Natural Hair Product Review: Design Essentials Natural HONEY AND SHEA Edge Tamer

Now this product I was waiting to use until I decided on another Mohawk style. I didn't use a brush to smooth down my hair. I prefer to use my fingers and hands to minimize on tension. Not sure if you can really tell but for me it seemed to do a good job. You don't need a lot to use on your sides. Will I try it again? Of course:)

Until the next episode....

 All That MsJazz

Product REVISIT Review: TWO STRAND TWIST OUT with Design Essentials Natural Almond and Avocado Detangling Leave-In Conditioner & Design Essentials CurlForming Custard with Honey and Chamomile

On Tuesday I finally washed my hair since my "being in the hospital and they took my gallbladder episode".  Now mind you, I have not washed my hair since my LAST post on my hair on my blog, which if my memory serves me right was on November 4th. So I knew I was going to be for one hell of day with my hair. I also remembered that I enjoyed my two strand twist styles and was going to go back to them ASAP. 

So after washing my hair on Tuesday and reusing the samples that my beautician gave me of the Design Essentials Natural Almond and Avocado Detangling Leave-In Conditioner & the Design Essentials CurlForming Custard with Honey an Chamomile. (First review on these products found here.) I decided I was just going to "Turban up" for the next couple of days until I was ready to go back to work today.

Here is the video that I used to help with my turban because lord knows in the past.....they were not pretty, so big shout out to this lady, askpRoy for this excellent video.

Turban style on Nov 19th

 oh and can't forget yesterday.

Turban style on Nov 20th

So after two days of being two stranded up, I took them down this morning and I used my Design Essential Moisturizing Lotion to help take them down and keep down any fuzz. When I first started out I had to remember to be patient because I couldn't WAIT to have my cute crazy curly looking fro out.

It was a challenge taking down at first, it was a bit stiff which I take as being  from using the custard product. I had to really massage some of the moisturizing lotion through to get my hair to cooperate somewhat. My hair was a battlefield today....

So eventually I was able to work it out. Again I don't know if I can make a true comparison because this twist was held for two days versus when I used the Design Essentials HCO Leave-in Conditioner and the Design Essentials Natural Curl Stretching Cream, the FIRST time I did a two strand twist and only had those twists in for one day (That review is here).


Eventually I was able to get it to work. Overall it wasn't as fluffy as I liked but again I have to take into consideration the time my hair was twisted up, eventually I'm pretty sure it will expand more throughout the week.

Until the next episode....

 All That MsJazz

Jasmine: 0 vs Gallbladder: 1

So as of earlier this week, I am gallbladder and gallstone free. This past Sunday I woke up with a severe pain around 4am. I just thought, oh crap another gallstone attack and I would have to wait it out for 4 to 6 hours as my previous attacks had been. Well I knew something was really wrong when this particular didn't go away, in fact it only became worse by noon time. By this time I was dealing with the attack for 8 hours but I kept thinking it will get better. Soooo then 3pm came around and I knew I was screwed. There was a family gathering going on and I was pretty sure I was not going and I told my mom to keep her phone nearby because there was a VERY STRONG chance that I was going to drive myself to the ER.

So eventually I come to the conclusion that there is a gallstone stuck someplace especially after my attempt to eat lunch ended up in disaster. Within 3o minutes of eating, it came right back up....not a pretty sight.  I was in so much pain that I had forgotten that it was a Sunday and had tried to call the surgeon that had been recommended to me back in September to do the procedure. I then realized that offices would not be opened because it was a Sunday....duh.

So I take a shower and get dressed and make my way to St. Mary's Hospital's Emergency Room (ER). I check myself in and I let them know what is going on. Now the funny part of this is that I had an ultra sound back in September and I had gone to Metro Imaging shortly after and requested a CD with my pictures and info in regards to my gallstones. The nurses in the ER were impressed and happy that I had that info along with the other doctors during my visit there.

Please forgive my lost in the wood appearance. LOL

 So my mom texts me within 30 minute of me being at the ER informing me that my dad would be coming up there to sit with me. By the time he did arrive I was so much pain I was sitting there crying. Now there were a few funny moments before he arrived. 

1. Weedboy - There was young boy I dare say was in his mid teens who REEKED of marijuana. Not a little but a whole lot. It was so bad even some of the nurses were talking about. I just stared at him thinking you can't be this damn stupid. How in the HELL are you going to walk into a hospital that definitely has security guards and possibly even cops and just smell of of weed. I just shook my head at him because with the way he was smelling he made my stomach feel that much worse.
2. Crazy ass black woman stuck in the 70's- Now this here topped Weedboy EASILY. A lady is brought into the ER via an ambulance and her outfit.......................her outfit......I can't even begin to describe this outfit. She looked polyester DOWN. The killer part was that I didn't know she was in the ER until she started to argue with the staff.  When she was arguing with the staff she really let loose. She informed them they couldn't tell her a MF-ing thang and that they could go F--K themselves. Now the part that really had me rolling was when she told someone from the staff who was Caucasian, that he better take his Rick James looking ass somewhere and not put his hands on her. AGAIN I stress she called a white man, RICK JAMES!
3. Now this incident happened once I was assigned a room and was lying down in my room back in the ER. I was speaking with a nurse when it out of nowhere we hear a loud crash coming from the left side of me. All the staff rush over to see what is going on. One of the patients who happened to be drunk, had fallen out of bed. So they had to assist him back into his bed.

