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ApHogee Vs ApHogee

Curlific Moisture Rich Leave In vs ProVitamin Leave In Conditioner

We all know ApHogee, their famous 2 step protein treatment and their Keratin reconstructor is probably everyone’s go to product for at home protein treatments, except me because I am so late and never got round to it! Anyway

The point is they have some really good products and two in particular I have used and here to tell you the difference so you can make an informed choice if you are at the crossroads of which one to get ( do you ever get that? torn between two products? Urgh!)

The Curlific leave in is part of their Textured Hair range for textured (natural/curly) hair (Did you know you they had that?). It’s designed to seal, protect, detangle and provide thermal protection. It works! ApHogee got it right! It smells great and softens the hair. It’s a slightly thicker liquid consistency, so when you spray it you get a lotion instead of a fine water mist. I really like this one and I just stumbled on it by accident! I didn’t know they did products for natural hair. I was just looking for a spray leave in and decided to try this one out.

The Pro Vitamin Leave in is part of their Protect and Maintain range. It’s formulated with their exclusive PropHytamine Complex (so is the Curlific) which utilizes proteins for strength, emollients for shine and humectants for softness. It’s also supposed to add lightweight moisture, improve body and shine and protect against heat. What do I think? I don’t like this one! For me it didn’t work on my hair at all and I felt like I was just spraying water on my hair. I am also not a big fan of the smell- which is a bit medicinal. It says it’s suitable for all hair types but unfortunately it’s not suitable for mine lol. Maybe it will work differently on relaxed hair.

Summary

Curlific Moisture Rich Leave In

Specially formulated for textured hair
Provides thermal protection
Smells amazing
Softens hair
Contains their exclusive PropHytamine Complex
£3.99 on BeautybyZara

ProVitamin Leave In

Formulated for all hair types
Also provides thermal protection
Adds lightweight moisture
Not a big fan of the smell
Also contains their exclusive PropHytamine Complex
£2.99 on BeautybyZara

I will recommend the Curlific leave in for natural hair, it’s made for us and the other for relaxed hair. I actually bought the ProVitamin Leave In first because I wanted to try the brand out before buying the Two Step Protein Treatment.

I hope this helps. Leave in conditioners are an important part of a good wash day regime. Read all about it here

More to come soon. Count down to Christmas!

Cantu Soiree Event

I went to the Cantu Soiree Event hosted by Pelumi from CFYH and Award winning hair stylist Anastasia Chikezie, of Purely Natural Salon. Read about my Purely Natural Salon Experience here

The event had a huge turn out! So it was quite difficult to navigate around, nevertheless there were demos on hair using some of the Cantu products, tips and hints and Pelumi talking about her fav Cantu products.

Products were on sale for 3 for £10! And rightly so as everything was sold out by the end of the night! There was music, food, drinks and a nice and friendly atmosphere. I connected with new bloggers and old friends! Bukky, organiser for Curlvolution was there! Curlvolution 2016 is looking great! I will keep you up to date but hint: a well-known brand recently launched in the UK will be there! Read all about Curlvolution 2015 here

Check out my Facebook page for all the pics from the event (link to the right). I was a bit disappointed with the goody bag though, I thought it would contain more products but I haven’t used their conditioner before so I guess it ok?

I love Cantu products, I think they work well and are very affordable. Check here to read all my reviews on all my Cantu products!

Cantu Collection for Natural Hair Reviews — My Cantu Collection both products I was sent and purchased

I think its fantastic idea that Cantu hosted this event. I hope other brands can follow suit!

The Purely Natural Salon

Hi lovely people, Happy Monday!

Over the weekend, I went to my 1^st ever natural hair salon! It has been 4 years I ever went into a salon to get my hair done too.

I am starting this series where I go to different natural hair salons in the London and write up my experience. I am not been paid or sponsored, I am paying full price and I am not telling them I am doing a write up so I don’ get a ‘special treatment’. To kick things off, I went to the Purely Natural Salon in Stratford. I heard mixed reviews about this place, but I decided to go ahead and test them out as those reviews I saw where about 3 years ago.

