Naptural hair diary-putting more efforts into my hair

Ever since the moment I have decided to officially go natural I have put more effort into my hair.

The same efforts I had put into my skin, my body, and soul I now do to my hair. I wouldn't say I never cared for my hair but that is what I assumed moms or hair salons were supposed to do, take care of my hair. But I know now that is not the case. Just like how I began working on my body in 2004, or my spirituality in 2008, I had to learn to put those efforts into my hair. But I am NOT my hair. Meaning that if today I wanted to dye it I would, if I cut it I would.

"Afros remind me of the 70's" say what!!

O boy! Here we go again! Am over reacting or are people really just too ignorant to understand how dumb they sound sometimes. My people ( black people) have been soooo brainwashed it's crazy. But I will confess that I was once as ignorant as these people in this video. Although I will say that once I became educated enough I no longer said disrespectful things about being African American or black. I wasn't raised to necessarily hate being black but I also wasn't preached to about the greatness of embracing my body, my skin color, my natural hair texture. I grew up knowing all these inventions black people did, all these accomplishments we've made, the strides we came through in history and today. But God forgive us for asking a white teacher why her hair is considered nicer than yours. Or hear your black teachers make fun of your African friend's afro in the 3 rd grade saying whyd they let her come out like that. I wasn't ever taught to embrace what I had growing on my head because my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles grew so accustomed to the European ways of living that they forgot that once upon a time wearing "nappy" hair was seen as a positive thing, being proud of who you were. Now don't get me wrong we have come a ways with our thinking and changing societies minds about not having straight blonde hair. But we still have so far to go. And Im not going to say just black people but Caucasians who feel like they can't wear their hair curly because of their up bringing. I can only speak from the black American stand point because I am doh black American. But please no matter your race please chime in. After watching the video, I was no the only one in shock. I mean "afros being in the 70's" really dude! If you didn't know how much further we've got to go then this will speak for itself. Leave your opinions below. Or email me at starrpynk@yahoo.com if you want a more private conversation regarding hair questions etc Pynkstarr lthough I will say that once I became educated enough I no longer said disrespectful about being African American or black. I wasn't raised to necessarily hate being black but I also wasn't preached to about the greatness of embracing my body, my skin color, my natural hair texture. I grew up knowing all these inventions black people did, all these accomplishments we've made, the strides we came through in history and today. But God forgive us for asking a white teacher why her hair is considered nicer than yours. Or hear your black teachers make fun of your African friend's afro in the 3 rd grade saying whyd they let her come out like that. I wasn't ever taught to embrace what I had growing on my head because my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles grew so accustomed to the European ways of living that they forgot that once upon a time wearing "nappy" hair was seen as a positive thing, being proud of who you were. Now don't get me wrong we have come a ways with our thinking and changing societies minds about not having straight blonde hair. But we still have so far to go. And Im not going to say just black people but Caucasians who feel like they can't wear their hair curly because of their up bringing. I can only speak from the black American stand point because I am doh black American. But please no matter your race please chime in. After watching the video, I was no the only one in shock. I mean "afros being in the 70's" really dude! If you didn't know how much further we've got to go then this will speak for itself. Leave your opinions below. Or email me at starrpynk@yahoo.com if you want a more private conversation regarding hair questions etc Pynkstarr

Cantu Shea Butter review of grow strengthening treatment!

Hey lovely readers, I have been using Cantu Shea butter products since 2010. Although I love them now, their was a time when their products just was not working for me I purchased Cantu shea butter Grow strong strengthening treatment because many people on you to recommend it there leave in conditioner. At the time I couldn't find it so I settled for the strengthening treatment, it works great as I was transitioning from relaxed to natural. After I bc 'd my hair it just seems to not work anymore; same with the leave in. I'm not sure what the problem was but I left my hair dry looking, even after freshly washing. So I stopped for a few months before I went back to try a different method of using the products. Twist-outs, braid-outs, protective styles, flat twists, you name it i tried it. Fast forward to today and I am officially back in love with the Cantu brand; esp their Grow strong strengthening treatment. And here are my personal opinions of the product. Price: Between $4.99-$6.00 What are the cons? I'm not feeling the fact that I can't really use it while my hair is wet I always let my hair air dry first before styling, but once I tried styling while it was pretty wet and I left my hair frizzy. Now I am not sure if I did something wrong or not, but that is definitely not recommended. What are the pros? Work well with my eco styler gel the olive oil brand, it leaves my hair shiny, soft, and it fights frizz on wash days. I also love to use it after I have blow dried my hair, my hair comes out so defined. Works well with perm rods but only if my hair is blow dried (read cons). Do you recommend this product and why? Yes, because it keeps my hair moisturized while in many of my protective styles. If you are looking for product that will keep your natural do is moisturized, this is a good product to try, but if you're going organic or refuse to use ingredients such as sulfate for Parabens than this is not the product for you. Ingredients: Water is the first one which is always a good sign. But there are Cetearyl Alcohol, Parabens, and added frangrances. It does have Shea Butter, castor oil, and sweet almond oil. I hope you all enjoyed this post. Stay tuned on more reviews. Pynkstarr

How to I do The Banding Method

After doing the Tension Method on my hair I realized that I loved my hair when it is stretched. But because I didn't want to over do it with the heat, I needed to find another way to stretch my hair. I've done so much research on natural hair in general, including stretching methods, and most bloggers recommended Banding as a good, heatless way to stretch natural hair.

