Urbane Natural Giveaway!

Ashley Johnson is a 21 year old cosmetologist, attending Morgan State University majoring in Psychology. She started Urbane Natural as a fashion forward natural hair blog for women. After a while, blogging about fashion wasn't enough. The urge to create was strong.  Ashley contacted me to host a giveaway and I was honored! If you are interested in winning one of the her fabulous scarves read more about her story and giveaway below!





Urbane Natural was created for women with personal style who believe in the freedom of self expression. We appreciate the diversity that comes with it, along with the originality. Our brand represents women empowerment, pride, confidence and effortless style.




Urbane Natural’s Rules & Regulations


1.       Must follow TheGOODHairBlog.com along with Urbane-Natural.com


2.      Leave a comment on TheGoodHairBlog.com’s giveaway announcement post stating what personal style is to you, and how you incorporate influences into your personal style. Please leave an email address for further contact


3.      2 winners will be randomly selected as winners.


**The giveaway will end on 7/8/11 @ 6pm*

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Urbane Natural Giveaway!

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My Staple Products

I have decided that I am going to stick with what works for me and my hair. NO MORE product junkie'ness over here! The reasoning behind this decision is mainly because I know what my hair likes but sometimes I still want to "try" and buy new things that I clearly don't need; hence why I have been having product sales on my blog. I rather not throw away the products I am no longer using and I figure there are ladies out here that may want to test a product before buying it full price and risking not liking it.




(image from google)


I have made a vow that I will not buy another "new" product if I haven't tried it and liked it already. The only time I will try something new is if I am requested to sample/review a product. I will be having one more product sale this week for those of you wondering, after that, I am sticking to what I know and love. Below you can find my staple product list, I have had a few people ask me what I cannot live without so, here ya go!


Alex's Staples


Oyin Handmade's Line 
Avocado Shea Butter
Sweet Ohm Hair Pudding
Vatika Oil
Kinky Curly Knot Today
Miss. Jessie's Baby Buttercream
Orginal Moxie's No Foam Shampoo, Conditioner and Leave In
Yes To Cucumber's Leave In
Dessert Organics Conditioners
Curls Whipped Cream
Aveda's Anti Humectant
Kiss My Face Upper Managment Gel
Eco Styler Argan Oil
Dr. Bronner's Castille Soap
Enso Naturals products
Qhemet's Amla and Olive Heavy Cream


There you have it, the products above are what I will be sticking too. Nothing more, nothing less. What are your staples? 


xoxo,
Alex

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My Staple Products

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The End of the Box Braids

Sorry that I've been MIA lately. The last couple of weeks have been strange for us. Syd went to camp for a week. The day after she came back, she went to stay with family members while I went on a mini vacation for a few days. We saw each other for a day and a half, and then Syd took off to go camping with my brother and his family. We finally met up at a family reunion the other day and I brought her home with me so we can finally spend some time together.

All this means that Syd (and her hair) haven't seen me or had my help for about 2 and a half weeks. As a result, Syd's box braids were looking kind of rough. I also only have a couple of picutres of her hair during that time.


The picture below was taken the day before she left to go camping, so the braids were already 2 weeks old. Her hair was slightly wet here because she had been caught in the rain just before I snapped the picture.



Later that day, I washed her braids and put them into 2 cornrows for her camping trip. I used Kinky Curly Knot Today as a leave in and then used Kinky Curly Curling Custard to hide the fuzz and hold the cornrows for the duration of her trip.




When we came home a few days later, I removed the cornrows and put the resulting crimpy-looking braids into 2 low pigtails. After 3 days of camping, playing with cousins, fishing, and bike riding, the fuzz was back in full force.




This was the last day of the braids. They could have lasted a little longer, but Syd isn't a fan of the fuzz and we were ready for something different. The 101 box braids were in for a total of 18 days.

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The End of the Box Braids

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Yay for Enso Naturals!!

I had the pleasure of hosting a giveaway for Enso Naturals a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure y'all remember that. The company was nice enough to send me some products to try and OMG, I am in love. My twist out today was so bomb, soft and smelling great. I was sent the Marshmallow Root Twisting Pudding and Sweet Honey Hibiscus Leave-In; both of which I have been stalking on their site!





