Nat — The Curly CEO

Since I did my Big Chop, my mom has been inspired with my new regime in how I take care of my hair. She no longer straightens her hair every week like we both used to, and rather work with what God gave her.  She has mastered the Braid Out and it is her only "go-to" method. Every night, she uses a moisturizer, like SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, and single braids her hair. In the morning, she takes it down and throws on a headband. This is what she feels comfortable with and is an easy style for her everyday.  In order to help her with her process and hopefully jumpstart her growth, I gave her a trial bottle of The Mane Choice vitamins - Manetabolism (if in Canada, go here to purchase . I have just finished my first bottle and turning into a believer due to my amazing results, I wanted my mom to try it. Also, because she's in her 50's, she's experiencing thinner hair, but I feel this is also a result of all the relaxer treatments and stress on the

A quick and easy 5 step process that takes you little to no time in the morning to refresh your curls :) Watch this SUPER SHORT short vid below on how I refresh to get my curls to shine again! Steps: 1. Rustle up hair to get it out of that "flat" stage 2. Spritz hair with water (I put a little Glycerin in my bottle to preserve the water from being stale.. Also works as a humectant!) 3. Massage an oil into your scalp for stimulation of hair growth (personally I believe Castor Oil is the best oil for your scalp) 4. Put a hair lotion/milk all throughout your hair for moisture (I love SheaMoisture products so I always use their Curl & Hibiscus Hair Milk. Smells great and keeps hair really moisturized) 5. Seal hair and ends with any oil of your choice (I flip between Moroccan Oil and Coconut Oil)

Did my 2nd #braidout! And I love it WAY better fluffed/separated than defined! Check out this video on this look :) 

Looking to buy Manetabolism pills in Canada and don't want to wait for shipping or pay for duty fees? You can order right on this page below, or check out my CANADIAN site :) @  CurlShoppe.ca Buy Manetabolism Plus *Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with The Mane Choice and do not work for their company. I am simply a girl living in Toronto who shares a love for healthy long hair and want to share these vitamins with others :) 

Great colour, matte, but doesn't stay.

I don't usually blog about restaurants but...

I have really been wanting a facial sauna for quite some time now. I often have trouble with random pop ups of pimples on my face. All throughout being a child my mom said "you're getting pimples because of pop/chips/chocolate" etc. Although that may be VERY true, I have surely cut down in my recent years and I still get the odd pimple. Most of the time I'll get it on my cheek (right cheek specifically lol, odd I know), then around and on my nose. I have done my efforts of going from washing in the morning to now using a facial scrubber (Olay Fresh that vibrates and you don't have to change the attachment.. I love it) and also taking a baby wipe to my fave before bed. Although I don't wear THAT much makeup (I stopped wearing foundation and now just rely on a touch-up concealer and my trusty bronzer), I heard leaving makeup on your face before bed is a good culprit of acne. While looking at what to spend my RBC Points on, I stumbled across this little R

Hello, hello! So I saw a repost recently on IG @AmazingNaturalHair for @Beyoutiful_Curls and her "deep conditioning on the go": I thought it was an amazing idea! Deep conditioning is vital to upkeeping your hair's health, especially now that we're approaching winter season (shoutout to the Great North). It's good to deep condition about once a week, I personally leave a little conditioner after co-washing then put in Miss Jessie's Super Sweetback Treatment which smells heavenly!! A little expensive and not even worth it to order to Canada, but any day trips to Buffalo would do, or they sell tester size at Clore for about $10. So that's what I put in my hair today and I didn't have time to sit around but I needed a treatment, so I slapped on a shower cap, Durag and a beanie. And just because I wanted a little more pizzaz, I took one of my old curly clip-ons and cut it into bangs and clipped that bad boy in. And voila, deep conditioning o

