day 36: best hair EVER!

So, I did a cherry lola for about 1.5 hours followed by an hour of KCKT and then about 2 hours of a funky clay mix. It contained European clay powder, which is montmorillonite but green, a little of my brown montmorilonite and left over bentonite I noticed that my hair liked the mix aa lot. When I finally finished all the steps I took the time to separate my hair into avout 11 sections. By the time that was done, my hair was beginning to dry so I used my flat mate's spray bottle and taking each section, I sprayed and separates into 2, applied diluted conditioner and then full strength gel.

My hair seemed to have better curl definition and hang. Also doing such small sections enabled me to thoroughly detangle. I just watched movies while doing my hair and i likely spent about 3 hours.

This morning, my hair looks phenomenal!

 

I went out and it dried about 99% by the end of the day.

At bedtime, I sectioned my hair into twists and pinned each section down with pins and clips. Then I put on my vented shower cap and a scarf and went to bed.

I awoke to find my hair very moist, and the curls still had some stretch to them.

2nd day hair in the morning.

My hair dried very quickly, just sitting in my room.

For Tuesday night, I plan on doing the danabnatural quick method and I hope I am able to get similar results with my hair.

mhm day 21

Its been a month and I am now at 21 cycles. My hair looked good this morning even tough I did not wash it yesterday. Lots of clumping everywhere, but some frizz began to make an appearance.

To celebrate, I did a cherry lola treatment sans the avocado.

Hair is alright. Not much different since cycle 20 IMO but I'm happy to not go backwards.

I left the CL treatment on for 2.5 hours, applied hot KCKT for over 40 minutes, applied clay for an hour and then showered and put the leave-in and gel.

I think I will wash again tomorrow. However, I am considering simply doing an ACV, Clay, Leave-In, Gel process (ACLG). We'll see.

Hair with CL treatment

Product-free hair after washing out CL treatment

/hair with CL treatment

Hair with (too much) heated conditioner

Hair after rinsing out conditioner. Notice the serious clumps at the bottom there?

Clay Step

Product-free hair

Product-free hair looks good

And the final result was - 

Hair with gel

Hair with gel

Hair with gel

Hair with gel

I am getting better definition and dare I say 80% of my hair is defined and clumping. I know this is still the beginning of my mHM journey but I hope my strands will swell to absorb more water and not only look better but feel better for longer periods of time.

MHM Day 20

I skipped Sunday as I spent the day with family and had a great time at Castle Bruce beach and river.

So on Monday I did a BCCLG and spent over 3 hours in my hair. Reason was that I was busy so my cowash stayed in for an hour and forty minutes. My clay was in for 2 hours and for good reason I needed to make a new batch as the old batch wasn't giving me the definition and clumping I desired.

After applying the new batch I worked it thr oily ugh my hair and in minutes frizz became defined.

I quickly applied leave in and gel so I could get on with my life.

Next morning my hair was still damp but not soaking wet. I like my new method of twisting and pinning at night it ensures that I don't have frizzy ends in the morning. The definition is not as good as fresh hair but I can live with it.

My hair Monday morning before washing

Clay step: not coated well enough

Worked the clay abit

Looks a little better

Washed out the clay and see ringlets.

Hair with leave in and gel (I squeezed out excess moisture, shook it several times too).

My hair later in the evening before pinning it for bed.

Morning hair - notice the lack of coils in the middle right there?

I have some tough spots where my hair a different texture from the rest of my head and those spots are highly resistant to defining and clumping. Still, I have learned that it is best to take my time and really massage the clay and other products into these areas. Now that I am trying to spend more time on applying the products better, I am learning what parts of my hair are more receptive to behaving than others.

It is almost a month since I started MHM and frankly, I am saddened that I don't have better definition and clumping. I will however, continue. Today, I will make a new CL mix and put that in my hair tomorrow. I will not wait a month before I do another CL treatment however and will likely do one right before I head out to Trinidad. I will also switch back to ACV rinses for a bit as I have been running through my raw honey.

Hoping to see more improvement and better results.

MHM UPDATE

Today marks the 7th time I have done MHM since Monday, July 21st.

So far, so good.

My schedule has been as follows:

1. Monday
2. Wednesday
3. Thursday
4. Saturday
5. Sunday
6. Monday
7. Wednesday

I wish I could have been a bit more consistent, but in spite of the progress, the reality is that there are days when I just CAN'T. And, that's okay. =)

Here are a few progress pictures -

May not be as super defined as some of the other folks out there, but I do get ringlet definition and I am sure with time, it will get better. Oh, and I am getting compliments too.

Concerns:

1. Using up too much product too quickly.
2. Wish there weren't that many parts to the regimen.
3. Wish I didn't have to do it so frequently.

However, I know that in due time, I will only have to do the regimen once every two-three days and then once every 5 days. I'm looking forward to that stage and happy to continue because I see the results and they are phenomenal.

Benefits:

1. My hair is soft (except for some of my ends which are frizzy).
2. Less shedding.
3. Less single strand knots.
4. My hair has sheen and shine.
5. My hair looks jet black (except for my greys, lol!)
6. My hair looks thick and full.

Yup, will keep this up with washes everyday for the next 4 days, then on Monday, I'll do another Cherry Lola treatment and start stretching out my wash and gos (WNGs) to every 2 days.

MHM Journey: I Did It! (Day 1)

So, on July 21st around 5pm, I started my MHM journey. the results were pretty good.

My product-free hair before MHM.

Product-free afro

Here's what I did.

I mixed up the modified Cherry Lola (CL) Treatment, the clay mix and the diluted conditioner mix the night before.

On the 21st, I applied the CL and wore a shower cap for just about70 minutes then rinsed outside by the garage.

 I then applied KCKT (Kinky Curly Knot Today) conditioner and let that sit for 45 minutes. I rinsed and applied the clay mix, which was MESSY! I have to thicken up my clay mix so I can really apply it properly on my head.

Anyway, that stayed on for approximately an hour before I rinsed outside. After getting as much of it off, I went into my shower to rinse again and followed up with the diluted KCKT conditioner and loads of gel.

Hair after with gel in it. I later raked to define ringlets

My curls were indeed popping in the form of little ringlets everywhere. I didn't apply the way Pinke and others recommended of doing the hair in sections. Instead, I simply applied the conditioner and then followed up with gel.

What I did do however, was go through the strands again later on to distribute the gel as evenly as possible by raking my fingers through my hair. Then I sectioned the hair into small plaits.

My hair felt heavy and I was impressed to see and feel the ringlets. It looks like I have definition already from root to tip in 90% of my hair. That was good to see.

Positives:
It didn't take me as long as I thought it would. I was done before 9pm!
I loved the end result and was able to style my hair the following day and go out.

Negatives:
I used TOO MUCH gel. It made my hair feel yucky!
I shouldn't do this in the evening as I don't like getting my sheets wet. However, I wore a shower cap to bed, which solved that issue.

Now, due to a super busy Tuesday, I was unable to do another treatment. I will however do one today (Wednesday).

I will do the following -

1. ACV rinse (leave for 30 minutes)
2. Cowash (leave for 30 minutes)
3. Clay rinse (lave for an hour)
4. Leave In
5. Gel

Hope it makes my hair look even better!