#8 Wash Day! Paul Mitchell Super Skinny and Keracare

So Monday night I used WAY too much Eco Styler Olive Oil on a headband curl set and my hair was hard and icky. I decided to wash my hair later that night.
When I started washing my hair, it was straight because of the Curlformers, but I'm used to my hair reverting immediately. It didn't! O~O. I think it's because there was such a thick coating of Eco, and I was almost worried for a bit, but eventually all of it reverted completely.
I washed with ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair, then applied Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily Treatment and Black Tea. I took my shower, which probably rinsed a lot of it out. I didn't purposefully rinse, though. When I got out, I dabbed my hair clean with a shirt, then applied Keracare Humecto, and EcoStyler. I let it air dry overnight in Curlformers; however, my top left quadrant didn't dry properly, but I had to take them out for class. So that part of my hair is a bit poofy. Otherwise, the EcoStyler seems to be working: my curls haven't fallen at all yet--even with the hat, and my hair is SO moisturized I don't even understand. It looks [finally!] like all those wonderful ladies I follow on YouTube. It's so wonderful. I have a very badly lit photo [the camera is facing it, so there's always weird glare and lighting oddities] here, and I will post a better one after I've allowed my hair to get back in those Curlformers so it's all the same texture overall.

#7 Wash Day - Is It OK to not wash out your DC? First time using ECO Styler gel as well!

Thursday night, I washed my hair because I had some buildup and really wanted to do a black tea rinse. I made the tea, then created a mix using this: Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition, aloe vera gel, honey, and grapeseed oil. The texture was incredibly weird, but I was only going to leave it in for an hour.
I shampooed with ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair, applied the black tea from a spray bottle, then used the conditioner. I was going to leave it in for a few hours, but it was really late at this point so I just put my hair in Curlformers then went to bed. When I woke up my hair was so many kinds of amazing I decided not to wash it. It felt like I had been to the salon. It felt like when I flat iron except even a bit better.  I had tons of moisture and slip, but my hair didn't seem to have any extra product in it. I decided to flat iron my bangs and put them into a Curlformer again just to see the difference, but I got tired and only did two small spots.
The only difference between the flat iron and the other part was that the flat ironed hair couldn't hold the curl at all, even set overnight.
My hair is just amazing. It's now Monday and I have moisturized once, and even then I didn't *really* need to, I just wanted to use my two new products: I got an actual case of Curlformers [so now I have more than double--44] and Eco Styler Olive Oil gel.
Last night, I moisturized my hair with my normal liquid moisturizer, then added a bit of coconut oil, lastly the ESOO. I used the ESOO as the sealant because it's pretty thick and I think sealing before the ESOO might have poor results. Then, I applied the Curlformers.
It was perfect, I got to use sections of exactly the thickness I wanted, and had exactly enough Curlformers to do my entire head. Now if only I could figure out how to separate the wands after I'm done. Sigh. I think I just don't have the upper body strength.
I slept [mildly comfortably] with them in my hair and took them out in the morning. They don't feel much different than normal. They're a bit shinier. I was able to still flatten out the crown of my hair with a scarf, so I actually don't know how well the gel is going to hold. I used exactly how much was in the top the first time I opened it, so it might not have been much.
Mini-review of Eco Styler OO [I'll do a bigger one in the future, but I don't like doing real reviews the first few times I use a product] I really enjoyed applying the gel, because I could feel my new growth straightening out as I applied it, even without any force. It was great! I hope that I can get second or third day Curlformer hair, but I don't know. It doesn't feel hard or anything...We'll see when I update tomorrow!
So, hair day rating? 10:
I have healthy shine, my hair looks and feels moisturized and has slip, the style is wonderful and I can run my fingers through my newgrowth because having so many curlformers smoothed [not necessarily straightened in all sections] the ng. WONDERFUL!

My hair yesterday [no pics from today yet]

Hair Rambles: Shampoo'd and applied coconut oil...then LOC in the morning.

