4th of July Relaxer Day!

I relaxed July 4, 2011

I wore my hair down 2 days only. The people at work were like you wore your hair down! It's long and pretty.
Me: Not yet but Thanks! The next day it was back in a ponytail.

It grew but I trimmed about 2 inches. My ponytail made the ends ratty to me so they had to go. I will do better with protecting my ends.

This cycle I will take the vitamins and get back to washing and deep conditioning every week. I will do my protein treatment this weekend. I'm doing castor oil this next ten weeks and I am going to try this Nexxus shampoo and conditioner. Product review coming soon.

I'm excited about the next few months. My goal is still mid back or waist length by June 2012

Relaxer Day!

Okay so I decided to just go ahead and relax today at 5.5 weeks! My hair was having a hard time with the two textures. Lots of ridiculous shedding and it was soo course.

I used my usual Soft and Beautiful (regular strength) I based my scalp the night before with creamy Vaseline and it helped so much! I only felt irritation in the spots where I couldn't resist scratching. LOL!

I used a cheapie conditioner to cover my previous relaxed hair to prevent over processing.

I started at 6:59 pm and I tried to apply the relaxer and smooth it in the allotted 20 minute time frame. I usually only like to leave the relaxer on 15 minutes but this time I went the full time.

I parted my hair in four sections (thanks Bajan for the reminder) and started by applying the relaxer in the back first. I covered all  4 sections in about 7 minutes. I went back over my whole head with relaxer in the spots I missed which took 5 minutes. At 7:12 pm I started the smoothing process. My hair seemed pretty straight already. It is here that I think I am over processing and rinse too early. I held on for the last 8 minutes and started with rinsing the front hairline. I have a fear of losing my hairline as well...but once I started rinsing it all looked smooth and straight. Yaaay!!

This recap was just as much for me as my readers...because I swear I forget how to relax my hair every time I do it. I am still kinda missing the shop for this step in my journey. This is my 4th time giving myself a relaxer with only 2 successes including this one LOL!

It grew but I don't know how thick it is with all this shedding. It looked right at or right above bra strap length BSL. I was like... really hair Really?  WOW! LOL! I don't know what happened but I got about 2 good inches of growth. I currently have about 16 inches of length. I need about 2.5- 3 inches to be at full (BSL). My sides don't grow as fast as the back of my hair, but am pleased with the overall turnout/progress of this relaxer. I can finally tell it has grown.

I am hoping to reach full BSL by July 4th including my 1 inch trim... I plan to wear my hair out for our family picnic. My family has not seen my hair not in a protective style since Feb of last year after my big chop.
CORRECTION: I wore my hair down for my birthday in March. Its been up ever since.

Product Review No.6

Giovanni Tea Tree Oil Shampoo VS. Shikai Tea Tree Oil Shampoo

Shikai did not give my scalp the tingly cleansed feeling that GTTO did.

and the winner is Giovanni Tea Tree Oil Shampoo!

Hair Mistakes!

So this weekend I decided to pre poo my hair before I washed. I used VO5 volumizing conditioner and grape seed oil. Umm that was a crazy combo as for as my hair was concerned. My hair was sooooooooo tangled when I went to shampoo. It was crazy! I don't know what happened??

Anywhoo I washed with the Shikai Tea Tree shampoo. It is not as fab as the Giovanni Tea Tree shampoo. I then washed with Creme of Nature detangling shampoo( I'm going to be so sad when this runs out) then I conditioned with my beloved Silk Elements. This softened my hair to butter and made it easier to detangle, but it was still a long tedious process. I lost a lot of hair. *sadface*

I will be relaxing next week due to the texlax relaxer 5 weeks ago. I will then be able to assess the damage to my ends. I hope my hair is not paper thin because of this mishap. Guess who won't be texlaxing or pre pooing anymore? Me!

Picture Dump -Hair

Okay so people have been hinting about pics. In my quest to stay anonymous here's what I came up with...



hair after cut growing back




in need of a relaxer



freshly relaxed still wrapped



Birthday hair- flash making me look bald





protective styles



most of all - don't forget to cover your hair with a scarf every nite- sweet dreams

Stylish Blogger Award

Shout out to AfricanPinay5 at Forever Frugal  for bestowing me with this award! Thank you so much!

Since this award was given on my hair blog I will give 7 hair facts.

1. I am trying to grow my hair to MBL(mid back length)

2. When my hair sheds too much I have a full on panic attack.

3. My hair journey seems to be taking forever!

4. My hair was mid back length before. It is APL right now. I am having set backs.

5. I plan to show pics of my growth when my journey is from BSL to mid back MBL and beyond...

6. I love trying new products!

7. I hope to reach MBL June 2012. Wish me luck!

Product Review No. 5 Giovanni Product

Today I washed my hair with Giovanni Smooth As Silk Deep Moisture Shampoo.

Well I have to say my hair does not like this shampoo. I expected something that said "smooth as silk" would have great slip and leave my hair feeling good. Nope! It felt like wet carpet.

