Product Review - Hair Honey

Over the last few weeks, I’ve revisited a product that I used back in my transitioning days, it is Kynk Naturals, Hair Honey.

I purchased the Hair Honey from Noah’s health food store, but it is also available on their website, http://www.kynk.ca.

How to use (as quoted from Kynk Naturals):
A conditioning treatment that improves you hair’s strength and flexibility. Apply Hair Honey to clean wet hair to help ease tangles when combing. Hair Honey can also be used to reinforce hair ends when styling especially with braids & twists. For the not -so -intense kynks but severe dryness issues, saturate dry hair and wrap head & hair in a (not too) hot towel. Then wash as usual. Use Hair Honey as needed on natural or treated hair.

Ingredients:
Persea Gratissima (Apricot Kernel), Prunus armeniaca (Avocado), Cocos Nucifera (Coconut), Cera alba (Beeswax), Melaleuca Alterfernolia (Tea Tree), d-alpha tocopherol (Vitamin E), Mentha Piperita (Peppermint), Ribes nigrum (Black Currant aroma), Oleoresin Rosmarinus Officinalis (rosemary), Petroselinum sativum (Parsley), Thymus vulgaris (Thyme), & love (Agape).

My thoughts: 

Now that I’m 100% Curlie, I find this Hair Honey works better on my hair. It looks honey and has a mild honey and menthol/peppermint scent. The strength of this product is that it is a great for sealing in moisture. I often used it to apply one top of my moisturized hair. Yet for me, the best use of the Hair Honey was adding it to my deep conditioner. It gave my hair a protective coating and I love that.

I may not use it every day because I’m used to fruity and floral scents in my products, yet since all the ingredients used in Kynk Naturals products are all natural, I will keep the Hair Honey on my rooster. I should also mention that the Hair Honey is also has Clean Care's seal of approval for safer beauty & personal care products in Canada. It’s important to note that their mantra is, “If you can't eat it we don't use it!” In essence it makes my hair feel good.

Have you tried this Hair Honey or any of the other Kynk Natural products? Tell me what you think.

Blessings and Curls,

Kim aka B-Curlie

Wonderful Shea

First of all let me apologize for the hiatus. My husband and I have been crazy busy selling our house and buying a new one, not to mention upgrading furniture and trying to get rid of the gently used stuff. So as you can imagine, my life turned into a small zoo. I’m still in the mist of everything, but I had to give some props to me old stand-by RAW SHEA BUTTER!

One of my favourite brands of shea butter, found in most Black Beauty Supply stores.

As of late, I have been dealing with a flare up of dermatitis, which has not been fun, but I won’t get into that right now. Needless to say, I’ve taken a minimalist approach for three reasons:

-          My hair needs some extra love;

-          Lack of time;

-          When dermatitis is lurking, my scalp/hair does not like new unknown products.

So I have been shampooing regularly, adding my leave-in and styling with raw shea butter only! I find people either love or hate shea butter. Well, I’m a LOVER. It seals in moisture like nobody’s business, in my opinion. Yes, there are other oils and butters that can do the trick, but for me shea butter works best. So I do not think it will ever be out of my regular rotation of products.

What are your thoughts about shea butter?

Part 1 - Days of Bliss

Now that I’m a curly, I often wonder why it took so long and I want to get to the bottom of the history of the perception of our coils. As the old adage says, “you won’t know you are going, until you know where you came from.” I will be doing a series of posts throughout February as my way of celebrating Black History Month. So here I go:

Before slavery our hair was something that was always pampered and taken care of. Usually, the person who washed, moisturized and styled your hair took great pride in the task and was someone close to you. You trusted them. Often your hair told a story, depending on the tribe wearing a different hair style was a way of letting the tribe now at what stage of your life, ie: marital status, social rank or mourning a loss to name a few.            

Argan oil

Hand-carved comb

Black soap was used widely as a shampoo and shea butter, palm oil and argan oil were commonly used to moisture and style. There was also great pride in hand-carving combs.

The combs are literary works of art and to me this says that they loved their hair with all its kinks and coils. It was important to take proper care of it. 



Blessings and Curls,


B-Curlie

Jane Carter's Curl Defining Cream Review

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I got Jane Carter’s Curl Defining Cream at an iHEARTmyHair event a couple weeks ago.

I heard mixed reviews (in person and on youtube), the natural who brought it to the event, said it left a white residue in her hair and just was not what she expected or wanted. Others who tried it before said they liked it for twisted outs and blowouts. I still decided to give it a try, especially since I could give it an unbiased review without purchasing it.  

So this weekend was the moment of truth. I decided to try it on a twist-out.  Here is the claim from Jane Carter website:

Eliminate curl shrinkage! Curl Defining Cream is light-weight, all natural product formulated to lengthen and define your natural curl pattern while drying to a soft, shiny, bouncy finish.

Water soluble, Curl Defining Cream washes and dries clean without leaving any film, offering the true luxury of “wash and wear” hair!

Ingredients:Purified Water, Extracts of Anthemis Noblis Flower (Camomile), Symphytum Officinal Leaf (Comfrey), Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail), Urtica Dioica (Nettle), Rosemarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf, Humulus Lupulus (Hops),of Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba), Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Natural Vitamin E, Glycerin, Propanediol, Poly-quaternium-200, Citric Acid , Polyquaternium-37, Ceteareth 20 , Phen-oxyethanol, Caprylyl, Glycol, Sorbic acid, Fragrance.
 

Since wash-n-gos are not my strong suit, I decided try it on staple style - twist-out.

So I washed my hair with Live Clean's Apple Cider Clarifying Shampoo, conditioned with Say Yes to Cucumbers, my leave-in conditioner is the Kinky Curly Knot Today (Kimmaytube method). After applying the my leave-in, I started to section and detangle. After detangling each section, I applied the Curl Defining Cream and started to twist my hair into medium-sized twists.

Let me say that is product has a lovely fresh citrus scent. So if you like citrus, you will love this. The smell also lingers on your hair for at least a day after application – which was fine with me.

When I finished twisting, my twists were slightly elongated, soft and shiny. I wrapped my hair with a scarf and then went to bed.

I took them out yesterday afternoon. I coated my twists with a little bit of coconut oil and gently unraveled them. I have to say that I’m really happy with the outcome. My hair was defined, very moist and bouncy.

So for me, Jane Carter’s Curl Defining Cream is a winner. I will definitely use the rest of the jar up and I think it may become one of my staple products. The only thing I will not like is buying it, since it is quite pricey at $38 CDN for a 16 oz jar. For right now I will live in bliss … and see what I can do when I'm on empty... that will be a sad day. 

See pictures below of my twist-out (front and back), using the product.

Have you tried it? What did you think? Or do you have another product review to share, email me at canadiancurlie2010@gmail.com.

Blessings and Curls,

B-Curlie