I big chopped!

I'm now fully natural after getting rid of my texlaxed ends.

I am however experiencing dryness and breakage which I'll investigate in more detail.

Post Senegalese twists - hair maintenance

So I've taken down my senegalise twists after 6 months. My hair has grown nicely - not as long as I'd like but long enough to make me feel my efforts weren't in vain.

Tips:

When taking out your braids, always make sure you detangle each piece of hair. You can use conditioner or main n tail detangler, which is a staple for me.

My routine for my natural hair after box braids is to:

1) Do some nice chunky twists
2) Deep conditioning treatment starting with a hot oil treatment. My favourite is almond oil as it's great for dry hair
3) Heat up in a bath of hot water. Don't microwave or you'll kill all the vitamin e which is a key ingredient in almond oil.
3) After coating your hair with oil, wrap your hair with cling film/saran wrap
5) Shampoo with your twists still in
6) Deep condition with Motions CPR conditioner

After deep conditioning for a few hours rinse and moisturise with almond oil.
Check out my YouTube video

Supple feet

With autumn here and winter fast approaching, it's easy to let your feet go into hibernation, leaving crusty skin behind to snag on your bed sheets. Not me, I have a great routine for keeping my feet soft, supple and looking like they're summer ready.

Step 1 - Soak your feet in a bath of warm water for about 15 minutes. You might want to add either a moisturining body wash or some of your favourite oils. I recommend almond oil.

Step 2 -  Use a foot scrubber to get rid of the dead skin on your feet. Pay particular attention to your heels.

If you don't have a foot scrub, then create a mix with oil and sugar to create a sugar scrub and rub that all over your feet

Step 3 - Dry your feet and rub a thick petroleum based moisturiser all over your feet. Vaseline is a great choice, then wrap your feet in plastic, either use an old bag or some cling film/saran wrap. Pop on a pair of socks, which will help generate more heat and moisture and it also allows you to walk around the house without falling over.

Step 4 - Wash your feet with warm water and hey presto, lovely moisturised , soft feet

DIY clear plastic clutch with studded Adrinka symbol detail

Hello loves,

I've been in love with studs which are really big this season. As I have to save for my wedding, I don't have a lot of money to indulge in the latest trends, but I really wanted something with studs. So, why not indulge my love of studs, clutches and Adinkra symbols?

I decided to go with the Gye Nyme symbol which means - except God (I fear no body except God)

Several hours, pin pricks and blood drops later (from pressing in the studs) I finished this creation.

Not bad eh?

Kente print pillow dress

I decided to make a kente print pillow dress for my friend's daughter. I cut up an old dress when I purchased in Ghana and remade it into a kente print dress.

When life hands you lemons - use them to brighten your skin

I'm absolutely in Love with lemons for the skin. Lemons are a great way to brighten the skin and reduce the appearance of dark marks or skin discoloration.

Lemons have vitamin c which have antioxidant properties and help produce collagen - a key ingredient for binding skin cells. The other benefits are that they help reduce discolouration, reduce acne and reduce oiliness.

You can either use processed lemon juice or fresh lemon juice. I use both interchangeably but fresh lemons are best.

Night time application.

To help improve skin appearance, I wash my face with a Simple face wash and then apply lemon juice to clean cotton wool and apply it all over my face. I leave it to dry for 5 minutes and finish off with vitamin E oil, or almond oil which has vitamin E oil. For night time, I always make sure I carry out my face wash and moisturising regime a few hours before bed to ensure absorption and to avoid loosing all my good work to pillows which suck up all the moisture in my face.

Day time application

It's important that if you apply lemon juice to your face during the day, that you apply a moisturizer with SPF 10 minimum. Lemon juice is acidic and  going out into the sun without adequate protection could result in even darker discolouration. If you're not sure, I'd suggest you only apply lemon juice at night,

Product review: Simple Radiance Brightening Face Wash

There are many skin brightening products on the market and I like many women, like to see a brighter complexion looking at me in the mirror. One of my favourite products for achieving brighter complexion is Simple Radiance brightening face wash.

I normally exfoliate my skin using a loofah sponge with a dollop of Simple Radiance brightening face wash. It has Mango extract, vitamin c and pro vitamin B5.

So, what does Mango extract do for skin?

Mango extract is an antioxidant, which helps protect skin from oxidation. Oxidation happens when your skin is exposed to free radicals in the environment which can break down skin and damage skin cells.

Vitamin c is another antioxidant, but it also helps with the production of collagen. It's also best known for helping to brighten the skin and reduce the appearance of dark marks.

Pro vitamin B5 is known to prevent moisture escaping the skin thus improving skin hydration. 

All great ingredients for the skin and combined with gentle exfoliation, my skin appears visibly brighter.

I Simply love this product (pun intended)

Wedding hair: Natural hair verses everything else....

I'm having an internal debate with myself as to whether to go for natural hair or wig/weave/braids on my wedding day.

