New Buys

Hey all,
I bought some new hair items so I just thought I'd come through and share.

First item, Diane boar bristle brush ($7.39)

It's kind of hard right now, but with more use the bristles should soften up more. I'll only use this brush to smooth my edges when I'm feeling like looking a little more sleek and polished.


Second item, Annie rubber cushion brush (Denman alternative-only $1.59 at my local BSS, Beauty 4 U)

This is the cheapest denman alternative I've ever seen or heard of. I believe the Conair and Goody versions are around $5 so this buy was basically a steal. It detangles my hair very well when damp or completely wet. It's a lot quicker than using a wide tooth comb, however, I'm afraid of breakage so I both modified it and I wont be getting rid of my wide tooth comb any time soon.

Here's a youtube video that shows how to modify a denman (or denman alternative):



from jazzybee445 on youtube.

PRODUCT JUNKY-ISM

Sorry I've been M.I.A everyone, I had finals and other things I needed to attend to but I'm back to talk about something that not only I, but alot of other women trying to take care of their hair, experience...

My name is Ms. Larutan and I'm a product junky...

A product junky (PJ) is someone who just can't seem to keep their hands off of hair products. I've tried so many things and whenever I hear about something new I can't wait to "experiment". For me it started around the time when I started taking better care of my relaxed hair. My PJism spun into overdrive when I decided to go natural. I was going all over the internet seeing all these reviews for this product and that product. Before I knew it I was buying products for my natural hair before I had even big chopped. It was outrageous lol. Eventually I lowered my purchases down but every once in a while I still buy something new. I LOVE buying hair associated things. I get happy in the beauty supply store or in a common hair aisle. Whenever I walk into anywhere that has hair products/accessories, even the average grocery store, I feel like I have to go look.

Sure, I find alot of good things that I end up loving and buying more of. And sometimes these product buying urges turn into my staple products. However, sometimes... they don't.

The thing about being a PJ is that not all products are going to work the way you fantasize they will. That review that you heard from that one random youtube girl that one day a few weeks ago?.....she doesn't have your hair. Some product purchases aren't going to melt away your tangles. The truth is that you've probably got something underneath your sink that'll do that already! lol.

So to all my fellow PJs, we've got to do better lol. I think I'm one of the worst PJs because I've just recently started tweaking the products that didn't work for me... a lot of the time I had just ended up pushing them to the back of my sink. But that's going to change. I'm going to try really hard to at least use up three-fourths of everything that I don't like in addition to using up everything that I do before I go out and try to find something that could possibly work better.

And to anyone who has just gone natural, TRY not to become a PJ. I've found that a lot of products seem to work better with every use so give it a little bit of time before you move on to the next thing. And also, don't jump on every hair product bandwagon. Basically just spend wisely. You (and your wallet) will thank me for it. =]

That's all for now

Less than Three <3

Ms. Larutan

I WON!

I'm so excited! =D. I won the GO NATURAL PHOTO CONTEST on Blackhairmedia.com. Go check me out! To see all the photo entries click HERE. (I entered two photos, both located on page 15.)

Thank You to Blackhairmedia.com for providing a space for natural women to be featured and feel beautiful in a larger way.

Less than Three <3

Ms. Larutan

You all will be familiar with my winning photo. Looks at top of blog at banner lol. I took that picture 2 months after I BCed and it's still one of my favorites <3 =]

Contemplating going natural?

"I want to go natural but I don't think it'll look right on me "

I've heard this so many times now and I always say the same thing: "Natural looks good on everyone that's why it's called natural =)." Something that would be there naturally has got to look right on you lol. That's like if I was to say that "I don't think my fingernails look right on me" lol. Now I'm not a "go natural" pusher but when I hear this statement it makes me think you're already on the edge of the decision so I might as well share some information. At this point, I think all you have to do is do some research on the dangers of relaxing (I had many encounters with chemical burns) and maybe browse a few natural hair blogs or forums. The inspiration and drive would surely set in. For me it didn't end up being about looking right to others, but looking right to myself. And I must admit that I feel like this was how I was meant to be.

 If you sit down and really do the research, I've found most end up either transitioning or big chopping before they know it. Plus, deciding to go natural doesn't always have to be some jump off a cliff experience. I've known a few people who have gone back and forth on their decision but just kept a relaxer off of their hair long enough to truely decide. That way you'll have months of growth if you decide to get rid of the relaxed ends or you'll have months of growth that you'll end up relaxing. No biggy. Natural or relaxed, we're all beautiful =].

But here's some inspiration nonetheless:

            

Gotta love that barbie! Lol.

Less than Three <3

Ms. Larutan

RandomThought:FOREVER 21

Everyone loves Forever 21. If you're a girl/woman 14-25 years old, chances are you've bought at least one item from this popular store. Even men can get in on the action with 21Men and Heritage 1981.Where I'm from, it's the number one place to shop for older girls/young women. Why? Nice stuff for great prices ($9.99 skinny jeans are hard to pass up!). I mean of course you might be looking at thinner/less quality material and sometimes you might be thinking that the skills of the manufacturing department are just plain lacking... but cheap is music to anyone's ears!

But for you $$$ saving fashionistas (like I'd like to consider myself to be =]), Forever 21 is not ALWAYS the best place. For example, if you've got something special to attend you probably shouldn't show up in Forever 21 attire. Best reason: I can almost guarantee that not 1, but 2 or more other people will have what you have on lol.