Now after all that fun and a Cat Scan, I finally am taken to my room, 364 where another patient was already settled. So that evening I pretty much was on pain meds and fluids because I was not allowed to eat or drink anything. I will say this, that while I know my gallbladder pretty much was a done deal, my bladder functioned EXCELLENTLY during my hospital stay.

So my dad leaves later on Sunday night while I get settled in and thankful doze off into a drugged induced bliss.

Monday morning comes around and I have an ultrasound followed by a visit from a general surgeon by the name of Dr. Hammond comes in to see me. He will be the gentleman who will perform my gallbladder removal and he also informs me of the 2nd procedure I will have to have afterwards. Apparently a few gallstones were stuck and that was the crazy pain I was experiencing. Which I had already self-diagnosed back at home. Now the funny part is this was the same guy I was trying to contact on Sunday to schedule to see, so I took this as a good sign that he would actually be performing the surgery. He informs me that he is hoping to do the surgery later on around 5pm. I was quite happy and was keeping my fingers crossed as well. 

After he leaves a few hours later a Gastroenterology specialist comes in and he introduces himself. Really cool black gentleman with a perky bow-tie:) He lets me know that he has been in contact with Dr. Hammond about my case and he reiterates the same thing that he is hoping surgery will be done later on that day.

By noon someone from the Anesthesia department comes through and lets me know the procedure. I told him that I was nervous because I had never gone "under the knife" before and asked him if there was some strange bright white light. He laughed and stated if I do just know it wasn't Jesus calling me home, it was just him knocking me out. LOL

So by this time my mom has made it there and we both are just waiting for what will happen next.  Also one of my best friends, Amy came through to visit me and brought me some beautiful flowers. We chatted for a while and then an orderly comes through and lets me know it's time for my first surgery (remove gallbladder) I say my good byes to Amy and my mother and I make our way down to the surgery unit. We get settled into the receiving area and I meet with my surgeon and someone from the anesthesia department. 

Shortly after I'm wheeled off to the operating room and they take me off of my bed and scoot me onto the operating table. I was nervous and they could tell. The Anesthesiologist gets me prepped and I don't recall a THING AFTER THAT! I tell ya by the time I started to wake up I was already in recovery. I couldn't believe it. My throat was sore and so was my tummy. They take me back up to my room and the drugs are working great. So I relaxed for the rest of the day.

Tuesday comes around and my pains are back and I can tell where the stones are and can't WAIT for the second surgery. Through out the day I was asking for morphine like it was going out of style. Around 1:30pm they finally are ready for me on my second procedure. I had an ECRP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography). By this time I was so tired from the pain that they had to help me from a wheel chair to the prep bed in the waiting area. The Anestheialogist for procedure wanted to put me on my stomach but I told her I was in too much pain and I just couldn't do it so she decided to put me under fully so I could stay on my back. When the surgeon was ready for me, and this was a different guy who did this procedure, he had me put on this weird table and I had to have my body turned a certain way. 

Again I was knocked out before I realized what had happened and woke up again in the recovery room. I could tell an immediate difference. I know longer had the pain from the stones. So after that I was wheeled up back to my room and they tried to get me to eat solids but I just wasn't up to it yet since my throat was super sore. I had some vegetable bouillon soup and some grape juice and that was it. Yet I made sure I stayed on my pain meds because I starting to feel the full effects from my gallbladder removal surgery.

Next morning, Wednesday they bring me a big breakfast to see if they can entice my appetite.

It worked. lol

So after my breakfast, I make sure to keep up with my pain meds and I'm just wandering around my room like a crazy woman and also napping. I eventually get the call from my doctor that I am good to go and I'm being discharged. I was too happy and couldn't wait to leave. But I will say this, the staff was amazing and wonderful. I do plan on sending them a Thank you card and flowers. They just simply were extraordinary.

Also while I was there I had three different room mates and they were all wonderful. One lady was there for treatment of a blood clot, another lady had high blood pressure that they couldn't lower so they moved her to a different floor, my last roommate that I had was quite interesting. When she came in on Tuesday, she warned the nurses that they had better have psychiatric drugs on the premises because she was going to need them. Ah she was a fun one. 

