Natural hair styles

How to wear your natural hair on a disney cruise (What to expect.) Pt. 2

~ chubbycurl34 ~ Leave a comment

    Ok its part 2 time. What was previously discussed in part 1 was how to pick a natural style for your Disney Cruise vacation. I talked about picking a long lasting hair style so you won’t have to restyle your hair often. This will ensure your hair won’t be damaged from heavy manipulation. In part 2 I will discuss my second Disney Cruise hair style choices and why.

    After my fist Cruise on the Disney Dream I got engaged and when the question of where we would take our honeymoon came up a cruise seemed like a perfect idea. After saving all my tips for a year and my husband put aside money we were able to secure a spot. So, all the reservations and transportations were out of the way. So the next thing to plan was how would I wear my hair?

 After my first cruise I liked the turn out of the braids with my own hair, but for my honeymoon I wanted to feel flawless. Plus the amount of sun, heat, and chlorine from the last cruise had left my hair really dry. Factor in the fact that I had blown-out my hair to achieve the style and my hair started to feel a little damaged.

My hair usually spirals into little curls when it’s been left in braids or twist for a considerable amount of time. However; after the fist cruise it wouldn’t and I became concerned. One of the things I did wrong and I warned you about in part 1 is I didn’t use a heat protectant when I blew out my hair. That was a big no no. Then I didn’t feel like lugging my go to hair product with me on vacation so I left them at home. No no number 2. I didn’t moisturize my hair at all after I would leave the beach or the pool, so my hair just kinda dried out.

I learned from these mistakes and I was determined to take good care of my hair this time around. For the second cruise the beautician that did my hair for the wedding cut my hair shorter than I would have liked before the wedding and I couldn’t manipulate it at all to do any of my go to pinup tuck and roll styles. She also informed me after she cut my hair that she could not do the style we previously agreed on because my hair was too short. So to achieve the style I wanted for my wedding she had to add tracks AKA weave in my hair. I’m not against weave. I just didn’t picture that for my wedding day hair. Unfortunately I was backed into a corner because that was the style I wanted so I relented.

After I agreed to the weave it made me wonder once again what will I do with my hair for the honeymoon? Do I keep the curly (not my hair texture) weave in and keep the $250 hair style in my hair the whole honey moon, or do I go out on a limb and try something else?

My hair was too short to do braids on my own hair. I also didn’t want to risk damaging what hair I had left so I decided to put in jumbo kinky twist extensions myself.

Here is my reasoning behind choosing this style. I wanted long flowing hair, and I wanted to be able to bring only one small product to moisturize my scalp, and hair. Keeping my ends protected was a plus.

 What really sold me was being able to slap my hair into a pony tail or do a fishtail braided up-do at some of the more elegant restaurants on the ship. My hair was completely put away thus protected.

Now the only question was can I do my hair in time for my honeymoon? My honeymoon was 2 days after my wedding. We got married on a Saturday slept in on Sunday and I had till Tuesday 9 am before our plane left to install butt length kinky twist. So needless to say I was pressed for time.

What I did was plan ahead, and you can do this to if you ever convince yourself to do your hair with very little time. 1) I bought my hair early. I went to the beauty supply at the beginning of the month and got three bags of hair. 2) I bought my hair products early. I went to store all over finding the products I liked on sale a month in advanced. 3) I planed and plotted my free time out to a T. I asked my hubby if he was ok with me ignoring him a little Sunday afternoon so I could get an early start on my hair. I also planned for extra time INCASE something went wrong and I had to try something else. This came in handy when I ran out of hair Monday.  4) I packed my clothes 2 days before the wedding. I did this so all the packing stress would not get in the way. I didn’t want to make my time any shorter because then I might damage my hair trying to rush. When you are in a hurry and you need to detangle your hair, it’s possible you can be too rough and damaged your ends, or roots with pulling and yanking. We didn’t want that.

With everything planed and the wedding behind us I woke the day after my wedding with the task of cutting this weave out of my hair without getting my own hair. I was successful in record time and even managed to do a quick twist out so I still looked good when we left the hotel. When we arrived to our new house it was raining outside and inside out house so some of my time got taken up with moving our furniture and clothes and calling an emergency roofer. Strangely enough I planned for this too. I had seen strange holes in the ceiling and asked my mom/ landlord to check on it she refused and I noticed some of the furniture I had bought months ago was wet and water stained. She didn’t believe me till water was literally pouring down on me and my husband. I saw it coming and I checked the weather and I planned for it which is a strange thing to plan for, but I did.

After we got the bed and computer moved to dry land. I set up my stuff on the bed and gathered my felicity DVDs which somehow make me braid and twist faster.

