H.H.A | Bantu Knot's

Hi Guys!

Its been a while since I've done a Heatless Hair Adventure, and when I saw the tutorial for the Bantu Knot and the beautiful Spiral Curls it creates I had to give it ago! So true to HHA I haven't ever done this before and its my very first attempt! So here's a lovely little pictorial on how to do them!

Step 1: You want to brush out all of the knots and tangles in you hair. It needs to be nice and smooth.

Step 2: Start with a front middle section and begin twisting and wrapping the hair to form a spiral bun, it should sit on top of your head all crazy like, then bobby pin in place.

Step 3: Repeat. So Grab more sections, these can be as big or as small as you like twist, wrap and pin all over your head. 

Step 4: Mist with water and leave over night or for at least 4 hours.

* Tip * try not to wrap too tightly at the base, they start to get tighter as you go, and they can be a tad uncomfortable!* 

4 hours later...

After 4 hours my scalp was screaming at me so I decided to de-pin and unravel my knots and separate them. The end results were...not how I'd imagined/hoped. I'm not sure if I should of maybe put some product in or dampened my hair more before wrapping but these are my curls after 4 hours, I have added in some serum and some curl gel.

I do plan on trying this method again, and when I do I'll be sure to update!

Jeni xo

The Hair Diaries | No Poo, One Month On

On the 5th of December last year I quit shampoo and took up a more natural approach to hair care. This last month has been full of ups and downs and many many bad hair days. And I fear I have yet more bad hair days to come.

For those of you who read my last post I have been using a completely natural shampoo bar by J.R Liggetts and an Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) rinse to wash and condition my hair.

After my very first wash may hair was...different. It felt waxy and thick and heavy so I smoothed it into a side plait and left it be.

Day 2 my hair was way greasy! But I soldiered on knowing I shouldn't wash it straight away.
The second time I washed my hair it was again iffy, the roots were fine it was just the length of my hair that was waxy feeling like I hadn't washed everything out of it, but it was not as bad as before, and the day after it looked much better. Every time since then it has washed better and better to a point where it looks nice enough on my wash days now. Any other day after wash day is a whole different kettle of fishes!

I've been pushing my wash day's to every 3 days using a home made dry shampoo. But my hair I think is still transiting as its getting very oily. I get one day during my wash cycle where I can wear my hair down, the rest of the time its up in a bun.

I have recently found an amazing FACEBOOK FORUM for all those who are no poo and low poo. Its full of great advice and you can simply ask a question and someone will answer it! Through this forum I have found out that you really should push your washes to a minimum of 4 days, so for me if I wash it on a Monday morning I won't wash it again until Friday morning. And anything that is classed as sebum removing, such as dry shampoo, actually count towards a wash! so this last week I have been pushing 4 days between washing and cut out dry shampoo in the hopes my scalp will wise up and produce less sebum/oil soon.

Another helpful tool is a Boar Bristle Brush (BBB) which is used to help spread the oils down the hair shaft to reduce the oils on the scalp and condition the lengths which seems to work ok I think.

Along with no poo I haven't used ant heat on my hair for at least 3 months! I plan to do monthly updates on my no poo journey as I'm finding it challenging and exciting at the same time!

Until next time!

Jeni x

HHA | Crocodile Curls

So its been a while since I have documented a Heatless Hair Adventure, and today I decided to have ago at another way to curl my hair and take a few snaps to share! This post wasn't planned so apologies for the lack of photographic detail but I'll walk you through how to do it!

What you will need: 

Clips ( I used crocodile clips, that's why I named them crocodile curls)

A spray bottle of water

Hairspray

Styling wax

+ First off section your hair into two sides and clip one out of the way. Then separate a small section off (this will be your first curling section) and clip the rest out of the way.

+ Dampen the strand of hair with the water, then place two fingers at the top of the strand and wrap the hair loosely around your fingers like you would a curling wand.

+ Pull your fingers out of the loop and wind the loop towards your scalp and clip in to place.Then separate another small section of hair and repeat. Do this all over your head. You should end up looking like this...

+ Once in place spritz again with water then with some hairspray. I used a total of 19 clips as I do have a lot of hair, although it doesn't look like it.

I left these to set for about an hour and a half before I took the clips out and scrunched with wax to give texture. The end result was pretty, bouncy curls. There were a few indentations where the clips had sat but nothing to bad. The curls did drop out but my hair does have trouble keeping in loose heatless curls because its pretty straight and has a relatively silky texture, but I think with a little more practice and refining this technique could work quite well.

Here are my results...

Jen x

Heatless Hair Adventures | Straw Curls / Waves #2

Ready for another Heatless Hair Adventure? We are still on straws, but this time I promise the result will be less poodlerific!

Here's what you will need!

What we are going to be doing is making our straws thicker to create more of a substantial curl/wave effect.

Start buy gathering 4 straws together, if you want bigger fuller curls use more. (I'll try that out at a later date and post the results)

Secure with masking tape, you can also use little hair ties but I find this works better for me.

You want to make enough straw rollers to cover your head, I've made 8 in total.

And then once your ready, your hairs all combed through, spray a section damp with water and wrap your hair around the straws from top to bottom, I find this the easiest way to do it.

I then repeated this all over my head, using 7 of my 8 straw rollers and left them in for approximately 3 and a half hours.

The result...

Pretty, tight waves. I'm also wearing the red lip gloss I made from my last post! 

Give this a go and let me know how you get on!

Have a great day!

Jen x

Mini Double French Braid

Hi!

Here's a cute double braided fringe look I wore to work the other day.

The second longer braid I ended up pinning round my head, would make a great boho look with wavy hair! But I'm still on my no heat run! So making do with my naffy straight flicky-ness! Missing my ghd's but the end's of my hair are happier!

When french braiding the easiest thing to remember is pass the outer strands OVER the middle strand, rather than under that way your braid will lay flat to your head & use little sections of hair.

p.s sorry about the quality of the 4th photo, blurry much?!

Hope you like!

Jeni x