HAIR UPDATE!

So I relaxed my hair first week of October; I know I know!  This post is about a month plus late in the writing. Life got in the way anyway it’s here now. So I relaxed my hair after just a little over two years since my last touch up! Crazy I know I wasn’t transitioning or anything it just wasn’t a priority, I just chose not to. My hair was pretty much in a protective style 80% of the time, so it was in pretty good shape with minimal breakage. To be honest this touch up felt more like a virgin relaxer because of all the new growth I had going on, some people actually thought I was a natural head when my hair was out. I just felt it was the right time to go back to my texlaxed hair. I used my true and trusted Beautiful Beginnings to self relax and these are the results below;

 

Living alone struggle! No one to take hair photos for me on demand, so this will have to do for now.

I retained quite a bit of length which I was super happy about because this is the longest my hair has been in about maybe 8 or 9 years. I am pretty close to armpit length at the moment. The plan for the near future is to simply take care of my hair as I have always done and just take it one day at a time. If I feel like touching up in three months time, I will if not I won’t, I am keeping it simple there’s so much going on in the world right now that  touch up timelines are the least of my worries. As long as my hair is clean, moisturised and thriving, I am happy.

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Hair Update And a Touch Up Finally!

Late November 2017…starts blog post…

I finally touched up my hair after God knows how long. This was my longest stretch yet, I believe, I went a year and some months. My last touch up was sometime in 2016 This was a totally unplanned stretch to be honest I have been feeling uninspired to do anything with my hair this year. My side business is partly to blame for that; I crotchet scarves and beanies on the side and I ended up making myself some beanies which would end up on my head almost all the time if I didn’t feel like doing anything to my hair. But on the other hand it ended up actually being a good thing coz my hair was always in a protective style under those beanies so that worked perfectly ok for me. Low manipulation, reduced breakage and all. That was very much needed and good for my hair and length retention.

I used Dark and Lovely Beautiful Beginnings no lye relaxer kit as always.  I touched up like I always do starting at the back coz I long figured out my back hair takes longer to process so it only makes sense to start with the back in order to avoid over processing the front bit. Touch up, shampoo and very thorough rinsing done I deep conditioned with Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Strengthen and Grow Treatment Masque with Shea butter, Peppermint and Keratin wow that is a mouthful! This was a free sample (two sachets) I received at a hair event I recently attended, and my hair loved it so much I think I will be purchasing the full-size tub. It made my hair feel so soft I was tempted to do nothing else to it after rinsing until the next day. Which I did save for applying a leave in conditioner and let it air dry and left everything else until the next morning.

image source: Amazon

The next morning I oiled my scalp with this blend of amla oil, see the ingredient list below. It’s called Bio Amla by a company called Vedova. I quite like the way it smells and how lightweight it is. This is my first time using this particular brand of amla I bought a 50ml bottle and I can already see myself repurchasing a bigger size bottle when this one runs out. I had this insane need to use amla or anything along those lines these last few weeks so I went out and got myself a bottle. Scalp done I applied my leave in conditioner and did two jumbo braids. The plan is to do a henna treatment three days later.

Continues typing blog post…February 2018

Day three well more like two thousand years later in February 2018 I finally did the henna treatment! Well what had happened was...lol I don’t even know why I stayed this long well a lot happened the Christmas holidays included but the bottom line is I finally did my henna treatment.

I added a bit of food colour to my henna mix, it gives my hair red highlights which i like. it is temporary so a little bit washes off with every wash

Henna treatment done I had my hair rinsed and applied this leave in conditioner from mega growth and then my cousin blow dried my hair for me at her salon and we were done at least for now. 

I KNOW I need a trim that will be done some time soon if not the next two thousand years hahaha soon I promise those ends look terrible I am currently in buns 90% of the time so they don’t bother me as much but I know the importance of trimming ends etc so I will get it done asap.

Touched up..finally!

