HG (holy grail) products & my hair story.
I reserve the right to change this list as I see fit :)
HG products (short for Holy Grail) are those that work without fail. We would bring them to our theoretical desert island, that place where we will all have to go some day, equipped with our top five products (or so says Cosmo; how nice of them to let us know beforehand).
Some of my holy grail products:
Read more to find out!
1. Shower time!
shampoo: I could care less. Pretty much everything is sulfate free. I shampoo maybe once a week with a sulfate free shampoo.
conditioner: Living Proof Restore Mask or one of the other Living Proof masks. Same as shampoo, I don't have strong feelings anymore.
leave in: Living Proof restore followed by coconut oil and/or preceded by Olaplex 2.
2. Straightening products:
Living Proof straight making for thick to coarse hair. was a great product which has long been discontinued. Their 'straight' product was also discontinued. I use their repair serum and heat protectant, but I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.
3. Curl elongating products:
Kinky Curly Curling Custard:
SheaMoisture Red Palm Oil & Cocoa Butter Curl Stretch Pudding
Deva Curl Coconut Curl Elongator: I have read so many horrible things about what the brand has done since the buyout, including all the stuff about people losing their hair, so I'm not recommending this. As a caveat, I use this nowhere near my scalp. My hair has significant shrinkage due to to olaples, so I use this on my lengths only.
Growing up, I didn't have friends with hair like me. My hair is very curly (3c-4a), thin, porous, dry, and very easily damaged. My hair resource is the internet. My mother, who has always sported an afro, never encouraged me to grow my hair. She also never went to a salon. Subsequently, I never went to a salon or had my hair cut by anyone but her. I learned how to straighten my hair in high school, thanks to a friend. It took a very long time, and when finished, I looked like I had no hair. I didn't like that either. At age 18, I discovered thermal reconditioning, otherwise known as Japanese straightening:
My Hair Story (based on a true story)
Growing up, I didn't have friends with hair like me. My hair is very curly (3c-4a), thin, porous, dry, and very easily damaged. My hair resource is the internet. My mother, who has always sported an afro, never encouraged me to grow my hair. She also never went to a salon. Subsequently, I never went to a salon or had my hair cut by anyone but her. I learned how to straighten my hair in high school, thanks to a friend. It took a very long time, and when finished, I looked like I had no hair. I didn't like that either. At age 18, I discovered thermal reconditioning, otherwise known as Japanese straightening:
Here's me at age 19, after my first TR (so yes, my hair was significantly curlier before this photo - this was supposed to make my hair pin straight):
I did "at home" TR for 7 years.
here's me at age 25 or 26, after a particularly bad TR:
At 26, I discovered BKT. I quit TR. For more TR/BKT info, go to the TR/BKT tab.
Here is a photo after a few BKTs (during that 3 day waiting period when you wear your hair straight) I was 27 in this photo. This is also a good photo as far as my natural hair color.
About a year and a half ago, I started using henna with some regularity.
Here's me, this year, after many henna applications (my hair is blow dried straight in this photo) - my hair was almost purple/black!
Here's me, after lightening my henna'ed hair with Marc Anthony Easy-lites.
Here's me, in September 2013, after a henna/cassia treatment and BKT back to back:
Here's me in March, 2014. My hair is sort of mahogany/purply brown. It's getting there.
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