*Oil on top*

As naturals we all know that moisture is a must.  I mean every article, blog post, expert and wannabe will declare that moisture retention is the key for healthy hair.  I AGREE! Moisture is the key to longer, healthier hair.  One way I try to keep the moisture in my hair is sealing it with OIL.

Yes oil! My favorite is olive oil.  I put that ***** on everything! LOL! No really I do! I put olive oil in my conditioner.  I put it in my homemade hair spritzers among a ton of other products and uses.  The most effective way I have found to use my oil is as a sealant instead of a moisturizer.

When I first went natural I would pour oil on my head like I was anointing my head with oil! Oil EVERYWHERE! It didn't solve any thing put made my pillows greasy and my face bumpy.....no bueno! After researching different uses for oils and trying this and trying that...//I found a better way to use oil that is beneficial for my hair.

Ok so FIRST: I learned to add it to cheap conditioner for super soft cowashes.  When I say cheap conditioner I mean like Suave naturals coconut (that's my favorite $1 condish...LOL).  I pour some over in the bottle and I use it when I cowash my hair.





SECOND: I add it to water and my fav essential oils and make a summer spritz for instant moisturizing.  Nice little refresher for those days were it's hot and dry outside.

THIRD:  I seal the moisture after I wash my hair.  So when I shampoo my hair I go through my normal routine.  At the end I put on a water based leave in conditioner (Carol's Daughter Black Vanilla), I then apply the oil to my hands and rub thru sections of my hair.  After I have applied oil I use a cream base moisturizer in order to style my hair......WATER-OIL-CREAM :-)

So oil on my loves! Oil on!

100 LIKES IN ONE WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well loves...*clears throat and adjust mic* Thank you so much for "LIKE"-ing little ole MEEEEE!!!!! I am so grateful for the 101 (and counting) likes I have recieved in the ONE week that I have introduced my passion to the FB world! My page is still under construction and you guys are right there with me enduring all the changes and adjustments....*tear*. When I stepped out on a limb and created my blog and FB fan page I didn't expect so much love. Soooooooooooooooooo.......................... to show my gratitude I am giving away ONE FREE MINI PHOTO SESSION WITH INSPIRED PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN (valued at $100)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *and the crowd goes wild* The winner of this give away will be the recipient of not only a FREE MINI SESSION but photos and digital images of the shoot!

The rules are as follows:

• Like Live, Luv, Natural (say Hello when you stop by I would love to hear from you!)

• Like Inspired Photography and Design and tell them LLN sent you!

• Go to http://liveluvnatural.blogspot.com/ and follow the Live, Luv, Natural blog. In the comment section let me know that you were there by leaving a comment on the blogpost "100 LIKES IN ONE WEEK". Make sure you leave your FB name so I can identify who you are!

All names will be entered for a chance to win on Tuesday January 24 at 3PM. The winner will be anounced Wednesday January 25 at 3PM!

For additional entries invite friends to like Live, Luv, Natural and write your name on the wall. For every friend who leaves your name it guarantees you one extra entry!! Good Luck!

May the games begin! Again I thank you all for your support! Please share away!

*curtsies, wipes tear, and fiercely walks off stage*

Many faces of........ME!

So I promised that I would post pictures and I wanted to remain true to my word and post pictures of different ways I wear my hair.  Please forgive me....I take the pictures with my phone so they are not the best.  When I first went natural I searched and searched the internet for styles for my short natural hair.  Maybe one day I will work up the nerve to do a video for you guys :)

'Fro Hawk

This is a braid out.  At the time I used Miss Jessie's buttercreame to braid my hair that night.  I wear the braids over night and in the morning I pick the roots to create a fuller effect.  You can use pomade or eco styler gel to slick back your edges.  Take the combs and place them in the sides of your hair and viola! You have the perfect 'fro hawk.  Perfect for those old twist outs!

Braid out

This is the braid out before the 'fro hawk.  To preserve my style I would put my hair in gian plaits and wrap in a satin scarf at night.