I finally ended my longest stretch yet and got a touch up about two weeks ago. I had lost count of how many weeks post I was at that point all I knew was my last touch up was in early November 2015 – self touch up. I tried to detangle my hair one Sunday afternoon and it was a real struggle no one had to tell me to pick up my phone and make an appointment for a touch up at my friend’s salon. I used my “texlaxer” of choice down below…

My new growth was so thick I did not want to deal with it myself and quite frankly did not trust myself to get good results with this amount of new growth so I went to my trusted hairdresser friend to do my touch up. I wasn’t paying much attention to the relaxer process as my friend had done my touch up before and I trust him to handle my hair as I would. Relaxer process done it was time to rinse, he used the neutralizing shampoo that came with the kit to neutralize the relaxer, several rinses and shampoos later it was time to deep condition. He used Crème of Nature Argan Oil Intensive Conditioning Treatment; and deep conditioned with heat for a little over half an hour. Deep conditioning done it was time to rinse off once more and then proceed to the hooded dryer. I asked that no products other than a heat protectant leave in conditioner be used as I wanted my hair flat ironed and that was exactly what he did. My hair was roller set and I sat under the hooded dryer until completely dry and then got my hair flat ironed. Other than the leave in conditioner the only other product used at this stage was an oil sheen spray and we were done. I was impressed with my length retention this year as I have only long term protective styled for a little over a month in the past ten months.

 

This was the result on relaxer day a few hours later

All I have been wearing is buns and two jumbo braids when not in a bun so in essence I was still protective styling just not long term with extensions and it worked just fine. I just took care of my hair as I normally would did not obsess about length every other month and when I was not paying attention I retained length; or maybe it was all those eggs I eat on an almost daily basis…you know eggs are a great source for biotin and biotin is essential for healthy hair growth. My ends though…need to go…my hairdresser really wanted to give me a trim on relaxer day but I told him we would do it when I came in next for another steam session in a few weeks.

 

Last year's touch up March 2015

Touch up August 2016 see the difference  year. I am happy with my retention so far. This was the best angle we could get the photos as my ends were still curled up from the flat iron process tried my best to get them as straight as possible. will probably do a length check photo once i get those ends trimmed

Touch me up!

So this is how my hair started out yesterday...

And then this came into the mix; yes I switched to a kiddies kit I actually wanted to get another brand but it was not available at the beauty supply store I went to so I settled for good old Dark and Lovely since I was running late for my hair appointment. I figured since I used the big girls kit for many many years the kiddie kit would be just fine. Why kiddie kit you ask? Because back in December I had my leave out texlaxed using a kiddie kit and I loved the results so I decided to get the entire head done using the kiddie kit. I honestly feel that they are of lower strengths compared to big girls kits.

Where was I? Oh yeah I decided to get it professionally done since it had been a year maybe more since my last touch up (I can’t seem to find that post for the exact date) but it had definitely been more than 6 months that much I am sure of. I went to my good friend’s salon to get it done because I could not be asked to deal with all that new growth. So he combed my hair using a wide toothed comb, based my scalp, sectioned my hair into three parts and then proceeded to apply the relaxer. Application done  I think it took less than ten minutes not too sure though I sat for an extra two minutes (I remember this since he said we will rinse in two minutes and we did) for it to take properly and then we proceeded to the shampoo area as I was already feeling a tingling sensation on my scalp. This is what I had told him pre application; I like my hair texturised not bone straight and he nailed it! I was so happy I have found my second professional texlaxer after my hairdresser cousin thank heavens!

See what I mean? He nailed it so much texture left after a chemical process. This was after rinsing out the relaxer

I honestly cannot remember the names of all the products used other than the kit I came in with, what with magazines to browse and impromptu phonecalls I hardly paid attention to the products but I trusted him nevertheless. I am sure the deep conditioner used was Motions because I heard that name thrown around while at the sink. Anyway so my hair was neutralised using the neutralizing shampoo that came with the relaxer kit, conditioned with regular conditioner – I should have gotten the name it smelled nice – rinsed then proceeded to deep condition with heat using Motions for about 45 minutes. DC done my hair was rinsed off and he proceeded to roller set using a setting lotion and other products, I sat under the hooded dryer for about 25-30 minutes, came out and he styled it and once again apart from an olive oil hair polisher I did not get the names of products used blame the magazine I was reading. He wrapped it and I sat under the dryer for an extra five minutes before final styling. He wanted to flat iron it but I was so in love with the bouncy curls I told him we will do it next time. I stubbornly refused to get my hair trimmed lol I will get it done at my flat iron appointment and do a length check, you should have seen us going back and forth about the trimming issue it was too funny. But he agreed to let me have my way hey the customer is always right:) All in all I was very happy with my results. I hope to touch up more regularly this year though that new growth was crazy! Kiddie kits rock!!!

It was so light and bouncy! Loved it! You can actually see my reddish brown henna highlights

Happy March Everyone!!!