Hiya,
Been a while, hope you ladies are good!This post is a continuation of the Yay, Bleh and Nay series (hair products ranking post) started HERE. As stated in the first installment when I focused on hair moisturizers, this series is very personal, meaning that the opinions written about these products are from my personal use of them so if you have used them before, you are allowed to rank and group them yourself. I am just hoping that this series will help hair journey beginners be aware of what to look out for in purchasing different hair products and since this blog chronicles my hair journey, I am allowed to YAY, NAY or BLEH products I try :)

I have tried quite a number of leave in conditioners, I'd like to say a huge thanks to whoever invented them!! Their light and liquid consistency is the perfect water element to help detangle and make combing easy then their conditioning properties aided by either hydrolized protein or all those yummy oils like olive, coconut, argan etc give them that edge over plain water because these additions help condition and keep your strands moisturized and soft after the water dries out!

If you don't have a good leave in conditioner in your hair stash...stop reading right now and go and look for one ASAP! Lol!! Just kidding but every healthy head of hair needs a leave in conditioner applied to it DAILY!
While you can concoct yours with water and other yummy stuff like I sometimes do; read THIS POST to find out how... I have gathered the manufactured ones I have used in recent time and grouped them, not all of them are liquid and watery, some are creamy but they still make your hair moist enough like water does but some have worked better for me than others...

Below are some of the leave in conditioners I have used recently;
From Left to Right;


TRESemme Curl Hydration, Organics Silkening inner hair deep repair , Mane n tail Detangler, Silk Elements Mixed Silk leave in conditioning creme, Giovanni direct leave in weightless moisture conditioner, Hairtrition Keratin smoothing leave in treatment, S curl no drip activator moisturizer, finally Vitale leave in conditioner;



The Yays;
Top of my Yay list is Giovanni direct leave in weightless moisture conditioner;


LOVE it!! It has great slip(what you should look out for in a good leave-in), instantly softens my strands, making them damp and manageable without building up making it perfect for daily use!

Next is Mane n Tail detangler; this product is a watery spritz that is not exactly a leave in conditioner because it doesn't necessarily leave your hair conditioned after it dries out but its ability to MELT AWAY tangles is just phenomenal!! I love this product so much that it has been a staple on my shelf since I started my hair journey in 2010!

Hairtrition keratin smoothing leave in treatment feels just like Giovanni,


It is protein based hence the keratin but it leaves the hair soft and supple. I started using it recently and I love it, but for the quantity I would have made it a staple product of mine too! Without a doubt, this product can easily replace Giovanni direct leave in, if you run out of the Giovanni.

I also fell in love with TRESemme's Curl Hydration;

 It has a lighter consistency than the Giovanni direct leave in and Hairtrition and so it gets absorbed faster than I would like on days I really need moisture however I love using if for twist outs as it has the wonderful effect of leaving the curls that are formed soft and with movement, not hard as rock as traditional gel tends to do.

My last Yay product is the Silk Elements Mixed Silk leave in conditioner!

 Love love this product! Unfortunately I think the company discontinued producing it for whatever reason( I have searched every Sally's beauty store-where I got this product from and it's no where to be found even online!) . This product is the most packed with protein so I don't use it daily, it has the tendency to make your hair feel stronger, so I always use it when I feel my hair needs extra strengthening.

Now to the BLEH products; Basically products that are just there!
Vitale's leave in conditioner is definitely a BLEH product, I think it's too watery to be effective, I stopped using it as often after realizing it really made no difference and was as good as using water.

S curl no drip activator moisturizer surprisingly has been a BLEH product for me. The consistency is watery;

 which made me feel it would be like the Mane n tail detangler but it has this tendency to leave my hair feeling gooey and greasy just after a few days use! Not nice!! It does make my hair feel soft but like Silk elements I don't recommend it for daily use.

Finally Organics Silkening inner hair deep repair which I picked up sometime ago from Ebeanor Supermarket is quite BLEH!


