A Second Look: Jane Carter Solution

Recently, Ricky's had a sale on curly hair products, so I decided to try something new. I didn't know exactly what I was going to get, but after reading a few product reviews and websites, I decided on Jane Carter Solution. The three products I got were the Revitalizing Leave-In Conditioner, Hair Nourishing Creme, and Nourish and Shine.

OK first things first. The price tag: OUCH! Yes, beautiful hair for fro-babies is not cheap. Or easy. But well worth it.

I looked on the Jane Carter Solution website for some insight on how they might work on children's hair. She has a blog on the website that actually addresses this in one post. It suggests detangling with the leave-in and moisturizing with the hair nourishing creme and twisting the hair into double-strand twists. It doesn't talk about nourish and shine, although many many people on children's websites swear by it. I used it to refresh and shine and for crunchy ends. The result? Well, see for yourself:




For the un-indoctrinated (:D) Double-strand twists are exactly what they say they are. Small sections of hair, divided into two pieces and twisted around each other. I actually ended up doing this by accident, because detangling her hair was such a massive job. I decided to section off the hair and detangle it in micro-sections, that I ended up twisting together. G was willing to sit there for an hour (I could have done a better job, but that might have been oh, an hour and a half--I didn't' want to press my luck!


Her hair felt very soft and silky and the shine was great. More importantly she loved her "princess twists" and how bouncy her hair was after we did the twists. So, I'd definitely recommend giving this a try.

How Quickly Things Change!

I was just reading over my old posts, and realized that so much has changed since I started this blog! Number one, there are a LOT more products catering to our fro-babies' fros than either I realized or there were back then! Number two, there are still tons of people trying to figure out how to "do the fro-babies' 'do's!" It is an ever changing game, as the kids get older, the hair changes! Again and again! Hey, I'm living proof! In any event, I thought it would be a good time to run down the different products and product lines I have come across in my research for the benefit of anyone just joining us. Some are new, and some are ones I've reviewed here before. This is just a summary (in no particular order):

Kids Organics Hair Lotion - a.k.a "KOHL" on websites and blogs, decent lotion-like detangler, does not provide much in the way of moisture, but will help with comb-out and fro-taming.

Taliah Waajid Easy Herbal Combout - Similar product to KOHL, more moisturizing and better at detangling. Goes on heavy, dries fairly light. Haven't tried the other products in the line, but this one is pretty good.

Curly Q's - This is children's version of the CURLS brand. There are numerous products in the line. We use Curly Q's Custard, Mimosa Elixir, and Moist Curls moisturizer. The lighter product is the Curly Q Milkshake, which is good for short-term moisturizing. Also the Curl Gel-les-c for light hold is a good product, but will only keep the fro at bay for so long! Tried the shampoo and conditioner (just so-so on G's hair) but we actually use the It's A Curl line (below) because it's tear-free.

It's a Curl - Great product line for baby hair (also from CURLS). Light, great scent, tear-free, and did not cause skin reaction in either child's sensitive skin. By about age 1, need a little heavier products, but can go up to about 2 y.o., great conditioner!

Bee Mine - haven't tried it, and I don't think it's especially for kids, but safe for kids, and have heard good things about it. If anyone has tried it, would love to hear from you!

Carol's Daughter - No idea how these products work, but they are Princess Tiana-themed, which may eventually earn them a space on our product shelf just on principle! LOL We have tried hair milk for adults, but it seems to do better on my husband's fro than my daughter's!

Noodle and Boo - Love the shampoo and the shining and conditioning polish. The shampoo is gentle, tear-free and smells great. Conditioning polish is a good detangler, not too moisturizing but just enough to smooth out the hair and soften.

Jane Carter Solution, Nourish and Shine - Expensive! But a good oil/light pomade for fro-kids. Great grapefruit smell and gives a nice control and sheen...but did I mention? Expensive!!! (other products in the line are not as expensive, but haven't proven to be all that effective either). Not geared towards children but natural and kid safe.

I'd love to add to the list, but I can't try them all (by myself!) I actually don't use the drugstore brands such as "Just for Me" or "PCJ." These products pretty much mimic adult products and seem to be geared toward little girls with kiddie perms, which we are dead set against. Fro-baby hair is just too fragile to subject to chemical alteration--my two cents.

