier this week as well.

 I started off by having my beau do my pre-poo by massaging some oils into my scalp and on my hair. I mixed EVOO, Jamaican Black Castor Oil and Carol's Daughter: Lisa's Hair Elixir and warmed it up for 30 seconds. After leaving on for about 30 minutes,

• I shampooed with Herbal Essense's Hello Hydration- did not leave my hair feeling stripped, but moisturized and clean.
• Conditioned with HEHH Conditioner- left my hair soft and silky.
• Deep conditioned for 30 minutes with Pantene's Replenishing Hair Mask- left my hair feeling moisturized and smooth. Thumbs up even though I was iffy about this product.
• Applied Aphogee's ProVitamin Leave-In and Keratin & Green tea Restructurizer.

To avoid using heat, I air-dried & did 2 rows of flexi-rods at the top of my head to create some curl and volume. I smoothed down the sides and back. When I woke up this morning and touched my hair it was dry and SOFT. These products definitely did me justice. Thank God because I'd hate to become a product junkie, again.

Toodles and Noodles,
Briana

New Buys !

To start off any journey right, I think products play a HUGE role. I decided to go to Target today in search of some moisturizing products. I was thinking of just using the same products I used for my natural hair, but I never favored them. I searched for shampoos that contained no sulfates..not successful. I would have to order my products from sites such as OyinHandmade and Hairveda (two of my favorites) in order to get products that still do the job, with no harsh ingredients. After about a half hour of torturing my beau with my indecisiveness and comparing of products, I finally picked up some products that I felt would benefit my strands the most.

• Herbal Essences- Hello Hydration Moisturizing Shampoo
• Herbal Essences- Hello Hydration Moisturizing Conditioner
• Pantene Restore Beautiful Lengths- Replenishing Mask 

I'm excited to use the Hello Hydration pair and see how much moisture it really claims to replenish. I contemplated using it on my natural hair as well, but never got around to it. Hopefully it works well because a 23.7 FL OZ bottle will last me a while! The Pantene Replenishing Mask is geared towards moisture but also claims to "resist breakage for longer hair". I'm not sure how I feel about using this product as of yet because I cant pronounce most of the ingredients. I also don't see and natural products in it..We'll see.

I decided to pick up some daily women's multivitamins as I ran out recently. And the purchase I am most excited about *drumroll* Biotin! After researching and reading about it's pros and cons, I decided to get it. I'm not taking it to rapidly speed up my hair growth. I just want to have a vitamin geared towards hair, skin and nail health. I did hear that many women broke out after taking Biotin for different reasons. I will be drinking more water for the health of my diet and also since I'm taking Biotin(that is one of the reasons women broke out).

A little cute addition *blush*: My beau gave me my Christmas/Early Birthday present last night after I got home from work. A white gold bracelet and earring set with little encrusted diamonds. So thankful for my present and him.

 Toodles & Noodles,
Briana

Natural,Relaxed,Natural & Relaxed

Hi Everyone! I decided to start a blogger account to document my new HHJ (healthy hair journey) also in hope of helping others and interacting with other ladies that are on their journey as well. As stated in my description, I was natural to relaxed to natural & back to relaxed." I went natural and did my big chop on February 27th, 2011. I loved my natural curls and kinks and the journey of finding out what worked for me and what didn't. Recently, I decided to relax my hair again. Now that I know how to properly care for my hair and attain knowledge about it, I prefer to continue my HHJ and achieve length as a Relaxed Lady. Here are some photos of my natural hair:

 I received my relaxer service today, December 24th, 2011. Here are some photos of where I'm starting out:

 Overall I am extremely ecstatic about my decision to relax my hair again; this is what makes me happy. I'm excited to learn and care for my relaxed tresses.



Toodles and Noodles,

 Briana