Giveaway Winner!

February 27, 2015 Naija girl next door 0 Comments

Announcement!

Big kisses to all who entered for the NGND + Savvy & Chic giveaway.
The entries were numbered and fed into the Random number generator over at random.org so that there would be no "mago mago".
The winner is....@her_gorgeousnes on Instagram.

Congrats girl! You get a free Savvy & Chic shea buttercup in a scent of your choice, and you get to have your hair pampered with a steam treatment at the Savvy & Chic salon.
I'll get in touch with you on instagram as well but email me: uzuegbusandra@gmail.com so we can work it all out.
  This was fun. Should do this again *thinking*

Xx,
NGND

Going organic: My product stash

February 23, 2015 Naija girl next door 6 Comments

     Hey you guys, what's up?

I've talked a lot about sharing the whole Going Organic (well, mostly organic) process with y'all but *deep breath* it just seemed like A LOT to put into one post.

After much stop and go in my head, I realised it'll be relaxed and much easier to follow as a series of posts (duh, right?), so please expect posts from the 'Going organic' series, starting with this one.

I took a cue from the other bloggers putting up what's in their cabinets: AB's haul and Meemee's stash on The Kink and I; Uzo's stash on Don't Touch the Hair.
Mine's much smaller than theirs because I'm a one-at-a-time kind of person with these things... and because impulse buying of hair products raises the question of space... and because it's better this way for my pocket.

These are all stuff that go in both my skin and hair as I'm a biiig fan of head-to-toe products. Got them all together from the bathroom, closet, and the kitchen (uh huh) and started taking pictures.


Oils- I have more of these than any other kind of product.
Sunflower, olive, coconut, jojoba, Nigerian black palm kernel, castor oil and rose essential oil. A few days ago I added the mix of tea tree + lavendar essential oils to my stash.

Conditioners- Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner, Shea Moisture African Black Soap Purification Masque, Aubrey's GPB  Conditioner.

Whipped butters- Olori Damage Be Gone Treatment. Recently added the Savvy & Chic Shea Buttercup in lemon. See how you can win one here before the giveaway closes on 27/2/15.

Shampoos- African Naturalistas Black Moisturising Shampoo, Shea Moisture Red Bush & Babassu Baby Head-to-toe wash and shampoo.

The raw stuff- For when I go all kitchenista.
1. Ayurvedic powders. You can see the different colours in layers in that jar right? From the bottom:
Amla, Shikakai, Bhringraj and methi at the top.
They came in sachets from Olori and I packed them together in a polythene bag. Unfortunately a little moisture somehow got in and condemned the Brahmi powder. *sniff* The rest were okay because I had wrapped them more tightly, and I poured them in the glass jar.
2. Raw Shea Butter
3. Honey
4. Instant coffee
5. Namaste Organics bentonite clay.

TOTAL= 21 (I'm counting food shaaa)

What I didn't count: non-natural products that have been in a bag for quite a while, waiting to be given away.

How many products do you have in your stash? Do we have any in common?
Xx,
NGND.

[CLOSED] NGND + SAVVY & CHIC GIVEAWAY! WIN A SHEA BUTTERCUP AND A SALON DAY TREAT

February 19, 2015 Naija girl next door 13 Comments

  I'm really excited to bring you guys this giveaway (if you can't already tell from the all-caps heading). It's my very first giveaway on le blog and so close to my one-year blogaversary next month!
     The delectable Dabs who owns the Savvy & Chic hair and beauty hub and also runs the Naija Hair Can Grow blog has been arms-wide-open, giving away a good number of her new shea buttercups.

Peep this







      Don't they look yummy? Her idea was to create shea butter "whipped to perfection" with the look and smell of ice cream and cupcakes. They come in wonderful scents and are 100% natural which is very important to me. Plus, they can be used from head to toe. Love.
More scents:

Lavendar, lemon, honeysuckle (with real honey)

Dabs sent me a free lemon buttercup. I picked that because I was spoiled for choice and she said it was her favourite (You guys, I can be very indecisive with stuff like this. Don't ever take me for ice cream).

I shocked my friend when I opened what was apparently a cupcake and started rubbing into my hair and my legs. Hahahaha (P.s: it's like butter icing: rich and creamy)

      She's also giving away a free buttercup of your choice to one of my lovely readers, provided you stay in Lagos (sorry non-Lagosians, I have you in mind) and are willing to come pick it up at 30, Norman Williams street, Ikoyi.
      Now to celebrate my one year blogaversary coming up, I want the lucky reader who wins the yummy buttercup to have a treat when she (or indeed he, lol) picks it up. So, in the salon you'll be getting a wash, steam treatment and style too!!

