Haircare Review: Cantu Refresh Apple Cider Vinegar Root Rinse

Hi all,
It's been a long while since my last post...almost 2 months.
Todays review is on the ACV root rinse from Cantu; I've been using this for almost 3 months while my hair is in faux locs.

I struggle with a dry flaky scalp, especially when I wear braids and regular sulphate-free shampoos don't work for cleansing my scalp. I use the shampoo bars ("Soak & Float" and "NEW!") from Lush but these don't work so well when I have braids installed.
I decided to try the Cantu root rinse which is part of their Refresh range, since the reviews online were overwhelmingly positive.

Product blurb from the Cantu Beauty site
Cantu Root Rinse is made with apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil and shea butter – a deeply cleansing yet nourishing cocktail that replaces your shampoo when you need a deeper scalp detox and extra conditioned strands. Rinse away the old and bring on the new revealing stronger, healthier hair with a natural shine. No mineral oil, sulfates, parabens, silicones, phthalates, gluten, paraffin or propylene.

Ingredients list

What's it like:
The root rinse comes in a 355ml (12 fl oz) bottle with a nozzle. fragrance wise, there's a floral scent mixed with mild vinegar scent and mint. I quite like it. I'm not a fan of a strong vinegar scent, which is why I don't do vinegar rinses but I can handle this scent. The rinse is clear and has a very runny consistency.

The root rinse is clear runny consistency.

How I use it:
Before I apply the rinse, I divide my hair into four sections, then I spritz my scalp and roots with water. I apply the rinse to each section and massage my scalp (with my fingers) and leave it on for ~ 5 minutes. I rinse out my spritzing with water and wipe my scalp with a cotton t-shirt. You can repeat the application if you need to.

Got my water bottle, root rinse and oil #washdayready

How it performs: 
The root rinse has a soft lather, but not too much; which is good because...WATER RESTRICTIONS! Once I rinse it out, there's cooling sensation and my scalp is clean with no dry patches or flakes. My roots also feel soft and moisturised.
I follow up with my scalp oil mix (which mainly contains olive oil, ximenia oil and Jamaican black castor oil) or the Caivil Fusion Oil Hair Gro Essence (sometimes I reapply the oil midweek, if I need to). 

Jamaican Black Castor Oil and Oombeke (ximenia) Oil

One bottle of root rinse is enough for 5 washes (that's 5 weeks for me) and I'm already halfway through my second bottle.

Where to buy:
You can get this at Dischem, Foschini and takealot.com for R 199.95 (regular price). It's currently on sale on takealot for R 149.95 and at Dischem from R 159.95 (until 8 April).

Final thoughts: 
My relationship with Cantu haircare products is love and hate; when I first started transitioning back to natural, The Cantu shea buter leave-in conditioning cream was my jam. My transitioning hair loooved it and then as soon as I chopped off the last of my texlaxed ends, that love affair came to an abrupt end.
I switched to the Cantu for Natural hair leave-in and that didn't go well either. Although, combining this leave-in with the the Ecostyler gel when installing braids or locs is the best combo for retaining moisture of hair while in braids 🤷‍♀ I've tried some of the other products in sample packs that I got goody and they were just ...meh

The root rinse is my favourite Cantu product hands down! I never thought I'd be this excited about anything from Cantu 🙈 but here we are. This stuff is amazing.

Have you tried anything from the Cantu Refresh line?

Let me know in the comments below 👇

See you in my next post, 

xoxo

N 

Happy New Year! My Favourites of 2017 - Hair Edition

Hello beautiful people,
Happy 2018! I'm never sure when to stop saying that, but I know I'm late 😁 I hope this year is going well for you and may all your dreams come true.

I had to share my look for the Cape Town Naturally HairFest from last December 😜. Photo by BrianEngel Photography

For my first post of the year, I'm gonna go with the crowd and talk about my hair favourites for last year. So here we go:

Shampoo - Lush Shampoo Bars NEW! and Soak & Float
I've long since given up on drugstore anti-dandruff shampoos, they just don't work for me I've gone from the most accessible to some pricey ones... and all I achieved was dry tangled hair and no improvement to my dry flaky scalp. These shampoo bars from lush have been my saving grace; they contain sulfates but they cleanse my hair and scalp without drying it out so they get to stay in my stash. Price is R 115.

"Soak & Float" Shampoo Bar

Conditioner - Baylis & Harding Great Hair Coconut Conditioner
I very rarely use rinse out conditioner as directed, instead I prefer to use it for my pre-shampoo treatment/detangling. For this I just need a cheap silicone-free conditioner and this one's my favourite. It's got a creamy consistency and a whole lot of slip and it comes in a 500ml bottle for R 60.

Pre-poo combo: Sunny Isle Extra Dark JBCO and the Baylis & Harding Conditioner

Deep Conditioner - Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen, Grow & Restore Treatment Masque
Hands down my favourite deep condtioner for when I need to revive my hair after a month of braids or twists. It's got amazing slip for detangling and it doesn't necessarily need heat to be effective. I love the scent and though the price is a bit steep R 270 at Clicks, a little goes a long way.

Shea Moisture JBCO Treatment Masque

Leave-in Conditioner - My Natural Hair
For me, the best leave-ins need to have a ton of slip to help detangle my coils, because they love to hug each other. This one from My Natural Hair is the best one included in my stash. It's creamy lightweight formula and a little goes a long way. I haven't sen it stores yet but you can get it online on the My Natural Hair site and on Shop for Life as well for R 99.99.

