Hair update: 3 months post big chop, my TWA styles

It’s fun to document my hair story month to month and see the changes, the growth, the colours and different weird things I keep throwing in it and so here I am with another update since my last one a month ago. Since I’ve become quite the DIY mixtress, you know my regimen has since changed! And I’ve even started playing with slicked back TWA styles.

So what’s new? I’ve started using black soap! I’m such a waggonist, anything new and exciting I am all over it. So when I heard of this all natural soap made in Africa that does wonders for acne and skin marks and hair and rainbows and sprinkles and glitter I had to get my hand on a piece. Read Beautiful Earth’s article on black soap here, she’s who I bought my little piece from to experiment. Here’s an excerpt:

Properties:

• Helps deep clean and exfoliate the skin.
• Used to remove excess oils from the skin, which helps to treat and prevent acne.
• Used on most skin types including rough and dry.
• Helps with bumps and spots.
• Helps reveal radiant, fresh, and healthy skin.
• Soothes several types of skin irritations, such as razor burn, rashes and eczema.

INGREDIENTS: African black soap uses only natural ingredients and contains no preservatives, colour enhancers, or fragrances. Instead raw black soap generally contains: plantain skin, palm kernel oil, palm oil, cocoa pod ash, coconut oil, and honey. The leaves and bark from palm trees, shea trees, plantains and cocoa pods are turned to ashes. Water, coconut oil, and palm oil are added to the mixture as well. Black soap includes iron and vitamins A & E because of the plantains used in the soap-making process. African black soap creates a soft lather without the animal fat additives that are commonly used in soaps.

The bit about eczema is pure gold. I’ve always had to use sensitive soap on munchkin’s skin as she has eczema really bad but now I’ve switched to black soap which is cheaper and it works so well on her skin. I’ve read on different boards that black soap can be drying and when I first tried just the raw black soap on my face, it sure was squeaky clean, so of course, I added stuff to mine.

DIY Liquid Black Soap

Using some of the warm green tea infused with thyme toner recipe, crumble solid raw black soap in about a cup and leave it to melt overnight. The next day I usually add honey, olive oil, coconut oil, wheat germ oil and whipped shea butter to my mixture. Lots of moisture, your skin couldn’t need any more than that! And let me tell you, baby soft! Every time I wash my face with this stuff? Baby soft!!! Of course, I use my green tea toner after.

Munchkin’s skin loves it, my hair loves it, I’m going to put it in a mould and marry it! 🙂 When I use this mix to wash my hair I rarely feel the need to condition it. Its so soft!

Update: Unfortunately I personally don’t use this mix anymore because black soap is full of coconut oil which I discovered causes me to break out. Thankfully, this cleanser is great for natural hair and this serum now helps me keep my skin clear.

So there you have this month’s update. I’ve also started using Kinky Curly Knot Today as my leave-in conditioner and it truly is everything that all the bloggers rave about. I did a review and comparison on it here. I mix it with aloe vera gel to stretch it because you know I love my aloe vera.

TWA Styles

I flat-twist the back of my hair to get some stretch out of it when I need to switch up mt TWA styles. I can’t really tell the difference in curl pattern but I definitely like the shape, I do this often when my hair needs a wash as it tends to go into a shapeless ‘fro on me then. Here’s the result:

Digging how I style my TWA? Do you have any favourite TWA syles? I’d love to see!