Overdue Life Update / Rusk DeepShine Pure Pigments Review / SheaMoisture Reviews

It's been a while...

First semester of Nursing school - done. I managed to pass with a B+, which was pretty miraculous.

 I celebrated my final exam with this tasty treat as soon as the bar opened.

My boyfriend's mom lost her battle with metastatic breast cancer during my spring break. Her funeral was on St. Patrick's Day. The couple of months that followed were stressful. 

She was an amazing woman. Brown Family Medicine posted this photo of her on Facebook, adding: Our Family suffered a significant loss this week. Lorraine., our amazing Team C nurse, friend, advisor, colleague, and the person who just helped you through your day, passed away this week. Lorraine was a wonderful wife, mother, and caring nurse. She was a nurturer in all aspects of her life which extended to the providers and staff she worked with at the Family Care Center. She was always proud of the fact that she helped educate confident and caring family physicians.
She will be very missed

As soon as my classes ended, I started working 6 days/week. The paychecks are nicer, but it leaves little time for blogging, photographing, fishing, relaxing...or doing any of the shit I would actually like to do this summer.Currently, I have everyday Wednesday off and I spend most of it cleaning my apartment and doing my laundry. Enjoying weekends with friends and the endless barbeques that seem to pop up means going to work exhausted in the morning. Adult life is a bitch.


Some hair care changes have happened recently, which is actually what compelled me to blog tonight.

For starters, I have been using Rusk DeepShine Pure Pigments Conditioning Cream Color (color 666RR - coincedence? - probably not) the last few times my sister colored my hair. I have been dying my hair red for quite some time now and this is by far the best color I've used. Every other red I have tried fades to a color closer to brown. While this color does fade, it takes a lot longer and actually stays red. The results are true to the color swatch. (In hindsight, I should have snapped a photo of the color swatch.) Additionally, this color doesn't dry my hair out. My scalp, however, is not a fan - but, as I've mentioned, I do have eczema on my scalp, so the dry, itchy, flakiness that follows the week after coloring, regardless of the product, is more likely related to my skin condition. I am not sure if this color is available at Sally's, my sister always buys it at a local salon supply store because she's a licensed hair dresser.

Number of the beast!

Results!

My daily hair routine has changed some over the last few months, but not drastically.

Since my hair and scalp responded so well to tea tree oil, I started adding it to my shampoo and conditioner - which has consistently been SheaMoisture's Moisture Retention Shampoo and Restorative Conditioner. I've only been shampooing 1-2 times per week, co-washing with the Restorative Conditioner, or SheaMoisture's Extra-Moisture Detangler, which I also added tea tree oil to. I actually prefer the Extra-Moisture Detangler for co-washing and have stopped buying the Restorative Conditioner as a result. The detangler is lighter and has a nice slip. It moisturizes and cleans my hair without weighing it down. I also add some to a spray bottle of water for my second-day hair routine (which now consists of spray with detangler/water mixture until damp, scrunch, diffuse dry - takes 5 minutes, looks awesome).

While I was content with the results of my current hair routine, SheaMoisture products were buy-one-get-one free at Walgreen's yesterday. So, I jumped on the opportunity to try more of their products. I bought the African Black Soap Deep Cleansing Shampoo, African Black Soap Balancing Conditioner, Curling Gel Souffle, and Frizz-Free Curl Mousse for only $20. According to the labels, the African Black Soap shampoo and conditioner are specifically for "dry, itchy scalp" and "dandruff, eczema, and psoriasis," and both contain tea tree oil. I tried them both tonight. Firstly, I love how these products smell - it's a sweet, floral scent - after reading the ingredients, I assume that it's due to the honeysuckle in the products. The shampoo felt immediately drying and didn't lather as well as the Moisture Retention shampoo, so I was completely turned off by it. However, the conditioner was delightful. Same delicious smell as the shampoo, not too heavy, good slip, and moisturizing enough to completely counteracted the drying effects of the shampoo. I will definitely repurchase the conditioner. If by the time I empty the bottle, I see a significant improvement in my scalp's condition, I will repurchase the shampoo. For styling, I used a small amount of the Curling Gel Souffle distributed evenly throughout my hair. The heavy, almost oily consistency of the gel told me that my hair did not need much of it. At this rate, it will take me months to finish the product. I followed up with the Frizz-Free Curl Mousse with my hair sectioned in 4, 3 pumps per section. In contrast to the gel, the mousse is extremely light, so I will probably burn through this bottle. After diffusing dry, the results were awesome and the products are worthy of repurchasing. My hair was extremely curly without any crunch, shiny, soft, and smelling delicious.

Tonight's results.