So, that's the rundown for now. Will follow up with the latest regimen next time!

We're Ba-a-a-ack!

I know, smack my hand, BAD BLOGGER. It's so hard to keep up with everything, between the two kids, the job, and the HAIR! I actually hadn't seen all the comments to my previous posts, so apologies, folks! Well, there's a new fro-baby in town, G's little brother Ty. Ty's hair is similar to G's but not the same, so I get to review products all over again on a different texture of hair--what fun!

Now, to answer some questions that have come up: As far as food-grade coconut oil brands, we use 360 from Whole Foods. I bought it about 6 months ago, and we STILL have it. (BTW, it makes great brownies...and it makes the hair look great). I used it for my son's cradle cap treatments along with the It's A Curl Peekaboo Tearless Shampoo. My son had cradle cap for about a week, and then it was gone. So I definitely recommend this combo. We primarily use it as a pre-shampoo treatment for G, or as a daily styling aid to add some sheen to her hair. The great thing about coconut oil is it adds sheen without feeling oily or greasy, so it really is ideal for babies and young children.

I do have more pics of G's hair on Long Hair Care Forum. Here's a link (she was 16 m.o. in these pics--her hair is much longer now--and I was reviewing "It's A Curl" by CURLS in this thread):
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=390066

So what's new? Well, more products of course! It's amazing how the needs of the hair keep changing. I also have been circling back to old products I used before. First, and update on what we're using now:

On Ty (3 months): It's a Curl Peekaboo Shampoo, Patty Cake Conditioner (sometimes) and Itsy Bitsy Spirals Moisturizer. Ty's hair has not moved into "fro" territory just yet, so this is sufficient. For daily moisturizing we either use Itsy Bitsy Spirals or Noodle and Boo Conditioning Polish. Both are very light, but keep his hair from drying out. I typically use Itsy Bitsy Spirals when his hair is on the drier side, and Noodle and Boo when it looks fuzzy.

On Georgia (2 yrs. 3 Months) - It's a Curl Shampoo (she still needs tearless shampoo) or California Baby (shampoo and conditioner) if she gets in the pool. For regular conditioning, Curly Q's Coconut Dream Conditioner, Moist Curls moisturizer (spray) for daily conditioning, and Curly Q milkshake for styling on special occasions. The picture at the top is a picture of her on a special occasion (her birthday) using these products.

It seems as G gets older, her hair is getting thicker and frizzier, so I decided to try a heavier product on her hair from the Curly Q's line. It's called Curly Q's Custard for medium to kinky hair. I also got the Mimosa Hair elixir, which in combination with the custard is supposed to cut down on some of the fro-ing we experienced later that day (in the picture). Despite the "poofiness" in the picture (it poofed even more as the day wore on) her hair was still well-moisturized, and easily rehabbed the next day. Stay tuned for a review of the new products.

Just depending on the day and the level of dryness of G's hair, we may use still the Noodle and Boo Conditioning Polish (since we have it for Ty anyway) on her hair for detangling. The key with this spray detangler is to spray a fairly generous amount on the hair and let it "sink in." My husband actually discovered this after I thought the product wasn't working for us anymore. Sometimes, we spritz her hair with water first before the detangler, just to speed up the process, but in the winter months, to avoid your child going out with a wet head, it's better to just use the detangler, since it either sinks in or evaporates much faster than water. Moist Curls (by Curly Q's) is also a spray detangler, but is is a little thicker and has more a glaze-like consistency, so it's a bit heavier. Some days we need that, some days we don't. It just depends on whether her hair is just a little dry and in need of some taming (Noodle and Boo) or if it's really getting it's 'fro on and needs more in the way of curl definition (Moist Curls). Usually, by the end of the day both products have "worn off" so to speak but these days, G's hair is so long it's usually just in ponytails anyway.

Note; It's a Curl and Curly Q's are both product lines in the CURLS brand of haircare. I have to give a big shout out to Mahisha Dellinger, the founder and creator, as her website is also an interactive forum where you can ask her directly what type of hair your child has (she'll need to see pics) and which one of her concoctions is recommended for your hair type. All of this before you buy--plus she gives free samples with every purchase--you have to love that! If you decide to buy, tell 'em I sent ya', by entering this referral code: REF-HYJJDI6A

Happy Fro'ing!