Less Than Three <3

Ms. Larutan

Product-Hate

The title is a little harsh for this post but it gets the main point across. After going natural one of the biggest struggles some ladies have is finding the right products. I went through a pretty good amount of products before I finally found what works for me, and I'll most likely continue to try new products as they become available. This, however, is a post about what did not work for me and why.

Cantu Shea Butter Leave-In

Ingredients:
Water, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Glycine Soja Oil (Soybean), Propylene Glycol, Polyquaternium 37, Propylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, PPG 1 Trideceth 6, Cetyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Stearalkonium Chloride, Trimethylsilylamodimethicone, Panthenol, PPG 1 PEG 9 Lauryl Glycol Ether, Lanolin Oil, Cinnamidopropyltrimonium Chloride, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Acrylamidopropyltrimonium Chloride/Acrylamide Copolymer, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Benzophenone 3, BHA, BHT, Zea Mays Oil (Corn), Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, DMDM Hydantoin, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance

I've heard some people rave about this product but quite honestly my hair did not care much for it AT ALL. It did nothing but make my hair hard (there's a pretty substantial amount of protein in this product) and dry/frizzy looking. It also made me feel like I put a waxy coating on my hair. Gross.

Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Leave-in

Ingredients:
Aqua (Water) , Cetearyl Alcohol , Amodimethicone , Cetyl Esters , Behentrimonium Chloride , Parfum (Fragrance) , Methylparaben , Persea Gratissima Oil (Avocado Oil) , Trideceth-12 , Citric Acid , Prunus Armeniaca Kernel Oil (Apricot Kernel Oil) , Cetrimonium Chloride , Chlorhexidine Dihydrochloride , Linalool , Butylphenyl Methylpropional , Citronellol

The first thing I didn't like about this product was that it has a slightly sticky feel to it. I hate weird textures on my hands, so I didn't care that much for it immediately. After using this product 10 or so times I came to the conclusion that it really didn't do much of anything to my hair. It didn't really moisturize but it didn't overly dry out my hair either. It basically just sat on my hair taking up space on my strands. Needless to say I forgot about it and it got pushed to the back of the cabinet under the sink.

Curls: Goddess Curls

Ingredients:
water, sorbitol, polyacrylate-14, polyquaternium-7, polysorbate 20, fruit certified organic mangifera indica (mango) seed butter, plumeria alba flower extract, biosaccharide gum-1, carbomer, certified organic butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), aloe barbadensis leaf juice, aminomethyl propanol, tetrasodium EDTA, phenoxyethanol, DMDM hydantoin

This product also didn't do anything for my hair. I believe it is predominately advertised to be a curl definer but I think my hair is too coarse for this liquid textured definer to do much of anything. Since it's not something that I would consider using for moisture, I just completely stopped using it.

***I was looking on the Curls website and it looks like they have a Goddess Curls Glaze Organic gel in addition to the one I reviewed above. On the website it states : Ideal for THICK curly hair, so perhaps the Glaze will have a thicker texture. It might be worth checking out.***

Neutrogena Triple Moisture Shampoo

Ingredients:
Water; Sodium Trideceth Sulfate; Sodium Lauroamphoacetate; Sodium Chloride; Cocamide MEA; Meadowfoam (Limnanthes Alba) Seed Oil; Olive (Olea Europaea) Fruit Oil; Panthenyl Ethyl Ether; Sodium Benzotriazolyl Butylphenol Sulfonate; Polyquaternium-7; Amodimethicone; Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride; Castor Isostearate Succinate; Dimethiconol; Sweet Almond (Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis) Oil; Phenoxyethanol; Methylparaben; Propylparaben; Cetyl Alcohol; Guar (Cyamopsis Tetragonoloba) Gum; Citric Acid; TEA Dodecylbenzenesulfonate; Fragrance

I may be biased in saying that I didn't like this shampoo because I tried it a WHILE ago and I don't really like ANY shampoos (I have finally decided on Mill Creek Botanical Biotin Shampoo, click here to see review). However, as I recall this shampoo left my hair far to stripped and dry for it not to contain SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate). I couldn't wait to get the deep conditioner in my hair after applying this.


I hope this review helped some of you! =] But remember, just because these products didn't work for me that doesn't mean they wont work for you! It's trial and error with products for every different head of hair.

Less than Three <3

Ms. Larutan

New Protective Style

As you all know I'm protective styling for the winter and for hair growth. Well I took my senegalese twists out a few days before Thanksgiving (as I said in another post). So, sense I'm trying to get my grow on (I promise I wont make a corny joke ever again lol ) I'm back into another protective style. So I thought I'd share it.

I intentionally decided on a natural type of style.

Less than Three <3

Ms. Larutan



Thrifty!!

So, I went shopping at my FAV Thrift Store when I went home for Thanksgiving Break (The food was delicious by the way and I definitely needed the break from college with some family/friend quality time). So I have some more pictures of my finds for this Thrify edition!

You might say I had a little Brown Shoe Lust lol.

Lace-up Ankle Boots 

$6.50

  

 

I really like these Boots. I specifically like that they have a little variety. You can either wear them with or without a cuff (shown in first picture). Great Find. Can't beat it for $6.50.

______________________________________________________

Classic Designed Loafers

$5.50

I also really like these shoes. I love the design shown in the second picture. They have a very classic feel to them and I actually must admit I didn't know they made women's shoes like this. Great find.

 

What I'm hoping to run into on my next thrift store visit: Oxfords.

Less than Three <3

Ms. Larutan