The pudding was like nothing I have seen before and I was pleasantly surprised at the texture. It wasn't too thick, too watery, or heavy. It reminded me a lot of a gel more than a pudding but either way I loved it. My hair also seemed to be a fan. I coated my strands with water first, then the leave in before topping it off with the pudding to twist. I like how the pudding gave me enough slip to detangle my strands too, my denman slid through my hair. 





The only complaint I have is about the leave in, it didn't give me the slip I thought it would. My hair is THICK and has the tendency to be DRY so I need my leave ins to be wet and thick at the same time. The leave in was heavy enough but I didn't feel like it soaked into my strands, it kind of sat there. The pudding definitely made up for that problem though, which is good because I know that these products work well in conjunction with each other.





Overall I loved these two products and will be a paying customer of Enso. Their products are natural, fresh and affordable which is ideal for me; exactly what I like in products. To purchase the products mentioned head over to Enso's site to lust after the great hair goodies.  

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Yay for Enso Naturals!!

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My day at OYIN!

I had so much fun today at the Curly Nikki natural hair meet up! Keeta, my "big sis", LOL, invited me to come and I jumped at the opportunity. We were meeting the other women at the Oyin Handmade store in Baltimore, MD and I was super excited to go. I LOVE OYIN and I needed to restock on some goodies. The Oyin store is so cute and I am so glad I was able to FINALLY see the store in person. I will definitely be going back. I saw a few familiar faces and all off the ladies were super nice and their hair, *swoons*, GORGEOUS! Of course, I snapped some pics to share with you all. I hope you enjoy, we had a blast!



























I got this shirt and CANNOT wait to wear it!

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My day at OYIN!

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For Sale: Part 2

Cleaned out my stash again! I am really trying to stick with products that REALLY REALLY work for me and the ones that I consider my staples. So, I am selling the products below because I no longer use them and I don't want to waste perfectly good products. A few are used and a couple I haven't really even tried yet, I will label those below. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED! Shipping is $4. 





Used 3x. Almost full.
$3



Used 1x. Full.
$5  *SOLD*




Used more than 3x. Half full.
$8
(Free sample included)  *SOLD*





Never used. Full.
$9   *SOLD*




Used 3x. A little less than half full.
$3  *SOLD*


Email me at: 1alexandra.smith@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing. I will send you a paypal invoice.


xoxo,
Alex

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For Sale: Part 2

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Ayurvedic Hair Care: Vatika Oil

One thing that I love to coat my strands with is coconut oil, my hair loves the light fragrant oil and my thick hair soaks it right up. It wasn't until last year that I started using Vatika oil, which is a great coconut based oil that's full of great auyervedic ingredients like alma, lemon and henna! The henna along with other herbs coats the hair protects it from oxidation maintaining its natural color. The yummy amla strengthens the roots of  hair to help maintain overall health and natural thickness. And lemon acts as a  astringent and helps control sebum flow. Doesn't that sound great?  I often mix my Vatika oil with a deep conditioner which gives me a little extra moisture when needed. It's rumored that Vatika's unique natural formulation ensures deeper oil penetration to give your hair and scalp complete nourishment for problem free, healthy hair. I am not too sure about the "problem free" part but my hair definitely thanks me once it's slathered in oil.  


I use Dabur Vatika Oil and I purchase it from here. It's a great buy and when I catch a good sale I stock up! Hairveda also sells a Vatika Frosting that is OUT OF THIS WORLD, also a great buy and the smell is to die for.


Are you a Vatika Oil user?
If so, how do you use it?


xoxo,
Alex

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Ayurvedic Hair Care: Vatika Oil

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Pantene and Me!

While walking through the very familiar isles of CVS I walked past the Pantene products. Doubled back, walked past them again and repeat. I did that about 4 times, LOL, which, I admit is weird but the Relaxed and Natural products were catching my eye. I've been wanting to try the oil cream moisturizer for some time now but whenever I have my mind set on getting a tube, it's sold out. I figured that since I've been wanting it and there was only once more left on the shelf, why not get it to try?