So I actually ended up with somehow sticky hair last night. To combat that, I shampoo'd, but I didn't DC my scalp has not been happy with me. Instead, I cowashed with Hair One and ApHogee's 2 minute, which I did leave on for a bit, but no more than 10 minutes. My scalp was just really really angry that day, probably from whatever made it sticky. I basically just applied a TON of coconut oil [Nutiva, my new one] to my hair and put it in curlformers. It was really soft this morning, but not quite moisturized enough, so I LOC'd this evening. I couldn't just allow my hair to be shampooed with no real moisture, after all.
I did it differently this time: I think the crazy new things I put in my L were too much, so I decided to minimize everything, now I know that I can successfully keep my hair mostly moisturized with only coconut oil, but it doesn't stay that way long enough so I've been LOCing. In this case, I decided to keep up the LOC, but only use a max of three ingredients per step. That sounds like a lot if you think of them as being separate  but remember, I make my own products so the normal like 15 ingredients per bottle is what I'm talking about. Now, I made my L out of only water, aloe vera gel, and grape seed oil. In that order, with 95% being water, two and a half pumps of aloe vera gel, and a quick squeeze of my grape seed oil bottle [mostly because I don't use this as much as I think I should. Ceramides are good, after all]. Then, my oil was only coconut oil. That's actually normal. Lastly, my C, which is usually [my homemade hair and skin lotion: raw shea butter, tea tree oil, grape seed oil, aloe vera gel, jojoba oil, and a little water] was only shea butter.
So today's LOC method: L:Water/Aloe vera gel/Grapeseed oil O:Coconut C:Shea butter
I sprayed it until slightly damp, then applied probably too much coconut oil [it was melting faster than expected, but my hair eats coconut oil like...well....water!], then applied definitely too much shea butter; I kept accidentally picking it up wrong because I couldn't use my normal disbursement method. Then, I put it in curlformers and let it dry for like an hour. When I took it down it felt great, and that was 4 hours ago. It feels even better now,  almost like it did that day I was having my best hair day ever, actually, if a little too shea-y. I went outside, though, and my hair was solid [moisturized, but frozen]! Too much shea, definitely, but hey, the curls stayed well, and whenever I went back inside it quickly calmed down and was bouncy in a few minutes, so I should be okay by tomorrow.
In the end: less is definitely better, my hair doesn't need a whole bottle's ingredients to be moisturized. It only needs five total! But yeah, I need a better way to dole out shea butter. I think I'm going to make my sections twice as big for now, at least, and clean out my other shea thingy.

When I put the curlformers in, I twisted the roots because I care more about straight roots than curls, and not twisting the roots was not giving me straight roots. Right now, my hair is smooth all over like I just have very thick straight hair. Before, it was clear that I was forcing curly hair to go straight, and that wasn't as good.

What I learned today: Only need a few things in LOC. Twist roots to get straight hair all over. My hair doesn't need to be DC'd after shampooing, but it does need intense moisture LOCs to pop back from it.

Update: Hair is still moisturized more than 24 hours later! Simplistic LOC FTW!

Hot oil treatment and DC

I used coconut oil, grapeseed oil and jojoba oil. I kept it on with a shower cap for an hour and a half, then I cowashed with VO5. I applied Keracare Humecto overnight and now I'm airdrying after applying a little bit of grapeseed oil. I had virtually no hair come out when I combed to put in the curlformers. The entire time, my hair felt extremely soft and full, and when I applied the Keracare Humecto, it felt amazing. I think I'm going to make sure I always have an adequate amount of oil on my hair, it seems like it'll help with combing at least.
Well, right now, my hair is definitely holding onto the moisture, but I'm not sure how long it will last, so that's a huge thing. It doesn't feel as good as last time, though.

Well, my hair felt a bit over conditioned this morning, but as of now it feels great. I did use a little bit of Biosilk Silk Therapy, just to remember what affect it has on dry hair. Right now, honestly, it just smells good. I'm sure it should be used on damp / wet hair anyway. I haven't applied much to leave in [though, I used a tiny bit of my new jar of Nutiva coconut oil; it's a lot thicker than the Trader Joe's one, hmmm] and the Biosilk. I think it's holding moisture pretty well otherwise.

I've noticed 2 things about my hair that I had sort of noticed but not thought much about before:
My hair feels / looks better / moves better when I compact it. When it's wrapped, or put in Curlformers, it just feels better. I'm not quite sure exactly what that means.
My hair feels a lot better when it's warmer, and harder when it's cold [not necessarily winter and summer]. I think this is because some of the products I use freeze at pretty high temperatures, so it's possible that could affect the hardness of my hair.