Monday, December 6, 2010

Eucalyptus oil, my scalp, and Pregnancy

Ever since I started my hair journey 2 yrs ago, I sometimes  have an itchy scalp. I found that I cannot use jbco because this is the cause of some of my issues. I do believe that when you experience an abundance of growth that you might have a more itchy scalp than usual.
While becoming in tune to the needs of my hair and scalp, I discovered that things such as keeping my henna in my hair for more than 6 hours and leaving deep conditioner on my hair for more than 2 hours ( that isn’t completely all natural especially) will cause my scalp to itch. Now I do not suffer from dandruff or a dry scalp, but I definitely wanted to take care of this issue I was having.

Okay, so a few weeks ago I was watching a video by The Mrs here on hairlista and I decided to try some of this eucalyptus oil. There are many other oils including peppermint, that should not be used during pregnancy or during the first trimester (first 3 months) and since I am expecting I fall into this category. Eucalyptus oil is on the safe list for use during pregnancy and I have decided to use this in my dc. *Regardless of whether or not eo’s not listed as ‘safe’ have not affected you, it is not worth it for me to take this risk.*

So I add about 8-10 drops to 3-4 tbs of dc and a about 2tbs of oil. I leave this on for 45mins to 1 hour w/o heat, or 20 minutes with heat and any itching I have had previously is GONE. Although I do not itch on a frequent basis, this does improve my scalp’s overall health and is a proactive measure to eliminating scalp issues all together. A special thanks to The Mrs and be sure to check out her other very informative videos!

In addition to the eucalyptus oil, prepooing with coconut oil and doing ACV rinses have also helped tremendouly with the itching.

~Healthy Hair blessing~

**I wanted to add that since I cannot take anything for my headaches during pregnancy except for Tylenol which doesnt work, as soon as I do my dc with this eucalyptus oil in it my headache vanishes!!! Dont know why, but it's worth noting**

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Carol's Daughter Tui herbal Shampoo & Beaux Cheveux Essentials Honey Cream Moisturizing Pre-Poo

 

The first time I purchased and used Carol’s daughter’s hair products I was not too pleased: the shampoo was extremely drying and the leave- in conditioner was a watery mess that sat on top of my hair. The hair butter had beeswax in it and weighed down my fin strands. The deep conditioner was nice, but it was soooo small for such an expensive jar! The older version of hairmilk was nice also, but it was very wet and ready to revert my straight hair!

PictureFour years later or so, I am not quite sure what encouraged me to retry these products. Was is the enticing sale , or was it the talk that the shampoo and other products had been re-formulated? Well I’m not too sure, but one thing is for certain- I ordered my products early Sunday afternoon and received them MONDAY afternoon with free shipping! Of course I believe this had something to do with living in the tri-state area of the Carol’s Daughter warehouse.I purchased many products from them extending from the shampoo down to the body butter. This review will only include the shampoo from Carol’s daughter and the beaux cheveux honey cream moisturizing
pre-poo treatment.


As for the Beaux cheveux products, I first saw them on the top right side of the harlista homepage. I clicked into it and was immediately sucked in by the overflowing cloud of pre-poo fluff threatening to erupt out of the jar….how lovely the ingredients were and how amazing would that feel on my hair? There was no time trying to figure this out based on someone else’s review- I’d solely have to figure this one out for myself! I also ended up purchasing the black tea rinse spritz that you can use with the prepoo. The items were purchased through google check out on November 29th and I received them December 3rd-
not bad!

I first prepooed with the Beaux Cheveux. I re-examined the ingredients on the side of the jar and couldn't wait to see how the actual compared to the visual on the site. One might think with such simple ingredients that this product could be easily duplicated, but don’t be fooled as it soon proved to be delicately executed! It is also nicely priced at $9.95 for an 8 oz jar, about the price of shea w/o all the added goodies. This pre poo was without a doubt as creamy, fluffy, and buttery as one could get it and it was definitely ‘as pictured.’ ….IMMEDIATELY I thought of shea soufflé! I rubbed my finger across the top of it just to make sure and it was far smoother that I dreamed and melted quicker than shea butter. I applied it to my strands in about 6
sections concentrating on the ends ( I don’t have too much hair) and it didn’t take much to spread or to saturate my hair. It practically looks as though I have not even used it! I feel I can get many more applications out of it, at least 5-8! We’ll see!

My hair was already full of the burdock root butter cream so I wasn’t sure how it would react atop all the product in my hair. I covered my hair with a shower cap and slept with it overnight. The smell lingered but it wasn’t bad at all. Kind of like a  light and herbal powdery scent….it actually smells very close to Carol’s daughter’s ‘some of marguerite’s magic.’ Once I took my cap off I was surprised to feel that my hair was hard and straw like, but not hard enough to break per say. Could it have been the product already in my hair? Either way, it is supposed to work as a pre shampoo ‘before’ I wash my hair, so I’m assuming that means on top of products.?. After washing it out I felt my hair was still somewhat hard but more strong   than anything. After using the shampoo it was more moisturized and did feel strong. I would keep this pre poo around a bit longer as it did smell nice, applied well, and worked well with shampooing.



As for the Tui herbal shampoo, this was not nearly as drying as it was before. I'm not sure if it’s because my hair is in much better shape as compared to four years ago, or if it was for the pre poo. Either way I don’t think I will be finding out since I always do a prepoo. The shampoo lathered nicely and I did two rounds. I found that I need to use more of this for coverage than any other shampoo I have tried thus far. The tui smell is just so awesome, one that I definitely have a hard time describing. After the two products were used my hair was left feeling strong. It wasn’t dry and not overly moisturized and I could even go without conditioning (something I would never do). I continued with my btr and dc and I am loving the results!!!! I am currently
almost 8 weeks post relaxer. I most certainly need more time with the two products to see if they are true keepers.
Stay tunned!