Naturally Kinky

This week I have been experimental. I decided to try the Baking Soda Deep Conditioning Treatment. This treatment supposedly leaves hair very soft, very moisturized, it is also said to be a nice alternative to texturizers, elongating the curls. It also is supposed to reduce frizz. I am interested in all except texturizing, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. Baking soda has a ton of different uses, people often use it to wash and clarify their hair. So I figured it wasn't all that bad.

It is quite a simple recipe and can be altered to your tastes.



Baking Soda Deep Conditioner Treatment

1/2 cup Baking Soda
1 cup favorite Conditioner
1 tablespoon of oil (coconut, jojoba, olive, castor, whatever your favorite is). This ingredient is optional

You basically mix all the ingredients together and you are done. Well not really, you really have to keep mixing it because the baking soda will settle to the bottom of the bowl if left alone for a while.

This is what my mixture looked like.




To apply, first wash and detangle your hair. This is my hair detangled, towel dried, but still wet.




Then apply the mix as if you would a perm. I divided my hair into four sections and applied a little at a time to each section. I will say when I initially put it on, I felt a slight tingle, but it wasn't uncomfortable and went away after a few minutes.



Put your hair in a shower cap or plastic baggy for about an hour up to two hours, whatever you are comfortable with.Some folks have left this in all night, I am not that brave. I did an hour and twenty minutes. Some people keep this stuff in their hair for five hours at a time, apparently this relaxes the curl better, I don't want to relax my curls, I just want less frizz. Apparently to texturize, you should apply it dry. The directions can be found here.

Then I rinsed it out, doing another co-wash and then styled as usual.

I want to note when I applied the mixture to my hair, I did feel it made it easy to run my fingers through out, so I can see how it would be a good detangler. After washing out the mixture, my hair was much easier to detangle, and my curls look more elongated than usual while wet. While dry, my curls didn't look anymore elongated than usual, but my hair looked flat, less fluffy, I hope this is just 1st day hair and will fluff out when I sleep on it for awesome 2nd day hair. I will say I see less frizz.My hair doesn't feel softer, just feels like the norm. I also noticed my scalp was squeaky clean.

This is my hair dry.



Some people claim that the product smells like perm/relaxer, I did not find that to be the case, it smelled like my conditioner I used. I did notice right after I rinsed it out, my hair felt kind of reminiscent of hair after perm being rinsed out in terms of the "slick" feel, but that only lasted a minute in the shower, and once it was all rinsed out my hair felt normal.

This is 3rd day hair:

I was getting a bad case of build-up on my scalp, due to less co-washing on my part, and decided I needed to do something to get rid of all that ickiness. I then went back to my tried and true Curly Girl
book, and of course there was a solution in there. The Brown Sugar Scrub. It is essentially mixing brown sugar and your favorite conditioner together to massage your scalp. I guess I will be more precise and tell you how I tweek this.

Brown Sugar Scrub:

2 tablespoons conditioner
1 tablespoon brown sugar

When hair is wet, mix together and massage your scalp with it. Rinse out with water.

I don't mix my conditioner together with the brown sugar, I find it dissolves the brown sugar too much. I apply the conditioner 1st, massage my scalp, and then add the brown sugar and massage that, and then rinse out.

It works wonders to get rid of buildup, and it is a fairly easy, cheap concoction to make.

Again Curly Girl To the rescue!!!!

Now I plan to try this Brown Sugar Vanilla Body Scrub recipe for my body.

The buzz of late is all about Tyra Banks. Tyra has decided to get rid of the weave and wigs. We've seen Tyra natural before. Anytime black or black natural hair is discussed, she breaks out the cornrows. It is the default natural style of Tyra. Now she didn't say she was going relaxer free, but weave free. Let's not get too ethnic!!!!! It has me thinking though, has embracing natural hair mainstreamed. Michelle Obama is supposedly perm free. Solange had people thinking she was crazy all because she did a big chop (which I thought was darling). Are celebrities embracing natural or weaveless hair now? Will people follow the celebrities in the realm of being wig and weave free? Or are folks like Tyra upset that they get talked about when they do shows on natural hair as they sit there with blonde weave in their hair telling folks to embrace themselves?

One post I STILL get comments on is this one. Now all I said, in my mind is it seems that black women beauty standards seem to embrace the European ideal. Why we feel the need to want blue or grey eyes, or blonde hair, or long flowing straight weave sometimes is questionable to me. People took that to mean I hate all people with weaves, weaves are the devil, and black women with long hair are now jealous and upset other black women can have long hair now.

I do wonder if these same people are the ones who used to ask me when I was going to get my "hair done" when I first went natural, or when I pressed it told me, someone must have "talked some sense into me"?