Put Your Best Face Forward

With all of this talk about organic hair care, it's hard not to talk about skin care. One of my favorite ways to pamper my self is with a relaxing facial. I like to have one while I deep condition my hair. If you would like to give my favorite facial a try, keep on reading :)

Step 1: The best time to do this is when you're getting ready for bed. The first thing you need to do is open your pores. The easiest way to do this is in the shower. Since I usually deep condition my hair before applying my facial, I get the opportunity to let the steam to open up my pours while I work on my hair.

Step 2: 
Once you're out of the shower, apply a dime sized amount of jojoba oil all over your face.

Step 3: 
Apply a generous amount of Shae Moisture's Raw Shae Butter facial cream and wait for 10-20 minutes. This facial cream dries clear, so don't be alarmed when you don't have a paper mache like hold on your face.

Step 4: 
Thoroughly rinse your face with water and re-moisturize with about a drop of jojoba oil.

Step 5: 
Drink two or three glasses of water before going to bed.

When you wake up the next morning, your face will be glowing like the sun!

I hope this helps guys :) Please leave comments and suggestions and 'like' naturalsunited on facebook!
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An Easy Protective Style for Rainy Weather

Picture this: You wake up in the morning, it's pouring rain outside, and even if the rain stopped, it's going to be humid for the rest of the day. That's bad news for your hair right? It's gonna frizz, if it's a kinky-curly texture, it might even shrink up and become unmanageable later.
How do we avoid this catastrophe?

Here's an easy protective style (and one of my staple updo's) that will protect your hair from the elements of this awful weather, avoid frizzing, shrinkage, and keep your hair in a state that will be easy to work with later on.

Step 1: divide your hair into 4 sections. This may vary, but for the style you see in these photos, you want to have one section in the front of your head and three sections on the sides and back of your head.


Step 2: One at a time on each section, apply a spritz of water, leave-in conditioner, and oil (for more information on this moisturizing technique, check out the article called "How to Keep Your Hair Moisturized").

Step 3: Roll that section as if it were a french roll. If your hair is shorter, you can also do a flat twist.

Step 4: secure it with a bobby pin. I only needed one bobby pin at the end, but feel free to add as many as you feel is necessary to keep your hair in place. For the top section, I did the twist in a kind of   "U" Shape because from the front view, it looks like a pompadour.

And that's it! Now you can get out there and have a great hair day despite the not so great weather.

Please leave comments and suggestions. Don't forget to like naturalsunited on facebook!





don't forget to stay calm and love your natural hair.

Natural Hair Recovery Results

If you read the previous article, I talked about how to recover your hair after a night or two of sleeping without your satin scarf. I left the braids in for the next several hours and here are the results!

I did not add any additional product. I just separated the braids and fluffed my hair to the desired volume.


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Bring your Natural Hair back to Life!

Has this ever happened to you? : You sleep without your satin scarf and wake up the next day with your dry, frizzy, and tangled. So what should you do to restore your vibrant curls?  Keep reading, and I'll show you how!

Step 1: Divide your hair into smaller, workable sections.


Step 2: One at a time, spritz each section with water.

Step 3: Apply your favorite leave in conditioner cream.

Step 4: Apply your favorite oil (pay close attention to those ends!)

Step 5: Braid that section of hair and repeat until all of your hair is braided.

Step 6: put on that satin scarf, especially if you're going to bed. If you're getting ready for a new day, do this first thing in the morning. While you get ready, your hair can take a little time to soak in the moisture and regain it's vibrancy. When you're ready remove the scarf  and unravel the braids to reveal your best braid out.
(Another trick is to remove the scarf and unravel the braids before taking a shower. The steam from the water can fluff up those curls even more for a fro-y look.)

This unbeatable combination of water, leave-in and oil not only moisturizes your hair, but is a great means of retaining frizz and maintaining strong hair from roots to tip.

Hope this helps guys! Please leave comments and suggestions here on blogspot, or like my facebook page. You can also follow naturals united on instagram, twitter, and tumblr!

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-stay calm and love your natural hair

Last night, I was going through my fridge to rid it of anything that may be in danger of spoiling any time soon. I found a whole pinapple, and a grapefruit that needed to be used up so I decided to juice them. I thought, " what would be good to add to these ingredients?" I took a second look and got some apples, parsley (which my roommate Iman suggeted) and a couple lemons.
It made the most angelically deligious beverage I've had in a long time. To make things even more awesome, after a couple of days of drinking this stuff, it did wonders for my skin!

Here's the recipe:

1 whole pineapple
1 grapefruit
3 apples
2 lemons
1 bunch of parsley
2 inches of ginger (for a little kick)

If you've got a juicer, give it a try and let me know how you like it :)

Don't forget, if you like this blog, follow me here on blogspot, or on tumblr, twitter, instagram, or facebook!