I bought it because of all the wonderful claims it had written on the bottle like; repairs and restores heat-stressed hair, fills and smoothes cracked cuticles, ultra light frizz resisting shine! Was even going to do a review on it but the product didn't live up to my expectations for it and I only give honour to whom honour is due!!The pump on the bottle made matters worse because it's such a hassle to get the product out of the bottle when your fingers are all slippery. To be honest, the product itself feels OK but has nothing on the rest of the products listed.

There are no Nay products from this selection. All of them have done a good enough job and I won't mind repurchasing them, some more quickly than others. If you look through the list you can generally see what I look out for with a good leave-in conditioner, just to summarise;

It must be light and watery, leaving my hair feeling moist.

It must have good slip, so that it just glides through the hair strands.

It must do what it claims either strengthen if it is protein based-'Treatments' or condition if it is conditioning based- 'Conditioning cremes' (most bottles will specify)

So, that's that for my Yay, Bleh And Nay series for Leave in Conditioners/Treatments!

Have any of you tried any of these products? How would you rank them? feel free to share your thoughts below!
As usual thanks for stopping by!

Xxx
Dabs

Hiya,
How are you ladies doing? Hope all 's well!! As for me, am still on my epic 16 weeks relaxer stretch!!

As I said in my first post on the stretch series, over the next weeks, I will tell you how I managed my new growth that week, my regimen, products I used, what they did for my hair, the amount of hair I lost etc. I'm hoping that by chronicling this stretch I will help those who want to try stretching their relaxer treatments and it will be a reference point for me when next I'm on a stretch.

Week 9 went better than I expected actually, a little boring in the hair styling department but when you have thick new growth, sometimes you have to be boring and leave your hair alone in a bun! All the styling manipulation isn't worth it at the end of the day!

So on week 9 on Saturday, I simply washed my hair with Giovanni tea tree invigorating shampoo because my scalp was itching big time!


Must have been the few drops of rain that touched my hair, after shampooing I just slathered the silk elements olive oil deep conditioning treatment on my tips;

My scalp got a good massage with hair oils and I covered my hair allowing it to marinade for a while and rinsed off!

This set my new growth hair up for an easy week of stretching, hair was soft and manageable but I got tempted and I fell!! Lol

You see I hadn't used heat in ages and since I cut my hair I hadn't straightened it to see how my hair was faring, so out came my straightener, heat was at the 2nd lowest level, no smoke coming out, no frying noise when I used it( take note if you want to use a straightener without damaging your hair).

I simply moisturized and sealed my ends, added an extra coating of grapeseed oil to the tips of my hair for every section I straightened and used the straightener, passing it from root to tip at most twice, I tried to straighten my roots the best I could;


But these roots are pure African and making them straight would require more heat than is worth it...always ask yourself before you use or let a stylist use a steaming hot straightener, ironing thong, blow dryer or even before you decide to pick all your edges in micro braids, Ghana weaving,so that the style is neat- IS IT REALLY WORTH IT IN THE END? If the answer is No then please choose another safer route!

I didn't want to be done straightening my hair and see all the hair on the floor making it one of those so not worth it moments, so I was extremely gentle and decided to ignore parts of my hair that refused to get straight and at the end, this is the amount of hair I lost;

Compare it to last time when I used a straightener;



At the end, my hair looked slightly more presentable;
My colleague at work the next day even asked if I got a relaxer!!

By Wednesday, I decided to do an overnight hair treatment with coconut milk and hair trigger( actually planned this treat for the weekend but my pantry was lacking coconut milk, had to get some during the week).


This treat was MESSY!! I don't recommend just using these two because the mix was so watery, it was dripping everywhere and can you imagine I slept with it( a towel over my pillow) very uncomfi night I tell you! Next time I will mix just a little coconut milk with hair trigger and something thicker like mayonnaise or honey or a deep conditioner so the mix goes on thicker!

But ladies the next morning when I rinsed out my hair(couldn't wait) my hair felt DIVINE!! I was like woah! It felt and has stayed divine!( I havn't treated it till today * covers face* been too busy and also scared I will not be able to achieve this result again, but tonight I shall repeat the same exact treat with the thicker ingredient of choice to be revealed next week).

