Before the New Year begins...

I am not one to do New Year's resolutions because I live how I want to everyday of the year! However, I wanted to share some pictures of my hair and some new hair regimen stuff I've been thinking about trying going into the New Year.

Normally, my hair stays in twists (you know how I do) but I actually tried to make an effort for my job's Christmas party.

As you can see it was just a pin up style using my hair combs and tons of bobby pins. I had some serious volume!

Then I had a nice little lunch with the people I worked with and got some further use out of those hair combs I bought awhile back.

This style was just a simple side ponytail as you can clearly see.

The people that I work with organized this cooking competition. It is based on the popular British TV series Come Dine With Me. When I lived in England that was the only show that I watched all the time. 

Basically, a group of friends get together and cook for each other. There is a budget and you have to create a menu (three-course meal) along with some form of entertainment. The person with the most points at the end wins 1,000€.

Since we are poor teachers we each just put in 5€ so the one who wins gets about 55€. Not bad, right? So this lunch was the second installment. I'm next year sometime and will definitely be breaking out vegan goodies from my two cookbooks: Veganomicon and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. But I digress...

In the New Year I'd like to try the Curly Girl Method and take a break from twists. I find that the twists make it such a chore to detangle my hair. Maybe it's doing more harm than good, I'm not sure, but I want to try something new. There are many ways to protective style that don't include twists.

I plan to buy the book either on my kindle fire or from Amazon.co.uk. We'll see what happens. I also plan to Henna Gloss every two months instead of every month. No matter how hard I try there is always some little particles left in my hair and I hate that! But I do like the results.

So I will just be extra diligent with my deep conditioning and do the Henna Gloss every two months. I did a mayo treatment the other day with mayo, Castor oil, olive oil and some sweet orange oil (for fragrance). My hair felt super good and smelled good too. I'm going to stick with that for awhile (maybe 3 months?) and see how I like it.

Every night I will moisturize my hair before going to bed so that in the morning I just have to refresh and then style. Last night I misted my hair with water and aloe vera juice. Then I put in my kimmaytube and detangled my hair. I put it in four giant twists for bed and today I will wear some roll, tuck and pin style. 

I will try to update the blog every month on how I like this new hair regimen. I'm also trying to use more all-natural products. It's just that the funds are not where I need them to be to revamp everything I own just yet.

FITNESS

Just a quick update on working out. I'm still struggling to establish a schedule. I got sick twice (once in November and once in December) and that completely crushed my plans. However, I'm doing what I can. I ran for 1 hour on Monday, 30 minutes on Tuesday and did some weight training. Today I did a 55 minute run and some weights. I'll probably do a fast run tomorrow.

To ring in the New Year I'll be running a 9K on New Year's eve (Monday). I'm excited about that since it will be my first 10K (well, almost 10K). I'm definitely enjoying this time not training but I still want to make sure I stay fit.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!! BE SAFE!

Protective Style #2

As you can see I took out the twists, except the ones that form the bang in the front. I was going to keep them in the whole week, or rather try. However, they don't look fresh after about three days. I did moisturize with shea butter and water last night but when I woke up this morning they were a shrunken, frizzy, mess!

So, before taking them out I spritzed my hair with water until it was a little less than damp. Then I applied one of Shea Moisture's products: the organic coconut and hibiscus curl & style milk. It has coconut oil, silk protein, and neem oil. This was the first time using it and I love it!! It made my hair soft, mosturized, and my curls popped! It is also very light so my hair doesn't feel greasy. I didn't seal with oil afterwards because I still had some in my hair from my leave in.

I tamed the frizz on the edges of my hair with some homemade flaxseed gel. (Click here for a youtube video that shows how it's done). I don't use a brush on my hair. Instead, to smooth my edges I use a toothbrush. It works wonders and is gentle on the hair. The rest was just done up with bobby pins. Super easy, super quick, super cute.

Tonight I plan to cleanse my scalp with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water. Again, I usually cleanse once a week but this week I am noticing some build up. This will be done after my run. Then I'll mosturize with the rest of my leave in and put it in big twists for the night.

I haven't mastered the french roll but I might try that tomorrow. I also like the roll and tuck styles but they don't work with the motorcycle helmet. I'll probably do that more on a weekend or when classes end and I don't have to be on it everyday. It's more of a mix between a scooter and a motorcycle. Maybe I'll take a pic of it and post it.

So, that's it for my hair today. Look for much more material coming soon! Bear with me as I get the hang of blogger because I have TONS of interesting things to share!