Image via Wikipedia(Young woman photographed between 1885 and 1910)

Image via Wikipedia(African American Woman, 1850)

I was looking for photos of natural hair for styling ideas and found these beautiful photos online. Don’t their eyes tell a story…

I had the pleasure of using TerressentialsPure Earth Hair Wash in Organic Lavender Garden. I hadread the reviews, watched some awesome reviews, and have been eyeing clays for some time. Buying

this clay reminded me that I had some rhassoul clay or deep condish that I got from anitagrant.com some time ago! That’s what trying this product did. It inspired me to find out more about bentonite clay, what the difference are between rhassoul clay and bentonite clay (awesome interview with Anita Granton CurlyNikki who breaks down the difference), and completely leave shampoos behind for this leg of my natural journey!

But this is not even the review! Here are some pics from day 1 and 2 of my 5 day terressentials detox. My hair still feels so good, I don’t want to wash it and it’s been about 5 days. My hair is usually itching so much I have to run to the shower by now!

I placed a plastic bag on my head and kept the clay on for about an hour every day after washing. I tried 30 minutes but my hair was even easier to detangle after an additional 30 minutes.

During the 5 day detox, I discovered something else amazing about my hair-she LOVES apple cider vinegar rinses!

Look at the photo above and then compare it to the photo below:

That’s not funny business with the camera, I turned my head under the same light after my acv rinse. My hair is softer, shinier, and less frizzy after these rinses and I have an wonderful recipe right here.

I rinsed out the acv on most days except one but didn’t notice a difference. I just didn’t want a faint hew of vinegar in the air when I walked by!

Here are the finished pics from day 2. Since I’m detoxing my hair I didn’t want to put anything non-natural or not homemade on it. I sealed in the moisture and twisted my hair with some castor oil, a few drops of nettle (to strengthen the hair), lavender and rosemary to enhance circulation and blood flow to the scalp), and lemon (for a light scent and good feelings:).

This motivates me to keep making/testing things, and I’m curious to see if I notice any other subtle and big changes to my hair like the apple cider vinegar discovery. I’m already excited about the results and I give Terressentials a LAVISH 10 on my scale of AWESOMENESS! I would buy it again although not at this time. I really want to make it myself to see if I can make something close or better than that!

I bought more bentonite clay, with marshmallow root powder and some other delicious extracts and herbs I’m going to try on my hair. I am BEYOND excited about all of this and I would have never tried allof this without Terressentials. It has helped return my hair back to its thickness and fullness. I have curl definition now and I’ve never had it all the way down my hair shaft. I love getting my hair wet just to look at it!

I do credit most of this healthy newness to my overall healthy hair care regime and homemade goodies. Terressentials has been a big part of the speeding up of the “lavishly healing process” with a immediate and instant before and after change to the feel and look of my hair.

If you are on the edge with whether or not to try this product I hope my experience helps you make your decision!

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Let me just say that I get overwhelmingly excited with all things related to natural hair. When I start to get half low-ish on my homemade and purchased products, it’s like being a kid in a candy store all over again. What am I going to try this time, how did my hair do from the last time? Have I tried sunflower oil?

So, when it came time to pick the “must have” books in my quest to learn everything I can about natural hair, I realized just how hard this was going to be. There are lots of great books like Thank God I’m Natural and Curly Like Me are books I’ve been wanting to read for a while, but I had an emergency that I needed to address…

After being natural for nearly 2 years, my hair had grown past my shoulders and was thick full and gorgeous. That was, until I flat ironed and blow dried it 3 times in 6 months. That was three times too many for my hair!

So, I wanted to know 2 things:

1. what are the easiest, fastest, healthiest ways to grow and strengthen natural damaged hair and scalp?
2. how do I take phenomenal care of my natural, kinky, coily hair?

Having these specific goals helped me narrow my search to books that included lots of information on healthy natural hair care and tips/techniques I could use to strengthen and repair my hair. Grow It! How To Grow Afro-Textured Hair to Maximum Lengths in the Shortest Timewas the first book to pop up. With 143 positive reviews I added it and The Science of Natural Hair to my cart!

Grow It! is a slim, short book packed with information, tips, encouragement, and an honest perspective of what really makes natural hair grow to amazing lengths. The Grow It Process is a step by step guide for growing natural hair to longest lengths in the healthiest, most gentle ways possible. Chicoro gives her experience and recommendations of each stage which are very helpful when following the model.

I have been using the techniques from the book for 2 months and am happy with the results. I realized this while typing this post so to keep it brief and lavishly exciting, this post one of a series on The Grow It Process.

The Grow It Model has six steps:

1. Detangling
2. Cleansing
3. Conditioning
4. Moisturizing
5. Protecting
6. Growing

To detangle theGrow It Way,Chicoro suggests separating your hair into 4 to 6 sections and then loosely braiding each section.

I liked twisting better only because my hair was too “tangly” to braid. It was shedding big time and the twists worked well. The more I use this process, the more I like the loose braids. It makes it easier for me to get to my scalp and thorough cleanse and condition each section.

I also took my time with this section. I had gotten into the bad habit of rushing the detangling process. Chicoro is an advocate for preserving the hair you have for as long as possible. Carefully detangling your hair with your fingers will keep more hair on your head than down the drain. It’s also helpful to detangle under running water or with your favorite conditioner. This helps the tangles more easily separate from your hair without pulling or tugging. She goes into great detail here about when to use water, oil, or conditioner to remove a detangle, how to determine product build up on your hair and what to do when you hair does get tangled. It’s worth it to purchase the book on this section alone if you’re losing hair detangling like this:

This was after the first detangle in October with the Grow It Method. The scary part is that I’m pretty sure it would have been more if I hadn’t been as careful. Last week (December) this was how much hair I lost total from detangling, cleansing, conditioning, deep conditioning and styling! Very happy with this type of improvement:)

Some key points I took away from the detangling section of the book are:

• How you wash and condition your hair is as important as what you wash and condition it with

• Use your fingers to detangle your hair while it’s dry and again when it’s wet. She also suggests skipping the dry detangle part of the process depending on the condition of your hair. I chose to skip the dry detangle in the beginning because it seemed to add more tangles to my hair

• Get in the habit of smoothing your hair. Smoothing the hair is exactly as it sounds, you run your hands down your hair. Your both checking the feel of your hair, how are the products you’re using working or not working on your hair; it also helps or trains your hair to grow in the right direction.

Twist outs are still my favorite!

I’ve heard “them” say that natural hair doesn’t shine. The most I could hope for was a nice “sheen.” Well, look at me in the sun gettin my natural shine on! Thank you Lavish (and Oyin Handmade!)