 Oh well, I'm back home now and I'm happy. Still in some pain but working on getting myself back to normal. Would you believe I still have on my ID bracelet from the hospital? Yea I'll work on taking that off eventually, hopefully before I go back to work.


Update: Also, now that I think about at 6:45pm I wish I had been able to at least see what my gallbladder and the stones looked like. yea I weird like that and yea I more than likely would have put up a picture of them as well:)


Update, Update (11/15) - I received flowers from my job today and they are beautiful and also have a picture of the flowers that Amy gave to me as well;)

Flowers on the left from Amy, Flowers on the right from my BMS family

 

Until the next episode....

 All That MsJazz

Natural Hair Product Review: Design Essentials Natural Almond and Avocado Detangling Leave-In Conditioner & Design Essentials CurlForming Custard with Honey and Chamomile

Last week my beautician was kind enough to give me some samples of a few new products that I had been inquiring about from the Design Essentials line. These products are so new I have yet to see them out officially in any retail stores and from what I can tell can only be purchased online at this time.  

So after wearing my old two-strand twists for over a week, my scalp was due for it's monthly shampoo & conditioning. 

These are pics of my head BEFORE I start my washing process

 So I started out with sectioning my hair into 4 big sections with my color clips.

 I then proceeded to get my hair wet and started to shampoo each section until my whole head was done. Afterwards I washed out the shampoo and followed it up with my conditioner. I kept my hair in their sections throughout this process.

Shampooing

Conditioning

Once I was done with my shampoo and conditioner process, I washed it out.

Hair clean as a thistle!

After that I moved onto my Black Jamaican Castor Oil (BJCO)/coconut co-wash treatment. I sectioned off my hair put BJCO through each section then followed up each section with my As I am Co-coconut co-wash. After my whole head was done, I put a plastic cap on and went under my dryer for about 20 minutes.

Afterwards I went through my detangling routine and then put my hair towel on for a few minutes to absorb some water.

Now onto the new products that I will be using for finishing up.

Samples of the products: starting from the left in the little cup was the DE Natural HONEY AND SHEA Edge Tamer, DE Natural Almond and Avocado Detangling Leave-In, and DE Curlforming custard with Honey and Chamomile

Now the first one I used was the DE Natural Almond and Avocado Detangling Leave-In Conditioner retail $12.99 8.0 oz. The scent was very light not overpowering at all, it kind of reminded me of the scent of my DE Moisturizing Lotion. I was able to use around a quarter size worth through each of my sections. I would work through with my hands followed up with my detangling brush. Now mind you, even though it states that it's a detangling product itself, I already had chosen to detangle my hair while using my JBCO/Co-wash products. I have had the most success with that procedure and decided not to deviate from it. 

So then after applying the Leave-in Conditioner, I followed up with the DE CurlForming Custard with Honey and Chamomile Retail $ 16.99 7.5 oz. Now this product was in a custard form so it took about a dime size of product to work through each of my sections followed up with my detangling brush again. This product had a stronger scent to it while in the jar. I'm assuming it was the Chamomile, because I don't recall Honey having this particular scent.

The results after I was half way done using both products.

the left side that still had duck clips did not have any product in it.

Results when fully done.

 
So after I was done with my whole head I oiled my scalp lightly and let my hair air dry over night. It took about 3 hours total for my head to be completely dry. In the morning I was checking out my hair noticing the look and feel. The look was somewhat similar to when I use the DE Natural Curl Enhancing Mousse. My curl pattern was there but it seemed a lot tighter to my scalp. Now to me the big difference was in the feel. I guess since I used a custard finishing product it gave my hair a stiff feel to it. My beautician did inform that it would be the case on the first day but as I wear the style throughout the week it should relax a bit.  Another thing I was looking out for was any "snowflake" residue from using any of the products. Thankfully I didn't experience that issue. I assume if that happens it might be someone using too much product and/or wasn't fully rubbing the product through their hair. 

Now another concern I have is that I use my DE Moisturizing Lotion on a daily basis. With these new finishing products I'm not sure if that is still the case so I will double check with my beautician because I want to make sure my hair will be ok. So for right now I am enjoying these new products and if after one week I still like the results,  I might incorporate using these products in my regimen.

So after checking out my hair and getting dressed for the day. I did one final check for the day. I can tell no lie, I'm looking pretty fly:)

Side-note: There was also a third product that I was suppose to review but didn't feel that I needed to since I was doing just a wash-N-go hair style. The product was the DE Natural HONEY AND SHEA Edge Tamer Retail $11.99 2.3 oz. When I do another Mohawk fro I will use this product on my sides to see how it holds up.


Side-Side-note: I think the next time I try the Leave-In Conditioner and the Custard I will do a two-strand twist out to see how it compares to when I use the DE Natural Curl Stretching Cream.


Until the next episode....

 All That MsJazz