Product Junky-Ism!!!...Nah, not really ;)

Happy New Year!  Hey all, I hope the new year has been a great start for you all!  I am really excited about the New Year and my on again, off again, hair journey.  My goal this year is to retain as much length as I can, for me and my 3 year old, as her journey started as soon as she was born. :)  She loves her hair and I do my best to let her know, as often as possible, how beautiful her coils/curls/kinks are.

So on to my post.  Throughout my hair journey of approximately 13 years (Wow), I have seen a lot, done a lot, and researched A LOT.  It's amazing how products and techniques have come and gone, ingredients have continuously changed, some good, some not so good, and new products and tools seem to pop up every day in relation to the natural hair movement, etc. 

But even with all of the changes, there is one thing that remains the same....Product Junky-Ism.  It's almost comical how when someone posts a youtube video, or something on twitter or a blog, about how a certain store is discontinuing a certain line of products, and folks go running, lol!  I'm serious because I have been there and saw that curl enhancing smoothie on clearance for $ 3.24, don't pick it up because I don't need it, I don't care how cheap it is, just to go back in that area and the shelf has been snatched clean.

With that being said, I am not a product junky and haven't ever been, but I have learned over the past decade that if you find something you REALLY love/like, make sure you have a back up.  Because if you don't, you will look up one day and see that your favorite conditioner/shampoo/leave-in/deep conditioner/butter/cream has been discontinued, or the ingredients have been changed for the worst. Been there done that...WAY too many times to count.  For example, my favorite butter of all time back in the day was Kemi Oyl Shea Butter Pomade.  Without warning, it became harder and harder to find, and with no replacement, there I was, stuck. Eventually, after trying shea butter, mango butter, shealoe butter, avocado butter and Carol's daughter healthy hair butter, the last two became my faves.  After CD became too expensive for s&h, avocado butter became my staple and is what I still use to this day. :)

Another example, good ol' original Creme of Nature shampoo.  Need I say more?  I use the new Argan oil, sulfate-free one, but I am considering switching from it as well, being that it is literally the ONLY product left in my bathroom that contains parabens.  Yay for me!  Another example, for those of you that remember Salon Selectives Loosely Defined, it was an awesome styler in the early 2000s and it was soooo cheap!  After it was discontinued, naturals had a really hard time finding a replacement.  Remember, all of this was before Miss Jessie's, Curls, Kinky-Curly, As I Am, Camille Rose, Jane Carter Solution, Shea Moisture, etc even hit the scene.

Today, we have SOOO many options, but that can lead to some serious product junky-ism and empty pockets. Many of the products on the market today are awesome, but expensive.  I mean, some of these prices are jaw-dropping!  It discourages a lot of folk.  Folk that don't know that straight up water and vaseline/blue magic, good ol' school grease, will do the trick. :)  Seriously, it will work, but I wouldn't use that either, not on a regular basis, just because I know what works for me.  Unfortunately, there are those still on the hunt and their bathroom closets, drawers and cabinets are running over.

With all that being said, I've learned, throughout this journey, that that there is nothing wrong with doing something nice for yourself, every now and again, even if that means splurging a little on a hair or body product.
The key is once you find something that works, stick with it, but again, there is nothing wrong with a little back up. :)

Three pounds of Avocado Butter, oh my!

Hey all! Ok, ya'll know I LOVE me some avocado butter. For those of you who have followed my journey from it's beginning in 2001 (wow, such a long time ago), you all know that my timeline went something like this: The Year was 2002, found Carol's Daughter Healthy Hair Butter and loved it! ------> became too expensive w/shipping, even after splitting cost w/ a friend that lived near me----> Fell in love with Kemi Oyl Shea butter pomade------> became harder and harder to find and order online--------------> Found fromnaturewithlove.com, tried a variety of butters like shea, shealoe, avocado **cheesing** and mango. Finished all of these containers to find that I was really feeling the avocado butter. The price, results, benefits...sold. So since then, which was around 2004 when I found avocado butter, it has been a STAPLE. Don't get me wrong, I have tried plenty of other "butter-esque" products since finding my AB (what I will refer to instead of typing "avocado butter" over and over again), and I tried making my own butter using oils, shea butter, Crisco (yep I tried it lol), etc, but have continuously come back home to my AB. So why this post? Well, through the years, I have consistently been ordering from ebay or etsy when it comes to my AB. I usually end up ordering from the same company or person. Off the top of my head, the person's name/company name on ebay and etsy is kessil2000. I have had zero problems from ordering from this person/company and the name of my AB is Dr. Adorable. The one thing I've noticed through the years is that they went from a bottle to a jar, which was PERFECT for me and I'm sure many others. I stopped ordering from fnwl.com because the prices seemingly skyrocketed overnight. I mean, I know it happens but I couldn't justify paying almost twice as much for something than I did the previous year. I know about supply and demand believe you me...PLUS...looking at all of the products on the shelves today, I can see, now, what was going on then. After trying a couple of other sites, I found etsy and ebay and the rest is history. So my favorite AB vendor is auctioning big containers of AB on ebay and I got a 3 lb. container for ((drumroll)) $ 26.50! Yes, I got 48 oz of AB for $26.50 (won the auction at $ 20.50 paid $ 6 s&h). Ya'll don't know how excited I was when that container showed up. As many know, I have a 3 year old girl child and she has a lot of hair. This bucket will last us for AT LEAST 2 years. I have always bought the 12-16 oz jars at about $10-12 dollars each, but THIS container? Need I say more? So that's it! Didn't mean to bore you guys but thanks for stopping by! :) Hope this helps out any AB junkies out there! ;)