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Well, well, well. Seven years, people! Seven years since I’ve posted. I’d all but forgotten about my blog. Funny, but that’s similar to how I’ve treated my hair over the years.

I’m doing better with how I take care of my hair, however. This year has been somewhat of a churning, painful prodding to take action in areas in my life where I haven’t. So, I’ve been doing just that. (Perhaps in a future post, I’ll talk about this year, but for now, let’s just say, “Ouch.”)

When I look back at what I used to do to my hair, I’m amazed at how simple I’m keeping things now, in spite of my previous belief that I was keeping things simple back then. I admit that I’m still a product junkie, but I’ve been curbing that a bit more. I’ve decided to use up everything in my stash before I try anything else new. Fortunately, I’m washing my hair more frequently, so the stash should be depleted sooner than later. Otherwise, I’ll continue with the products that I use regularly and be happy with that.

My current care and products include:

  • Massaging my temples and edges daily with onion oil and Jamaican black castor oil, to encourage growth.
  • Washing with rhassoul and bentonite clay: I only mix it with apple cider vinegar and hot water instead of all the other ingredients I used to include. I buy mine from Mountain Rose Herbs because they’re an awesome, fast-shipping store with great prices. I’m also about to try white clay; we’ll see how it goes.
    • By the way, if your curly hair lacks definition, clay is the cure.
  • Conditioning with Ominira Naturals‘ Ultimate Moisture conditioner and deep conditioner. Let me tell y’all something: Ominira is the thing! Yes, Ominira is a must for me. Their conditioners have left my chronically dry hair quite hydrated. It doesn’t feel so much like steel wool.
    • Besides their conditioners, their Tangle Slayer is incredible. At first, I didn’t think it was going to help. Then I realized that when I used it, I detangled my hair in five minutes—five minutes, people!—versus the hour that it usually takes. Let me give you some advice for using their Tangle Slayer detangler: Make sure your hair is soaking wet before you apply it, and actually, dilute about an 1/8 cup of it in 1/2 cup of water, and then apply it. See how that does for you before you use a whole bunch, ’cause Ominira is wonderful, but it ain’t cheap!
    • I can’t say that I’m thrilled with their Ultimate Moisture leave-in conditioner, because it flaked on my hair, but I also think that may have been due to my heavy handed use of it. I’m going to dilute it and see if that works.
    • Warning: If scent is important to you, Ominira has an…earthy scent to their products. It’s not an artificial scent; I believe they only use essential oils. I find the scent to be a bit too earthy and somewhat masculine. That’s my only complaint about this wonderful line.
    • Also, they’re located in the UK, but they use DHL for fast shipping. I got my order in two days, and I live on the West Coast of the United States.
  • Gels…well, let’s talk about gels. I haven’t found one that I’m totally happy with, mostly because I’ve been lazy and haven’t used the gels in my stash that I bought to experiment with and figure out what gives me the “curl support” I need.
  • Edge tamer: Ditto. Still haven’t found what I’m lookin’ for.
  • I still stand strong with avocado butter and shea oil for sealing and breaking casts, etc.
  • It’s been a long time since I’ve used a protein treatment, but I still have a jar of Aubrey Organics’ Blue Green Algae Hair Rescue Conditioning Mask. Since Aubrey Organics went out of business (I believe they didn’t recover from the pandemic), I’ll need to find a replacement for that. I also miss their White Camellia Smoothing Conditioner, but I’m happy with Ominira’s conditioner for now.
  • I really miss BioInfusion Professional Hydrating Conditioning Balm. I was able to use it as a leave-in and styler, with no gel needed after I washed my hair. The fact that it contained parabens concerned me, but, sis! The definition! The hold! The curl poppage! The shine! Sigh… Couldn’t they come out with a new formula without those nasty ingredients? It was wonderful. Double sigh…

So, overall, I’m working on not being such a lazy hair pilot and not being a product junkie. And I’m intending to blog more. 😉