I don’t want to waffle about too much so let’s get straight to it.

The salon is about a 5-10 min walk from the station so it’s not bad. I booked my appointment about 2 weeks before hand just to make sure I was seen when I got there. I called for directions and the lady was kind enough to tell me how to get there, I was about 5-10 mins late because of this (For some reason I thought the salon was right outside the station). Anyway, I was seen straight away.

She first applied conditioner to my hair to detangle (I will list the product names at the end) but only passed the combed through it a few times. Washed it out and applied the treatment, when I asked what is was, she said it was a special secret blend. I sat under the dryer for about 20-30 mins after which she shampooed and lightly conditioned. I thought I would get a proper detangling sessions when she applied the conditioner but it was the same, passed the comb a few times but didn’t section my hair into smaller sections.

After all that, I sat in the chair a bit nervous because I felt my hair hadn’t been detangled properly and I know when this happens my hair starts to tangle (I have 4c hair which gets about 70% shrinkage! And my wash wasn’t washed in sections which I don’t mind if its detangled properly after) anyway she applied a little bit of their shea butter mix then went in to start combing my hair in sections ( with a wide tooth comb) and blow dry! I was a bit worried because she hadn’t applied any leave in conditioner or heat protectant. So I asked ‘ oh what heat protectants do you use here’ then she showed me it then applied a bit to my hair ( this was after she blew it out a bit, it was still wet)

After completely blow drying, then came the trimming which again I was nervous for because I know some stylists can get scissor happy. However she asked how much I wanted to cut off. There was a lot to cut but I explained I would rather do it bit by bit because I am growing my hair out. So she trimmed it then asked what style would I like. I just asked her to do two large canerows and that what it

Costs/products

Total costs £40 ( Protein treatment £30, trim £10)

Tresemme moisture rich conditioner

Own protein treatment

Tresemme shampoo for naturals

Own shea butter mix

Cantu no drip hair and scalp oil

From start to finish about 1hour 30 mins

My thoughts

It was an ok experience, their customer service is on point though, they are a really nice bunch: asked to take my jacket, offered me water, offered me a magazine and we has a few convos too. My hair came out soft as you would expect after a treatment. I wish though I had a proper detangling session where she would part my hair into smaller sections seeing that it was 4c hair and detangle. This would then eliminate that combing out part she did before blow drying which did nothing but break my hair as I was looking at the comb. Infact I did ask while she was doing that if she’s detangling and she said ‘no, because we have already done that’ in my head I thought ‘oh ok but when?’ then I wouldn’t have seen my hair flying about when she was blow drying, it was painful to watch, not in terms of how she was handling my hair but to see my hair like that because it’s been 8 months since I put heat on my hair and 1 year since I used a comb.

Also I don’t know if she would have used any heat protectant if I didn’t say thing because I don’t think shea butter alone is good enough. I was familiar with all the brands and products used as I have used them before (Is it bad lol #product junkie), but I was hoping for new products I hadn’t used for so I could get some new products to try out or review them on here.

In conclusion, I was looking to rate them on how they handled my hair, in particular how they detangled it. Since I didn’t get that I was a bit disappointed.

I would give it a 6 out of 10.

Read other reviews here

CFYH http://www.cfyh.co.uk/2012/08/23/salon-experience-fail/

Cookie’s Real Hair Care https://youtu.be/0j7J7DkQBvc

Nappturally Me http://napptrallyme.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/purely-natural-review.html

Let me know what you guys think? Have you been there and was your experience totally different from mine? I am looking to go to another salon next month, I haven’t decided where yet.

