En Route To Summer Braids Part One: Kinky Curly's Come Clean + Shea Moisture's Raw Shea Butter Conditioner

Hair closeup.

Hi kinky hair friends! Let me tell you something spectacularly great.
Ever since the Philadelphia Protest held many weeks ago, a lot of inner conflict raged inside. One primary basis struck close. Buy black business. Support black business. I want to incorporate that motto in every sense of the word. Not just say the gospel. I need to live it. Breathe it. I champion black online stores. I champion black writers and black artists. I champion black art galleries and black museums. I champion black films and black filmmakers. I champion black vegans. I champion us.
My hair debate stirred as well. I grew up on Suave. Cheap Suave. Always 99 cents or near 99 cents region. Nowadays I purchase imported raw cocoa butter and raw shea butter from faceless cyber entities in order to make homemade hair and skin treats. Marshall's seduced me with their low priced vegan beauty products imported from Australia. Yes, they're great quality. Nice steal at half off! That protest, however, forced remembrance of my brothers and sisters here in the states. They know our hair. They know how it grows. They know its kinks and twists and furrows and burrows. They know because they are us.
Shea Moisture for example hails from family tradition: a grandmother from Sierra Leone concocting potions out of bathtub and selling them in modest quantities. She started at 19. Impressive. Although the company was founded in 1990 by her great grandson, massive respect for them saying that the company was established in 1912, the year she started selling her natural ideas all over her country.
Kinky Curly is a brand formulated for natural hair that is au naturale. Shelley Davis is the founder. She too had a penchant for creating hair products sans harmful chemicals, realizing that a few ingredients hailed from earth goes a long, helpful way. I loved what she had to say about customers in this old interview at Natural Chica.

I enjoy connecting with my customers. It is something I don’t get to do as much as I would like but I love the praise (of course, who doesn't) – the kind words that I get via email or even when I meet customers out in the streets of Los Angeles. When ladies tell me how Kinky-Curly has changed their life and how much they love their hair now…words can’t express how wonderful it makes me feel. With all the hard work that is put into running Kinky-Curly on a daily basis this makes it all worth it. In addition to this there are so many myths and misinformation that have been passed down from generation to generation. 

When supporting black business, a business catering to a specific need such as strong, beautiful natural hair with an added bonus of the Cruelty Free logo, makes it worth hard earned money.
Shea Moisture and Kinky Curly are tried out in the nick of time. My hair is embarking on summer Poetic Justice braids. Before I can undergo that luxury, I'm following these steps at Black Hair Kitchen. In this three part blog series, "En Route To Summer Braids," I prepare my nappy, kinky hair for full bodied softness and strength, taking time to care and nurture proper etiquette. In order to have lovely, stylish, protective braids (by an African braiding salon), one must have a healthy hair start. Knowledge filled Kinky Curly and Shea Moisture are imperative first steps to keeping my hair in tip top shape.

Light fragrant Kinky Curly's Come Clean is a godsend. I massaged my scalp, alternating between gentle scrubbing and massaging, surprised to feel foamy sudsy lather. Not many shampoos lather like this. That's fine and dandy to be sulphate free. It is a nice, bubbly lather, cleaning and treating dryness and dandruff flakes, loving kinks and curls. Quite top notch at the $11.99 price at Walgreen's. Usual wet dryness didn't arrive after rinsing. By wet dryness, I mean my hair seems brittle even in water. It always irked and frustrated me. So alas, I found another shampoo that wasn't going to let conditioner perform the important work alone. 

A new experience I wouldn't trade.

Shea Moisture's Raw Shew Butter Restorative Conditioner is amazing, especially with their Restorative Shampoo. Talk about out of this world oomph! My hair drinks up this sea kelp and argan oil blended elixir drug like it's Love Potion No. 9. Great conditioning formula. I'm almost out of my trial size portions- $4.99 each at Whole Foods Market. Bound to move onto Kinky Curly's conditioner to see how that works out. And if it doesn't Shea Moisture is a plus to lean back on.

Last night, I also performed the L.O.C. (leave in conditioner, oil, cream) method before twisting strands together. My leave in conditioner is just the Shea Moisture conditioner and water. I spray a generous bit on. Coconut oil is my oil choice for softness. Other times pure argan oil or Jamaican Black Castor Oil are other choices.

For the cream component, I went with gel. This is a great product for making some bonafide amazing twists. The only minus is the sticky dryness which is solely thanks to Jamaican Black Castor Oil. My hair, however, gets a very beautiful shine. Shine is always good. Plus the progress on the edges have been worth applauding. 

Clean hair. Finally. I think dandruff is slowly but surely going away. That is one of the biggest battles to dispose before summer braids. We're talking two months of protection. Hair must be in its healthiest condition. Thanks to Kinky Curly and Shea Moisture, my hair is getting a much needed boost.