Blow out

Believe it or not my hair wasn't that long when I got my first blow out.  I was natural for less than a year and had my hair straightened.  The blow out yielded good results in that my hair reverted back to its natural kinky state :-)

TWA (teeny weeny afro)

Loved, loved LOOOVED this style.  Quick Cowash (washing hair with conditioner instead of shampoo) and a glop of eco styler gel and BoOmP!!! You have a sexy little fro on the go! :-) Don't rush your hair to grow....Trust ME! You will miss this stage once you have longer hair and may even cut your longer hair to achieve your TWA.

2 strand twist

This is my favorite protective style.  Protective styling protects your hair against the elements....especially your ends.  For my two strand twists I use Shea butter melted down to a creamy texture mixed with a little oil.  I re wet my hair with a water and coconut oil mixture and apply the Shea butter mixture to the my fingertips.  I am certain to seal the ends with the Shea butter mixture.

2 strand twist out

After I wear the twist for about 3 days I finally take the twists out and break them apart.  I then find one of my cutesy headbands or flowers and adorn my hair with it.  To preserve this style at night I twist in about 8 big twists and wrap my hair in a satin scarf.  I try and re moisturize with Shea butter or a warm oil and water mixture in a spray bottle.

Twist out with bangs (using three combs and a boby pin)

Ok so you can tell that twist outs are my fav!!! ^_^ This is done on a fresh twist out.  I took the front of my hair pulled it down to form a bang.  I placed a bobby pin in the bang to weigh the hair down on my forehead.  I then took three combs and combed the sides back and the back up.  It created a cute updoish! :-)

Twist out bun combed back

Again another twist out.  I took the front and created a bun with bobby pins.  I took two combs (my second favorite accessory) and combed the sides back.

Some-a-dis Some-a-dat...LOL!

This hairstyle is a combination of a few things.  My twist out was getting a little old so that night when I twisted my hair in 8 big twists I twisted them into knots..........like this:

I used cloth ponytail holders to hold the knots because I didn't have enough pins to place in every knot.  I oiled my hair pretty good because it was so dry and performed the GHE (green house effect)----->oil your hair, cover with a plastic cap, cover with your scarf, cover with your winter hat and go to bed {more on this later}.  When I woke up the next morning I took it all out and allowed my hair to air dry before I took the knots out.  After my hair dried I undid the knots and separated them.

All the styles featured here can be done with a wash and go or a braid out.  Just wanted to give you guys an idea of how to wear your curls :-)

Luv Latrice

Another season another regimine!

I'm sitting here with my head wrapped up like a space alien as I am doing this blog.  See, my regimine has changed since the summer.  With the changing of seasons, and the wealth of NEW knowledge about hair, came a new hair regimine. :-) So in the beginning I was an olive oil and honey type of chick.....now don't get me wrong...I LOVE MY EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)! I still use it regularly and in almost every thing (conditioner, homemade hair spritzers, moisturizers, etc, etc).  But I have added a few more staples to my natural hair products (shea butter, shea moisture products)  Sooooooooo....my regimine for thecolder months is as follows:

Every Friday night is my pamper night (what a life....LOL!!!!).  I shampoo my hair with African Shea Butter black soap or Shea moisture shampoo (which ever I have handy).  I take special care to be extra careful with my delicate, wet hair (heeheehee) and massage my scalp. Remember to put your styling tools in the sink so that they can be cleansed as you are cleansing your hair.  After I have thoroughly rinsed my hair I take a towel and place it on my hair. I don't rub it really rough because sometimes I will do a wash and go and I don't want to disturb the curl pattern (but that's a different post)....where was I??? OH yea! So I dry my hair by patting it dry with a towel.  I then put the avocado mixture on my hair, plastic cap (or plastic grocery bag if I'm out of caps.....#shrug! LOL!) and a cotton head wrap  and do my nails!! Hahahahahaaaaa! No seriously, after I apply the mixture and the caps I leave it on for about an hour or so.

