This past Saturday I went to go visit my (OBBBC aka O Triple B C) which stands for Old Beautician Before Big Chop. I call her Ms. Sheryl and she was my beautician for close to 20 years. Unfortunately she didn't know how to handle natural hair so I had to jump ship and find someone who could handle my kinky coils. Enter: Daisha Putman, a kinky kologist who is BADASS......when it comes to some coils, kinks, and curls.
I had not seen Ms. Sheryl since my Big Chop back in May and I consider her a second mother and decided I needed to go visit her and see how she was doing. So thankfully my mom had informed me that she had moved from her old place which had been a retirement home off of Martin Luther King near Jefferson Ave to a new spot near Lafayette and Nebraska called Lafayette Kutz Salon.
 | |
| Postcard from main reception desk, not necessarily Ms. Sheryl's prices | . |
I will say this was a very nice establishment, the postcard really doesn't captures the salon. These pictures only show the left side, the other side had the hair dryers and also two other chairs for barbers. There was some beautiful artwork hanging on the walls, the bathrooms were decorated very nicely and there was this beautiful mirror embellished all around about 7 feet tall that I WISH I could have had somewhere in my house.
So while I was chatting with Ms. Sheryl she was working on a client of hers, Ms. Carol who I've known at least 15 years via Ms. Sheryl. She is a vendor for KeraCare products and she obviously saw that I was natural now. She gave me a sample bag of the KeraCare Natural Textures line and asked that I try them out and let her know what I thought.
On a separate note: Ms. Sheryl also informed that they do have 2 beauticians that specialize in Natural Hair which I thought was quite interesting.
 |
| These goodies were in the sample bag |
So I told her that I would try them out on my next hair wash day which happen to be last night since I use a shampoo once a month, normally on the last week of the month. So as I'm going through the products I also go online and check out some reviews on Natural Line. I am familiar with the Relaxed line because Ms. Sheryl used to use their products along with Mizani on my hair when it was relaxed. So I read a very informative review from CurlyNikki (another Natural Hair Guru I enjoy).
Now normally I don't like to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to trying something new, especially when it comes to my 4 b/c coils. I personally enjoy my mixture of AS I AM & Design Essentials products along with my blended oils and I think that personally works for me. But I figured I would try this line out because I was curious to see what the results would be.
I also had to go through the different products to figure out what I would try out along with the Cleansing Cream so after reading and re-reading the directions on all the items I decided to go with the Leave-in Conditioner and the Defining Custard.
So last night I started out with the Cleansing Cream and I noticed it had a very pleasant smell to it, not over powering at all and it produced suds very quickly. The texture was nice thick soft yellow substance. I did notice just like with my Design Essentials Natural Shampoo that my hair did feel rough as I was shampooing. De-tangling was somewhat easy but main thing is I went through slowly. Again if I had to compare this to my Design Essentials shampoo it would be on the same level. But I will say that I have had an easier time overall De-tangling with my AS I AM Co-wash.
After step 1, I then rinsed out the shampoo.
I did notice after washing out that my hair was quite bouncy. Which for me was a difference from my Design Essentials. The curls seemed more relaxed where is with Design Essentials I felt they would be tightly more coiled after washing out the shampoo.
Then I moved on to step 2 with the Leave-in Conditioner. Now this step was interesting to me because normally I DO NOT use a leave-in conditioner even with my normally co-wash or deep conditioning days. The last leave-in conditioner I used was with AS I AM and it left in my opinion horrible results. The product never fully dissipated throughout my hair and it left my hair feeling less coiled and in some parts looking like a poof-poof head. So that for me just re-iterated why I don't use leave-in conditioner but for this I decided I needed to try it out to make this review fair.
Ok, so this product smells like the previous one which is good in my opinion, don't like clashing scents. This product also had a soft yellow feel to it, a bit thicker than the shampoo and when putting through my hair and even working it in for a while this is what it looked like. You could clearly see the product in my hair and it didn't feel as though it was dissipating. So after a while I was staring through the mirror and thinking this is not good....but I decided to still see it through.
On to step 3, the Defining Custard. After applying the Leave-in Conditioner I then start to apply the Defining Custard. As with the previous products the smell is consistent with the previous 2, has a hint of yellow and the texture is semi-thick aka gooey. I apply this product thoroughly and again I see more build up on my hair. At this point I'm just HOPING that once I air dry my hair overnight that the product will have disappated and it will be okay in the morning.....
Fast forward to this morning. It literally took until 5am this morning for my hair to completely dry. Now mind you I did not have on a cap and I did not toss or turn in my sleep. I actually slept on my chest the whole night and even woke up ever few hours to check on the status of my hair. My hair that morning after it was completely dry felt so hard, it felt like a helmet on my head. Even when I would move my head from side to side, I could feel the coils that had been restricted tightly kind of "spring" out and I definitely didn't like the feel.
So I decided that I need to try out the Butter Cream to see if that would help soften up and release the tension I was feeling throughout my hair. This texture reminded me of a lotion and also had a nice smell. It carried a different smell in my opinion compared to the previous 3 products, but still overall pleasant.
So after applying the butter cream, my hair did soften up but I still didn't like it because I still feel the previous products in my hair that did not completely dissolve.
So if I had to decide to use this product again, I think I would have to change up and change out some of the items. I am curious what the results would be if I took out the Leave-in Conditioner and swapped it with my oils to see if that would produce a different result. I think I will try this in the future. In fact normally when I would use my Design Essentials products I do not use a Leave-in Conditioner either.
So I think tonight I will wash my hair again and just use my AS I AM Co-Wash so I can get my hair back to feeling the way I like it again. Overall this was an interesting experience and who knows....I might try this again with a different line. I will say this was quite the learning experience.
An extra after thought: Just thought about this at 6:30pm. I notice with the Design Essentials line their conditioner option is one that you wash out. I think what I would like to see with the KeraCare line is an option of a washout conditioner. The Leave-in might work for other folks but I think it would be nice to have this option for others such as myself.
An extra after thought: Just thought about this at 6:30pm. I notice with the Design Essentials line their conditioner option is one that you wash out. I think what I would like to see with the KeraCare line is an option of a washout conditioner. The Leave-in might work for other folks but I think it would be nice to have this option for others such as myself.
Please note all pictures taken with Samsung Galaxy S3 phone. Some pictures with front facing camera and others with the back camera.
Until the next episode....