Our New Best Friend: Virgin Coconut Oil

So, after a long hiatus, G and I are back with our latest discovery--coconut oil! I attended a natural hair care workshop sponsored by a children's organization I'm in, and the facilitator stressed that natural oils are best on children's hair. Now, I've been using everything but, and really had no issues, so I wasn't convinced that this was necessary, and just kind of took her comments with a grain of salt. In researching some products for my own hair, I discovered that there are only a few oils whose oil molecules are small enough to enter the hair shaft, among them palm oil, and coconut. This made me reconsider the use of natural oils on baby hair. I should point out that my "baby" is going to be two this week, but she has a little brother on the way, so I am still very much in the baby hair care game!

Now, back to oil: I use Ojon on my own hair, which is a highly-marketed, heavily scented palm oil that frankly costs too much and smells like burnt coffee grinds. So, I dug in the back of our junk closet, and found some extra virgin coconut oil samples my husband and I brought back from our honeymoon in Fiji. The coconut oils we have are all scented (which I would not use on a newborn or small infant) but since G is almost 2 and hasn't reacted to the fragrance in many products, I felt it would be o.k. to try on her hair.

Well, I have to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised. Georgia's hair had been getting a little more fro-ish and a little less "ringlet-ish." It wasn't so much the texture as it was the dryness. We had been using a combination of the Curly Q's products (which are good) and the It's a Curl products (both from Curlz.biz), but were finding that by the end of a day, G's hair was still a little dry. Overnight, it would dry out even more and morning comb-out was a challenge. The first time I used the coconut oil on G's hair, we used it as a pre-shampoo treatment. We are still using It's a Curl Peekaboo shampoo because the Curly Q's shampoo is not tearless and my poor little Georgia still doesn't "get" that she needs to tilt her head back to keep the soap from getting in her eyes. As I said in my review however, the shampoo is a little drying, so it's good to have a pre-shampoo treatment now that her hair has less natural oil. I noticed a difference in her hair right away in terms of being less dry and more manageable. After the wash, we (her dad does her hair sometimes) put the oil in her wet hair and braided it up overnight (no elastics). The next day, G's hair was soft and silky, and not the least bit greasy.

We still use other products on her hair, but whenever her hair feels a little dry we use a little (or a lot of) coconut oil on the ends of her hair and on her scalp. I really think this treatment is "saving" her hair. It stays soft, and her curls are better defined and there is much less frizz factor.

Now, the oils we use are still our samples from Fiji, but you don't need to go that far to find "virgin coconut oil." Several retailers (Vitamin Shoppe, Amazon) carry various brands of coconut oil at varying prices. Just make sure whatever product you get is 100% coconut oil, and not just "coconut-flavored" or just "contain coconut oil" since a lot of products containing coconut oil junk it up with things like petrolatum and mineral oil. From what I can see, there is not difference between coconut oil used for cooking and cosmetics. It does appear that oils marketed as cosmetics cost a lot more, without appearing to be markedly different. Coconut oil often has no scent if extracted with a chemical technique. The more natural oils retain that "coconut smell." As far as using "virgin coconut oil," it doesn't appear that (non-virgin oil) is bad or harmful. Apparently, the difference between "virgin coconut oil" and regular coconut oil has to do with the extraction process and whether it is chemically extracted or expressed by some other mechanic or natural means. For the use on the hair, I'm not sure how much difference it makes, since at the end of the day, the properties are the same.

Our oil was unscented to begin with, and then the fragrance was added. When I have to buy some more, I would probably get an unscented version, especially for use on the newborn on the way. The other thing to know is: this stuff lasts forever. Coconut oil tends to solidify at lower temperatures--which can be as high as 70 some odd degress. It liquifies immediately with the slightest amount of body heat and is completely clear, but untouched is basically a white solid. A little goes a very long way, but it is still very light, so it doesn't weigh down the hair or gunk it up.

So, I must say, in terms of the use of natural oil on children's hair: I stand corrected! I strongly recommend the use of coconut oil to combat dryness and frizzies on your fro-baby! Happy fro-ing!