Homemade Whipped Hair and Body Butter

I was introduced to natural oils four years ago when I went natural. I watched YouTube videos and read a lot of blogs in an effort to learn about the phenomenon that is my natural hair and how to take care of it… yes the hair is phenomenal, lol.

A lot of people raved about natural products and their benefits. Not to mention the scarcity of natural hair products in the South African market back then left one with little choice. 

I’ve tried a lot of concoctions over the years. Some were complete disasters, like the banana hair mask, never again. I just could not get the little banana bits out of my hair. However, some of the products and concoctions worked very well and have stuck, like my Shea-Cocoa Hair and Body Butter.

Ingredients

·        Cocoa butter

·        Shea butter

·        Coconut oil

·        Vitamin E oil

·        Olive oil

·        Lavender oil. This is mainly for fragrance.

I’ll add a few other oils depending on what I have available in my bathroom…. and kitchen, 😉. There's really no wrong or right mixture, you make it your own.

Method

·      Add cocoa, shea and coconut oil in a ceramic of glass bowl. Depending on the season the coconut oil may already be in liquid form, in which case it can be added later.

·      Place the bowl over boiling water (on a stove) until the butters have melted.

·      Add the other ingredients (i.e. olive oil, vitamin E oil, etc.) once the butters, now in liquid form, have cooled down.

·      Leave the mixture until it starts to solidify again. This may take a while; alternatively you can place the mixture in the fridge (about 2 hours).

·      Whip the mix for about 5-10 minutes. 

You can add more olive oil at this stage if you feel the butter is too hard to whip (add small amounts at a time).

… and voila, you have your own, nourishing, luxurious, filled with natural goodness butter!!

I use the butter as a nourishing sealant for my hair and it leaves my hair feeling super soft and moisturised.

For skin, I know some people prefer lotion in warmer months and only use butter in winter. However my skin only knows one season, the dry season. So I use the butter as my heavy duty moisturiser all year long.

Side note, this makes for a nice thoughtful gift too 😉... you're welcome.

Yimina ozithobayo,

Snothando

A Week’s Worth of Healthy Snacks

At this point we all know the importance of eating well, from maintaining weight to avoiding and managing chronic diseases and improving your overall health. I’m slowly making small strides towards this goal without being too drastic about it, which I believe leads to failure.  I'm slowly letting go of bad habits and picking up better ones.

One of the newer habits is healthy snacking. These are smaller meals that I eat in between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nowadays instead of only packing lunch for work I’ve deliberately developed a habit of packing healthy snack(s) as well. Bringing my snacks from home not only saves money, but I also avoid the temptation of the vending machine (chocolate, chips, biscuit, etc.) and the nearest shop.

The aim is for my daily diet to incorporate all the different food groups; vegetables, fruit, grains, protein, and dairy. 

Veggies

Carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers

Sweet corn

Sweet potato

I tend to stick to these because over and above their health benefits I actually enjoy them and they are easy to prepare.

Fruit

This part is easy.

Grains

For the most part I get grains from my cereal; my favourite being oats, maltabella, and all bran. I’ve also switched over to eating brown rice instead of white rice.

Proteins

Eggs

Nuts, seeds

To be honest I don’t really enjoy seeds. I prefer to grind them up in a smoothie, see here, rather than snack on them separately.

Dairy

The dairy products I consume the most are milk and yoghurt which are incorporated into my breakfast. Alternatively I’ll pack yoghurt as a snack especially if my breakfast didn't include dairy.

Yimina ozithobayo,

Snothando

My Creations

I’m no professional, but from time to time a girl has to whip out her sewing machine - or mice in the case of Cinderella - and sebenza.

How I even came to have a sewing machine? Well it’s simple, I love clothes. I was tired of seeing all these lovely clothes in magazines, television, and in my head and couldn’t find any of them in the shops. So I came up with a solution; buy a sewing machine and make it myself!

When I started out my only experience was from making clothes for my dolls growing up, and every now and then I’d hang out with my mother while she was sewing one of her projects (not a professional dressmaker either). So I figured… how hard can it be?

Well, it’s not as easy as I thought, but I make it work and I learn as I go along and it's loads of fun.

To the best of my recollection this shweshwe fabric cost me R40 per meter. I bought 4 meters and made two items out of it.

A halter-neck, flared dress, and

a sleeveless coat. 

So both items ended up costing me R160 (R40 x 4 meters)!! My unique take on thrift shopping.

PS: I will share a how to blog once I've figured out the best way to do it. Until then...

Yimina ozithobayo,

Snothando


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Natural Hair Product Empties and Review

It’s wash day and I co-incidentally ended up with a few product empties, so I though it would be fun to do a review before discarding them.  You know, a little lessons learnt, will I repurchase or not, and so on and so forth. So let's get right into it!

Afro Botanics Nzinga Repairing and Strengthening Treatment - R63.95

The price is right and the product works well. I’ve been using the conditioner for over a year now and like it. It has a thick lotion-like consistency and applies easily.

However, I’ve just recently discovered that I’ve been using it wrong. This is a protein deep conditioner!!

Because one has to be careful not to overuse protein I do protein treatments every third or fourth week. I was using this conditioner in between my protein treatments not realising it’s also a protein treatment, lol.

It would help if the words ‘protein treatment’ were spelled out on the product. They’re not. Apparently the words “repairing”, “strengthening”, “rebuilding”, “reconstructing”, etc. are synonymous with protein.  Which makes sense because that's the whole purpose of protein treatments in your hair, to strengthen and rebuild.

We live and we learn. I will be using the conditioner correctly in the future.

Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner - R199.99

I bought this several months ago on one of the 3 for 2 Clicks’ specials, don't you just love them 😍. Even though Shea Moisture products are a bit pricey I don’t mind splurging on them just because they’ve built such a good reputation. I’ve managed to find favourites amongst the range; alas this conditioner is not one of them.

The conditioner is a two in one. It's both a leave-in and a rinse out; a pro.

Cons, I didn’t like it because it has little to no slip.

I not only use conditioner to condition but I also detangle during the conditioning process. So it’s important that my conditioner has some slip. If I don’t detangle during the washing process then I’ll do it when I moisturise and style. The process is so much easier when the leave-in has slip and you’re not breaking and/or damaging your hair every time you make a part.

I also encountered a mechanical issue with the packaging. The pump is only convenient when it works. This one broke maybe on the third or fourth use. This meant I had to unscrew the cap every time I used the conditioner, and with its thick consistency it didn’t dispense easily at all.

Needless to say, I will not be repurchasing this conditioner.  

Nautica Organic Unrefined Shea Butter - R149.00

I love shea butter and I use it for both hair and skin. I use the butter in its raw form or melt and mix it with other oils.

I have dry itchy skin and shea butter comes highly recommended. The benefits are endless; from moisturising to restoring skin’s elasticity to warding off or reducing the appearance of stretch marks.

For my hair I use it both to condition (pre-poo or deep conditioner) and as a sealant in my LOC method. Oh and did I mention how much I love the smell of it?!

Yimina ozithobayo,

Snothando