I co-washed quickly with VO5 moisture conditioner to counteract the dryness and drawn up mushed feeling my hair had. After rinsing my hair felt back to normal. I'm glad this was a sample and I won't be using it again.

I'm a person with relaxed hair, and this product says it's for chemically treated hair. I have to say this shampoo did not leave my relaxed hair smooth as silk. I keep trying Giovanni products because I've heard such good things!  But I may have to just accept that they are not for me. Oh well on to the next one. LOL!

Product Review No.4 Shi Kai

From the site:

http://shikai.com/index.html

Tea Tree Shampoo: is aromatic and invigorating. The essential oils of tea tree and peppermint leave the scalp tingling and fresh. And our proprietary soap-free ShiKai Extract leaves hair exceptionally soft, shiny and healthy.

Tea Tree Conditioner: contains also contains tea tree, peppermint, Amla and jojoba oils to revitalize and leave hair silky soft, shiny and manageable.

I've mentioned this conditioner a few times in other posts but I haven't done a formal review.

Since beginning my hair journey, I don't have any of the problems I previously had with my scalp. I used to have a real problem with dry, flaky, itchy scalp. My scalp was so easily irritated and it would itch unbearably causing me to scratch until it bled! I use to use special prescription shampoo and an ointment!...because none of the over the counter products worked! Yes it was that bad! I believe I had a hair allergy to my previous relaxer, but it was my stylist's staple so I never said anything o_O! The only problem I may have now is an itchy scalp before a wash day, which brings me to my new found LURVE!!

I was perusing the aisles at Whole Foods and found this trial size version of Shi Kai Tea Tree conditioner and decided to try it. AMAZE!!!

Shi Kai Tea Tree conditioner is amazing!! How can what essentially boils down to a dandruff product be so moisturizing? It is because it contains all the important products that are good for hair! Swoon!

One day before wash day I usually pre-poo with oils and a conditioner and I had read on a few hair blogs that adding tea tree oil to another another oil or to your conditioner would help with itchy scalp. Finding this conditioner relieves me from having to do any of that.

My scalp truly felt amazing after using this product. It did not strip or dry my hair at all. I still followed with my regular moisturizing routine, but as a pre-poo product it will be a staple when I have an itching scalp.

I plan to try the shampoo and may convert from the Giovanni Tea Tree to this.

I must be INSANE!!!!!!!! and UPDATE

Why do I keep going back and forth on relaxing my hair?? Why can't I accept that I can't stretch my relaxer like people with thicker hair?? I must relax at 10 weeks period! I feel like I lost a lot of hair unnecessarily because I'm trying to stretch until the Saturday  the 12th. I should have started preparing to relax on the 26th and relaxed this week  on March 5th. I washed today so now I have to wait. My hair was a tangled mess.

I co-washed with V05 conditioner, I did a 10 min ORS Hair Mayo conditioner for strength then I DC over night with Hello Hydration and Silk Elements Mega Moisture. I had to scraped the jar hence the mix. I also added a bit of coconut oil. So far my hair is LOVING the coconut oil. My hair was really moisturized. It felt strong, soft and smelled great! But tangled. I air dried and did the long tedious detangle process.

I'm all out of my products.

I need to buy more Silk Elements MMC, Hello Hydration conditioner, Shi kai full size tea tree conditioner, the largest rollers I can find for my roller set, and my semi permanent black haircolor in blackest black.

I'll be back next week with my relaxer update! Take care!

Update week 9

I'm in week 9 of my stretch. My new growth is visible and my hair is officially tangley. I watched a few youtube reviews for the Tangle Teezer after a suggestion from P.S. I Love this and I think this is something I really should get. Especially now when my hair get's a tangled mess! Anything that can prevent hair loss while detangling I'm all for!

This week I prepoo'd with grape seed oil and another tea tree conditioner I picked up at Wh.ole F.oods called Shi kai.  It's really a good conditioner and stopped my itching scalp. Shut it down! LOL!

I co washed with the Giovanni Tea Tree conditioner I reviewed last week. Further cooling comfort for my scalp.  But it didn't get my scalp as clean as I wanted so I washed just my scalp with the Giovanni Tea Tree shampoo. I really like this shampoo! I think I'll just re-purchase that. I like the Shi kai tea tree con better!
I am being extra cautious with my scalp because my relaxer is coming up in 2 1/2 weeks and my last relaxer I really burned because my scalp was in such an irritated itchy state.

After I rinsed the shampoo my hair was stripped so I conditioned with ORS con for 10 minutes then I deep conditioned with SE Mega Moisturizing Con my favorite staple. I didn't sit under the dryer this time. I walked my treadmill for an hour and let it condition an additional hour. I rinsed and did my leave-in with a mix of aloe vera juice and S-curl no drip and air dried. Once dry, I detangled. Then I moisturized and sealed with 6 and 1 Leave In moisturizer and coconut oil.

This week I'm protective styling. I'm bunning until my relaxer March 12, 2011.

Best bun I've ever done!