I recently received a large, heavy box in the mail but had no idea who or what it was since I'd already received the purchases I'd made online. Much to my surprise, the box contained full-sized samples of African Pride's new Shea Butter Miracle line! 

Now y'all know I make my own hair products, but I'm not opposed to trying something new once in a while. And, as with any product, I always scrutinize the ingredients list first-not only for what's in it but also for the order it's listed. While the majority of the ingredients used are natural oils and extracts, the only thing that stood out was the addition of argan oil which I am vehemently against. But, overall, this line has some good ingredients and each product is packed with oodles of different oils and extracts.

Since it was my wash day last night, I decided to try out a few of these freebies so I got started with the Leave-In Conditioner. My wash day regimen always starts by spritzing my hair with water, detangling, applying a conditioner, twisting and then steaming for 20-30 minutes with my Huetiful steamer.

I know this is a "leave-in" conditioner, but I decided to try it as a deep conditioning treatment. This product comes in a rather large tub, looks like orange creme, has more slip than you'll know what to do with and has a pleasantly light yet unidentifiable scent. As soon as I smoothed that first dollop through my hair, I knew I was in love and I don't fall in love with too many products! Not only did it make my hair instantly soft, but it elongated my curl pattern right before my very eyes. It even tamed my roots and made them lay down flat! Shea Butter Miracle Leave-In Conditioner is pure magic! As the recipient of two coils up, this product has earned its rightful spot in my arsenal of hair care products.

After steaming my hair, I keep it twisted while I wash it which eliminates the potential for snags, snarls and knots...especially since it's already been detangled. When I wash my hair, I typically use a clarifying shampoo followed by a different shampoo and then a conditioner. But, I went against that and only used the Detangling Shampoo.

The detangling shampoo's physical properties are nearly identical to the Leave-In Conditioner, but it has the intoxicating scent of banana-flavored Laffy Taffy. But, it was not what I was expecting. Most commercial shampoos have uber lathering and suds properties, but this did not and that is not an unpleasant surprise. While this entire product line touts itself as "Moisture Intense," even though water is the only "true" moisturizer, I did find that this shampoo did indeed help my hair retain moisture. Due to the low suds factor, I used it twice to ensure my scalp and hair were clean, and even let it sit for a couple minutes for extra assurance. Once rinsed out, my hair was still ultra soft. I can't attest to how well it detangles, but it does create silky, soft hair. While I'm only giving this one coil up, I will keep it around as my emergency back-up shampoo (doesn't every girl have a few of these laying around?). When all was said and done, after using these two products, I did not want to condition my hair, but I did. Can't slip that step!

Now, to the true test which will require a follow-up posting. On my wash day, I almost always twist my hair and let it air dry overnight. For this step, I used the Buttery Creme. 

Sadly, it comes in a small jar and doesn't seem to have the oomph compared to the Leave-In Conditioner, but I used it to twist my hair anyway. Based on how my twists feel compared to using my own hair butter, I have a daunting feeling about the Buttery Creme. I won't be able to do a full review of this product until the end of the week. Remember, this and any other hair cream or butter, has to give my hair shine, bounce, softness and manageability while retaining my curl pattern for a FULL week! I follow a low-manipulation regimen and don't like to load my hair with a lot of products, so if I have to do anything to my hair throughout the week, this product will be failed.

And, I always end my weekly hair regimen by applying oil to my scalp. Not only do I find it to keep the itchies at bay, but it helps my roots lay flat.

I found the Growth Oil to be very light and pleasant. It's almost void of scent, looks similar to carrot oil and doesn't have a heavy, greasy feel. The oil I typically use is the exact opposite, so I might switch to this oil in the warmer months....until I come up with my own lighter oil. And, after letting my hair dry overnight, my roots are laying nice and flat so I have to give Growth Oil two coils up as it also has found a permanent place in my hair care closet.