This treat made my hair strong but soft at the same time! I shed so little hair that it flew away before I could take a picture, still looking for it lol, just kidding!! I think what has also helped my hair remain in this soft/strong zone is this concoction I have been using on my hair everyday- Shea butter and pure glycerin In a tub mashed together with my fingers till its all blended and used on my hair especially my ends daily!


 Great stuff!!

So that's that for week 9, as you can tell I am figuring my hair out and trying my best to make this stretch worth it as I stated before, stretching will FORCE you to get to know your hair! If you are on a stretch or planning one, I hope this series helps inspire and motivate you to face it square on! Till week 10's update (this week), happy growing ladies, the NHCG 6inches of growth challenge is still on, hope you all are taking pictures of your hair progress! $100 worth of products plus goody bags up for grabs at the end of the challenge!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Xxx
Dabs

Hiya,
I am back!! And as I promised in my previous post, I decided to do a lil' somthin' somthin' for all my readers in Naija (still working out a reasonable way to share the love to other parts of the continent in the future ).

So here's whatssup! From the time this post goes up till stocks last, the following products from SHOP NHCG are discounted 50% to 75% off their originally stated prices! NHCG is having its first HAIR PRODUCTS SALE Y'ALL!! I'm sooo excited!


Let's get straight to it, shall we;
  SUAVE NATURALS SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER-12oz- (4bottles)
                          WAS N800 NOW N400!!

Dr Bronner's PURE CASTILLE SOAP UNSCENTED BABY MILD-8oz- (3 bottles)WAS N2500 NOW N1250!!




SILK ELEMENTS MEGASILK OLIVE MOISTURIZING TREATMENT (1 LEFT) WAS N2800 IS NOW N1200!!






EVOLVE CHOLESTEROL SELF HEATING CONDITIONING CAP- (2 LEFT) WAS N1500 NOW N750!!



HAIR RESCUE DRY SCALP KIT AND KERATIN KITS (4 LEFT) WERE N1600 NOW N600!!




EMPTY MIST SPRAY BOTTLES- (3 LEFT) WERE N600 NOW N300!!


 FINALLY;
 ECOSTYLER ARGAN OIL HAIR GEL (1 LEFT) WAS N960 NOW N480

 

I always love a good sale!! I am that girl that checks out sales sections in stores first when I am shopping to find good deals before I look through regular priced items and I will always be that girl even when my hubby is trillioniare *wide grin*. So for ladies like me and ladies who have been itching to get their hands on some of the products I have imported but been restricted because of price, now is your chance!! You won't get these products here in Naija for cheaper, I have completely put aside all the calculations I do to cover freighting, logistics and delivery costs and given you these products for a huge bargain...take advantage of this sale as soon as you can because I have a sneaky feeling the stock will not last long!!!

Oh and did I add; DELIVERY to all parts of LAGOS during this Sale will be ABSOLUTELY FREE!! To other parts of Naija delivery will be JUST N500 flat fee( I will cover the balance) *this one na real awof* hee hee, you all deserve it for all the love and support you give me on here! email me with your orders( for just products listed on THIS POST)-Daboju@yahoo.com, will be expecting your mails.


UPDATE...MOST PRODUCTS SOLD OUT!! Except

1. BEAUTIFUL TEXTURES RAPID REPAIR DEEP CONDITIONER 15oz;( 3 LEFT) WAS N2800 NOW N1400!!

AND
2. Dr Bronner's PURE CASTILLE SOAP UNSCENTED BABY MILD-8oz- (3 bottles)WAS N2500 NOW N1250!!


Xxx
Dabs

Hiya,
How's everyone doing? Im still in NHCG blog anniversary celebration mode! You see in life there are two sets of people, those who can't be bothered to celebrate anything even their birthdays and people like me who look for every chance to celebrate something *wide grin*.