Thanks again for reading!

-stay calm and love you're natural hair ;)

The Secret to Growing Long/Healthy Natural Hair

 In the African American community, there's a misconception about how long African American hair can grow. I can personally attest to this because as a child, I use to believe that my hair would never grow any longer than it already was, it was bushy, messy, nappy, etc. Now that I've undergone a thorough transition to the natural side and have educated myself a little more, I now know that those things are simply untrue. 

Now, it's time to spread the word and share the secret to growing healthy, long, natural African American hair.

The secret is...well there is no secret! There's no special technique or miracle grow product that will make your hair suddenly grow at substantial lengths. However, with a little effort, and a lot of patience, you can restore the health of your hair and retain more length than you have before.

These are what I think are the most important components to growing long healthy hair:

• Avoid damaging products. Be aware of the things you're putting on your hair just the way you want to be aware of what you're putting inside your body. When you go shopping for hair products, take an extra second and read the ingredients on the label. Common things to avoid are sulfates, parabens, silicones, petroleum, mineral oil, alcohol, etc. These ingredients in general can be drying to your strands, clog the pores on your scalp, and prevent good moisture from coming in.
• Avoid heat. Applying heat to your hair (blow drying, flat ironing, pressing, etc) can be extremely damaging, heat drys out your strands and causes split ends. This makes it hard to retain length. If you do apply heat to your hair be sure to use a heat protectant, and seal those ends!
• Be Gentle. It's pretty easy to get frustrated when you have to manage a full head of kinky curls. None the less, try to be as gentle as possible to avoid unnecessary breakage. This may mean laying off the brushing, combing, super tight hair styles, or too much manipulation of your hair. 
• Eat Healthy Foods. Although our hair is made up of dead cells, it's still apart of our bodies and is affected by the way we treat it. If you're not getting enough nutrients from your diet, it can show in the health of your hair. (I personally, have incorporated fresh fruits and veggie juice to my diet to help improve my overall health.)
• Know Your Hair. It would be easy for me to tell you when to wash your hair, when to moisturize it, how often to trim or seal your ends, how often to deep condition it, how to detangle it, blah, blah blah. What you really need to do is have an understanding of your own hair type and know what works for you. Yes, it means a little trial and error. Some things are going to work, and others not so much. Once you find what works, stick to it! It's that simple. As long as your hair is healthy, who cares what your regimen is?  There's so many resources out there to gain knowledge, ideas, and inspiration. You're bound to find something that works for you.
• Be Patient. No matter what your ethnicity is, hair doesn't just grow over night. If you do a length check every day, it'll feel like your hair will never grow. Just focus on keeping your hair healthy and strong and in due time, you'll see the results.

Well, I hope that helps you guys! If you like this article, please follow naturalsunited here on blogspot :)

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Feel free to leave comments and suggestions and remember: stay calm and love your natural hair ;)

Let's Talk About Juicing! (part 2)

In part 1 of Let's Talk About Juicing I discussed the various health benefits that juicing has to offer and shared my first recorded juicing recipe.
Today, I'm going to share my second recipe. I hope you guys give it a try!
(If you enjoy reading this blog, follow me on tumblr, instagram and facebook @naturalsunited, and on twitter @naturalsunited2 )

This one is a Carrot Juice

You'll need the following ingredients:

• About 2 dozen carrots
• 3 apples
• 2 inches of ginger
• 1 lemon

Once all these ingredients are juiced, I usually stir it up and store it in a glass jar. This batch usually lasts all week for me if I have a glass every afternoon.

Carrots are really high in antioxidants, has cardiovascular, and well as anti-cancer benefits. Apples are actually pretty high in fiber, vitamin C, and can help regulate blood sugar. The most surprising fact about it is that is among the few fruits that help fight against lung cancer! Ginger goes a long way for gastrointestinal health and can help boost the immune system. Lemons are another great source of vitamin C, also have a number of anti-cancer benefits, and it's really good for your skin!

Source:
www.whfoods.com

Let's Talk About Juicing! (part 1)

With all this talk about natural hair and how to maintain healthy, or perhaps, long hair we tend to focus on what we apply on the body topically. Another important aspect is also how we treat our bodies on the inside. Your hair as well as your skin and nails can display the first signs of how your body is doing on the inside. If you're breaking out a little more than usual, if you're experiencing breakage in your hair, or even brittle nails, your diet could potentially be the source of the problem. I'm not even necessarily talking about foods we should not eat. I'm talking about foods that the average person doesn't eat nearly enough: fruits and veggies!

That being said, one of my favorite ways to get my daily serving of vegetables is through juicing. 