The oil cream moisturizer wasn't a bad price and I was immediately satisfied with the smell. When I got it home, the first thing I did was use it on a few strands. Unfortunately, I was not pleased, at all. The texture is perfect but extremely oily and not quite heavy enough for my thick strands. I am not sure what I was expecting but what I got, wasn't it.


Armed with disappointment, I decided that there must be a way for me to get SOME use out of this product. Lucky for me, there was! I created the perfect second day hair refresher. Using about a 1/3 cup of the moisturizer and 2 cups water in a spray bottle, I had a feeling that my new concoction just might do me some good. The next morning I spritzed my hair with my new mixture and coated my strands with Curl Junkie's Smoothing Lotion. My results were perfect and my hair looked and smelled GREAT! Voila, the mixtress in me strikes again!


Have you tried this product, if so how did it work for you?

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Pantene and Me!

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1 Pigtail 1 Braid

To give a little history of this hair style you must understand that I would have never created a style that is one braid one pigtail.  This style is all designed by the 4 year old who has wore this style for about 2 weeks straight.  I finally decided I had better share this with everyone.  Some of you moms out there might just understand what its like to have a spunky daughter like mine.


I first made a small center poof.  I used the bobbie pin that you can see below to give her thin hair an actual poof look.  Then we split the poof hair and made 2 pigtails.
She always picked which side was the braid and which one was the ponytail.   
I finished off the ponytail by putting ringlets. 


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1 Pigtail 1 Braid

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Natural Chic Earring Winner

The winner of the Natural Chic earrings is...


Jessica!


Congrats on the win and thank you ALL for participating.
There will be more giveaways in the near future.


xoxo,
Alex

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Natural Chic Earring Winner

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Clarifiers for Natural Hair

(google)

I came across a awesome post on natural hair clarifiers at Loc'd Diaries.com. I came across this site after doing some research for one of my Twitter followers who is experiencing product build residue in her locs. The minute I read the recipes I had to share them. Click the above link to see all of the awesome ways you can clarify your loose or loc'd hair!

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Clarifiers for Natural Hair

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Sale: Physicians Formula Happy Booster Blush (Set of 3)

I am selling this lot of 3 PF Blushes on ebay, I love this trio and I own all of them myself.
If you are interested in bidding click here!

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Sale: Physicians Formula Happy Booster Blush (Set of 3)

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Curls Quenched Curls

Today was wash day for me. I haven't had clean hair for over a week, gross. Usually when I wash, it's with a conditioner but today I actually used Dr. Bronner's Castille soap to not only cleanse but to also clarify. The water from my wash ran a muggy grey so I knew my hair was very dirty and co-washing would in no way, shape or form remove all the product build up.


After a couple of good washes I followed up with Dessert Organics Grape conditioner, I LOVE that product. One of my staple conditioners. I then de-tangled with my wide tooth shower comb and only rinsed out half of the product I applied. 


I find that towel drying my hair in sections right after my shower works best especially if I don't want my hair super dry.I prefer it damp to aid with applying a styler or definer. I ended up using Curl's Quenched Curls and I LOVE the results. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it after I first applied it but my hair dried nicely and was super defined/soft. I stumbled across the Curls product SAMPLE under my sink from months ago, LOL so I decided that today would be a great day to allow my hair to air dry with a new product. The above picture are the results I got. I'm pleased!


Have you tried this Curls product? If so, how did you and your hair like it?


xoxo,
Alex

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Curls Quenched Curls

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Sunfest Fun!

I had a ball at SunFest today! It was so nice to meet some of my fellow bloggers and blog readers! For my first Safi "on the ground" sale things went well! It was great to see the other vendors too, I saw some FABULOUS hand crafted pieces, jewelry, clothing, food and skin care. My family helped me at  my vendor booth; my mom, stepdad, daughter, nana and my close friend Ryan kept me company. I snapped some photos to share with you all, OH and I also had a few products left over, including the new Coil Latter Buttercreme; click here to shop.














Click the jump for more pics.

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Sunfest Fun!

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