So I decided on a whim to straighten my hair. You know, it's been 4 months since I last straightened it and that was when I did my big chop at the hair dressers. 4 months is a BIG DEAL for me considering I pretty much used to straighten my hair every week when I had my relaxed hair.  I  didn't wash my hair, but I didn't think I had too much product in it. Considering my hair  was already dry, and to me stretched out, I thought it'd be good "prepped hair"  (not realizing my daily water-hair milk-oil routine) and that surely it had more product than I thought... And to add to that, I even put detangler product and thermal protectant serum in.  So I  started straightening it and it turned BRITTLE (looked like a serious case of split ends)!  I thought I had to cut all my ends (more than an 1") off.  I  realized I was literally just burning the products in my hair, matching almost the smell of burnt weave. I  freaked out once I got to my ears,

i lo v e pop corn . Oh my golly, I love popcorn. So far, I said that 3 times before even really starting this post! LOL. Well then, I knew I always loved popcorn, no matter where it came from: Microwave, Movie Theatres, a friend's house at a sleepover, you name it! But to find out that popcorn is actually good for you?! That is music to my ears. Health Benefits Why you too, should love popcorn = Many vitamins & antioxidants (maybe even more than fruit!) Low in calories and good to carb hunger pangs (1 cup of air-popped popcorn is only 16 calories and 0.2g of fat!! ..Although the oil used to pop the popcorn adds to these numbers) Enough fiber to make you feel fuller, longer.. unlike diving into a bag of fatty chips which doesn't make you full at all! Less than 2min to make and very cheap You determine what goes on the popcorn so you can control the salt/fat level Check out this site for more info! Popcorn Don'ts As much as these are good benefits, the

Tell me how I feel, tell me how I feel! Initial Shock Well the initial shock of having no hair, yet again, was still as shocking as my first big chop years ago. No pony tail, no hair straightening, no fancy, elaborate hair styles. Just my hair. And that was just it, it was just me and my hair. It IS just me and my hair, left for me to play with it day in and day out ( yes I know it is not recommended to do so because it doesn't keep it "perfect" ) but who wants "perfect" hair anyways? I'm learning to love me and my face with my natural hair surrounding it. Best thing is to just let my hair be how it wants to be. But let me expand on that idea... Short & Cute Now for anyone who is newly a naturalista and recently had a big chop, there are MANY lessons to learn. The biggest thing is learning to love your face and your TWA just how it is. Accept the fact that you can't do much with it and the best/healthiest thing for you is to LEAVE YOUR HAIR

Hola! So this is the 2nd time that I've whole-heartedly done finger coils on my entire head. Since I cut my hair, I've yearned for the "perfect" curls in which I'd have cute little spirals of curls. My natural #washngo isn't like that, well perfect but of course I wouldn't expect it to be. My hair is a mixture of tight coils in the back, possibly 4a and looser coils going towards the front more like 3c.  I love the coils in the back of my hair because they are the tightest and hold the most form. I'm not too sure if they are tighter because they experience less manipulation or because they don't have any die-hard relaxer bits hanging off them like the front of my hair, or maybe they're just different lol. I do however notice that it takes a LOT quicker to do the back of my hair versus the front because they already have almost-perfect form before I even touch them, they're healthier (less frizz) and shorter so it actually takes les

HIYA!! Recap Okay so I'm back into the blog world. Back in late 2009 I decided to chop off all my hair. I guess I was bored? My hair was dry, damaged, and blah. I was inspired by one of Rihanna's GORGEOUS looks ('Take A Bow' vid) and yea... If you would like a recap of my measly 6 posts on my other blog that I started, click HERE . Pretty much I caved into the relaxer and ended up RIGHT back where I started. But I have recently done yet another #bigchop, this time for the right reasons.  Now Needless to say I am starting my natural hair journey once again and pretty much a whole new life as a new university grad thrown into the "real world" of being an adult. Except this time I put a LOT of thought into it, bothering everyone and they mama (including my mama big time) about my hair decision. My boyfriend constantly teases me about me coming out of the washroom saying "look mommy, a curl! Look! Look!" LOL. Anyways, can't knock a girl