What to do
Just follow me @sandalily and @savvychichairbeautyhub on Instagram, repost the giveaway picture and tag us both, then drop your Instagram handle in the comments below. Remember to tag your friends too, you can swipe the cup if they win (lol, jk). Good luck!

Xx,
NGND

Update: THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

P.s- the buttercups go for N800 each or N2500 for a box of 3 if you want to buy. See here.

Wash Day Files: Happy hair in twists

February 11, 2015 Naija girl next door 28 Comments

How's it going you guys?

The new My Regimen page is up now. I'll leave the link at the bottom. You'll click abi? Mmmwah. Please na.
       I didn't do much this wash day. My hair is just loving me back so it doesn't need much.
Before last week I had been dealing with insane amounts of shedding and breakage. The coffee rinse I did last week took care of shedding, while getting rid of my weak, bone straight ends tackled the breakage and just turned my hair around.

For this wash day, all I did was use the Shea Moisture Purification Masque + castor oil (as part of the Hairlista castor oil challenge) on hair and scalp for an hour under a shower cap; rinsed whilst gently rubbing my scalp, tshirt dried and applied my usual leave-ins: Shea Moisture Replenishing conditioner to damp hair and sealed with Olori Damage Be Gone Treatment. Finger detangled next. My scalp and hair were clean (no chemicals means nothing I use leaves deposits or residue in my hair), hair felt like butter.

 I was amazed at how little hair came out. It just shows how much the things I did last week worked.
Here's proof:

After detangling this week

I was losing this much weekly before my coffee rinse and trim. Insane.

I went back to twists this week. I even did flat twists on the sides instead of braids and I think I'm getting better at those *wiggle wiggle*


You can join the #WashDayExperience and see how other ladies pampered their locks. Like, it's a lot of hair love going on in the world.
Have a look at My Regimen, the page is up now.
   Take this :* :* :*
Xx,
NGND

Who said men don't care about hair?? Crochet weave reactions

February 02, 2015 Naija girl next door 4 Comments

Hey you, how are ya?

   You know how some people commonly say men don't care about hair? Like when the Brazilian hair fever started in Nigeria (then Indian hair, then Peruvian, Malaysian, Cambodian and Godknowswhatmore), and the resisters of the movement kept saying "Girls why are you stressing yourselves? Men don't know the difference".
 The men also went "We don't care" (All this on the assumption that it was all for men which I disagree with but that's not the topic for today abi?)

     Anyway the point is we hear it a lot that men don't really care about hair. Maybe so, but my experience with my own hair and recently my crochet weave show me that it only applies where your hair conforms to the norm.
  So yeah, my crochet weave. I had grey highlights (details here) and I got a wide spectrum of reactions ranging from "I love it!" to "Get rid of it". Almost every guy I know had an opinion. Notable reactions are below, all men.

The bantu knot set that didn't go exactly as planned. I pinned it up for work.

"Your hairrrr, I love it! This is new, the colour... I hope you're not going to change it anytime soon. Now look this way, let me take pictures!"                               
                                       -D.D. Friend


"Hmm. Grey hair. What was the inspiration? Ok I get it, to discourage all the men disturbing you in this hospital abi? You want them to think you're old."
                              -Dr F.O. Colleague.


"This your hair is nice o. Did you go to the salon for this one? Please tell me you did".
                             -Dr O. Senior colleague who is aware of my salon aversion.

I combed out the bantu curls

"Come, you've changed your hair again. When did you do this one? It's like it's every few days you change your look. You have money o".
                        -Dr A. Very senior colleague
I didn't bother to tell him how little it cost me.


"Woooow I really love your hair! It's so different, is it your real hair? Wow! It's beautiful". Over and over again. 
                                    -Dr G.A. Colleague

Bun and bangs

"You changed your hair. The other one was nice now, why this grey one? This is not the Sandra I know. Please remove it by tomorrow. You will, right?"
                                   -Dr O. My consultant.
I promptly informed him he would have to endure it for two weeks.


"Dr Sandra, the youngest old woman I know. I'll keep disturbing you until you change this hair"
                                    - Dr A. Senior colleague

Twist and tuck. This was taken after a sleepless 24-hour shift. All evidence of lipstick gone.

"Did you tint your hair? Very different.  I've been staring at you since you came in".
                                                    - N. Friend

[From two friends almost as attached to my real hair as my mother is]
"You put something in your hair! *crying emoticon* Why why why why!" Then...
"Looks good though. *Big grin*"
                                       -Dr Y.A. Friend. Via bbm after reading the crochet post.

"Noooooo I want your real hair back! *fake cry*" Then he lol's. "Wow, I'm more fixated with your hair than you are I think... anyway this is nice so..."
                          - O.O. Friend and realest G.