Lumo Naturals Jungo

Hey guys! It's been a while! Thought I'd do an update post and halfway through I decided to leave it in my diary. I've been great and just keeping busy with many little projects that have left me no time to myself.

 

So this past weekend I attended the Lumo Naturals' Lumo Hair Club Jungo; a DIY class. Lumo Naturals is a Natural Hair salon in Gwarinpa run by the lovely Farida, who also happens to be a long time blog friend of mine.

Now I'm a relaxed/texlaxed hair girl but I love attending Lumos events cos I get to socialise and meet cool local hair vendors. Being a Lumo member I got in for free! Yay!

I got there a little late, thanks to the Gwarinpa traffic (Yes, even on Saturday!) I live just 10 minutes away but it took so long to get there! Grr. Luckily I was just in time for the first speaker, Hadassah of Nappily Nigerian Girl.

@NappilyNigerianGirl demonstrating a protective hair style for all hair types

I loved her talk so much! I have never heard a more thorough Healthy hair lecture ever. I mean we've all been on the internet so we've known all these tit bits of hair info for years, but she was able to consolidate everything into a "Here's what to do for Harmattan" talk.

 

Did you know that In extremely Dry weather (Harmattan, winter, zero Humidity) it's best to keep your hair stretched out either through a blow dry, flat iron, braid out, twist out cos it reduces the chances of tangling and therefore, breakage!

 

 

She also taught us about styling, an area I'm really interested in cos I'm tired of my everyday frumpy Mummy low bun.

Then we had the lovely @cocoterranaturals talk to us about natural DIY skin care, focusing on essential oils. It was very hands on and interactive. We were given handouts about essential oils and we got to make two products. A clay face mask and a bath bomb.

 

There was a lovely cake by @slimtoothabuja. I believe it was a Dark Chocolate Torte and 100% sugar free. It must've been so nice cos it was gone before I got to it!

Lumo launched their natural hair products this year and they have a wide range for hair and skin care including oils of all kinds and lotion bars!

Goodies!

 

 

We all got a glass jar and we labelled them with our names.

I chose ingredients that I believed would be kind to my oily/combination skin.

 

We also got a mixing bowl to make our bath bombs. I was the measurement chick so I don't have photos from that.

Unfortunately my bath bomb got set off by an overzealous spray of water. It still worked though.

I ended up going home with my clay mask, bath bomb, bentonite clay (N2000), jojoba oil (N4000), Al-Jadayl oil (N2800). Sigh. And I told myself I would only buy bentonite clay.

This was the venue, Maramma beauty store. We had an intimate space above the store.

 

All in all it was a lovely evening. Met lots of fabulous ladies and learnt a thing or two about harmattan hair care.

 

 

How did you spend your last weekend?

 

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Henna for Hair

So I'm one of those people that have been blessed with hair that has a LOT of volume. As in, a LOT LOT LOT of volume! Now I don't use hair extensions or weaves, so for a considerable amount of time, my hair is freeeeeeee. Right now I relax 2-3 times a year, which means it is fluffy most of the time. So when i have that small window when my hair is all silky and sleek, i turn up the shakara factor and make the most of it.

I have tried different hair dyes in the past, my favourites are Schwarzkopf in Violet Vision and lots of L'Oreal! Especially Couleur Experte. I still haven't tried the new Sublime mousse, but i have to say the idea of foam hair dye is awesome! Why didn't I think of it and patent it and cash in all that money!!!

Anyways, I had dyed my hair in January and in July I wanted to try something I've never done before... Henna! People always talk about how good it is for hair and I figured, why not? Here's what I used....

I used just plain henna, nothing fancy. got it for $1 at Kakulas. We usually add tea when we henna our hands so i figured, why now use it for hair-na? I mean green tea is supposedly good for hair isn't it? Here's what I did...

1. I emptied henna contents into a bowl
2. Added 2 teaspoons of green tea LEAVES to the powder.(btw, this is a fail! tell ya later)
3. Add hot boiling water in small dashes.
4. Mix Mix Mixy Mix!
5. I Kept adding water and mixing till I got a smooth gooey green paste. 
6. Parted my hair into my usual DIY parts. (3 sections in the front and 4 at the back)
7. Made smaller 1cm rows and slathered the paste generously from root to tips. 
8. After each section i massaged the henna into the roots like you would with a relaxer
9. This is the part where you wear a shower cap. Seeing as i didn't have one, I wrapped my hair in glad wrap and tied a plastic bag on my head. Hehe! It was deeply satisfying, the plastic bag thing! Strange nostalgia for women in Naija that leave the hair salon with bags on their heads cos NEPA took light when they were in the hair dryer. :) 
10. Left it on for 3 hours then washed it out. (I know, too long, but I was busy okay! 1 hour would have sufficed.

Before Henna.

My hair before definitely had traces of colour... Ghosts of Hair dyes past, if you ask me. Hehe. My hair before dye was dark brown, that reflected violet in bright light and it had highlights in it.

After Henna

OMG!the colour! I love the new colour! It's a rich, burnt, deep red. It LOOKED amazing! especially when wet. And because of the human error in application, the colour isn't very even which is GREAT cos that means you get high and low lights with no bleach and no ammonia. Yay!!

Pros.

• Colour: If you love your deep reds and browns, you'll love this effect...
• Economical: IT only cost me a dollar! $1!
• DIY friendly: You don't need to worry about some chemical burning you or giving you contact dermatitis.

Cons.

• Drying Effect: my hair felt starved of H2O. It was so thirsty I had to use a deep conditioning treatment immediately afterward. It's been 1 month since i used henna but whenever i wash my hair, i can still feel the dryness. You'll need to invest in heavy duty moisturisers to keep your hair healthy. I use a spray on Shwarzkopf moisturiser and seal it with carrot oil. Works wonders.
• Messy Bizness: It is sooo messy! OMG. Washing it off was probably the grossest state I have seen my bathroom in. Splat splat splat of gooey green stuff. The tea tree leaves made things worse. IT made the paste granular and chunks of leaves didn't disintegrate in the hot water like i had hoped.

Will I do it again?

Errrrr, yeah, why not! I have to find a solution to the dryness thing tho....

All in all, a good way to spend a Friday night!

Lotsa love!

Ummi :)