Unfortunately I have been super busy preparing for my trip and what not to celebrate as well as I wanted to! Remember my plans for a hair meet up in June? That was going to be on the 8th-the blog's anniversary date and I am soooo bummed that I couldn't pull it off thanks to other pressing issues going on in my life right now and I hate shabby celebrations, I rather wait till I can go all out and all out I will go in December God willing...till then I decided to do a lil somethin' Somethin' for 3 of my darling readers that have been with me here giving me reason to blog everyday!

Before I announce what I am doing, I just want to recap blog achievements and lessons learnt over the past year!

1. SHOP NHCG! This has got to be my biggest blog achievement for the year!! It literally was an idea that popped into my head after a trial successful shop promo when I travelled in September last year-HERE

I chewed on the thought, examined all scenarios and took my time to formulate NHCG Hair kits I thought would help ladies out the most but I also wanted ladies here to get their hands on good quality hair products from the US, products of their preference with my guidance but not my imposition. So I got to work, figuring out a way ladies could do the deciding and the NHCG IMPORT WINDOWS were born!!

The import windows have been a major success because of you all, it's not been easy especially this past month, the logistics involved is crazy because it involves getting exactly what a particular reader wants and not just any random product but it's always so exciting and rewarding when the products are delivered and I have a happy NHCG reader mailing back!! Thanks ladies for the patronage, the patience and understanding when there have been delays and for the all round support!!

2. NHCG kept me inspired! It's such a creative outlet for me, I come here and I feel like I am talking to friends, simply gisting about hair! I have been lucky to not attract negativity in this space, thank God! You go on some blogs and the venom you read in the comment bars are like wow! Really someone wrote that?!

You see, for me blogging really is a past time, my mind is sick when it's idle so I find ways to keep it busy with my favorite things! If I am free, its either a blog post just pops in my head, I find some recipe to bake(love baking- hate the added pounds) or I sprawl through interior decor blogs and mags( my other past time love-(even thought of starting an interior decor blog, still chewing on it)! So I'm constantly thinking about something but when I look back on the number of posts I have written on here I am shocked!! When I started the blog after 2 weeks of writing I was like Oh dear, I think I have exhausted this topic o!! But then each time I sat to put words down, a topic will just pop in my head and viola another post! Your comments, mails and questions have also been a great source of inspiration for me so in short I am saying thanks ladies for keeping me inspired!!

On the backdrop of these two major achievements I will be handing out 3 NHCG goody bags to three readers of this blog! First what's in the goody bag; A few of my favorite things :)



A NHCG T-SHIRT
A NHCG WHIPPED SHEA BUTTER MIX
A BOTTLE OF 4OZ GRAPESEED OIL
TRIAL SIZE OF HAIR TRIGGER GROWTH ELIXIR VANILLA POUND CAKE SCENT
A PACK OF HENNA POWDER(NOT PICTURED)
A BOTTLE OF CASTOR OIL
AN EMPTY MIST SPRAY BOTTLE(FOR CONCOCTIONS)
Sooooo who are the lucky winners- 3 NHCG Readers will get the goody bag above, the lucky readers are for the following categories;

MOST FREQUENT NHCG COMMENTER; I went through all 1057 comments and counted the regular commenters with strokes(primary school style ) and found a winner... DRUM ROLL PLEASE

With 35 Comments, JAMBUDU !!!

The second lucky winner is the NHCG Reader that has patronized SHOP NHCG the most since its inception! Before I announce the winner, let me say I truly appreciate everyone who has patronized the SHOP, wether its been just once or you bought just a comb, thanks and thanks for your patronage but the winner not only has ordered the most number of times in a row but has bought the most stuff and I feel she needs a reward.

The winner is...MARIYA IBRAHIM !!!

The third and final goody bag I decided will be NHCG's most INSPIRING mail sent in! As you all know I love getting mails from readers about how this blog has helped them out and I appreciate all the mails I have recieved but the winner of this goody bag sent in a mail that just made me soo inspired and I loved it so much I shared it HERE...