Styler - Camille Rose Naturals Almond Jai Twisting Butter
Meet my current #bae! I know that Camile Rose Naturals is super pricey 🙈 but I like nice things and this one is really nice. It's a toffee-coloured cream with pudding like texture. It smells like Old Fashioned vanilla ice cream with almonds. It's super moisturizing and the twist-outs I get with this butter are amazing. It also plays well with others (including products from other brands). The price is a very nice R 550 from Style Studio.

My Natural Hair Strengthening Oil and the Camille Rose Naturals Almond Jai Twisting Butter

Oils - Sunny Isle Jamaican Black Castor Oil and My Natural Hair Strengthening Oil
My longtime #bae has been with me since I started transitioning back to natural. I've stuck with one brand (I'm loyal 😊) I use JBCO predominantly as my pre-poo/detangling treatment mixed with a cheapy conditioner. When I feel like my hair needs extra love, I mix it into my deep conditioner as well. Thirdly, I mix JBCO with grapeseed/olive oil and jojoba oil with whatever other oils in my stash to make a scalp oil. R 270 for 236ml from African Flair and Obulunji

Strengthening oil from My Natural Hair is the perfect oil for those who aren't interested in being kitchen mixtresses. It's light and non-greasy. My favourite way to use this is to seal moisture into my strands as part of the L.O.C method. It goes for R 80 online.

All-rounder/Multi-purpose - Shea Moisture Raw Shea Conditioner
I use this conditioner 3 ways: As a rinse out conditioner to detangle post-shampoo, as a deep conditioner and as a leave-in. it's got lots of slip and it's super moisturising. Shea Moisture is now available in Clicks stores and the prices are very nice...not! Wait for the 3 for 2 specials and 30% off sales.

Best new product - Buuya Beauty Intense Hair Masque
This is a moisturising deep conditioner; I use it as a regular weekly deep conditioner and to restore moisture balance to my hair following the ApHogee protein treatment (here's the review). It's light and not as creamy as some of my other deep conditioners. My favourite thing about this one is the fragrance - grapefruit 😊. It's available from Buuya beauty and Beautyontapp for R 325 for 450ml.

Best Underrated/Over looked  - Caivil Fusion Oil  and Root Nourisher
I can't get over how well priced this range is; the root nourisher is R 30 and the oil is R 35, it will not get much better than that considering the ingredient list. I have the root nourisher and I like to use it to oil my scalp and seal moisture into my strands when installing braids and twists.

And that's my list. What were your favourite products from last year and what are you excited to try this year?

Let me know below.

See you in my next post, 

xoxo

New Hair, Who Dis? My Experience with Brazilian Wool Hair

Hi lovelies,

This is definitely one of those, the internet made me do it. People were talking about it and I got curious. Took almost a year for me to finally try it though.

I've styled my hair wool before, the regular knitting kind. it's quit a mission, there's a lot of folding and cutting. The upside of using wool is that you don't find X-pression fiber 2 weeks later 👎
Here's a picture of my first try at yarn braids 2 years ago

Yarn Braids with 100% Acrylic

I enjoyed wearing these and though some people complain of drying, I didn't experience any. I was excited to try Brazilian wool hair because it's got very hair-like feel and look. Also, it takes less work to prepare the wool for installation, compared to regular wool.

Installation
First thing I did was watch a YouTube tutorial and read a gazillion blogs before attempting installation. Here's a link to Natural sisters video on installing faux locs with wool hair (click here).

Do your research

My initial plan was to install purple faux locs, but I changed my mind half way through and decided to add black into the mix.

I cut the wool into equal length pieces that were about 1.5 m long: I then used 4-6 pieces of wool to twist my hair. I braided the root and twisted to 3cm longer than my own hair and tied a knot. As always, I moisturised my hair with the Moisturizing butter from My Natural Hair and sealed with the Caivil Fusion Oil Hair Root Nourisher.

Brazilian Wool Hair 100% Acrylic Yarn

It took about 6 hours to twist my hair and another 6 to wrap it 🙈 (I wasn't feeling it, wasn't in the mood to install). I used 6-8 pieces of wool to wrap; I pulled the wool through the roots of my twists using my latch hook to keep the wool from slipping down the twist, especially once I wash it.

My locs are about bra-strap length, I cut the ends and burnt them using a lighter.
I used 5 and half packs of the purple to twist and wrap, and then I got black wool (enough for one bundle) from Rozanne (who installed the wool as a box braid bob).

Half and half faux locs: Purple hair don't care

Maintenance
I'm supposed to spray my hair with moisture mist and oil it every couple of days.
I've got the Refreshing moisture mist from Buuya and a bunch of oils I use (I use whatever is closest when the mood strikes 😎.

My thoughts
I've had faux locs installed for a week now and I really love them. The wool is super light and I managed to install without pulling my hair to much, so there's no tension.
I've already cleansed my scalp with and it still looks neat, so I think I'll be able to keep them in for 4 to 5 weeks.

Where to buy
I purchased my wool from Nat Moisture; they charge ZAR 20 for a single bundle, and ZAR 180 for a 12 bundle pack. The colours available are black, brown, purple and maroon.
You also have to pay for shipping, which is ZAR 60 to anywhere in South Africa.

You can also purchase the wool from @africanhair_galore an Instagram seller, based in Goodwood.

Have you tried wool hair? Is it something you're willing to try?

Let me know in the comments below

See you in my next post, 

xoxo

N