Until recently I never thought I cared about stretched hair so I may have seen 1-2 videos on YT on the actual method and it seemed like a lot of work. But after reading tons of articles I've decided to go the Banding route. It seems in my opinion, that the only damage that could occur would be from the actual Banding, using rubber bands or hair ties with the metal connector. I used rubber bands but I didn't put them too tightly on my hair. And I only used rubber bands because I ran out of hair ties, but I made sure to not put them on the scalp only defending towards the end. I also didn't put the bands to close to my ends because that is the oldest part of my hair.

Here is what I did

1.Washed and detangled my hair as usual. Most articles say detangling is only necessary if you plan on doing a style after the banding, otherwise if you will be doing a twist-out or braid out it's not important. I am doing a protective style and really needed my hair to be detangled.

2. Sectioned my hair in small parts so it could dry faster, also while my hair was still wet I applied my Shea Butter Mixture to seal in moisture.

3. Once I had my hair sectioned off I applied Shea Moisture Curl and Style Milk, detangling with my wide tooth comb from tip to root.

4. At the base of my hair I used a regular hair tie, without the metal part, and banded the remainder of my hair with rubber bands. The thing about rubber bands all they WILL take out your hair if you are not careful putting them in and removing them. Don't pull them off in a fast pace because you will suffer the hair breakage that we all worked to hard to get in the first place. I don't recommend using rubber bands because of this very reason, I was in a bind therefore had no choice. But I will be investing in some Goody Ouchless Hair Ties soon.

5. I did steps 1-4 through out my entire head. It took me about an 1 and half to complete.

Yes some of you don't have any time to do this, but I have wanted to try this stretching method versus using heat. I will be featuring more videos and articles regarding various other stretching methods, such as Roller Sets, Plaits, Flexi-Rods, I mean the list goes on and on.

Stretching my hair using the Banding method is here to stay. Pynkstarr

I disagree with Sheryl Underwood but...

I was completely out of the loop when it came to the subject of Sheryl Underwoods comments in regards to natural hair. After reading the comments I, unlike most naturalistahs, tried to put myself in her situation. I have been trying my best to change my views on others opinions of myself or things that affect me personally. It just so happens that I am natural, therefore what she said did offend me. But lots of things that people say about natural hair offends me. This has nothing to do with Sheryl per se, just that WE naturals are always on defense mode because we know what it's like to be natural. We see the stares, feel the awkwardness from family and friends, so I think most of us just take EVERY single comment made about natural hair or curly hair to heart. Now since I have been on my spiritual journey the last few years, I've learned that no matter what a person says to you, it's not about you. Sheryl's views is a personal issue. Now whether or not she feels that it is a deeper rooted issue is up to her. Although her comments offended me, I don't take it too personally because it wasn't personal. Everyone on this earth has an issue with something and most people suppress it temporarily but it eventually comes out, usually in comments. Most people who are new at being expressive with their curly hair at one point in time said some not so nice comments about those naturals. Heck, people who are natural make comments about other people that are natural.

My advice is think before you speak because everyone is watching, thanks to social media. And also don't take everything so dag on serious all the time. Take it with a grain of salt and keep it moving!  ITS REALLY NOT THAT SERIOUS!!

Thanks so much for reading         

~ Pynkstarr

PS: I love me some Sheryl Underwood since the BET's Comicview days. She as a person, to me, just always seemed so genuine. Her story is amazing and if you don't know everything about her, except for seeing her on The Talk then I suggest you google her story before putting your judgement on Sheryl the person, not the star. I only am saying this because of the comments I've read about her in these last few weeks. Some people are starting to attack her personally just because of one mistake she has made.

How I deep condition my hair using Shea Moisture

Please enjoy my video on how I mix it up with http://youtu.be/bua2eyTLf4gmy products. I have been reading a lot about being cautious with mixing my products because of bacteria. Especially when using water. I only add oils to my conditioners not water. And if I dilute anything with preservatives I only make a little jar of it just for one use. All the things I use in this video are listed in the video description box. First i mix olive oil and deep Treatment Masque in a jar and apply it to my hair vigorously. I left it on for 24 hours, but that's not necessary 30 minutes is fine. If you have a hooded dryer then use it but if you don't like heat and don't have a hooded dryer I make my own heat using a wool hat. Then I place my satin cap over that. I hope this helps! Tell me what you do to mix it up when it comes to natural hair? Thanks so much for watching and reading. I love what I do no matter what. Pynkstarr