Once the avocado conditioner has been on my hair for aboout an hour or so I rinse it out until the water runs clear.  While my hair is still wet I apply softened shea butter and oil (whatever oil I have on hand) and two strand twist my softened curls.  Double strand twist is my FAV protective styling! I love IT!!!!  I normally wear the twists for about two days and on the extra cold mornings I wrap my hair in cute scarves or put on hats to keep my scalp warm. If my hair starts to dry before I am done (my head is a little large so this tends to happen alot) I spray with a little water and oil and continue to twist until it is all twisted.  At the ends of my twists I take shea butter and apply a little extra.  This helps curl the ends so I don't have those straight ends.  Now some of my hair is heat damaged so before I untwist the twist I have to put a couple of bantu knots in it to curl the straightened hait.  At the end I have a beautiful twist out!! I will post pics later!! **promise**

Luv Latrice

New Year....New________!!

Happy New year to all my lovies!!!

With the new year comes tons of promises to lose weight, excercise, eat right, save money, be on time....blah, blah, blah BLAHHHHHHH!!! LOL! I always say in order to improve on YOU, you must start by setting GOALS.  It is also wise to set a timeline for these goals and set mini goals that will aide in acheiving your ultimate goal. 

One thing I have been working on (and struggling with) is my diet.  Don't get me wrong..I LOVE my size, figure and everything else.  What I AM unhappy with is the amount of junk I put into my body.  You are looking at a person who downs a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies NIGHTLY......*hangs head in shame*.  So at the end of last year I got the bright idea to construct monthly menus accompanied with weekly grocery lists......yea! <------the teacher in me.  This lasted for all of two months and my kids got tired of eating the same meals.  I was also doing a HORRIBLE job at incorporating veggies into our diet.  Especially because I think veggies are YUCKY!! Ewwww!  Being that I am very computer savvy (and GOOGLE is my bff) I googled healthy (cheap) dinners.  What I got was so exciting!!!!!! From the "fruits and veggies more matters" web page (http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/?page_id=6535) I was able to get monthly menus (that included veggies of a variety of colors and some meatless dishes), along with recipes and weekly grocery lists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! That's not the only thing......*all meals fed a family of four for under $10!!!!!*  ON top of clipping coupons......Oh I was winning big time!  I tried the menu from week 5 and week 1 and my family LOVED the new dishes.  It brought tons of variety to our diet and provided us with healthy eating alternatives!!

When you go natural, sometimes it makes you aware of you.  I mean being natural is so freeing! You are stripped down of what others thought of as beauty and your natural beauty shines through.  You are more self conscience of your body...and yourself.  It's a beautiful thing. But let's remember to take care of our inside as well.  Put good things on the inside because it directly affects how our beauty is on the outside.  Whether you are natural or relaxed, a balance diet including fruits and veggies can be beneficial to healthy hair, skin and nails.  Sometimes we put things into our bodies without a second thought as to how it will affect us.  Some naturals go as far as taking hair supplements by mouth in order to increase hair growth and helahty hair......-___-.  My PERSONAL opinion is a good diet, hair regimine and the right products will result in healthy hair.  Hair growth is a result of many factors, environment, genetics, care.....just to name a few.  DO what's best for you.  If eating right, on a budget isn't for you, then don't stress yourself....find what is for you and stick with it!!!







Luv Latrice

OOOOOooooooo Baby Luv!!

I was soooooooo excited to do this post! I get overly excited about anything to do with natural hair, but I get ecstatic about little girl's natural hair!  I am a big advocate for anything that will cut the time in half I spend doing my daughter's hair.  I mean I have tried EVERYTHING to ease HER pain and mine.  I have tried detanglers, conditioners, shampoos, all in ones (the conditioning, detangling shampoo...yea) and everything in between.  NOTHING seems to quicken the process or meet my expectations for my princess's hair.  Every two weeks we battle with a shampoo, conditioning and detangling session that spans two days!!!!!! On the first day I will take out her hair style, shampoo her hair, condition her hair and then detangle her hair.  The next day I would proceed to style.  A daunting task I may say!!!

