No more afro...

Here's me without the 'fro. It's another still half asleep, haven't even washed my face yet picture, and I took it myself. Cute, huh?!



J's best friend is in town this weekend and I love waiting on him and his friends when they are here. I cook them special meals (although J made breakfast this morning), keep the house tidy, chat when they want me to and make myself scarce when they bring out the dominoes.

I think it honors J to feel like the king of his castle when friends are around. And it makes me feel like a Queen.

Weighing In...

I'm down 3 more pounds this week. Only 24 to go!

I'm off to get my afro tamed...

I'll post "after" pics later!

Box Braids...

Yesterday I styled Jazzy's hair in box braids. It took ALL morning and then some, but it came out really cute.







Here she is with the front in two ponytails:

She's such a little cutie!

Haircare tips and tools...

My stylist gave me the following tips for caring for Jazzy's hair:

1. After shampooing and conditioning, divide the hair into small sections and detangle each section rather than attempting to comb through the entire head of hair. Detangle the hair while it is still wet.

2. When detangling a section, hold the hair very tightly in the middle (between scalp and ends) and comb out the ends. This keeps it from pulling at the scalp and prevents many tears. Once the ends are detangled, work your way up to the scalp. Twist that section and hold in place with a clip before moving on to the next session.

3. Blow dry one section of hair at a time, starting at the ends and working your way to the scalp.

4. Change hairstyles frequently to avoid breakage. Try not to do cornrows more than twice in a row.

Here's what I use on Jazzy's hair:


I use Organic Root Stimulater Olive Oil. The black rat tail comb is for making straight parts. The big brown comb is for detangling. The brush is for smoothing the hair into ponytails.

Here is the blow dryer we use:

It is a Gold & Hot and it does get hot!

We use Pantene Relaxed & Natural shampoo and conditioner. And we're having fun trying out the beads and clips from snapaholics. The owner is a mom who adopted from Haiti and she has lots of neat products and hairstyle photos.

A quick hairstyle...

Here's a style we use when there's no time for a full head of two strand twists. It takes 20-30 minutes tops.




You just brush the hair into two ponytails and then do two strand twists. I counted and there are 7 twists on each side.






The hearts on the ends are from snapaholics. The owner is a mom who adopted from Haiti. There are some cute hairstyle pics on the website as well.

Black Hair Q&A...

A few questions from the comments section:

Why did you blow-dry her hair first? Doesn't that harm it? My stylist suggested I try blow drying first so her hair would be easier to manage. It is almost impossible for me to comb Jazzy's hair if it is not either wet or blow dried straight. When her hair is straight, I can redo it if it gets messed up or style it differently throughout the week instead of having to start all over with shampooing, etc.

This is only my 3rd time blow drying it. The first was a disaster because I didn't have the blow dryer with the comb attachment. The second try was better, but took too long. This time it went great.

You are right that any heat, including blow drying, can damage the hair, so I am trying to be careful. When it starts cooling off again, we'll go back to putting it in twists. Jazzy has a lot of hair and in the summertime she sweats like crazy if her hair is in twists. I think the braids keep her scalp cooler.

How did you do those twists you normally do? Here's a website showing how to do the twists. I usually do them much smaller than what is shown there and I don't do the curly pudding - just a little bit of moisturizer. I also let the twists air dry instead of sitting her under the dryer.

I don't blow dry Jazzy's hair before twisting it. You can blow dry the hair straight and then twist (that's how I wear mine) and that makes it look neater and hang longer. Jazzy usually wears the twists for about 2 weeks and then I will untwist them and she'll wear it untwisted in ponytails for a few days. It gives a curly look.

How long did the braiding take, and how long will you leave it in? It seemed like forever, but I guess I spent an hour and a half shampooing, blow drying and braiding the back one night, and then another 30-45 minutes braiding the front the next morning. So at least 2 hours. I really need to learn to braid more quickly. I'm hoping the style will last 2 weeks with occasional rinses after we go swimming. I know that seems like a long time to some of you straight haired ladies. But I don't think it's a good idea to shampoo black hair more than once a week.

How do you keep her sitting still for that long? My dd is 5, and I do her hair usually twice a week. It takes a long time. (My dd is adopted; I'm white and I spend about 30 seconds on my own hair each day.) We've been doing this for a while so she's used to it. When she was younger I would give her a sucker or a snack. Now I usually let her watch a long video and by the time that's done I'm almost finished and we tell each other stories or just chat. During this time I always tell her how beautiful her hair is and how blessed she is. When we're done J and Drew always make a big deal about telling her how pretty she looks.

Have you found any product that you really like? For shampoo and conditioner I use Pantene Relaxed & Natural For Women of Color. For moisturizer I use Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil. It is creamy and I rub a little on her scalp and hair before blow drying and rub a little more on her hair after blow drying.


I'll post pics of the combs I use on Jazzy's hair and a few different styles sometime this week.

The black woman's burden...

I'm learning to braid Jazzy's hair. It's getting too hot for her to wear it in twists like these that we leave down or put in ponytails:



Here she is with the conditioner bag on. They're free at Wal-mart, LOL.

Here she is with her hair all clean and ready to comb out:

Here she is with her hair detangled and blow dried:

I did it in two rows. The bottom one that night and the top the next morning. I still need to work on making the parts straighter, the braids tighter and braiding a bit faster, but isn't she lovely?

Oh, and yes it's all her hair. I don't believe in extensions or chemical treatments for my little princess. My favorite hair care books are It's All Good Hair and Kinki Kreations.