Naturally Kinky

I just thought I would update you on my coconut milk hair soak. It actually has kept my hair soft all week. In matter of fact, I haven't washed my hair in a week again. Pregnancy has made me hair lazy. I will have to go ahead and start wearing some protective styles as well, instead of trying to wear my hair down, as it causes tangles if I don't wash it for a week.

I also bought some stuff, but have yet to use it or in today's case receive it. First I bought some Herbal Essences Totally Twisted as a result of reading this information over at Tightly Curly. She says this makes a great combing conditioner/leave in, better than the suave naturals I have been using. So I decided to try it, I purchased it for about $3.00 at Target. I'm kind of scared, as it is a cone, but hey, it can't hurt to try it right? I can go back to my tried and trusty Suave Naturals later on.

My second purchase is Jamaican Black Castor Oil. It apparently is great for your hair, can induce labor if ingested in large enough amounts, and also makes a great laxative. Since this is a hair blog, I decided to buy it for my hair. I purchased it from Sam's Caribbean. It is about $10.00 for an 8 oz. bottle, but shipping is $10. So I decided to buy a couple of bottles to justify shipping. The reason I bought Jamaican black castor oil was to see if it makes my hair thicker, softer, and stronger. Thickness isn't an issue, but softness and strength is important, so I figure it can't hurt to try, and like most things I use in my hair, it is multi purpose, I can also use it on my skin as a moisturizer.

So hopefully I will give you updates on my product purchases at a later time.

It has been a while since I washed my hair. Almost a week, which is like an eternity to me, and I figured my hair could use some TLC, especially since it had not literally been detangled in a week. This time I decided to try coconut milk as my deep conditioner. I got this from of course, Mixed Up by Ayesha Fleary aka Najahface. I also found some additional information here, here, and here.

The first thing I do is open up a can of coconut milk. I used Goya coconut milk. I used this milk because it is inexpensive. Looking at most places on the web, most women did not use the whole can, since I have so much hair, I decided to use the whole entire can of coconut milk. I applied it to my dry and dirty hair. I then put a plastic baggy on my head (you can use a cheapo shower cap, but again so much hair doesn't fit into one, which is why I use my TOPAZ shower cap). I then sat around for a few hours. Once thing I noticed is almost immediately that my hair soaked up the milk, not much dripping going on, even using the whole can, my hair must have been really dry. It smells wonderful, if you like the smell of coconut, this will be a pleasant experience, if you do not, be warned, you will smell like a coconut. The application was a little messy, as I worked straight from the can, but not so much so that I couldn't cope. Be sure to put a towel around you when you apply the milk to your head for less of a mess. The plastic baggy is to keep the milk from dripping all over the place when you let it sit for a while on your head. Apparently some folks mix their coconut milk with honey or olive oil or even lime juice. Apparently coconut milk mixed with lime juice can "relax" the curl. I am not sure as that is not my interest, but I will say the coconut milk was great in helping to detangled my neglected hair. So I kept the coconut milk in for three hours to make sure it was able to penetrate my hair. Kind of time consuming, you can do other things around the house, but because of the plastic baggy, you might want to stay at home instead of going out and about.

My hair with coconut milk in it:




My hair after washing out the coconut milk:




My hair dry:





Overall results. It is an ok deep conditioner, but I think I prefer my other deep conditioners. Less time consuming, and they left my hair feeling softer. I also didn't see the relaxing of my curls as reported. I would say this is a great inexpensive way to deep condition, but not the best for my hair. It might work wonders for your hair, everyone is different.