Juicing is a great way to consume a large amount of fresh fruits and veggies in an efficient way. It's easier for your body to absorb the nutrients from veggie juice rather than chewing solid foods. Juicing is also a great way to detox the body, maintain good skin/hair, and has a plethora of overall health benefits as well (i.e. lowering cholesterol, preventing cancer and reversing diabetes). It's also a great way to jump start weight loss or just encourage better eating habits.

Now that the lecture is over, the next few posts will be about my favorite juicing recipes! Give it a try and tell me what you think! 

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The first one is very simple:

Orange Juice 

Ingredients: 10 oranges

                  1 or 2 inches of ginger

The orange juice is loaded with vitamin C to boost your immune system. The ginger is great for gastrointestinal health, another boost for the immune system, and gives the juice a nice kick of spice.

source:

http://whfoods.com/

How to Keep Your Hair Moisturized

This is my regular moisturizing routine. It's simple and it works really well in the colder seasons. So if you're looking for a more effective way to keep your strands soft, healthy, and free of breakage, then keep on reading!

• Step 1: spritz your hair with water. 

(In this case, I just finished up an apple cider vinegar wash, so my hair was wet to start with)

• Step 2: take a small to medium sized section of hair and apply your favorite leave in conditioner. (If you so choose, now would be a good time to detangle your hair)

• Step 3: apply a small amount of your favorite organic oil to the hair paying close attention to the ends

• 
  

• Step 4: twist that section. (tip: twirl the ends to activate the curl, further seal in the moisture you've just applied, and keep the twist in place so that it doesn't unravel)

• Step 5: secure the twist with a bobby pin. (Tip: I like to twist my entire head before I start pinning the twists down. This way, I have more places to comfortable pin the twist)

I like to wear my pinned twists as is for a nice protective style. You can also unravel it in a couple of hours to reveal a great twist out.

I hope this helps! If you gave it a try, let me know how it worked out for you.

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Thanks again for reading :)

Mud Wash Results

As promised, here are the results of the mud wash!
My hair felt soft, my scalp was clean and well moisturized. This
is something I do about once a week and I've generally had more
managable hair, less shedding, and detangling is much easier.

Give it a try and tell me what you think on facebook or twitter @naturalsunited.
Or leave a comment here on blogspot.

Thanks again for reading! I hope this helps you guys.

Terressentials Mud Wash

Recently, I've been raving about my new favorite hair wash: the Terressentials Mud Wash. In my previous post, I talked about how I cleansed my hair lightly with apple cider vinegar. This time, I'm going to talk about how I do a deeper cleanse with my mud wash.

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So the first thing I did was separated my hair and twisted it in large sections.

Next, I applied a small amount of the mud wash to each section and massaged it thoroughly on my scalp.

Once I finished applying the mud to my whole head I rinsed it well  two times. The second rinse is very important because it is a bit difficult to get it all out of your hair. If you need to, don't hesitate to rinse a third time.

Afterwards, I towel dried my hair, applied a dime sized amount of coconut oil on my scalp, and braided my hair.

Lastly, I tied a silk scarf around my head and went to bed.

Stay tuned for the next article revealing the results!

If you tried the mud wash, let me know if you guys liked it! You can hit me up on twitter or Facebook @naturalsunited

Optional Clarifying Technique

 

I was recently scrolling through some natural hair youtube channels and I stumbled across this great video on clarifying natural hair. Blogger Heyfranhey discusses 2 different clarifying routines that she does instead of shampooing and conditioning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ1F_uII35Y

 The first one is one that I would like to give a try. It involves using apple cider vinegar and the second one is with a clarifying clay. The second routine is similar to my new wash routine with the terrescentials mud wash. I think I would like to incorporate the apple cider vinegar wash into my weekly regimen so that I don't run through the mud wash too quickly.

So here, I'll show you guys my version of the apple cidar vinegar wash routine and in my next article, I'll show you how I use my new favorite mud wash.

The first thing I did was detangle my hair with my shae moisture conditioner:

I started by spritzing my hair with water, then working my hair into sections and finger detangling it. Once I detangled that section, I twisted it to get it out of the way.

Then, I poured a little apple cider vinegar into a spray bottle and diluted it with water (that way the smell is under control and it's not too harsh on the scalp)

Next, I massaged the vinegar thoroughly into my scalp and rinsed it out. Because I detangled my hair with a conditioner before hand, I didn't need to condition my hair after the rinsing step.

. 

Once my hair was all cleansed, I went ahead and twisted it to keep it in a protective style for the rest of the week. I used a shae moisture curl souffle to keep a soft hold to the twists and sealed my ends with coconut oil.

Overall, this cleansing method worked out really well. Since my hair wasn't too dirty, I didn't need as intense of a cleanse that I would normally do with my mud wash. My hair felt really soft and clean, but not stripped apart. I think from now on, I'll go rotate between this technique and washing with the mud.