Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Banana & Coconut Milk Hair Mask


Ingredients:

2 Ripe Bananas (for longer hair 3 bananas)
250ml / 1 cup Coconut Milk (for 3 bananas use 300mls)
1tbsp Olive Oil
2tbsp Mayonnaise (yes straight from your refrigerator)
1tsp Rose Water (100% natural not artificially flavour)

Directions

Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend well. Once this is done I find that it is best to apply the mixture to dry hair. You want to focus on applying it on your roots first and then move down the hair shaft, paying attention to your ends. Cover your hair with plastic wrap or any plastic bag and let sit for 30 minutes to whenever. After you will rinse and apply your shampoo of choice and then follow that with a moisturizing conditioner for about 5 minutes (this doesn’t have to be an expensive conditioner, I use the Tresemme Luxurious Moisturizing Conditioner).  Then I apply my after wash products (leave-in, moisturizer, and an oil).


You may ask why you need to apply another conditioner if you already applied the mask, I find that this mask will moisturise your hair but it won’t give it slip. So I prefer to use it before shampooing. Most conditioners contain dimethicone which creates a film around the hair shaft making the hair smooth and gives it slip. So I use a cheap conditioner to give my hair the slip I love, plus the oils can leave your hair feeling heavy should you apply the mask after shampooing.

The Mask Applied to my daughters hair, can you see the new growth (7 weeks post)


 The Banana Coconut Milk Hair Mask



 Letting her hair airdry


 Whatever is left over i will just place it in the refrigerator until next shampoo day (the freezer is fine also) 


Ladies if you try this mask let me know if you loved it or hated it.

Saturday, 24 August 2013

Tresemme Thermal Creations Heat Tamer Leave-In Spray





With all the hype that was going around about this heat protectant I just had to try it. Believe me when I say that I’m so happy that I tried this product, it is by far one of the best heat protectants on the market. This is my go to product whenever I am going to blow dry and flat iron my hair for a sleek look. Even after I spray my other leave in products on my hair and then apply this product on top my hair is still light and feathery afterwards.  I feel as if the product does exactly what it is supposed to do, it coats all the hair strands and protects it against the heat from my styling tools. For me however it does have a drawback and the only thing I don’t like about this product is that it doesn’t really leave my hair shiny. I always have to add something on top of my hair to give it some shine. Usually I will combine this and my Crème of Nature Argon Oil Gloss & Shine Polisher or my ORS Thermal Protect & Shine spray. What I do is that I would wash my hair and then follow that with a deep conditioner and then apply my leave in (I always use water based leave-in conditioners when I plan to flat iron my hair to prevent my hair from being weighted down by cream based leave-in conditioners), I then apply the heat tamer to my damp hair and part it in four sections and then proceed to blow dry each section. Once my hair is completely dry I then apply one of the products listed above on my hair and then proceed to flat iron my hair. Overall I will continue to use this product whenever I am going to flat iron my hair and I want that nice light, flowy look and feel to my hair. If you’re looking for a product that will protect your hair without leaving it weighted down then you should definitely give this product a try.


Pros:
  •     Protects the hair
  •     Smells nice and light – not over powering
  •     Water-based – not thick like a serum
  •     Lightly moisturising
  •     Easy to use container

Cons:
  •    Does not make my hair shiny

Saturday, 11 May 2013

Elasta QP DPR-11 (Deep Penetrating Remoisturizing Conditioner)





The Elasta QP DPR-11 is a deep penetrating conditioner which contains 11 + plant extracts, oils and vitamins, and promises to leave your hair renewed and feeling like silk. I bought this product back in March after seeing some good reviews on YouTube and doing some online research. I was not a big fan of the fact that the second ingredient is mineral oil, but still decided to give it a try. The product has a tan colour and smells like peaches, the consistency is thick but the product spreads evenly on your hair. The product appears oily but when applied it doesn’t leave an oil feeling. If you apply a small amount to your hair and smooth it out it absorbs into the skin in seconds. 




The product states that you should apply to hair and comb through, cover hair with plastic cap and sit under a warm dryer for 15 minutes, for extremely damaged, over-processed, or breaking hair follow the same steps and leave on for 25 minutes. How I used this product the first time is that I added olive oil, castor oil and my Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter Growth Oil, and applied it to damp hair after shampooing with my Keracare Hydrating Detangling Shampoo. I then covered my hair with a plastic cap and sat under my dryer for about 30 minutes and then left the conditioner on for about 3 hours. Rinsing the conditioner from my hair was like washing my hair on a relaxer day, my hair was just so soft and tangle free. As the product says my hair felt like silk. My hair had a fresh and renewed feeling and a decent shine to it. Once my hair was dried I decided to use other Elasta QP products that I had so I applied the Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter Leave-in H2 conditioner, heat protectant, then proceeded to blow dry and flat iron my hair. After 4 days my hair was still soft and smooth, normally when I flat iron my hair it has a straw like feeling. However this time it didn’t. The following week I decided to try the product again however I omitted adding oils, the result was a little bit different. My hair was soft but it didn’t feel the way it did when I added my oils. It tried the product on its own overnight and the result was a little better, and it left my hair a lot softer, but not leading to moisture overload. Also if you tend to co-wash a lot, this product will not leave any oily residue on your hair.


Final thoughts…would I be using this product in the future??? Yes but mainly with my oils. I have noticed that it really helps to soften my new growth and my texlaxed hair, preventing my hair from drying out and breaking. I would recommend this product to anyone looking for a decent conditioner, not a WOW conditioner but a conditioner that does its job of moisturizing your hair.