I started at 5pm Sunday, and was done by 10pm Monday night.   I was finished by the end season 2 of Felicity. So I think I made pretty good time.

So my hair was finished and my trip was underway. To add a little glamour I rolled my twist with perm rods and dipped them in microwaved hot water. At the time we didn’t have a range and the only way to heat anything up was with the microwave.

The next morning before we left for our flight I took down the rollers and my twist was curly but still wet. If I had more time, they might have been dry. Also if I had access to a range the water would have been much hotter and my curls may have lasted longer.

Ironically our flight was delayed twice so we didn’t leave till 2 pm. If I had known and was not supper self-conches about it I could have kept my rollers in till we boarded. But I was not raised like that so that would have never gone down like that.

Actually I was a little peeved because I could have stayed home longer with the rollers in. So the lesson I learned from this, and I’m passing this down to you is. If you want to curl your extensions make sure you have enough time to let them dry.

So the twist worked out great. I was able to swim and play without having to restyle my hair twice a day. I think we went on the Aqua Duck 50 times, and it was nice not to be that black chick that’s scared to get her hair wet.

Did I mention Disney Cruise shampoo is awesome? I ran out of the tiny bottles of my Shea moistures that I brought and I ended up using the cruise lines shampoo. It didn’t strip my hair of moisture which I thought it would do. My hair stayed soft which was a surprise. If you don’t want to bring to much hair product with you this is a nice option, and if you prefer your own because of allergies, and certain preferences be sure to take an extra little regulation tiny bottle because you may end up washing your hair a lot. I was in the pool, Jacuzzi, and Aqua Duck at least 3 times a day being romantic with my hubby and I ran out of shampoo quickly.

I know what you are thinking. “Didn’t washing your hair so much strip it of moisture?”It probably did a little so that’s something to keep in mind. Also I let my hair air dry a lot and it started to smell mildewed by the end of the cruise. I covered it up with perfume, but that was spraying alcohol on my hair which could dry it out.

I never found a solution for the smell. The only thing I could have done was use the state room blow dryer but it didn’t have enough power to me, and again would have potentially damaged my hair without a heat protectant.

Another thing to consider if you go the extensions route is bring a lot of large hair ties. I made the mistake of only bringing 1 and it broke before we even boarded the ship in our hotel the night before debarkation. So I had to go to my hotel gift shop and buy a overpriced Minnie Mouse scrunchy that was big like the ones from the 80’s and 90’s and it did not have a lot of give. Don’t end up in this situation.

Not having to worry about my hair was the best part of this style and it made it the best choice for future vacations. When you are on vacation you want to be free and have fun not be that prissy girly girl that fusses over her hair throughout most of the trip.  So if you are going on a Disney Cruise or somewhere hot with a lot of water options extensions are the best way to go. Your hair is put away so you won’t mess with it potentially making it weak and unhealthy. Your ends are protected and if you clean it properly you won’t have to worry about mildew and scalp infections from bacteria buildup.

I hope you all have fun this vacation season and keep your hair health in mind when traveling.

How to wear your natural hair on a disney cruise (What to expect.) Pt. 1

~ chubbycurl34 ~ Leave a comment
     It’s that time of year again when you want to take a family vacation to some place warm and sunny. You may be newly natural or a natural hair veteran but you still don’t know what to do with your hair for the trip. Lately I’ve been obsessed with the idea of going on another family vacation on the Disney Dream or Fantasy. I’ve been on the dream twice so far with my family first, then again on my honeymoon and it’s now my new favorite thing. I probably won’t be able to get my whole family together again for another one because no one seems interested but a girl can dream ( get it)  Day dreaming is what I’ve been doing ever since the weather broke and the sun started shinning a little bit brighter.
  While I was looking through picture of my stay on the Disney Dream. I suddenly remembered my fist cruise dilemma of what should I do with my hair?  I had never been on a cruise before. When I was told about the cruise I was only given a week to prepare. My sister the journalist, had lucked up on getting the whole family booked on the fist voyage were the press was invited to capture the ships christening.
  So in the midst of taking off work and informing my teachers I would not be there for the fist week of class I needed to pic a lasting hair style. In Chicago it was January, cold and snow up to your knees. I had been practicing protective styling to be able to get my hair under a winter hat, but I wanted my hair down for the trip. When considering hair styles I knew I didn’t want to have to style my hair everyday. I knew I wanted to swim ( one of my favorite things to do. ) and I knew a twist out would not last 10 min. 
 

The first thing you have to consider is your environment. Disney cruise ships travel all over. If you choose a Caribbean, Bahamian or Hawaiian cruise you can expect warmer weather. which means more frizz and a chance of damaging your hair from over styling, wind and sun damage. When I was on the dream both times we went to the Bahamas and it was so hot and sunny my already dyed hair got even lighter. I was OK with this till it dried out and become brittle form the chlorine in the pool.   If you take a European, or Alaskan cruise the weather might be a lot cooler especially if you take the Alaskan one. So protective styling might be the best route for those. 

