APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

I've been meaning to do a post on ACV for ages, just read a post over at naturalrify.wordpress.com that reminded me (check out her blog,it's nice).
This is a product that a lot of naturals swear by, because of it's versatility and all-round usefulness.Personally,I'm practically lost without my apple cider. I'll try to explain in detail just how I use it

• DETANGLING : I discovered this by mistake. I decided to do an ACV rinse, but in my hurry to wash my hair and get out of the bathroom I poured the ACV on my hair before the shampoo. My curl immediately felt looser and I could easily pass my fingers through. Best day of my life.lol. What I do is: wet my hair with water, then pour a little bit of vinegar on it. I massage it into my hair, finger detangling  along the way. If I feel I need to use a comb, then I do. By this point my hair is super soft and tangle-free. Also, I don't lose as much hair as when I detangle with conditioner.
• CO-WASH : I try to wash my hair with shampoo only once a week. This is because shampoo is drying and I have enough problems trying to keep my hair moisturized as it is. A non-sulfate shampoo is better, but I don't see any point in getting one since I barely use shampoo anyway. The rest of the time I co-wash (wash with conditioner). However, since conditioner doesn't have as much cleansing power as shampoo, hair can be left feeling dirty,grimy and itchy. To combat this, I add ACV to my conditioner. I pour a bit of vinegar in my conditioner bottle and just shake it in. I wet my hair, put a bit of conditioner, massage and wash it out.
• FACIAL TONER : I used to get pimples a lot when I was younger, but they mostly disappeared when I got into the university. So imagine how bad I felt when I noticed I was getting major outbreaks again :(.  From prior experience, I know that facial cleansers and all don't work for me. The longest they work is one week, and then I'm back to square one. I tried to change my diet and incorporated my acv into my facial cleansing routine. After washing my face at night, I pour a little in my hand and just rub it on my damp face (avoid the eyes, it stings like crazy). I've definitely noticed a difference.
• DIET DRINK : I've recently gained A LOT of weight, as in I've moved from a size 7 to nearly a size 10. I blame it on my change of environment though. In my waka waka round the web, I saw different sites talking about acv as a weight loss/weight management product. All you do is mix acv in water and drink it about 20 minutes before every meal/snack. Apparently it helps the body metabolize food and prevents it from using all the fat. I didn't care about the medical jargon, all was concerned about were the claims. I tried it for a couple of days, then my acv finished :(. I live in the randomest area of lagos, so I haven't been able to get ACV. Hopefully, I'll go to shoprite during the week and get a bottle.
• HAIR RINSE/PH BALANCING : Using too many products on your hair can cause buildup and basically suffocate your scalp. Also, all the products with different things in them can affect your hair's ph balance. To restore my hair to normal, I do an ACV  rinse after I wash my hair. I just pour a little bit of ACV on my wet hair an massage for about 5 minutes. No need to rinse, the smell fades.

I  found www.totalbalancedhealth.com/20-ways-to-use-apple-cider-vinegar helpful, so if you need more ways to use ACV check it out.

•  Be warned, vinegar has a very strong smell. Don't worry about it though, the smell fades after about 5 minutes or less.Also, be careful not to let it get in your eyes. It smarts ( I know this from personal experience)

Leave a comment and let me know how you use apple cider vinegar.

xx

HAIR CRUSH: CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE

I AM A CHIMAMANA ADICHIE GROUPIE......

Now that we've gotten that out of the way... Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian born writer. I've loved her since I read "Purple Hibiscus", her first book which was nominated for the Orange Prize for 

Literature. If you've never read any of her books, this is the best one to start with. The next book was 'Half of a Yellow Sun" which deals with the Nigerian civil war (a topic which,in my opinion, Nigeria tries to hide under the carpet), followed by "The Thing Around Your Neck", a collection of short stories mostly dealing with the immigrant experience. Her third full length novel "Americanah" was recently released and I got a signed copy ^_^

Chimamanda is natural, and has been very vocal about natural hair lately. Americanah talks a lot about natural hair, from styling it for interviews (the main female character was told she wouldn't get a job if she went with her natural hair) to getting a good hair stylist.

She's all round awesome :)

that afro <3

   

HAIR CRUSH: JANELLE MONAE

Anybody that follows me on twitter knows I'm a bonafide Janelle Monae groupie. From her hair to her style, and isn't she sooo beautiful???! I love the androgynous style to bits. Covergirl obviously agrees as she's now the face of Covergirl and sister s werking it!

performing with Fun

#tuxlove

Who's seen the video for Q.U.E.E.N? She and Erykah Badu (another natural hair icon) tore that video to pieces...if you haven't seen it,really, what are you waiting for???Because I'm all sorts of nice, here's the video :)

She has a new song out,titled "dance apocalyptic" and her hair's out of her signature pompadour..that hair is lonnnnggggg! If I didn't have a hair crush before, I have one now for sure.

stills courtesy of blackgirllonghair.com

Can you see all that hair?????!!!!!! *faints*

The Vegan Nigerian: VEGAN ICE-CREAM

Another recipe from Vegan Nigerian. This one uses my favouritest (yes,I know it's not an actual word) fruit in the whole world: bananas. I'm like 90%sure I was a monkey in my past life ^_^

The Vegan Nigerian: VEGAN ICE-CREAM: Traffic in Lagos city was the golden opportunity for street hawkers to sell their goods to tired, hungry and mostly frustrated travellers...

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