Tag: Hair growth

My Hair Growth Plan

Happy Monday Darling Divas!
Hopefully you all are having an amazing summer so far! Sorry if I have been kind of M.I.A. this summer. I have been busting my butt tying to get my usual two videos up here, but my work schedule and weekend plans have been sooo crazy this summer! But I am determined to get my schedule down pact! So today on the blog we are going to be talking about my hair growth plan! A couple of months ago I watched Whitney ( or Naptural85’s) video on her hair growth plan video. It got me inspired to create a hair plan because I really want to see my hair grow long. I have never really been too obsessed with long hair, but I figured why not give it a shot and see if I can actually grow my hair out. If you want to check out Whitney’s video click here. So enjoy the video, and meet me below for more details!

Did you enjoy the video? Hopefully this plan works for me! It’s pretty simple and to the point, so I think it should work out pretty fine. So here is a recap of what I plan to do to grow my hair out.

1. Continue to protective style as long as I can
I am always twisting and rolling up my hair in some type of way. I feel that by keeping my hair up in a protective style I am not touching it! By not touching my hair it is not being damaged by my daily styling. 
2. Growing out my Blonde Hair  
My hair is very damaged from alot of years of me coloring my hair at home. I have beached, fried, dipped, and dyed my hair every single color at home, and I think it’s time for me to go to a professional to now color my hair. I want the colorist to color my hair on a fresh batch of hair, so I decided to grow out the old color to get ready for the new! 
3. IM GOING BACK TO THE SALON!
Yes! I am going back to the hair salon! It has been 5 years since I have been in a salon chair, but I think that it may be time to get some professional help with my hair. It’s pretty clear that I need some help with growing out my hair to be healthy, so I think that a stylist can help me with that. With the proper knowledge of a professional, I believe that my hair can really grow. Yall wish me luck! 
4. I plan to experiment with different hairstyles and products
While my hair is in its growing out stage, I plan on experimenting with hairstyles and products that I never have before. I want to see what my hair likes, and what it doesn’t like. I have really been loving crochet braids so far, so I’m excited to see what other hairstyles I will end up liking. And with a curlbox coming to my doorstep every month, I will definitely have no problem trying out alot of new products.
5. I will only keep my protective style in for a month
By keeping my protective styles in for a month, my hair is not experiencing alot of buildup. It’s being cleansed more often which also promotes hair growth, and my hair isn’t just sitting up in a hairstyle for months not properly being taken care of. I’ve been changing my hairstyles monthly all summer, and my hair has really been loving it! 

So ladies hopefully you have enjoyed this video! Whitney has inspired me to create a hair growth plan, so hopefully I have inspired you to create one for yourself! I plan on documenting it a little bit, so I will come back to you guys later on to see if my hair growth plan is working! 

Now my next blogpost should be ready for tomorrow, so until then ladies I love you lots like tator tots, and I will see you then!

Straight&StylePt1

                                                                                 Hello all my Darling Divas!

So I have always wanted to get my hands on some Jane Carter Solution Products. I have heard wonderful things, but they can be a bit pricey. My dream finally came true when I came across a kit from target containing sample sizes of the products! It was only 20 bucks!!! I quickly purchased them and was too excited to try them out!

Watch the video here for more info and meet below for more deets!

Now as stated in the video, this is the first part of a 2 part hair tutorial. Today you are getting the straight, and next week you are getting the style. Below I will provide you with the info(as stated on the package) of each JCS(Jane Carter Solution) product that was used, and then I will tell you what I thought of it. 
Hydrating Invigorating Shampoo 
 Sulfate free, gentle cleansing and detangling with a peppermint tingle

. Now this stuff right here really clarified my hair. I think I used a bit too much of this product, so next time I will use less. It kept my hair feeling VERY clean! I dont remember feeling a tingling sensation, but I am more impressed with how clean it made my hair feel. A lil goes a long way with this product ladies!
Nutrient Replenishing Conditioner
Detangles,Repairs adds shine and moisture. Also great as a light leave in.
 
This stuff rocks! It left my hair feeling really soft after 20 mins. It made my hair more manageable as I went forward with adding heat. The directions on the back of the bottle said to sit under a hooded dryer with this product, so I will consider doing that next time. I think it works perfectly fine without it.
Revitalizing Leave In Conditioner 
Great for re-hydrating daily, detangles, heat protects, and adds moisture.
 
