Black Friday Hair & Other: Wish Lists, Recent Purchases, Tweaks to My Hair Regimen, and More

Greetings, all!

How was your holiday? I hope you and your loved ones had a safe, enjoyable time. ❤

Our immediate family decided not to meet up in the large, multi-family gatherings we usually have. Instead, each of our families celebrated separately and checked in with one another. Different, but we all still knew we were blessed to have food, shelter, safety, and health. I believe that this will make the NEXT TIME WE ALL GATHER TOGETHER feel simply amazing! ❤

Contents of This Blog Post

The focus of this post is my BLACK FRIDAY purchases and wish lists — hair-related and otherwise. Below is how the discussion will proceed. I’ll do my best to keep it BRIEF.

1. My newly-chosen 2021 Theme WOTY . . . i.e., my 2021 theme “word(s) of the year”
2. My 2021 WOTY’s effect upon the composition of my various Black Friday Wish Lists
3. My Wish Lists: Hair and Other
4. Purchases Already Made: Hair and Other
5. New Tweaks to My Hair Regimen

My 2021 Theme WOTY: Word(s) of the Year

Instead of making New Year’s Resolutions, I do the following: Around November or December of every year, I pick a theme word for the next year. It is a word that captures a mindset that I want to incorporate into my thinking and living for the year.

It is recommended that you select ONE word. Please see the myoneword.org site and/or the video below for some WOTY tips.

This year I have a string of 4 words, and it feels perfect.

My 2021 WOTY (string of words this time) is SIMPLICITY, EASE, PLAY, JOY.

I have yet to come up with ONE word to capture all 4. If you can think of one that might fit, please do share it with me in the comments section below. I will GREATLY appreciate it. 😀

YOU GUYS, I am sooooooo excited about designing and intentionally having a year next year of SIMPLICITY, EASE, PLAY, and JOY. Whew, I can’t even TELL YOU! 😀 If you have chosen or will choose a theme word (or words) for 2021, please share them in the comments section below. I’d love to be inspired by your themes. 😀

My 2021 WOTY’s Effects Upon My Black Friday Behavior

So, of course my 2021 theme WOTY of SIMPLICITY, EASE, PLAY, & JOY is affecting my Black Friday behavior. Here are some of the ways:

SIMPLICITY

I am NOT trying to purchase a whole bunch of stuff — hair-related or otherwise — that I have to pay for, store, manage, etc.

For example: I am NOT trying to purchase a whole bunch of hair products to complicate my hair regimen when I’ve already discovered a LOT of what works to have my hair thriving. I’d rather save that money, invest that money, or bless someone with that money.

EASE

I am inspired to make everything I can as EASY as possible, so that my brain power and energy is freed up to be applied to more challenging areas of life that are more WORTHY of my focus and energy.

For example: I want my HAIR CARE to be CRAZZZZZYYYYYYYYY EEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSYYYYYY . . . like RIDICULOUSLY EASY . . . so that my BEST, MOST ENERGIZED self is available to love on my family, tackle my current and future business tasks, do spiritual study, read, do self-care activities, work out, etc.

ANOTHER EXAMPE: I want my hydration, nutrition, exercise, and health activities to be EASY and a matter of course. It’s really getting there, and I’m hype, hype, hype about it. 😀

PLAY

As a wife, auntie-mommy to my two nephews, daughter, sister, business manager, and person in charge of my health and life . . . sometimes I get so tasked with . . . well, TASKS . . . that I forget to ENJOY life and PLAY. I’ve listed for myself (privately) what feels like fun and play to me, and part of this Black Friday is me investing in items, courses, activities, etc. that constitute PLAY.

JOY

By “joy” I mean not only joy, but happiness and excitement and bliss as well. I grew up in a church tradition that elevated spiritual joy over, above, and beyond what was touted as the lesser, more fickle, fleeting, less substantial concept of happiness. As I’m studying more and more, while I do understand and respect a hierarchy prioritizing “joy” over “happiness,” I have learned that happiness is VERY important. I am no longer discounting its value and importance.

I used to balk at the phrase “happiness is a choice, so choose happy,” but now I’m becoming a MASTER at it! ❤ Life feels sooooooo good when lived happy and blessed. I am a better wife, auntie-mommy, daughter, sister, and service provider when I am living HAPPY. My Black Friday wish lists reflect all of this. 😀

Wish Lists: Hair and Other

Now that I’ve shared the MINDSET I have that is informing the composition of my Black Friday Wish Lists, hopefully the following lists will make more sense than not. 😉

