Finally tried henna on my 4a natural hair

     Well, here I am a day after I finished the long, messy process of putting henna in my hair. This was my first time using henna, and it was worth it.  I have type 4a hair, and after using henna my hair seemed more defined, stronger, and more conditioned.  In the direct sunlight, I am able to pick up some of the reddish color that the henna deposited on my brown hair.  Here is a close up view of my hair in direct sunlight.

     Instead of ordering henna online or buying from a local natural hair products vendor, I decided to use the much less expensive Sadaf Henna Red that I found in a local grocery store that has a large section of Indian products.  For $6.19, I got 8 oz (227g) of henna, which was enough to do my APL (arm pit length) highly textured hair. 

   I mixed the henna powder with lemon juice in a glass bowl using a wooden spoon.  The consistency of the mixture was like mashed potatoes.  After covering it with plastic wrap and pushing the plastic wrap right up against the surface of the mixture, I let it sit for about 5 hours in a warm place before applying it.

   You must use gloves when applying henna; otherwise, your hands will get stained.  This is the one time that I did find a use for vaseline, so I went to the store and bought some to use for applying around my forehead and nape of the neck to avoid getting henna there.  I applied the henna and lemon juice mixture to all parts of my hair and covered my head with several layers of plastic wrap, a plastic conditioner cap, a headband, and a hair bonnet.  I still had a little bit leaking out, so I pushed a few paper towels up under the bonnet.  After leaving it on for at least 9 hours, I started the arduous task of rinsing it out.  After much rinsing, five co-washes using a total of 30 ounces of cheap conditioner, more rinsing, deep conditioning with JDNatladys' Creations Moisturizing Hair Mask (newly developed product that is not yet available) for a half hour, and rinsing some more, I was finally done.  I did a wash and go and only used a little bit of an oil mixture that I scrunched on the outer portion of my hair, I was relieved to have made it through my first time using henna.  It will not be my last time using henna, but I think I need to order a truckload of water for the cistern before trying this out again.

  I will put a link up later here on my blog to my YouTube tutorial that shows you the process that I used to mix, apply, and remove the henna.

Thanksgiving Braid Out

YouTube Channel Twistout Tutorial

Here is one of a series of tutorials from my YouTube channel showing how to do natural hair styles.  This one is a twistout or twist-out and is one of the popular hair styles for coily, curly, wavy, or kinky hair.  The style is called a twist out, because first you put in double strand or two strand  twists.  Most people leave them in at least overnight or even a few days before doing a twist out, but I have done them on damp hair and several hours later did a twist out for a different effect than the one shown in the video.  I hope you will subscribe to my YouTube channel and comment there and visit often.  Feel free to post questions there or here so we may discuss our hair and share ideas.

I Am Beautiful Caribbean Natural Hair Care Workshop & Exposition

JDNatlady with Kim Coles

Recently, the I Am Beautiful Caribbean Natural Hair Care Workshop & Exposition was held on both St. Thomas and St. Croix.  What a great name that to me helps to remind women that they themselves must first believe that they are beautiful and how empowering it is to recognize the beauty that God placed in women as His creation.



JDNatlady with CharyJay

This was my first time vending at this event, but I did attend the show on St. Thomas last year.  This year the St. Thomas show was at a much larger venue and featured lots of exhibit space for vendors and a great stage setup.  The University of the Virgin Islands' Sports and Fitness Center was the venue on St. Thomas and it easily held the close to 600 people that I understood attended.  There were two different fashion shows, one of which was an exciting hair fashion show that feautured some wild styles.




JDNatlady with Cassidy Blackwell

St. Croix show venue

Kim Coles, CharyJay, Cassidy Blackwell, Felicia Leatherwood, and others were there to inform, educate, and uplift the attendees.  Check out the pictures that I took with these ladies.  I was blessed to be able to display and vend both on St. Thomas and St. Croix, although I could only take a very small amount of product over with me on the seaplane to St. Croix. 



JDNatlady's Creations, LLC's booth on St. Thomas
 



St. Croix exhibit table for JDNatlady's Creations

 

Miss Naturalista did a great job with putting on the event, and I cannot wait for the next one.



Double-strand twists as a protective style

 

 

Double-strand twists are a great protective style. What's a protective style?  It's one that keeps you from having to keep combing and manipulating your hair every day and allows your hair to get a rest for a period of time.  A tightly twisted double-strand twist hairstyle may last for a few weeks or a month or so. The bonus is that after you have worn your double strand twists for a few weeks or a month, you then get to do a twist-out hairstyle by undoing the twists and wearing a twist-out that you get from the nicely "set" twists.  I usually wear a twist-out for several days to a week to get more mileage from having done the twists.  There are many types of protective styles and a double-strand twist is just one of them. 

 

I did these twists using one of my products that I create for my business.  It's a body butter that doubles as a hair product and gives nice tight twists.  Click here to see the Lemongrass Body Butter that I used.  In a future post, I will explain a little bit more about how to do this style.  Have you ever tried doing protective styles?

 

 

 

 

Lots of growth. . . MAJOR SHRINKAGE!

I did my BC (big chop, i.e., cutting off all relaxed hair and leaving only natural hair) in October 2008 after transitioning for about 5 months.  My hair stylist cut nine inches of relaxed hair and only three inches of hair were left.  I have experienced good growth and have not had a hair cut since then, although I have dusted (minimally trimmed 1/4 to 1/2 inch) the ends while I had it in small double strand twists.  These photos show the length of my hair when it is stretched out by me pulling it.  I am trying to grow it at this stage to APL (arm pit length) and am getting close :)  I have major shrinkage as you may see.  I sprayed my hair with my homemade leave in spray then finger picked it into an afro.  When my hair gets wet, it shrinks a lot after it dries!   It doesn't bother me, though.  I love my curly/coily hair and its texture gives me lots of options for styling.

What do you feel about shrinkage?  Do you experience a lot of it when your hair dries?  Please leave your comments and also take my poll that will be open until December 31, 2010.

Welcome to JDNatlady's Natural Hair Blog

Until now, I have only hung out on other sites such as http://www.nappturality.com/, http://www.fotki.com/ , and various hair blogs.  For the longest time, I was meaning to start a blog, but I was trying to finish my gospel CD and deal with other commitments.  The time has come for me to get going with my hair blog where we may discuss styles, products, and similar topics.  Please stop by again.  Take care and God bless.