A Better Conditioning Hair Experience?

Yes! It's possible.  Instead of applying your condtioner on your hair while it's wet (directly out of the shower) instead try applying your conditioner on your hair while it's dry.  This allows the conditioner to seap into your hair strand with better results because your hair will not be occupied by filling water molecules.  When our hair is wet it fills up our hair strand, this disallows other products from getting into our hair and working.  So I have applying my hair conditioners on my hair before I get into the shower to wash my hair.  My hair feels so soft and moisturized.  So my washing routine pretty much consists of...

• Applying conditioner to my hair while it is dry.
• Rinsing the conditioner out, then wash my hair with a moisturizing shampoo.
• Then I apply more conditioner to my hair and with the water running down my hair I then begin to detangle. 
• The last and final step consist of applying another amount of conditioner to my hair then rinsing half of that out, I never rinse all of my conditioner out.
• Then I follow up with a leave-in and air dry.

Thats all I do!

Here's more info on my hair washing technique




Here's more info on applying conditioner on dry hair

Top 5 Hair Ingredients to Run From!

I am going to be very direct on each ingredient, so here we go:

1. Sulfates- Normally found in cleaning agents like shampoo. Sulfates are used for cleaning the hair and removing dirt and oil from the scalp. HOWEVER, sulfates have the tendency to remove too much of our natural oils from our scalp leaving our hair dry, stripped, and thirsty! Instead try different shampoos that are on the market like organic shampoos, Hair One (found at Sally's), or the old Cream of Nature shampoos (not the orange bottels).  If you still feel the need to use sulfate shampoos then just make sure you are moisturizing your hair so that it won't get too dry.

2. Mineral Oil- Found in hair lotions, conditioners, and leave-ins.  This product prevents moisture from entering your hair shaft and does not moisturize your hair, it does nothing, but dry your hair out. Instead look for moisturizers, conditioners, or leave-ins with water, coconut oil, olive oil, honey, shea butter, cetyl alcohol, or anything natural.  Moisture is key to healthy hair.

3. Patroletum- Also found in hair lotions and leave-ins.  Patroletum just sits on the hair and does not moisturize, just like mineral oil.  This ingredient if quite similar to putting Vaseline on your hair.  YUCK!

4. Dimethecone- Mostly found in hair lotions and conditioners, this is not as bad as mineral oil, but using too much can weigh your hair down and cause build up.  I personally don't mind a little dimethecone, one of my favorite conditioners contain dimethecone in the second ingredient so a little is not so bad, but too much will make it hard for moisture or any product to enter your hair strand.

5.  Isopropyl Alcohol- Also found in conditioners and probaly some hair lotions, this alcohol is too strong for our hair.  This is like putting witch hazel in our hair..not good.  This can also be another drying agent to our hair.  Stay awayyy!

So I really hope this was informative to you and I hope it will allow you to be more mindful to what you are putting into your hair, if you are already on your hair journey and are looking out for bad ingredients kudos to you!!! I posted a video on youtube dicussing the same info here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndLAo0fh5yY  Have an awesome day ^-^

-Compliments of Sharmaine369 ♥

Natural Face Cleanser: Witch Hazel

Witch hazel is a natural astringent for the skin, it helps to cleanse the face, and removes bacteria that can cause acne and skin irritation. So I recently started using this product because I just discovered that my face is sensitive and can not deal with too many ingredients or chemicals so I've been searching for good quality or natural face products that deal with sensitive skin. After using the witch hazel for a about 3 weeks now I can break down my review as so:

Pros: Very gentel on the skin, removes bacteria, closes pores, leaves skin feeling very clean and smooth.

Cons: Leaves skin dry!

Overall even though the witch hazel leaves the skin feeling dry I find that if you follow up with a good non clogging oil or moisturizer you will be good to go!

Kudos for clean healthy skin!!

-Compliments of Sharmaine369 ♥

Forgive My Lack of Blogging!!

Forgive me! I've been busy with school, youtube, and a few other special things, but I am here.  Recently I have posted videos on youtube regarding a smokey eye tutorial, a video on braidouts, and an awesome video about hair ingredients.  Here is my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/sharmaine369 so go check those out.  I have recently brought a ton of new products that I will do reviews on so yes enjoy and i'll talk to you soon :)

-Compliments of Sharmaine369 ♥

Self Relaxers: Here are some tips

So I made a video on some tips for self relaxers and I wanted to put those tips here..so here we go

Before Relaxing:

-Avoid scratching your scalp as much as possible.  If you scratch your scalp within a week of relaxing your hair especially if you use a lye relaxer (Mizani, Affirm, etc.) it will burn a lot if you get any relaxer on the scalp, so avoid scratching!!
-Do a few protein treatments before relaxing because it will keep your hairs strength up, therfore when you relax your hair won't be weak when you are done.  Remember: protein is very important in the structure of your hair so skipping this step will result to poor structure especially after relaxing.
-Detangle your hair for a better relaxing experience.  Besides if you don't detangle your hair before relaxing you will most likely be underprocess (not relax).

During the Relaxing Process:

-If you decide to use a lye relaxer make sure you base your scalp with vaseline, oil, any type of protecting agent to prevent scalp burns from the relaxer and as usual apply vasaline around your head and nape to avoid skin irritation.
-Oil your already relaxer hair without getting any oil on your new growth.  Applying oil to your already relaxed hair will prevent overprocessing and damage to the already relaxed hair.
-After applying your relaxer use your fingers or the back of a comb to smooth out the relaxer this results to a much straighter and smoother relaxing results.
-The half and half method is a God send for me! I love this method, it takes a lot of time, but I love it.  So basically all you are doing is relaxing half your head preferbaly the front half first then when you are done applying the relaxer to the half of your hair, rinse the relaxer out.  When you are done relaxing do the other half of the hair, rinse the relaxer off, then proceed to do whatever you normally do.
-Last but not least, the most important part of relaxing your hair is what you do after you rinse the relaxer out of your hair.  Normally what I do is first rinse the relaxer out of my hair without using any shampoo, then I apply a protein treatment, then I neutralize for about 5-6 washes, then I apply a special porosity conditioner to lower the pH of my hair to about 4-4.5, then I deep condition using a lot of moisturizing conditioners under a dryer. 

So yeah I believe those are the most important tips that I can give you to have a great relaxing experience. Hope you enjoyed, here is the video of me talking about it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvFdFYxHBGk

-Compliments of Sharmaine369 ♥

Banana Chips!!

So I don't know why, but the past couple of days I have been addicted to banana chips..there so good!! I started off with a 15 oz tin and now its like pretty much done..all in the matter of 3 days!! Crazy! There also super healthy too ( I hope) they contain bananas, coconut oil, sugar, and banana flavor.  Haha I was a little skeptical about the "banana flavor" like why is there banana flavor if there are actual bananas already in there..mmmhhh??  Anywayzz yeah there good..got them from my beloved WalMart! Love that freakin store..anywayzzz peace off to bed.. :)

-Compliments of Sharmaine369 ♥

So Many Topics! So Little Time!

So I have new vids up as I always do around the weekend, and I  realize that I haven't done a video on hair in a some time now or post so that really needs to change asap.  I have brought a few hair products that are simply amazing and I can't wait to post about that and its wonderful goodness :).  I have talked about some of the new domincan products that I recently brought, but never really done a full review on them..so look out for those!  As i'm typing this right now I totally forgot that I have a pizza in the oven and now its burnt!..o well..anywayzz! More to come..so look out for it and FOLLOW MEA! peace :)

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/sharmaine369

-Compliments of Sharmaine369 ♥