The Vegan Nigerian: GARRI COOKIES

Garri is every Nigerian's lifesaver...my sister is practically addicted to the thing and my mum loves it too.Me, it's a hit or miss kind of thing for me. I chalk my indifference up to drinking garri practically every day in boarding school. While websurfing and generally being lazy jobless creative,I came across this awesome blog. She does wonderful thing with food yo! Might experiment with this one of these days..

The Vegan Nigerian: GARRI COOKIES: This recipe has lingered in my mind for a long time now. Today was the day to finally transform the abstract image of a garri-based cookie ...

xx

MY KINKY TWISTS

I've had my kinky twist extensions in for 3 weeks now, and I love them! Admittedly I miss my hair terribly, but it's just so easy to not bother about hair for a bit. I used 2 packs of Noble Gold kinky twists, which I bought for about 800 naira in Lagos, the price might vary elsewhere..

When the twists were two weeks old I washed them. They were smelly and I had to keep itching my scalp.Not a good look!! I got information on how to wash hair in extensions from youtube, which is a godsend for natural hair, and from BGLH. All I did was: mix a little bit of conditioner with water. You might want to use more conditioner, depending on how many times you want to wash the hair. I put my hair in two sections, and then poured the diluted conditioner on my scalp.I scrubbed my scalp, rubbed a bit of the conditioner on the twists and then poured water on my scalp. I only poured conditoner on the area that my hair reached i.e I didn't wet the entire length of the twists, just down to where my hair got to. This was so that it wouldn't take ages to dry. After rinsing I blotted with a towel and left it to air-dry, then rubbed my sheabutter mix on my scalp and edges.

The plan was to wash my twists again this weekend, but laziness won (>_>), they don't look so bad though.

i rolled the front, and put the back in a bun

with my friend Catherine at work

 And a couple of silly faces :D

Have a wonderful week!!

P.S: If anyone knows how I can rotate these pictures, please let me know. thanks

HOW TO: HENNA

Hey peoples :)
Disclaimer: I've never used henna. Now we've gotten that out of the way...

As I've stated before, I have tightly coiled hair. It's very kinky(which is kind of what inspired the blog name) and I refer to it as "original black hair". That having been said, I love my hair to bits! Sometimes though, I wish my curl pattern was looser and that is where henna comes in.
Henna (botanical name lawsonia inermis) is a plant that grows in Asia and parts of Africa. The leaves of the plant are dried and powdered. In Nigeria it is commonly used by the northerners and it's called laali. Most natural hair bloggers swear by henna for hair although it's kind of drying. The solution is to deep condition after applying the henna. Dabs of Naija Hair Can Grow has two methods for applying henna here and here
I hope to get laali from Abuja in a couple of weeks so I can (finally) henna my hair. I'll let you know how it goes. Also, the free e-book Henna for Hair is a wonderful resource. It tells you all about henna, its history, how to mix it, use it and all that. I  personally found it very helpful.
P.S: on natural, black coloured hair henna shows up as a red tint in the sun.

Have a wonderful week, and don't forget to leave a comment if this has been helpful :)
xx

HOW TO: SHEA BUTTER MIX

According to most natural hair bloggers and my natural hair "mentor" Layo (hey Layo!!), shea butter is a must have and must use for healthy and soft natural hair. Of course, my wonderful body has decided that I must develop an allergy to shea butter. In Nigerian salons, they use shea butter a lot and it was during one of my salon visits I noticed it. Once shea butter is anywhere near me, I get a headache, sore throat, runny nose.
Believe me, it's never a nice experience. Due to this, I killed everybody that used swore off shea butter.
However, recently my twa has been dry and refusing to stay moisturized. In searching for solutions I found recipes for both whipped shea butter and a shea butter/oil mix. I really liked the idea and look of the whipped shea butter, but I don't have a whisk and I wasn't (no way no how!) going to whisk with a fork so I decided to make the shea butter/oil mix instead.

whipped shea butter(i couldn't find a picture of shea butter mix&my camera is terrible)

