Beer for body -licious hair

You read it right, beer to add body to our limp hair! That ice-cold yellow bubbly liquid that you voraciously guzzle down like there’s no tomorrow. A nostalgic feeling of the college beer-drinking days huh?

Beer has protein from malt. It gives our hair that extra spring factor that we all see from hair ads. It erases the brittleness leaving more elasticity to it. Isn’t this inviting enough to try out?

Especially with curly-haired beauties,  this leaves an added definition of the curls. For our pretty straight-haired sisters, there will be  noticeable volume adding more body.

This will be a great bonding activity with your girlfriends on the weekend! I highly suggest to do this on weekends or when you plan to stay home. The beer smell will linger, you might be darted with suspicious looks from passers-by unless you want the attention hehe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flat beer
• 1 teaspoon of jojoba oil (can be substituted with extra virgin olive oil)

Mix the two ingredients and it is good to go. Quick and simple eh?

After shampooing, or (for the case of Curly Girl method, more on this on another blog) after conditioning, towel dry your hair.  Thoroughly apply the mixture onto hair and scalp. Leave for 10 minutes. You might want to use a hair clamp to tidy up your hair when your done applying.

BTW, flat beer means there’s no more bubbly effect when you pour the beer. We continuously poured the beer to lose the bubbles. In Bisaya this is what we call hupas.

While you’re at it, do something to pass the time. Scan your mail, brush your teeth, or seat on the ‘throne’, if you know what I mean.

You might notice that not-so-pleasant beer smell but just ignore it. The after effects are far worth that nasty smell, trust me. For some this might be pleasant for you after all ;-)

Rinse hair with lukewarm water. If you really can’t take that beer smell, you can use conditioner after rinsing it out. But you can always have it for tomorrow. Let the effect settle in, rinse that smell tomorrow, you’ll love the results!

Don’t blow dry your hair, just let it air dry. You’ll notice its glossier and bouncier. For my case, my curls were more defined, it’s spring factor was perfect! When I tried to pull a curl the bounce was very noticeable. Before when I would do the spring factor check, my curls just lay limp, it won’t go back to its original state, what a shame!

We pay tons to have protein therapy for our hair but behold the mighty beer can answer this problem. It is the most economical protein therapy for our precious locks. You can grab some of the left over beer from your parties the previous nights.

Share your experiences with this treatment and share this info to your girlfriends as well. Here is the proof of effects of beer.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I know it is not the most elegant curls, but you cannot deny the significant enhancement on the curl definition. *defensive* hehe. Hope you’ll make time for this and share your photos too.

Special thanks to my friend Sarah for also trying it out and helping in all the preparations.

Source: My Babushka’s Beauty Secrets book by Raisa Ruder

good haircut

I need a one badly!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m desperate!

Still haven’t found THE hairdresser that’s right for my challenging curls (I like to see it in the positive view). The last time I got a haircut was 3 months ago when I had a quick visit back home. BUT STILL, I can’t muster myself to make a deal with the hairdresser to cut my hair dry.

Yep that’s right, no need for washing the hair wet but rather cut it as to how it usually is on its natural magnificent curly form, just resting there casually. The natural spring factor of our curls will be lost and we’ll end up with hair shorten than expected.

Jitters never fail me when I visit any salon! When I get a haircut, I cringe, close my eyes and hope that by some stroke of luck my hair will turn out okay. Well it usually doesn’t and I end up cursing (in my mind anyway).

Curly, a snippet

Yes I have curly locks but first, a little background briefing if you don’t mind.

As early as I can remember, I had thick STRAIGHT locks (still in denial eh?) I would comb it 100 strokes per day. I would feel it with my hands, gazing at it from the mirror, letting it shine with the fluorescent’s glow. Oh how I clearly remember the feeling. It was just pure cloud 9…

Then the curse started to creep in (I was still bitter), when I was 9. I did not really notice this immediately, the transition was very gradual. The hair stylist would always have this remark about my hair being very thick, and hard to manage, that I have bad hair. It was not straight but was not curly too (scratching head). In short, it was a chunk of messy frizz!

I did not mind it, I thought thick hair was (still is) a blessing, and the unmanageable part was just because he does not know how to manage it. But his discouraging voice started to bother me.I did not realize it until most hair stylists comment that my hair will always be frizzy  and that I have the bad hair, that I did not get the beautiful healthy waves of my mother. Any salon that I go to, I have these similar comments. That I couldn’t wear my hair shoulder length anymore because it can’t be tamed and the only way is to wear it with a ponytail. That it was sot thick it goes east-west direction. That I need to have it straightened. And all the other blahs blahs. Because of this, I dread the time when I really have to go to a salon.

I did not see it as frizzy then, I just thought it went really really thick because of buyag. Well for my case it is not a ‘good’ thick anymore but a ‘bad’ thick. I also thought this has something to do with going through adolescence stage. But what the heck, it is none  but my pure GENES, oh so fine genes, just serving its simple role.

Well now you have a snippet of the start of my agony. For what I have gone through my denial as a curly girl, I will have it in my next post. There is just too much drama in it (for me anyway). I just want to pour out all my emotions. I know it sounds lame and vain and shallow, but as a little girl it was deeply embarrassing, a source of my low self-esteem. (drama queen huh?)

But worry not, for now I have nothing but pure enjoyment and sincere gratitude to the curliest of my mane and to the waviest of them all. I love my kulots!

 

 

Buyag – a belief that when someone compliments you too much, it will take away the good thing.

Kulot – curly

Lavender Mist

 

My friend, Sarah, and I finally made the the Lavender Mist. We followed it as in Lorraine Massey’s Curly Girl handbook (thanks to SG public libraries). We are ecstatic to try it out!

Lavender oil is great for reviving the curls and it also has cleansing properties. Great for those days when you don’t want to wash your hair for some (lazy) reasons. No wait, it is not also advisable to wash your hair everyday as it strips off hair’s natural oil *bleh* (defensive huh?)

Just so readers would know, from where I grew up (Philippines), taking a bath everyday is a must. From all the commuting via jeepney rides, tricycle rides, multicab rides, dust and dirt will always leave their disgusting trace on you. When you wipe your face with your neatly pressed super white hanky, you see streaks of brown (even black) marks on them, like your wiping off your mascara (okay I’m exaggerating). Touching your hair, you can feel it all clumped together with a touch of dust, pleasant huh? (sarcastic)

And so to continue..

What we need:

• 1/2 gallon water
• 5 drops pure (not synthetic) lavender essential oil
• 3 empty spray bottles

For our case, we only used 1 litre of water. (Conversion 1gallon = 3.27854 litre) Doing some ratio and proportion, we used 2.6 drops of lavender oil (just make some rough estimation).

We got the lavender essential oil from The Body Shop for only S$21.90. Warning: DO NOT apply lavender oil to skin undiluted. (A guide comes together with the box)

You can get the spray bottles from Watson’s and similar beauty stores, it is quite common.

Steps:

• Boil water in a large pot
• Let it simmer for 1 hour (this is for getting rid of the impurities)
• Remove from heat
• Add the lavender oil, stir and replace lid
• Let it cool and place into the spritz bottle

Congratulations! You have just made your very first mister! *clap* *clap*

You can keep a small spray bottle on your bag when you can sneak in a quick touch up. We shared this with our friends, both curly and straight. It’s a great gift idea too, especially this Christmas season, unique and personal.

 

Our only question here is the expiry, for how long can we keep it? Any idea? Enlighten us please.