SheaMoisture Purification Masque

When I got the news that ULTA was opening in my town I was ecstatic! When I got a job with them I was on cloud nine! There were so many products I wanted to try and play with!!! And this baby has become my golden goose!

I grabbed this hair mask on the off chance that it would work. My hair is the weirdest I know of. It's oily, coarse, thick, wavy and curly, with a sensitive, dry scalp that is very prone to dandruff. I can wash my hair and have dandruff the very next day. But with this mask it's about four days before my hair starts showing signs.

This mask has a very mild "grit" to it that I'm assuming is to exfoliate the scalp. (The package doesn't really say anything about that.) It has a base of Shea butter, coconut oil, and avocado among other moisturizing creams, oils, and butter. For medicinal purposes, it has salicylic acid, willow bark extract, and tea tree oil. It is extremely natural, and it says "homeopathic remedy"! It's made without a lot of icky things like parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and a lot of other crap that's bad for you.
It says to: "Apply generously to dampened hair, leave for 5-30 minutes and rinse thoroughly."
What I typically do is shampoo my hair and use this as a conditioner in rotation with my actual conditioner. My hair stylist has me using Paul Mitchell's tea tree line with lavender. She says it's clarifying yet soothing which is good for dandruff prone hair. The results with my conditioner isn't as long lasting as it is with the mask, but it still works.

The tub says it "Conditions hair while relieving dry, itchy and flaking scalp while regulating sebum production. Plantain Enzymes, clarifying Tea Tree Oil and Willow Bark Extract removes product buildup and strengthens hair by sealing in natural moisture." It does all that and more for me! Since I have a very sensitive scalp I have to be careful with the products I use on my hair. Certain things aggravate my dandruff, and some will even clog hair follicles and cause "acne" on my scalp. I've been using this mask for almost a month and nothing bad has happened! Only good!
Now, I know very little about hair care, but I would highly recommend this product, and line, to anyone! I haven't tried anything else by SheaMoisture, but I will be in the future! I'm always happy to find new products that are natural and work amazingly!
Until next time!
Abby

Hair Extensions for Beginners, Pt. 2 | Getting My Extensions Blended

Hey there! Sorry it's been so long since I posted Part 1!! I was being kind of paranoid about taking my extensions to just anyone to get them blended. And they needed to be blended let me tell you! When I first got them they came just above my butt, and they didn't blend very well with my hair natural.

(As stated in Part 1 my hair is naturally thick, coarse, and a mix between curly and wavy.)

I tried straightening my hair...and it worked a little better! But not much.

(My hair straightened. A little more believable, but not much more.)

So, I'd kinda been holding out for ULTA to open in my town. I'd gotten a job with them, and I was curious who would be working in the salon. When opening came my niece got her hair cut there by a stylist from Washington, and she did an amazing job! As soon as my niece was done with her hair cut I booked my appointment! And I'm so glad I did.

MacKenzie did an awesome job with my extensions. She told me to straighten my hair and extensions, clip them in how I would like them to be, and she would blend them into my real hair. She's got me going in for a regular trim at the end of the month, and she told me to come in the next day with my extensions in so she could see how it all looks, and she would fix anything that needed to be touched up!

(A little hard to see, because of the angle, but I can definitely tell it looks like my actual hair!)

All in all, you pretty much have to get extensions blended. I swear the girls on YouTube that claim they can just order them and clip them in..no. Not possible. My stylist even said so. There's no way a company can cut extensions to suit everybody's hair. Especially because they're pretty much cut straight across. My extensions now sit just a little bit above where they were before my hair cut. I told MacKenzie I wanted the least amount possible cut off, but if a little extra had to go to ensure a realistic blend, then so be it!

I love my extensions and would recommend them to pretty much anyone!! My only suggestion towards Bellami would be more of a shade range.

Again, the set of extensions I got were the Magnifica 240g 24" Hair Extensions in Mochaccino Brown (1C).

I hope this was informative for anyone as much of a beginner as myself, and a nice read for anyone else!

Until next time,

Abby.