  What you will want to do is have a style that will last through water, wind, rain, heat, & could. Something you don’t have to work with everyday because constant manipulation of the hair can lead to breakage.  
  After checking out the weather in Florida and Cast Away Cay For that week I had a clearer picture of what I would be up against. What I chose for my first Bahamian cruise was tiny braids with my own hair. I figured this style can hold up for the three nights. My hair was shoulder length when I did a blow-out so I braided it up after, so I could have some hang time. I applied Shea butter to my ends to seal in moisture and allow them to curl up a little. After I spent a whole day braiding my hair. I wrapped them around some flexie rood rollers to make my braids into tiny  Shirley temple curls. I wanted to look cute/well put together but ready for some fun in the pool and on the Aqua Duck. I also wanted to be mindful of my ends which again turned light brown even though they had been dyed dark brown months ago. I knew this was the oldest most vulnerable part of my hair. I didn’t want to mess with it a lot. 
  The first night we arrived in Florida my hair was really cute and curly but our ship was not leaving till early the next morning. It was 1 am by the time we was checked into the polynesian resort. It took them forever to check us in and then we needed to eat cause we had long missed dinner. After eating my sister informs us we need to be at the bus for the port buy 6 am so by 2am I new I was not going to be getting much sleep. I thought that since I would not be sleep long that if I wrapped my hair a certain way and put on a bonnet just so my curls would still be poppin. Wrong! When I woke my tiny individual braids were flat and life less. So I had to improvise because this was a press event and I didn’t want any bad hair day photo bombs in the news. So before I got into the shower I quickly Bantu knotted all the braids. I did not remove the knots till we was just about to disembark the bus at port. And almost like magic my curls was popping again.  Now throughout the 2 hour outdoor Christening celebration my curls fell again but they was still intact enough for our family Disney pic boarding the ship.

I did the Bantu knot method the whole cruise cause I did not want to bring my rollers. It worked pretty well and when I got in the pool, Aqua Duck, or ocean I put it in a pony tail. All in all some type of braids style be it up-do or extensions will work. If you don’t have the money or time like I did to get extensions, and your comfortable wearing your own hair in a braided style I would go for the one I tried. The only draw back is 1) you have to be careful blowing your hair out so you don’t get heat damage. Use a protective product that prevents heat damage, use a low heat setting, and try not to hold the dryer to close to your hair or hold it in one spot to long.   2) you have to be ok with your hair shrinking up a little after it gets wet and from heat. 3) avoid sand in your hair at all cost. I made the mistake of laying my head down some place sandy on the beach in Cast Away Cay and it took a week to get it all out. This ends part one stay tuned for part to where I discuss my experience with extensions. 

Shrinkage sucks

~ chubbycurl34 ~ Leave a comment

My hair is shorter than it use to be so when shrinkage happens it just ruins my mood a little. Basically for those who do not understand. If you are African American that has let your hair grow out in its natural texture it is liable to look different in the next hour after you style it.  Basically it will shrink up and look shorter. Now there are ways to stretch your hair using heat or other stretching hair styles. However this does not mean your hair is safe from reverting back and shrinking up. Most of the time for me it’s a toss up between what the weather is doing or what I’m doing. Like if it rains my hair will be moisturized by the water but once it drys it will shrink. My hair can be really unpredictable if I leave it out. If I pin it up and do tuck and roll type hair styles its more reliable. But as I mentioned in previous blogs I think I’m allergic to metal hair pins so I might have to start to style

 it in a different way that may be left out. So it really peeves me when I do such styles like twist outs wash and go’s and such and I lose my length before I get off the train for work. I hate it when people ask me did I cut my hair especially when they are black. They should know the deal. I hate it when people insinuate I put pieces in my hair when I do pinup styles because they think my hair was to short to do that. My hair is healthy so I’m not mad at that but it really shrunk up this week and its frustrating.   

