Experiments and 2nd Day Hair

so this whole past week was about experimenting with washing, products and 2nd day hair. somedays were successful and some were not as good. so i will quickly run through a few days with photos so you can see my progress or lack there of. 

so this was my first experiment with 2nd day hair following the avocado treatment. i basically slept on my hair and the result was a frizzy not very defined mess. i ended up putting my hair up in a bun for the day, which was fine but not a successful hair day.

 

so here was first day hair kind of. i washed it the night before and then took it down in the morning, it came out ok i thought. i got a compliment on it at work so that was encouraging. i was asked what i was doing to make it so curly, i replied that i was wearing it naturally! 

i managed to get decent second day hair the next day but i forgot to a take a photo. i had another co-worker tell me they liked my hair better this way. yay! that was nice to hear.

i then went for third day hair, crazy i know. and it was ok. it felt kind of gross to me but i once again i got a compliment at work from someone else who said they liked the new curly look. can't look to bad if i'm getting compliments!

i co-washed and styled to go out with some friends that night and i thought it turned out pretty good, i did a little bit of diffusing but hardly any. i was able to get great 2nd day hair for the next day! 

what do you think? i liked it a lot! i will be washing it again tonight to start a whole new week of experiments! wish me luck!

Avocado Hair Mask

so last week i decided to try an avocado hair mask. i had heard good things about this and about how it was supposed to be a great deep moisture treatment. putting food in my hair freaks me out, but hey, what did i have to loose?

the recipe was easy enough. all i needed was an avocado, honey, and extra virgin olive oil. i had everything on hand except the avocado so i ran over to dillons. the instructions i had read online suggested that you mix everything together in a blender but i did not want to have to wash the blender so i just mashed it in a bowl!  i'm lazy i know, but hey massing in a bowl worked!

i cut the avocado open and scooped out the insides into the bowl. i added a few squirts of honey and olive oil and then i started to mash it all together! 

ok seriously doesn't that look gross?! and i have to put it on my hair? ewww! but i did it anyhow. i smoothed the mixture in my hair as best as i could. it was a little lumpy since i did not blend it but i don't think that was a big deal. after you smooth it all over your hair you are supposed to wrap your head in plastic wrap. that was pretty difficult because the plastic wrap was sticking to itself and my hair was dripping green goo but i managed and here was the finished product! 

as you can tell i was thrilled, not! i went ahead and put a towel wrap over the plastic wrap because some green goo water was dripping down my neck and it was gross.

once i put the towel on it was so much better! i set a timer on my phone for 30 minutes. during this time i was invited to hang out with some friends. i actually had to use the excuse "i can't because i have to wash my hair." i felt lame but it was true! 

after 30 minutes i hopped in the shower and rinsed the mask out. in the shower my hair felt rough, coarse, and very tangled. so i was not sure what was going on because i thought this was supposed to be a moisture treatment....so i proceeded to co-wash my hair with DevaCurl One Condition. my hair still felt very rough and dry but i didn't know what else to do. 

i scrunched in the shower and then plopped my hair onto a towel. after about 10 minutes i added some DevaCare Arc anGEL and DevaCurl Ultra Defining Gel. i plopped onto a new towel after adding the gels and slept with my hair in the towel. 

in the morning i took my hair down and was pleasantly surprised that i had some curly hair going on! 

this photo was actually taken at the end of the day but you get the idea. 

so i felt like the avocado hair mask gave me more defined curls but they did not seem more moisturized. i didn't think my hair seemed overly dry the day after the avocado mask but i am still not sure if i will do it again. 

so that was my experience with the avocado hair mask. have you done this to your hair? did you love it? hate it? did you use different foods in your recipe? let me know in the comments below! 

