Can anyone say UPDATE?

  Alright, so it has been a little more than a year since I updated my blog. I must admit, I am not the best blogger out there, but i'll see if I can continue at a "normal" rate, if I may say. Well let me get you guys updated.
       I did straighten my hair three times from my last post, but let me say that I have been doing so taking into account the  health of my hair and it is not damaged. My hair is still healthy, the only thing I really need to do at the moment is get a trim because I am getting split ends just like any other girl. The last time I straightened my hair, I was not feeling it for some reason. For the first few days, it was okay, but after that, I was getting very annoyed because it was just flat, and I love BIG, THICK and VOLUMIZED hair. And I could only acheive this look from my natural hair. So after about a week and a half, I washed my hair. Usually I try to stretch out the period of my hair in its straight state as long as I could, up to 4 weeks or more maybe even. I know, kind of crazy considering the fact that I am just applying product, which in turn is not helping with the product buildup occuring in my hair. But now, when I straighten my hair, I wont leave it straight for more than two weeks. But ENOUGH of this straight hair, it is all about being natural. I am going to limit the amount of heat applied on my hair, and I used one pass this year with a straightener. I want to get to a point where I don't need it and only use heat rarely.

       One thing that I do dislike about being natural is that I cannot acheive the same look repeatedly. I will always come up with a different result. It is very annoying sometimes because it is not the look that one is very fond of. But in the end, it shows how my hair can be very versatile and you grow to love it more and more. I do not know if I did mentioned my hair type, but I will do so now.
   
       My hair is funky. I have two different hair types. The back half of my hair is definately 4C. Very prone to shrinkage and tightly coiled. The front half of my hair, I have no idea, especially in the very front. My hair has a lot less shrinkage in this area and the curl pattern is a lot looser. For a while, I thought the front half of my hair was like this because of heat dammage, but that was a false assumption. I now know the difference between heat dammaged and healthy hair, and I no longer have any heat dammage. So I do not have any idea how I would classify the fron half of my hair, it is just doing its own thing.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this update, until next time natural sisters!

The Big Chop!

ok, so it's been about a month and a half since my last post!
I have to say that i did straighten my hair for one occasion about two weeks ago because i went to the white house, and i didn't want to go looking a mess (if i even know what that means). I don't even know why I did that because the White House was not so special. I took a self tour of the White house with student from my high school. It literally took no more than 20 mins! Well, it was my first time visiting the white house, and it was not what i had imagine, but it was still nice, just not exactly what I envisioned.
Up until two weeks ago, I never applied heat on my hair (or very minimal cause i think i used the hair blow dryer once or twice), and i feel proud of myself because it was really hard. I almost gave in until literally, by coincidence, my sister showed up and stopped me. So this is the story: one day after school in Jan, I was getting tired of my natural hair, so I decided to use the curling iron to curl my whole head. I setup everything, and parted my hair to start curling. After I had just finished my first curl in a small section of hair, my sister came through the door and told my to close that iron cause she knows about me trying to go natural with no heat. So IRONIC, the world is such a small place after all. Since the incident, I've been washing my hair like once every week, and just slicking my hair into a high bun after applying gel, with my hair still wet.
Today, I had planned on getting a trim, but it ended up being more like a cut, cause my hair dresser saw the amount of damage in my hair, and I was fine with the big chop because it had to be done. My hair was to the point where i wasn't even just growing split ends, i was getting tri ends, even maybe quad ends ( i know, crazy right????). Now I realize how easy heat can damage ones hair. So she cut my hair, maybe an inch and a half up to two inches. My hair is still long (at least i don't think), the back of my hair still falls past my shoulders. At this moment, my hair is still straightened from my first trip to the hair salon after going a while (December) without straightening my hair.

Surviving the nest

Ok, so last week, I finally washed my hair! This is not really a problem since i did do that before straightening my hair, but the problem was, what to do with my hair AFTER I wash it. My usual routine would be be to start blow drying it for literally 2 hours (Yes, it does take that long! I know!), and then to start straightening it, which takes another two hours. Now you might be wondering, does it really take THAT long to do your hair, you must be over exaggerating it. Well here's my answers, IT DOES! If you don't have the same coarse and thickness of my hair, you wouldn't understand, so stop trying lol!

Since I'm trying to minimize the amount of heat I put on my hair now, i bought this gel every black person on youtube recommends, its called Eco Styler Olive Oil Gel (here's the link: http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Treatments/Olive-Oil-Styling-Gel/ID=prod6031122-product?V=G&ec=frgl_&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=sku6029680). After washing my hair, instead of reaching for the blow dryer, I started applying the gel to small sections of my hair. Supposedly, this gel is suppose to bring out (couldn't find another word!) your natural curls, so this would work for a wash and go. My hair is weird, I started gelling my hair, but some parts had perfect curls, and some other parts of my hair just looked frizzy and not curly! So since I did not receive the results I was hoping for I started to twist my hair into single strands with the gel. The end result looked decent, and not too bad. I kind of felt proud of myself. I would show pictures  BUT... I can't find them! I did take some picture, but i don't know what happened to them, can't find them in the camera. So maybe next time guys!
Don't forget, i'm always open for Questions and Answers!
See you t'ill my next post.

PREFACE

If you are reading this blog, i seriously have no idea if this applies to you or if it seems interesting to you but it doesn't hurt to continue reading. If your wondering about the title of my blog "Bauté Naturelle", well your probably right, it's in French! Its means Natural Beauty, and that's the theme of my blog: Natural Beauty.

This blog is about me and my hair journey, (yes you heard right, me and my hair). In all seriousness, I'm sort of keeping an online journal of my journey to being natural and away from heat. I have big thick hair, and I've never permed, texturized, or done anything that has to do with putting chemicals in my hair ever in my life. Well your probably asking yourself "then what's you problem?". Well my problem is that since I was a freshman in High School (Approx. 4 years ago), after buying a straightener, I've never stopped straightening it since. I was literally straightening my hair every other day, not really caring about if I was damaging my hair or not. Long story short, I came to realize that I needed to stop using heat on my hair and start using other means to do my hair other than using heat, because my hair is damaged due to the excessive heat! To keep readers from falling asleep as I write my whole life story, I will try to keep stories short. But certainly ask questions if you want to know something, ask me questions!!!!!!!!!!

You guys might be wondering how will I go about my journey to my Beauté Naturelle. Well the other  day I was inspired by this women named Nikole on Youtube, she went through this similar journey a year ago, and her hair is wonderful. I want to achieve what she achieved, so i plan to: Use products that she recommends, try the the natural hair regiments. I"m basically doing what she did a year ago, and hopefully i come up with the same results.
Here's the link to her Youtube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/MopTopMaven
And guess what, she also has a blog: http://www.moptopmaven.blogspot.com/

Hopefully this blog will help me stay on track with my journey. BY the way, my hair is actually straightened right now. I have not started my journey yet, but this will be the last time my hair will be straightened for quite a while (maybe 3-6 months). After I have all my materials to start my journey, no MORE HEAT. It's not fun being a slave to my hair. Hopefully i also inspire others through my journey, but i know it will be hard. See you guys t'ill the next post!

Au Revoir!
Shout out to my BFF Vivien LOL :)
-Marthe

(P.S. Please bear with me, I am a soon to be college student, and I'm bound to have some kind of spelling, grammar mistake!)