I LOVE the fact that this is a mist! It was easy to distribute the product evenly to my hair! It was light-weight and i think definitely helped my hair feel super soft after I flat-ironed. 
So ladies my final verdict on the products so far is a THUMBS UP! I would definitely consider buying all three as full size products. If your interested in purchasing any Jane Carter Solution Products, feel free to visit the website.  There you will find more products and even salons! I might go pay a visit there sometime.
Well that’s it ladies! I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to follow me on any of my social networking sites. The links are above. More pics are below and make sure you stay tuned for next week where I will be showing you a style to do with your straightened hair! Until next time, love ya lots like tator tots!

Confessions of a Indecisive Natural

Hello my Darling Divas!

So I have a very silly Hair Story to tell you and it is basically an update to what I’ve been doing to my hair since we last spoke a couple of months ago. I didn’t blog all spring and mostly summer, so this is kinda what has been happening since then! Bear with me ladies, this story is truly a hot mess! But yall still love me! I know yall all have been when I was! 
Caution: The following events ALL took place in 2013, you have been warned!! 
So yall remember last October I introduced the healthy hair challenge and made a video explaining all the problems I hate with my hair? This is where all the chaos began.. click on this this link for that video. So basically I had sooo much wrong with my hair and that was due to the fact that I was dying it too often and using LOTS and LOTS of heat! So I created this challenge, and despite me not finishing this challenge, it did bring me alot of insight on how to take care of my hair properly. It unfortunately also got me going though a constant need to change my hair up since I had no clue what was wrong with it. 
My hair back in October 2012
Ok so towards the beginning of May 2012, I was convinced that I didn’t want to be blonde anymore, I blamed alllll my hair problems on be deciding to go blonde, and from that point on I began growing my hair back to my original hair color.

Now I was starting to dig this ombre look, but I couldnt help but wonder how my hair would look if I went all the way back to dark brown hair. As you can tell I’m all up for change sooooo, I decided to tryout a look to conceal and help grow out the rest of my blonde. So I went to youtube and with the help of some lovely ladies, the Faux Bun Remix was born.
And if you were wondering damn did you change your hair again? yea I sure did lol It was the begining of summer, and I woke up one day and said Im cutting my hair. A box of brown dye and 2hours later… this happened.
Now I loved my hair like this!!! But I totally forgot that summer heat+ flat ioning didn’t last long, sooo this style only lasted for about 2 weeks before I said ehhhhhhh I need something new AGAIN lol soooo this light brown made me think you know Brie you just love your blonde so go back. AND SO this is the very long annyoing story of how this undecive natural went from blonde to black to blonde again within a year. Have any of yall felt like this? Just not being to commit 2 one hairstyle? Im writhing this post as we speak thinking about getting some Havana Twist and I just dyed it back to icy blonde.
 So have yall ladies ever been through this crisis? I find that since having natural hair is sooo versatile, it becomes almost obsesive to want to switch up you look! Now Ive shared my crazy hair story, whats yours? Share you story along with photos on the Facebook Fan Page, or on twitter or instagram using the Hashtag #Nominusplus. Togther we can all put ourselves in You change your hair too damn much rehab! Hope you ladies enjoyed!! Until next time, love ya lots like tator tots!! XOXOXO

Faux Bun Remix Tutorial

Hello My Darling Divas!!

I’ve been gon for a minute now I’m back with the jump-off!!! ( who knows what song that is?) lol hello my beautiful divas! I’m sorry that I’ve been treating you like a wet food stamp, but I had some business to handle. So I’m gonna save my long story that nobody wants to hear and just get to the good stuff ok?
*Ahem*Let me first start off by saying hello to all my new Darling Divas that have found their way to the Nomius Plus Family! Welcome! Be prepared for me to be gone for long periods of time, I often am without a computer, but I said I was skipping to the good stuff right? 
 So the last time we spoke, I did a tutorial on how I created this Faux Bun on my Natural Hair ( Click Here For This Tutorial

Now this look is all good and what not but I searched the web on how I could make my bun even more fabulous and decided to try my hand a faux hair bun out of African-braiding hair that I saw sweeping the youtube natural hair channels! Now even though there are a billion tutorials on this, I figured eh one more tutorial on this look wont hurt! So enjoy the tutorial and meet me under it for more details and pics for the video!