The winner is...IZEHIUWA !!!

Will be mailing you winners to conclude delivery arrangements for the goody bags :)

To all other readers, thanks for the support from day 1...stay tuned for another lil somethin' somethin' in my next post...remember all week we are celebrating here!!

Xxx
Dabs

                         TODAY NHCG TURNED TWO!!!


170 POSTS LATER I STILL HAVE A LOT TO SHARE WITH YOU ALL ABOUT HAIR CARE!!

THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT, ALL WEEK LONG THERE WILL BE CELEBRATORY POSTS HERE AT NHCG SO STAY TUNED!!!


Xxx
Dabs

Hiya,
How's everyone doing? Hope good, my heart goes out to the families of Dana aircrash victims, if you are a NHCG reader and were affected by the crash, here's a huge hug from me to you, the Lord comfort and keep you strong!

Now you all know I'm on an epic stretch for the next 8 weeks-A stretch I have never embarked on before so my plan is to take you all along with the Stretch with Dabs series!

Over the next 8 weeks, I will tell you how I managed my new growth that week, my regimen, products I used, what they did for my hair, the amount of hair I lost etc. I'm hoping that by chronicling this stretch I will help those who want to try stretching their relaxer treatments and it will be a reference for me when next I'm on a stretch.

Thanks to all the tips you ladies dropped on-this post (thanks again ladies), this past week, week 8 my hair survived.
On Saturday 25th-I deep conditioned with Silk Elements olive oil hair treatment and hair trigger,


 It went well, hair was soft and well conditioned. While it was damp, I decided to moisturize and seal and then smooth it into a pony tail and sleeked my hair down with ample amounts of pure aloe vera gel, left my hair sleeked back but not hard, braided the ends into four separate braids and tucked them under with a pin. At night I slept with a silk scarf firmly round my head and covered with a satin sleep cap.

Monday 27th to Tuesday 28th night, my hair stayed in the pony tail, I only spritz it and smooth out the base in the mornings but it started to itch, I'm guessing because it wasn't totally dry when I held it up, so that's the con of holding it together when it's still damp, also I could feel the buildup around my ponytail holder that meant that all the spritz plus oils and maybe sweat( not that I went to the gym or anything but still...) could cause breakage at that point if I didn't carefully take out the ponytail holder which remained damp so I decided to prepoo after carefully taking down my hair with just Hair Trigger...

Next morning Wednesday 29th, I rinsed out the hair trigger and used some Roux PC for porosity control and that's all I had time for because it was a public holiday and frying Chin Chin was on my mind :)
I waited for my hair to get dry this time after moisturizing and sealing with Optimum care Amla Legend night wrap creme and their billion potion oil,



The hairstyle lasted till Friday, all I did was spritz and smooth out the base and rebraid the big braid in front.

By Saturday 1st of June I was bent on avoiding all the shedding that happened on Wednesday so out came my palm oil, I mixed it with few drops of Amla billion potion and the olive oil deep moisturizing treatment by Silk Elements and used hair trigger on my ends;




When I was sure the palm oil smell was out of my hair, I rinsed off with Roux PC again for porosity control.

The result from this treat was shocking! My hair was really really moisturized, like no joke! See how much hair I lost!

MY HAIR LOVES PALM OIL!! Moisturized and sealed, air dried, when my hair was fully dry, I sectioned my hair, used the Aphogee Keratin green tea spray on each section;



So that's that for week 8 of the stretch with Dabs series, hopefully the following weeks will be easy on me!! As long as the moisture/protein balance is tops and I keep my hands out of my hair I should be good * fingers crossed*

In other news, the 2nd batch of SHOP NHCG goodies got picked up today!

My Darcys botanical products also arrived with this batch just in time for my stretch! I got the famous Lemongrass transitioning creme and their Pina colada leave in conditioner;


As usual, thanks for stopping by! Just before I go, HOW DID I DO FOR MY 8TH WEEK STRETCH? Transitioners, Stretchers, people dealing with different textures please share your tips below, thanks in advance!!