I Do Not Have Straight Hair.

i have never had stick straight hair and i have known this for a long time, but i have never really done anything about it. i always style my hair or wear it in a ponytail/bun. my hair straightens easily with the use of a flat iron and it curls easily when i use hot rollers or an iron. but i never wear my hair "naturally". 

i can not wash and go unless i plan on wearing my hair up. my hair is generally a bit frizzy too so that is fun and everything. 

i have always loved all things hair. ever since i was a little kid! i would put barrettes in my mom's hair while we watched tv as a family. i have been asked by friends to do their hair for special events, weddings, dances, and just because. i love hair.

recently i have been trying to wear my hair in its natural state, but it hasn't been looking so hot. so i started doing some research and let me tell you i have found out a ton of information and realized just how little i actually know about hair. 

first off let me say that apparently most shampoos contain sulfates. a sulfate is the chemical that makes the shampoo lather and sulfates are also used to cut grease. it is used not only in beauty products but in dish soap, engine degreasers, floor cleaners and car wash soaps. now i don't know about you but the thought of washing my hair with an engine degreaser freaks me out!! 

now about six or so months ago i started using deva curl no-poo and one-condition. my decision to do this was pretty much on a whim. it was on sale at a local store and it advertised it was for wavy hair so i bought it. (yes i am an impulse beauty product buyer!)

this shampoo is meant to be used by a certain method called the curly girl method. i didn't know that when i bought it and i used it like a normal shampoo which was a mistake. 

last week i purchased the book "curly girl" by lorraine massey. it is all about the celebration of curls and natural hair. massey explains how our hair fibers are similar to wool. she talks about how we would never wash a wool or cashmere sweater with a normal detergent. we would find a soft detergent and be very careful through the whole process in order to preserve the fabric. using just any shampoo on our head is like using just any detergent on a fine sweater. sulfates strip our hair of natural oils and makes it dry, frizzy and lifeless. now we can use a whole host of products that contain silicones to smooth the flyways down, but the only way to clean the silicones out of our hair is to once again use a harsh shampoo with sulfates which will make our hair dry and the vicious circle continues and we are never happy with our hair. 

and this is where the curly girl method come in to play. in this method you eliminate all sulfates and silicones from your hair care routine. since i already have sulfate free shampoo and conditioner i was all set to start this! but the first step is to do one final sulfate shampoo to cleanse out all silicones and product build up. i hated doing this to my hair since i now knew what i was actually putting on my hair. ewwww! but i did it and let my hair dry naturally and brushed it out. here are a few photos of what it looked like. 

so you can see from the photo on the left that my hair is definitely not straight but it's kind of out of control and i would never wear it out like that in public! on the right you see the front of my hair and the crown if flat and the waves are just crazy and well not good! 

you can also see that the front of my hair is longer then the back. back in july i cut off over 16 inches and donated my hair to pantene beautiful lengths. i got it cut into a reverse long bob. i loved it but i really only cut my hair that short so that i could donate more. so i am growing it back out, but in the process it looks very funky because the front is longer then the back. i am not sure what to do about this so i just haven't cut it! here is my hair before i cut it all off:

so you can see even at waist length my hair was still not stick straight but it was not in great condition at all! 

but anyways back to today. i am starting out on using the curly method and i am very excited to see how my hair is transformed. i have read and seen a lot of amazing transformations so i hope mine is equally exciting! i will be updating what exactly i am doing as well as updates as the months go on.

have any of you tried the curly girl method? did it work for you? did you know what sulfates actually are? does that bother you? do you have curly hair but fight it daily? comment and let me know!

My First Ever Blog Post.

hello all!

this is my first ever blog post on my first ever blog. i have always been interested in blogging and i have finally decided the time has come to start one. so here i am. 

if you don't know me you probably want to know what a ginger den is right? well some background for you, i am a ginger! i always thought ginger den would be a good name for a bar, but the likely hood of me ever opening a bar is slim to none so i used the name for my blog. and i like it. 

i have a passion for hair, beauty, fashion, art and general "creativeness". i also use quote marks to much and my friends will tell you i have terrible punctuation, spelling and grammar.

so if you like creativeness and do not mind a few misspellings we will get along just fine! 

because ever blog post is better with photos and because i love photography and all things photos here is a funny to leave you with today.

i have been fighting a cold for a few days and a friend suggested that ginger helps. so i decided to try it out. well not only did it taste terrible, but i also begin to wonder if it wasn't some sort of joke since the label says it is a "ginger aid"...hmmm. have you ever used ginger for a cold? did it work?

well that is all for now, have a great weekend!