A quick lil walk-through on how I create the African-Braiding Hair Attachments
And of course the good part pics!!! The bottom three pics are a more close up of the sides and the style of the look. And the middle just show you the look in a different color! For those who would be wondering what it would like in a color other than black.
So Ladies I hope that you enjoyed! Stay Connected with me! 
Twitter and Instagram- @BrieLikeMe
Hashtage #TeamNoMinusPlus if you try-out this look! Until next time, love you lots like tator tots! ❤ XOXOXOXOXOXO

Faux Bun Tutorial

Hello My Darling Divas!
Im finally back and with a HAIR TUTORIAL! I’m so excited because it’s been a minuite since I made one, and it just fills me with joy that I can share a new look that I’m trying with you all. So today I;m going to show you all my staple hairstyle. I’ve been rocking it for a couple of weeks since my hair has been going through soo much! I will explain my hair troubles in a hair update video later next week. This look is simple, quick, and with the right accessories it can be perfect for any look. So enjoy the tutorial and join me below for some more pics and info about the products used in the video.



List of products and where to buy
Hard Brush- Beauty Supply(but can be purchased at Target or Wallmart)
Denman Brush- Beauty Supply(but can be purchased at Target or Wallmart)
Edge Control- Target
Goody Headband (2 of them cut at the ends, then tied together to make one big headband)- Target
Personal Shea Butter Mixture- Tutorial here
Accesories
Black Headband- Target
Red Bow- Hot Topic
The Blue Chain Bow I got from http://www.etsy.com/shop/nightlyallure click on the blue contact button on the left the page, and tell her that your interested in purchasing a custom bow. Tell her Nominusplus sent ya and be super nice! She’s a great close friend of mine!
Scarves I’ve collected over the years. For different ways on how to tie a headscarf, check out my Headweaps and Turbans tutorial here
Here’s some pics! 
and here is a side by side pic of the bun in a casual look, and a formal look to show you this hairstyles versatility 
Alright ladies! I hope you have enjoyed this hair tutorial. If you try it out, let me see it! Post it on the Fan page here, or if your on instagram mention me on the comment using @BrieBlondie, or use the hashtag #NoMinusPlus and I will be sure to showcase your fabulous Faux Bun! Love ya lots like tator tots, and see ya next time!!!

Healthy Hair Tip #6 Dont hate, Dont manipulate

Hello all my Darling Divas!
As usual before we being today’s healthy hair tip, its only right to provide you with the links to all the other healthy hair tips and the introduction to the hair growth challenge, that way you can refresh your mind, play catch up, and don’t have to deal with the hassles of searching for all the other tips. So here ya go! all the tips so far in the challenge! Meet me below after for today’s healthy hair tip!

Ok laptop is finally up and running, so let’s get back to business  Today’s healthy hair tip is going to  be about hair manipulation. Alot of the time out hair goes through aloottt of trauma because we’re running out hair through it, other people’s hands are going in it because of curiosity  daily twist and braid outs, and thats just only naming a few! Our hair gets beat up and a weekly and daily basis, so it needs to get it’s rest at times. And that’s when low manipulation styling comes to the rescue! Putting you hair up and out the way and leaving it alone is probably one the best things you can do for your hair. By not manipulating it as much, your hair can have it’s chance to just rock out and do it’s thing. So of course I’m going to provide you with some tips so that you can leave your hair alone!

Excessive Combing and Brushing

Now we all know that when you have natural hair it of course tends too knot up, get kinky, and just become a big frustration  Now before you go coming and brushing your hair to kingdom come, make sure you are doing it properly! Combing and  Brushing your hair too much can add to much stress and manipulation to you hair, so when brushing and/or combing your natural tresses, make sure that it’s not on dry hair. Add water or a detangling product to get the job done. That way your hair doesn’t take that bad of a beating while your trying to tame it. Here’e somethings to keep in mind while detangling, so that your hair wont be over manipulated.