For my mix I used: unrefined shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, amla oil, cold pressed castor oil. Basically I took all the oils I had at home and poured in the mix.  The mix cuts down the smell of the shea butter and it is soooo creamy. Because shea butter is solid at room temperature and melts at body temperature, it was easy to store.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• shea butter - I used about a palm sized amount because I didn't want a lot
• coconut oil - about a tablespoon
• any and all oils you want
• plastic/wooden spoon or a chopstick
• a plastic container to store it in, you can also use it for the mixing too or get another container for that

Melt the shea butter (I put mine in the microwave for about 20secs, or you can use the double boiler method)
Stir it for about 10seconds, to remove any lumps
Pour the oils in it and stir again
Put it aside until it solidifies. You can just put it in the freezer.
That's all!!
What I love about this mix (apart from the fact that it feeds my mixtress hunger)  is that a little goes a long way. Also, it's so creamy and melts immediately it touches your skin. I've read that you can also use it as a body cream.
Let me know if you tried this out. Also, you can leave any other recipes or amendments in the comment box or send me an email at olowo.tolu@yahoo.com
xxxo

TWISTS ON WET HAIR OR DRY HAIR?

Hey people :)
Recently my hair has gotten long enough to twist, and twistouts have become one of my go-to hairstyles. Unfortunately, my hair isn't "full" i.e it's low density(more on that in a future post,I promise!) so twists make me look scalpy. Twistouts however, in my opinion, are a gift from God :)
Twists can either be done on wet/damp hair or on dry hair. I have had my twists done in both methods and I just want to give my opinion on which one is better.
The first time I did twists on my hair, I did them on dry, detangled hair. The stylist kept complaining about how "rubbery" my hair felt.lol. I twisted my hair on friday and loosened the twists on sunday. My hair was stretched, but I didn't get any definition *sigh* the story of 4C hair.I loved the way the twistouts looked and my hair looked longer.
The next time I decided to get my hair twisted, I didn't detangle prior to going to the salon. Anybody that has ever gone to the salon with natural hair knows how terrifying it is allowing them comb your hair (I always carry my comb with me, but that's a story for another day). Anyway, my hair wasn't detangled and I wasn't about to allow this person give me a headache and break off all my hair. So I stuck my hands in a bucket of water, just ran my fingers through my hair and combed. My hair was slightly damp. The hair was so soft! Even the hairdresser(same person that did the twists on dry hair) said this method was better. Twisted on friday, and loosened on monday morning. My hair felt very soft but I didn't get as much stretch as on dry twists. I guess my hair shrunk as it dried.
So, pros and cons of both methods in my experience are:

TWISTS ON DRY HAIR
PROS

• hair is stretched
• more definition
• style lasts longer

CONS

• twists take longer to do
• detangling is a major pain
• more knots

TWISTS ON WET HAIR
PROS

• easier to twist
• hair is softer
• easier to detangle
• fewer knots

CONS

• less definition than on dry hair
• takes longer, if you include time for hair to dry
• style does not last as long as on dry hair

Use the comment box, let's have a discussion! Which do you prefer, twists on wet or dry hair?
xx,
Tolu

HOW TO MIX PATTERNED AND PLAIN

Mini-blog post...Just saw this on a blog I discovered today. Being a law student, I have an excess of white shirts and I get tired of pairing them with black all the time. I have a skirt that looks like this, so I must try this out asap! I'll try to put up pictures when I do.

image courtesy www.thenaturalfashionista.com

FIRST BLOG POST!!!

So this blog is my diary...it's my attempt to keep track of my hair journey. Please, feel free to come along :)

my hair immediately after my bc (my friend's bullying was responsible for the frown)

I BC'ed on the 28th of January 2013, after about 2/3 months of transitioning. Being natural has been full of ups and downs, good and bad. I'm just trying to find my way to healthy,beautiful looking hair.

my hair June 2013

Leave a comment so I know I'm not talking to myself!