Shrinkage sucks

~ chubbycurl34 ~ Leave a comment

My hair is shorter than it use to be so when shrinkage happens it just ruins my mood a little. Basically for those who do not understand. If you are African American that has let your hair grow out in its natural texture it is liable to look different in the next hour after you style it.  Basically it will shrink up and look shorter. Now there are ways to stretch your hair using heat or other stretching hair styles. However this does not mean your hair is save from reverting back and shrinking up. Most of the time for me it’s a toss up between what the weather is doing or what I’m doing. Like if it rains my hair will be moisturized by the water but once it drys it will shrink. My hair can be really unpredictable if I leave it out. If I pin it up and do tuck and roll type hair styles its more reliable. But as I mentioned in previous blogs I think I’m allergic to metal hair pins so I might have to start to style

 it in a different way that may be left out. So it really peeves me when I do such styles like twist outs wash and go’s and such and I lose my length before I get off the train for work. I hate it when people ask me did I cut my hair especially when they are black. They should know the deal. I hate it when people insinuate I put prices in my hair when I do pinup styles because they think my hair was to short to do that. My hair is healthy so I’m not mad at that but it really shrunk up this week and its frustrating.   

Can some hair styles promote brain damage?

~ chubbycurl34 ~ Leave a comment

So it happened again today. I got a head ache from my hairstyle. This happens to a lot of naturals I know so I know I’m not alone. It usually occurs when I put my hair up I a high puff, or a bun. When I reach up into my scalp it’s like all the skin on top of my head is bunched up in one spot. When I finally can’t take no more and take it down I can physically feel my scalp slowly moving back into its original intended position Ouch! I usually avoid those styles because after I get a head ache I get a sinus infecting for some reason. It last all day sometimes 3 days. Which you can imagine is bad business for a singer. In college I avoided these styles like the plague during my vocal juries. I always feel like I’m causing some serious long term damage there like a blood clot or tumor. I know of some ways to avoid the head ache when your hair is in a high puff from a video I saw on YouTube from my natural sisters. It basically involves a two part puff that looks like one in the end. However, today I was already feeling sick so I was not about to take a chance on adding a head ache to the equation. I didn’t get to wash my hair Monday like intended, so I had to wash and style my hair before I went to work. I was on a time crunch and I needed a quick style to do so I could get a nap in before work. I really did not want to come in to work at all. I hurts to breathe as I type this now. So I looked at the Time and estimated how much time I could spend on my hair in order for me to take some cold medicine and take a nap.  I looked through My Pinterest board natural hair styles for inspiration and I came across one style that I know I had done before. I did the style without pining my ends under however, because my hair is still shorter then it use to be because of that stylist cutting it. My hair kept popping out and looking crazy so I just left it all out. Ok here’s what I did. I put my hair in three small pony tails in the back and a pompadour in the front. That’s it and this gave me a head ache. It’s not to tight or high but my head and nose hurt. That does not go well with it hurting in my chest when I breathe.  😦 I really hope this goes away cause I really don’t feel like changing my hair. 

P.S. I put coconut oil I’m my hair today. I must have a fever because its running down the side of my face. Not cool 😦 

Will hair become damaged and brake off if you don’t dye it regularlyafter getting it colored?

~ chubbycurl34 ~ Leave a comment

         Is it true that if you don’t dye your hair regularly it will break off. Lately I’ve been thinking about not dying my hair anymore. I’m trying to figure out a healthy path to get my hair to the level I think it can reach. 

         The last time I had it dyed was for the wedding. I went darker. Actually it looks like my original hair color. I picked the color form a swatch the stylist showed me and after she was done the color didn’t seem to show up on my hair. Only time I kinda started to see my color was on the honeymoon in the Bahamas on a really hot day. I could see it through the twist extensions. It was as if that supper hot sun lightened my hair which I know is possible. Just never really saw my hair do that before. Any-who my hair is colored but very close to my own color. 

          So I’m thinking of laying off the color for a while. Something my old stylist said still rings in my head from time to time when ever I think about quitting color. She told me its like a relaxer. If you stop coloring your hair it will brake off so keep coming in regularly for touch ups on your roots. Now she could have been just telling me this to keep me as a costumer. 

         She was my stylist when I had a relaxer and since I had gone natural I styled my own hair. The only time I came in was for color and I came in far and few between because she charged $75 for color and a wash. She didn’t use to charge that much till I went natural too. Also after she colored my hair and washed it I went home with wet hair and styled it myself. It wasn’t long before I decided that I should just get a $8 box of dye and do it my self.  I always wondered though if she was advising me right about hair braking off and such or was she just scrambling to keep a customer. 
        
         It must have been really shocking to her. I mean I went from coming in every 4 weeks for years, to going MIA for a year and a half to transition, only to resurface to ask her to cut all my relaxed hair off. Something she advised me against. She also advised me to get a texturizer to make my curl pattern softer. I’m glad I didn’t listen to that advice because I soon found out my hair is very soft and has a very cute curl. I hope she was lying about this. If not I soon will find out. Let me know if you have heard anything about this? If anyone is even reading this. Oh  well I’m a do this for me 🙂 I need documentation as a blue print for my hair success. The only other thing I’m worried about is handling all my gray hairs showing up. Peace out home skillets.