Overall, I am very pleased with the new African Pride Shea Butter Miracle line and proud of the company for having come such a long way in improving their products. Back in the day, I used to turn my nose up at their products, but the mysterious box I got in the mail is going to make me think twice about African Pride and their renewed interest in providing quality products for our varied textured hair.

Hallelujah and Amen!

Armed with an arsenal of never-tried-before products recommended by one of my fave bloggers, Moptopmaven, and a brand new hair dryer that promises to do everything but kiss the ground I walk on and a new flat iron, I was ready...I was excited...to straighten my hair!

First, however, I deep conditioned under the steamer with Huetiful's Hair Masque with Moringa Oil. 

I've never seen a product, other than what comes out of my own kitchen, with moringa oil so I was super excited when I got this in the mail after submitting an Amazon review of my steamer. This masque is okay and has an overwhelming peppermint smell, but it doesn't perform well enough for me to try again. Coincidentally, I had to use almost the entire jar for just one application so sadly, this product is not going to be a repeat.

After deep conditioning, and washing and conditioning my hair, I set about Moptopmaven's hair straightening regimen. Prior to blow drying, she recommends using Fermodyl 619, Sebastian Potion 9, Frederick Fekkai Glossing Cream and Aveda Brilliant Damage Control.

I'm not sure if my hair was supposed to feel any different with this product, but it purports to help hair retain  nearly 70 percent moisture. I didn't feel a difference, so I don't know if I'll ever need to use this again.

This runny, orange goopy stuff smells funny and felt a little sticky. As a leave-in, I will give this another try since it's so light. Otherwise, I probably would never use it again. It just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

What more can I say, but AMAZZZIIINNNGGG! The smell of this olive oil-based cream is intoxicating and truly does smooth and silken the hair. I will definitely keep a tube of this on hand.

I really enjoyed this herbal floral-scented spray which serves as a heat and UV protectant. I think this will be sticking around for a while.

Now, down to the nitty gritty-blow drying time!!! The next step in the regimen is to apply Chi Silk Infusion.

I loved this too! It smells amazing and left my hair feeling rather sleek!

Confident I was on my way to creating silky, smooth straight locks I plugged in my new hair dryer, the Infiniti Hair Designer Pro by Conair, and got down to business. Thank God I got this at a bargain price because this hair dryer left my hair in such a mess I had to pull out my old hair dryer and round brush to finish the job!

The blow dryer from hell! This thing is supposed to detangle, straighten and dry the hair in one fell swoop. Yes it dried my hair, but I ended up with more single-strand knots on the bottom two inches of my hair than I've ever had in my life! This blow dryer also has four separate tension settings and coarse-haired girls are supposed to use tension four, but all it did was rip my hair. I backed it down to tension one. The ripping stopped, but detangle it did not! DO NOT BUY THIS!

My final step was flat ironing, but that didn't go well as the blow dryer didn't work out too well. I used a cheapie I grabbed around town to flat iron and I believe it'd work for my hair, but only with the proper blow drying technique. Needless to say, about halfway through blow drying, I had to pull out my old one and my round brush to finish the job.

Now, Moptopmaven's hair is super shiny and appears to have movement from using all of the hair products previously mentioned, but I had not a lick of shine. I have my own remedies for that, but to make my straight strands last as long as possible, I finished off with Aveda's Brilliant Anti-Humectant Pomade.

OMG, I love this little jar of herbal oil pomade! It smells amazing and  so light, you can't feel it on your hair! It seemed to do the trick overnight, but perhaps I should apply some everyday as my hair got a tad poofy today. I will definitely keep this in my arsenal and will probably use this to maintain twists that are kept in for more than a week.

Overall, I'm pleased with my results, but it took me just shy of five hours to complete this process from beginning to end. The only element I think I was missing was a straightening cream, so next spring, I will give this a go and try again. For now, though, I've applied so much heat to my hair and fought so many single-strand knots, I'm going to keep my hair in twists until spring to repair the damage I know I've done. Plus, my significant other and I prefer my wild bushy curls to my straight look. I also look closer to my age with straight hair, too. LOL.