2020 Black Friday Hair-related Wish List

HAIR

1. SIMPLICITY:
   1. Aphogee Hair Strengthening Kit (a reup; a holy grail protein treatment for my strands; this treatment can be applied and completed in the shower)
   2. Uncle Funky’s Daughter’s Heal & Renew Masque (a reup; contains protein; is SUPER slippery, rendering detangling MUCH easier; will work in 5 minutes in the shower, making wash day much simpler)
2. EASE:
   1. Hairbrella (would be new to me; hopefully will eliminate any worries about the rain/humidity reverting my DIY silk presses; I hope to purchase TWO — one to stay in the car and one for the house)
   2. Curl Origin Honey & Hibiscus Leave-in Whipped Cream (a reup; best detangler for my hair EVER–PERIOD–if applied on wet hair; only a little bit needed per section, and so a bottle lasts and lasts; eliminates any detangling anxiety I might would have; and this all deposits EASE into my spirit as a Type 4 natural. Woot!)
   1. Camille Rose Naturals Buritti Nectar Cholesterol Treatment ( a reup; super slippery for easy detangling; gives me peace of mind regarding restoring my hair’s elasticity level after a long stretch of having worn my hair flat-ironed)
   2. Denman D38 Rose Gold Power Paddle detangling brush (this would be new to me; a wide variety of YouTubers’ reviews of this product — especially for detangling Type 4 hair — are COMPELLING!)
   3. BaByliss ionic flat iron (this would be new to me; supposedly the ion technology makes a huge difference; this BRAND — not this specific model necessarily — was hailed at a hair forum for its “relative” healthiness for the hair, as healthy as flat ironing can be, right?)
3. PLAY:
   1. Curlsmith hair makeup in the color copper
   2. Gemini Naturals Get Hued temporary hair color, perhaps in Cranberry (YouTuber AshkinCurls recommended this brand via her Facebook platform)
   3. Curly Temple hair products (I’m just curious; I wonder if it smells delightful, and a YouTuber I really trust got her best wash-and-go EVER with one of their products, and she’s tried TONS and TONS of wash-and-go products)
4. JOY:
   1. Lador Hydro LPP Treatment (this product seems AMAZING for hair health and might be especially wonderful given my intended hair regimen going forward)
   2. Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair! deep conditioning mask (this would be new to me; it gets rave reviews; it’s black-owned; I’d be ELATED if it was as moisturizing on my hair as people say it is on theirs)
   3. Curlsmith hair products (reviews have me pretty curious; the blue line products for scalp health are supposed to be blissful; the ingredients are STELLAR; I really wonder: Could this brand become my “if I could only use one brand” brand???)
   4. Lit Curls hair products (this brand’s creator makes HIGH claims: to solve the wash-and-go issue for Type 4 hair [wowwwwww!!!!!!]; it’s black-owned)
   5. Kinky Tresses twist out products (I can’t COUNT the number of folks raving about their Kinky Tresses twist outs; twist out products are some of the only products for which I don’t yet have holy grail finds)
   6. EcoSlay products, especially the EcoSlay Jello Shot gel (great ingredients; black-owned; supposedly EXTREME, EXTREME, EXTREME hard hold, which is what I like)

2020 Black Friday List: General (non-hair-related)

1. An extra, used, full-size refrigerator for the garage (to hold all my vegan foods, which are currently crowding the family fridge, making it difficult to know all what we have)
2. Various Udemy courses (today — November 27, 2020 — is the last day of awesomely severe discounts)
3. Vlogging equipment
4. Vitamix blender (supposedly the best you can buy in terms of obtaining a SILKY SMOOTH green smoothie at home, which I drink/eat almost daily)
5. New glasses
6. Musely skin treatment items
7. Hoka shoes for RUNNING (I love my current Hoka workout shoes; walking in them feels like walking on clouds! 😀 )
8. Clothing items in my best colors: a color slightly LIGHTER than candy orange (please see image of circus peanuts below for “candy orange”), neon candy orange, light salmon, etc.
9. One of those electric spin mops
   

NEXT POST: Black Friday Purchases I’ve Already Made and Tweaks to My Hair Regimen

Phew! This post has gotten long, so I will end it here and aim to post soon about the Black Friday purchases I’ve already made (such the Lit Curls hair products and elongator scrunchies, EcoSlay products including that hard-hold gel, the Denman 38, Kinky Tresses products, etc.). If I’ve tried them, I’ll share my thoughts. Lastly, I’ll also share the tweaks I’ve made to my hair regimen. I’m SUPER excited about those.

I will now say quickly: I did purchase the Denman detangling brush. In my opinion, it is almost as good as the Curly Hair Solutions Flexy Brush, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d go with the Flexy Brush. The Denman D38 paddle brush is an excellent brush, though. And now, once I’ve detangled initially with the Flexy Brush, I set it aside and use the Denman paddle brush for the remainder of wash day, and I use it and the BeHairful brush for the remainder of the time until next wash day. I’ll share more about this next post, Lord willing.

Also: I purchased MANY Udemy courses. The discounts were ASTONISHING. I purchased some for hubby, and some for me. I’m so excited. PLAY and JOY on deck!!!! Yessssss! 😀 Below is a screenshot of just some of the courses I got.

And that’s it for this post! (Phew! 😀 )

So, what is your 2021 Word of the Year? If you’re a “planner person” (like me), what planners are you looking at? What are you getting for Black Friday? Or have you decided you already have enough (which is awesome)? I look forward to hearing from you in the comments. 😀

As always, thank you for visiting the blog, and many blessings to you and yours!

With much love,

Yvette