So while mixing stuff in my kitchen for my own naps....teeheehee....I began to think about the needs for my princess's hair.Okay 1) Princess's hair tangles badly! 2) her hair is so dry!  I decided to mix an avocado deep conditioner treatment for my little one's tangled tresses to combat some of the issues I have to deal with when doing her hair......the recipe is below:

• 1 RIPE avocado (please make sure it is ripe or you will be picking avocado out of your hair for HOURS!!) (power food for so many reasons...awesome detangler, softens hair and makes hair more manageable)
• 1 cup of coconut milk (great for moisture, managing hair and hair growth)
• 2tbsp of shea butter (great for moisture)
• 1/3 cup of honey (great humectant and conditioner.  Helps hair holds moisture)
• 1 tbsp olive oil (great for shine, improves hair strength and elasticity)

I put all the ingredients into a blender and mixed away! Make sure you blend it really well and that your avocado is soft and ripe.  If it is not you will get a chunky consistency instead of a creamy one.  After I mixed it I set it to the side until it was ready to be used.

When doing treatments I always start with clean hair (it's my personal preference) so before I start I always shampoo the hair.  I recently start using Shea moisture products and I love THEM!!!!!  You can get them at Target and Walgreens for the best prices!! One of the two are always having a sale! :)  After the argument of ....how many washes..... how long was it gonna take...did I HAVE to wash her hair TODAY....I shampooed her hair with Shea Moisture moisture retention shampoo.  During this time I also put the tools I will use on her hair in the sink to be cleaned as I'm cleaning her hair.  NEVER USE DIRTY TOOLS ON CLEAN HAIR!!!!



After one shampoo I blotted her hair with a towel to absorb the excess water.  Don't rub hard....remember our hair is delicate.  I then applied the mixture to her hair as I detangled with a W   I   D   E   tooth comb.  I use one similar to this one

I got it from the local beauty supply store for like 99cents.  After I applied the mixture to her hair I put a plastic cap on it and allowed it to sit for about an hour.  The only way I could convince her is to keep the cap on is to tell her that her hair will turn green....*shrug*. 

As I rinsed her hair out I noticed she had bits of avocado left in her hair.  (The above picture is from me applying  the mixture).  I tried to come the bits of avocado out but I was unsuccessful at getting it completely out.  I used Juicy leave in as her leave in conditioner (my daughter HATES multiple washes).  This is an awesome leave in I use on my own hair and it results in beautiful, moisturized twist outs and braid outs.  You can check it out here (http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/juicyleavein/3939964/8oz_Juicy_Leave_In_Conditioner_by_Naturalista_Cosmetics/Bath_Beauty/Hair/Treatment)  I then began the daunting task of detangling it.  To my surprise the comb slid through with ease and a minimal of tears! Her hair was so soft and manageable, shiny and just.....PURRRTY!  I then started to style it (she requested braids).  Her hair was so pretty I didn't want to braid it.  So I braided the back and twisted the front into pony tails.  When it tried I took a picture and was SHOCKED at the results!!!!!

OOOOOOoooooo Baby Luv!

Now please don't be afraid to use this on your hair.  I use the same recipe and add egg for added protein.  Don't use this recipe if you are allergic to any of the ingredients.  Have fun mixing!!!!

Luv Latrice 

Let's DO it again.....

After all of the ups and downs and downs of the summer (yea D O W N S....LOL!) I decided to do something about the two textures on my head.  I held on as long as I could in hopes that some how I was going to be able to deal with the war of the textures on my head..........

I managed to squeeze a few cute styles out of the textures but I truly didn't have the patience to allow the straight hair to grow completely out.  I mean I transitioned TWICE......I was just ready to give up!

Flat twist out

Once the flat twist out got old I got my girlfriend to braid the sides for a cute up-doish :-)

And of course....the old school two conrows to the back! My fav :0)

This quickly got boring and tiresome.  I couldn't KEEP cute lil conrows and at the time I couldn't do flat twists for cute twist outs. :-( Sooooooo......I went to the salon and begged my stylist to do my hair! When I walked out I was EXCITED!!!!!! I loved my new do and I was sure it was gonna be something I could live with!

The day of my THIRD big chop!!!!!!!!

One thing I have come to learn is it's not the end of the workd! Who says your natural hair record is tarnished because you BC'd twice or, *clears throat*, THREE times! All that matters is you are happy with your hair.....and I WAS! LOL!

LET'S DO IT AGAIN!