* Make sure your combs are wide toothed. That way you wont tug and tear your hair
*The best brushes to use for detangling are Denman brushes! Get ya hand on one of you haven’t already.
*Make sure you detangle in sections! May seem like alot, but you save more strands that way.
*Make sure your always sleep with a satin bonnet/ hairnet, that way you wont have to detangle and worry about much knots in the morning
Styling
When your twisting out, braiding out, bantu knoting out; pretty much any style where your twisting you hair up, its important to make sure that you twist in a way where your twist can actually last for a couple of days. Getting your twist out to last for a couple of days is great because that means your not touching your hair! Your hair gets to last for the week without you having to twist it up every night. I try my hardest to re twist my hair every other day, and on the days that I have no curl at all, I get creative with my hair. I put it in a bun, slap on a hat, or pin it up in an updo. Twisting your hair every night can be great for your curls in the morning, but in the long run cause breakage to your hair. Why? Cause your over manipulating it. Alot of times we look for volume more than definition when we do our twist out. Sure you may have the big poofy fro, but if you have to constantly twist and twist AND twist your hair to get it be big and curly, try going for getting smaller tighter curls. That way your hair can last for more than one day. Here are some tips to keep in mind while styling, so that your hair wont be over manipulated. 
*Experiment with styling products that help you hair have great definition. A more defined twist, braid, or bantu knot out can make your curls last longer. Taking away your need to retwist as much
*try your hand at different hats, turbans, or other styles that cover your hair up
*get creative with your old twist outs! Revamp 2 to 4 day twist outs into a different style
*Try your hand at protctive styling! That keeps your hands out for your hair for weeks at a time! 

Ok ladies that’s enough for today’s healthy hair tip! Keep them hands out your hair! Until next time, love ya lots like tator tots…..xoxoxo

Healthy Hair Tip #5- When in Doubt, Moisturize ( Moisture Unit)

Hello All My Darling Diva’s!

Ok so as usual before we begin with today’s tip, if you need a little bit of catch up, below are all the tips that have bee posted soo far in the Healthy Hair Challenge! Once your done playing catch up, meet me under that for today’s tip.

Ok so today were going to discuss the last unit in your product Arsenal which is the Moisture Unit and in my opinion its the most important unit. Retaining moisture in your hair is really essential in growing it healthy and long because without moisture, your hair will be dry, prone to easy breakage, and just wont have a good look to it. After your hair goes through the wash and condition stage, your hair is going through so much, and it needs moisture to be added back into it since it when through so much during the washing and conditioning stages. . For years I’ve been using just Shea Butter as a Moisturizer  and while that was all fine and dandy, I noticed that moisturized my hair, but it just sat on top of my hair. Now I was doing some research on some Natural Hair Blog’s because I’ve been having some issues with just using Shea butter and I learned about using water-based moisturizers and then following up with an oil based one to seal . I found out that Shea Butter was an Oil Based Moisturizer and it was missing a water based product to use before. So I was using a sealant and it had nothing to seal in Sooo my hair has been having something missing and it was a water based moisturizer!

Now your probably wondering, how to tell what is a water based moisturizer  and how to tell what a oil-based moisturizer is. This video below I will be explaining more about that and also showing you how to make my homemade whipped Shea butter mixture which is my oil-based moisturizer.

Water Based Moisturizer Recommendations
Cantu Leave in conditioner cream ( My staple product!) 
Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie 
I have a product review of this. I didnt really like it but it still keeps your hair feeling really soft! Click Here for the review 
Shea Mositure Curl and Style Milk

The only recommendation that I have for Oil-Based products is using Shea Butter because that’s all I’ve used. I plan to test our some more hair butters, so stay tuned for more oil-based moisturizer recommendations. So if you find a Shea butter to your liking, use my recipe  or find a type of hair butter, pomade, or oil, that will work just fine.

Alright ladies! That’s all for today’s healthy hair tip. I hope you have learned something new because I sure did! Hope your hair is on it’s way to growing long and strong! Until next time, love you lots like tator tots!

Product Review: 4 Naturals Afro Stretch Cream

Hello my darling divas!
So I have been dying to try out some new hair products and now that I have sometime, I’m gonna be testing out a few. I have been having some trouble finding a moisturizer to help define my curls. For some reason all my staple products don’t seem to to working, so that’s when you gotta start testing out stuff. I went to Sally’s to look for some potential products and came across this curl cream. Never heard of it so I figured why not?

