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 

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 

DIY Hair:Goddess locs

Hi all,
Best wishes for 2017! (I hope you all had a blessed holiday). i'm late to the party I know. It's already February *gasp*
It's good to be back! First post of the year...Yay!!!
I'm so excited about my new protective style I had to share.

I've been looking at goddess locs for a while; they're super popular on social media. I've been looking at those posts all googly eyed and I've finally done it.

So what are goddess faux locs?
Goddess locs were created by trichologist Dr Kari williams (click here for a link to hair website) and was debuted by Meagan Good. This is style is inspired by the forever beautiful Lisa Bonet.

Getty Image

Getty Image

The goddess locs designed by Dr Kari are done with kinky human hair for wrapping and  deep wave hair for the curly/wavy ends. She has a tutorial available on how to instal on sale on her website, you cna also purchase a complete goddess loc kit from her website.

How do they differ from faux locs?
Faux locs have blunt ends and goddess locs have curly and wavy ends. Traditionally, faux locs are done by doing box braids and then wrapping them with kinky synthetic hair such as Marley hair (which makes them quite heavy). As I said earlier the Dr Kari's goddess locs are done with human hair. Human hair is really expensive and necessity is the mother of invention :-) so there are synthetic alternatives one can use that are way cheaper.
The curl refinery in the USA has made goddess loc packages for every pricepoint; 100% human hair, human/synthetic hair blend, and 100% synthetic hair package (Here's a link to their site). There's a UK site called Boho locs that sells packages and has a salon in London as well. They sell human hair and synthetic hair packages as well (Click here  to visit their site). I think boho locs ships internationally, but I'm not about to pay what they're charging, add to that shipping and South African customs fees.

How I installed my goddess locs?
After months of research...on Youtube and instagram I finally found a tutorial I was happy with, one that would give me the most realistic and natural looking faux locs. Here's a link of the tutorials I watched before installing my locs. (Click on the names for direct links to the video tutorials)
Supa Natural
Lynda Moyo
Cassandre Beccai

What you need?
Rat-tail comb
Leave-in conditioner: I used the Cantu Leave-in conditoning cream

Leave-in conditioner

Oil/butter to seal: I used my own concoction that mainly has grapeseed oil and Jamaican black castor oil

Oil mix

Synthetic hair:
For Wrapping: 1 pack Fina Nubian twist wave, 1 pack Darling Vibrations and 1 pack Kingston braid
For the curly ends: I used weaves from Xpression and Darling for the looser curls - Rose Deep and Brazilian Wave (I just cut off the weft and I'm good to go). For tighter curls I used the Darling Vogue curls and Freetress Bohemian crochet hair.

Curly and Wavy hair

Kinky hair

Installation:
I twisted my own hair  and left the last inch loose. I then added the curly hair to the ends of my hair by braiding in three pieces one at a time for a tapered effect.
I then wrapped my hair with the kinky/curly hair, I didn't use glue to seal, the hair is tapered so I just wrapped upwards at the end until I ran out of hair.

Final results: Tada!!! What do you think?

The day after installing

Two weeks later. I refreshed the front and added string for colour

from the back

I've had the goddess locs for about three weeks now and I plan on keeping them in until the end of February. I love them more everyday; they look more natural as the hair gets more frizzy.Will definitely do them again in the future.

First post of 2017...done!!!
see you in my next post friends

xoxo,

 

DIY Hair: Protective Style Crochet Faux Locs

Hi loves,
I've been sitting on this particular review for quite a bit, seeing as I've changed my protective style twice since installing my crochet faux locs.
One of my friends was in the United States this summer and I took that opportunity to order hair extensions from Samsbeauty.com. They do ship internationally but the cost is quite high and orders are subject to customs and duties.
I've always wanted to wear faux locs but I don't want to sit for hours and hours t oachieve the look. So, I was pretty excited to see crochet faux locs that are already pre-loced and ready to install.
I'd been seeing Youtubers wax poetic about the Bobbi Boss Bomba faux locs.

Image from SamsBeauty.com

Here are a few links to some of the videos that inspired me to try this look:
colouredBeautiful
Lexis Hair
Love Naturally

How I installed them...
I'm not a fan of the traditional method of installing crochet braids; this involves braiding your hair into cornrows. I feel that this works well if have short hair but with longer hair you end up with a bulky bun or chunky cornrows. So I searched YouTube for a method that wouldn't require cornrows.
Jazz Nicole came up with this method of installing fauxlocs on individual braids or twists...Hallelujah...life had been given. Here's a link to the video in which she describes and demonstates the method.

I ordered the extensions in two colours blue-black T1B/Blue (2 packs) and green  T1B/D.Green (3 packs).I also used one pack of reggae braid hair in black 1B to wrap the roots.

It took about 6 hours to braid my hair and install the extensions; This is much shorted than the time it takes me to install box braids.

Here are some pics of the finished product.

How do they feel?
These are very light and easy to manipulate compared to twists and box braids that I favour for protective styling. My only gripe with these is the snagging, as the hair gets fluffier as time goes on causing the individuala pieces to stick together. I solved that by just snipping off the loose pieces whenever they apppeared. I was so happy with these...I got my mermaid on (Life Ambition).

These were also really easy to remove. I just unravelled them because they're hollow coils.

Cost
I got these for $4.99 a pack. Samsbeauty has Buy 1 get 1 promotion on right now, also delivery is free for orders >$50 in the USA. Bobbi Boss extensions are not available in South Africa, but the Outre and Freetress faux locs are available from Hair City (I haven't tried them out yet) and they deliver countrywide.

I will definitely be installing these again in the near future. I absolutely love how they look and feel.

See you in my next post,

xoxo,