Have a happy Monday

Love

Sarah

‘you have been set free, remain in freedom’

ORS Curls Unleashed

Hey beaus

So carrying on with our ORS mini-series. Today’s post will be on their curls unleashed range. Created for naturalists with natural ingredients e.g. safflower oil, sweet almond oil and Shea butter and without mineral oil, sulfates and SD alcohol. They say it’s also suitable for curly, kinky and wavy hair.

The full product collection:

Take command curl defining crème
Set it off curl boosting jelly
Second chance curl reviver
Let it flow shine and define mousse
No boundaries leave in conditioner
Lavish in lather sulfate free shampoo
No restrictions moisturising conditioner

So everything you need to cleanse condition and style your hair really. But is it worth it? Let’s check out some reviews

What’s your verdict?

Here in the UK you can purchase the full curls unleashed collection online on pakscomestics>> http://www.pakcosmetics.com/brand/namaste-labs/organic-root-stimulator/Page-1 or in store in any Paks store. I think most BSS have it as well.

That’s all folks. I hope this post helped you decide if the curls unleashed line is good for you. Let me know your thoughts on this below.

Until next time

Love

Sarah

CURLYHAIR MAGAZINE LAUNCH EVENT!!!!

Hey family, happy almost end of the month lol. Can you believe it? Anyway how did you guys spend your Tuesday night? I went along to the Curly hair magazine launch event and I am here to tell you guys all about it!

Curly hair magazine is only the UK’s 1st FREE magazine aimed for naturalistas!! Yassss, thank you natural hair gods lol. I stopped buying magazines a while ago because they all seemed to look the same and have the same hairstyles. As I become natural, I started to look for natural hair styles and advice in these same magazines and they fell short each time, so in the end I just stopped buying them. But now, naturalistas like myself can grab a free copy of this magazine for the latest natural hair trends, advice and product reviews. What’s great about it is that you can also read it online: for the busy always on the go ladies and it was created by women with curly coily hair for women with curly coily hair: this guarantees they GET YOUR HAIR… Anyways back to the event

It was hosted in the Grace bar in Piccadilly Circus from 5pm. When I got there, one of the lovely owners, Sandra greeted me at the door and told me about the order for the day and the things going on: nails, hair braided, wine etc.. I went got get my hair braided immediately lol.

It was familiar faces all round but some new ones too… Pelumi from CFYH (Did you know about her event? check it out>> http://wp.me/p1uQOd-yN ), Rachy from UKafrolista, Joycelyn, co-owner of Afrochenchix. Some new people I met on the day too, Corrine from Kora Naturals, Lola from LoveShea, Rachael from the hairspiration app (I will do a whole post on this soon! great idea btw). Alexander from Brownbeauty blog (Thanks for the foundation recommendations!) I apologise for the lighting in some of the pictures. One of the guys from ruff copy from xfactor was there too.

Alexander from Brownbeautyblog. my hair braided!

Corrine from KoraNaturals, black shirt and white jeans

The event got on the way and we watched a mini video on how and why curly hair mag started. Ladies were expressing their views on why they went natural and if they still bought black hair magazines. We also had the CEO of pakscomestics there and a demo of curl formers (I really need to try those). After speaking to a few ladies and staying there for a while, I had to leave a bit early (early day next day!). It was a good event and I had so much fun meeting and speaking to different people.

Isnt her hair lovely — Isnt she hair lovely?

You can read the first issue online here >>http://www.curlyhairmagazine.com/ . You can pick up a copy in many places in London, check out the distribution list here to see if there is a place close to you> http://www.curlyhairmagazine.com/distribution/ Make sure you like them on Facebook for more pictures from the event! I really want to write for this mag! Praying I will be in the next issue! I got a goody bag at the end. ~I officially have black soap for life lool. Did you see my post on the great benefits of black soap? I know you did but just to be safe check it out here>> http://wp.me/p1uQOd-DJ

That’s all folks! I know you guys enjoy event covers, so hopefully I am able to go to more and do these. I hope to keep in contact with everyone I met and work with you in the future.

Don’t go anywhere yet, I have another event cover for you guys!

Sarah