First Attempt: 
Ok so I wanted to follow the directions so that I could use the product the way it was supposed to, and get the results it said it could do. Now I don’t have the 4 natural conditioner  so I just deep conditioned my hair for  30 mins. After I washed out my hair, I applied the curl cream, as stated on the directions, and started to twist my hair in sections. I had about 14 bantu knots all around my head. After that I went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, here were my results
My hair results were really curly, but not that much defined. My hair was left feeling really soft and actually I had little shrinkage for the next couple of days. I think I will be using this as my leave in conditioner, since it left my hair feeling soft and moisturized, and didn’t really help me that much to define my curls. 
Second Attempt: 
So the directions say that you could also use it on dry hair, so I decided to try my hand at the product one more time on dry hair. So 4 days after my first attempt, I applied the curl stretch cream to my dry hair, sectioned it, and made 14 bantu knots again. When I woke up in the morning, thease were my results.
Soooo once again I got some type of curl, but really no definition. It really was no change from the first attempt, but I still was able to turn it into something cute. Below is a top view so that you see my curls, and then the hairstyle I created with this fro
Final Verdict
I really liked this product! Although it didn’t give me the defined curls that I thought I would get, it left my hair feeling really soft and stretched out for the next couple of days. I was able to contort my hair in so many ways, and barely had to detangle. I would buy this product again, but the next time I would use it as just a leave-in conditioner instead of a curling moisturizer. I recommend all you ladies out there to pick up this product, and if you do tell me what you think! 
You can buy this product at any Sally’s Beauty Supply store, click here to find a store near you
Stalk me! 
Instagram-@BrieBlondie
Twitter- @VintageBlondie
Hope you ladies enjoyed this product review! Love you lots like tator tots, and until next time xoxoxoxox

Healthy Hair Tip #3- Wash me ( Wash Unit)

Hello All My Darling Divas!

First off  I hope everyone had a wonderful  Christmas and you enjoyed  your holiday with your family and/or loved one’s. So let’s get back down to business! I haven’t forgotten about the Healthy Hair Growth Challenge, as a matter of fact my hair has been growing all out of control, and with me getting back on point with these tips, yours will too. If you need to refresh your memory, below are all the Healthy Hair Tip’s that have been posted so far. It hasn’t been many, so if you need to play catch up that’s just fine.

Alright is everybody all caught up?? OK cool lets move forward! So in the last post we talked about building your product arsenal which means some product weapons to defeat the many enemies against our hair. I broke all the products of your Arsenal into 3 units: The Wash Unit, The Condition Unit, and The Moisture Unit. In this particular post, were going to discuss The Wash Unit. So enough of the intro, lets get to the good stuff.
The Wash Unit 
Washing your hair is essential of course because product can build up in your hair, and no growing will happen if the pores of your are all clogged up. Your hair also will have trouble being healthy and growing if it’s too clean, so we have to find a healthy balance of the cleanliness of our hair. Now I know’s alot of you just looked at the sentence and probably thought, “How can my hair be too clean and not grow?”  Well, by over cleansing you hair you are washing out all the natural oils, basically the good stuff that we want to keep on our scalp. You only want your shampoo to clean out all the dirt and product build up, so finding that  healthy balance is really important. I only shampoo my hair once a month, at the end of month, and it’s been working for me fine for about 2 years now. By washing it once a month, your washing out all the bad stuff that built up from the month, preparing a clean scalp for more products for the next month, and keeping all the healthy stuff in your hair. 
What shampoo is the best to use? I’m glad to asked! Now it doesn’t really matter which one you choose to use, it’s totally up to you and what works for you. Now since Shampoo’s come with Conditioners  I recommend that for every 1 bottle of shampoo you use, you buy 2 bottles of the matching Conditioner because you go through conditioner quicker than Shampoo, that way you can always have some handy. Make sure to also get the matching because products work well together, I mean that’s why they were created. But this is also just as suggestion, so keep on mixing your products if that tickles your fancy. 
Shampoo and Conditioner Suggestions
Shea Moisture Raw Shea butter Shampoo&Conditioner 

For color treated hair folk like me
Garnier Fructis Color Shield Shampoo& Conditioner
But of course, what ever you use it totally fine! Sorry that I couldn’t recommend  more, I haven’t really used many different ones, just these two sets. Hope this healthy hair tip has helped! And stay tuned for the next healthy hair tips!!!!


Quick Change for 2013

Hello Darling Diva’s!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!! Just a quick change about the blog  that I wanted to share with everyone real quick. I’m going to be switching over to just text and picture post and making video’s only for tutorials. I figure if I do it that way then I can keep the blog up to date and not go missing for a long time.  Between school and work, it’s hard to sit down and actually make a video, so I figure by doing mostly text post, we can keep things moving up here. So I’m going to continue to do the Healthy Hair Tips for the Healthy Hair  Growth Challenge in post’s just like this one, and whenever I do a tutorial, then that will be a video. I don’t wanna loose anyone, and want to make sure that I stay relevant  so I figure that doing it this way will be better. If you have any comments or anything on this quick little change, hit me up on one of my stalker links below, and I will be sure to get back to ya! Love ya lot’s like tator tots ladies! And stay tuned because tomorrow I will be releasing 3 healthy hair tips to make up for lost time!