It's important to me to be my natural self, but I'm concerned that my hair length will prohibit me from having certain natural hair styles. I want my hair off my face, but don't want a plain bun. Most of the "off the face" styles have some sort of addition to the hair, but I did find a few that I'm considering.

I'm just worried I won't have enough length to carry off any of these styles.

Alternative styles below require me to add some fake hair or just wear a weave.

DIY Ankara print clutch

I made an clutch using an old plastic folder which I posted on Youtube. It's a pretty easy and simple way to make a clutch with none of the expense of a normal one. I was pretty pleased with my efforts. 

Envelope clutch with African print accents

I was suddenly inspired to make an envelope purse, but wanted to add some batik / ankara inspiration.

I'll post a video on how I did this later

Youtube Tutoral

Completed envelope clutch 

Clutch after I've halved it 

Now it's an even smaller clutch

Rebraided my hair

As you know, I've had braids in since April and during the last 5 months, I've redone all my braids 3 times - roughly every 6 weeks.

I remove each braid and re-do it immediately. I guess I haven't given my hair time to "rest" as it were. I haven't deep conditioned for a long time, but I do use regular conditioner as a leave in. The reason I do this is that I want to get the conditioner onto my actual hair and I feel a lighter leave in won't penetrate the extension hair to my actual hair.

Anyway, each time I remove my braids I finger detangle the hair and rebraid. I've noticed in places though what looks to be broken hair, some shorter than 6 inches. I really need to cut off the textlaxed ends so I start with a clean slate as I've noticed some split ends.

I have to get better with moisturising. I only moisturise once a week with almond oil which I saturate on the crown area because that's my weakest area, apply some conditioner and that's it.

I short, I've been lazy with my hair since it's been in braids.

I've decided today is a recharge of my hair regime

I'll try MN again. I've made a new mixture of MN with almond oil and peppermint oil since Megatek changed their formular on me.

I'll wash once a week and condition. I'll moisturise more often with almond oil and caster oil.

Fingers crossed I can get a better growth rate by the end of the year.

Wedding hair

I've become obsessed with looking at wedding videos and photographers in Ghana.

Since I'm also obsessed with hair, I've been taking in some of the gorgeous hairstyles - but some of the ladies have been committing crimes against lace front wigs. Just terrible. I can't understand why you would choose this over every other style there is out there. They all look dusty, dirty and old - like not freshly done.

Anyway, it got me thinking about what hair style I'll have so I've been looking at styles that I may go for.  Hmm, which one to go for....

Wedding planning

I'm having my destination wedding in Ghana. So excited!

Planning however is not that straight forward.

I contacted a few hotels for wedding venues. Ghana doesn't have many venues catering to weddings which are of international standard and it's only the hotels that meet those standards. I contact a few but I'll give Labadi Beach hotel as an example and their costs break down  - which is below:

$2,800 for venue (indoor and outdoor beach gardens)
$35-50 per head for drinks
$30-55 for [er head food

You must purchase food and drink from them and you will be offered a waiter service inclusive of the food and drink charges. Yes, it's less than what you would pay here, but after you include flights/hotel/decorations/spending money - that takes the costs up to around £16k and you can have an entire wedding delivered for that same price here.

These costs above are about the same for any other 5* hotel in Ghana. Another thing I don't understand is, the local currency is cedis - so why do they charge in $??  Who carries $ around anyway and if you don't live in a $ economy, how are you supposed to pay in $?

Other problems....

I met with a wedding planner in April last year who presented herself has a highly competent lady. I was convinced she was the right person for me.

Her wedding planning fee was $1,500 - a little high but I shrugged off the cost because I thought she was worth it and I was sure she would competently deliver. If you know anything about Ghana you'll know that things are done very slowly, even when you're paying. I figured peace of mind of dealing with someone who had lived in England and carried the UK sense of expediency was priceless.

I paid half of the fee and started to gather my requirements for  my wedding.

I told her I had a budget of £10k - not a lot by UK standards, but it should be a Kings ransom in Ghana.
She made noises to suggest that £10k was a small budget and that she may struggle to fit our requirements into that budget. Alarm bells went off in my head. I know full well that very few people in Ghana even made £10k a year so for her to tell me my budget was small, put me off a great deal.

The final straw came when I told her the flowers I wanted. I know the very same bunch of flowers cost £10 in England, so for 15 tables, maximum should be £150 - but I allowed for her to overcharge me, so I was expecting realistically a cost of.£200-300. I nearly fell out of my chair when she said the flowers would cost $5000 plus allow for 20% increase per quarter on those current prices! Not even gold appreciates by this much-if it did, I'd be buying gold bullions !

She must be crazy. I don't know anyone in England who even with the most lavish of flower displays paid this much.  The problem with Ghanaian vendors is that they assume just because you live overseas, you have an unlimited budget and whilst with a local they would overcharge by say 20-50% expecting a downward negotiation with a foreigner they overcharge by 1000% expecting you to negotiate down to maybe 500% thus allowing them to make their entire year's profit from one person.

They really don't understand that the streets overseas are not paved with gold. People may earn more, but the cost of living is so high that it cancels out the higher wages.

I had to get rid of the planner - as much as it pained me to, and didn't bother to try and get my money back because I knew she wouldn't give it back and I don't have time (read energy) to deal with the hassle involved.

I spoke to my Dad who told me to call his good friend to liaise with suppliers for me and negotiate in local currency.

I've also asked my cousin to make enquiries for me.

Hopefully we can get things moving.

I also found this blog post from Hat's Off Ghana which breaks down your expected wedding costs in Ghana - both for fully planned and for a DIY wedding. It shows a planned wedding more or less amounts to £6k - which is what I expected the wedding to cost.

Thanks to Hat's Off for the posting. Their fascinators  are gorgeous!

I've been looking for photographers as well. Shockingly, photographers are charging anywhere from $2000 upwards!  about £1500.  I've been to quite a few weddings and very few people pay this much for photos and when I've commissioned photographers for company product photos, their day rate is around £800-1000 , so I can't understand Ghanaian photogs charging so much when they don't have to pay £1000 of pounds in rent, 40% tax and other costs that suck up money.

I'm finding more and more that there is a Ghana - a very small proportion of it, that charges and lives by western standards, whilst the rest of the country just seems, somehow to get by.

I went on a rant about it on my Youtube Channel - can you tell I'm angry?? LOL

More styles for your box braids / Senegalese braids

Some ways to style your braids. Hope you like : ) See my  YouTube channel for a tutorial.

Style 1

A back to front French braid

Style 2

Style 3

Long time no post...sowwy

I've been braided up since I went to Ghana in April. Senegalese twists are the bomb. So easy to put in and take out. Since I joined the gym, it's also been easy to just pony and go.
I have been washing my hair once a week. I also condition by applying the conditioner to my hair whilst it's dry and leave it in. I'm trying to remember to moisturise but I don't always manage to.

Since I can do my own braids, I redo them every month or so, so I can avoid the build up of lint and other debris on my hair, thus reducing knots.

Unfortunately, I have a major set back. I have lots of heat damaged texlaxed ends which I'll have to cut off.

Also, my crown is still short and is always dry. I've been trying to remember to moisturise that area, but again, sometimes I forget. When I do rebraid, I remember to give that area more oil and conditioner.

You can check out my video on this Youtube video I did about it.

I don't think Megatek is working

So, I'm 3 months into my megatek challenge and to be frank, I don't think it worked. Having said that, in the first 6 weeks, I did get a growth spurt, but then I started using the new formula and since then, nothing. In fact, at one point when I measured my hair, it seemed like it had gotten shorter by an inch! I think it's due to breakage. I haven't been deep conditioning as much recently and not really moisturising.

Once, I'm back from holiday, I'll measure and see where I get to.

Itchy scalp

For the last month, my scalp has been itchy to no end. I've been washing my hair twice weekly now using Dr Organix Tea Tree shampoo which used to help with my itching but now doesn't seem to be working. I then decided to add essential oils to my megatek mix to help.

My new megatek mix includes:
4 drops of rosemary
4 drops of lavender
6-8 drops of peppermint oil

As soon as I apply the mix my hair feels so tingly. It's lovely and helps ease the itching.

The reason I chose those essential oils is as follows:

Rosemary oil is known to stimulate hair growth and has astringent and antiseptic qualities. It's related to the peppermint plant.
So, I added peppermint, as it has astringent qualities which works to restore the PH balance of the scalp. As a result, it reduced neutralises oil production and prevents a greasy scalp. At the same time it helps reduce the dryness and itchiness associated with a dry scalp.
Lavender oil helps also to stimulate hair growth and has anticeptic properties too.

So, in all, I think I've got a good mix there for dealing with my itchy scalp and hair growth.

6 weeks megatek update

I did a Youtube video 6 weeks ago, but never got round to uploading it. I realise that my hair did grow in the first 6 weeks of my megatek use. 6 weeks ago my measurements were: Middle: 9 1/2 inches up 1 inch Back left: 8 inches on the left hand side up 1 1/2 inches Back right: 7 1/2 inches, No increase in growth Front/sides: 10 inches I haven't measured my hair since as I'm trying not to do any length checks until the 3 months has elapsed

Mystique Synthetic Swiss Net Lace front wig by Sleek

I got myself a new wig. I really like it. I was going to buy Creta Girl wig or Drew, Beshe Lace Wig but decided against it. I wanted to go into the hair shop to find a wig, try it on and make sure it matched my hair texture. 
This wig is great, the curls are really soft, it's easy to style and fits comfortably. It also looked like it could be my natural hair if I did a braid out which is really good. If you're looking for a natural looking lace front wig, then I'd say this is a good bet. I bought it for £32 from my local hair shop. One draw back is that the colour doesn't match my hair colour that well. 


I'd give it 8/10. It looses 2 marks for not having enough lace to create a decent part.


You can view the review on Youtube