Relaxer Talk!

Exactly two weeks from today, on August 1, 2010, I am going to relax my hair after 15 weeks of stretching. I must say that after 13 weeks (where I currently stand) I am so suprised that I lasted this long. The truth is, I wanted to relax almost two weeks ago. The only thing that was stopping me was that when I was at the edge and was going out of my mind and decided that that day was going to my cut off relaxer day, I would have washed that day before. I have this rule to at least wait two days after a wash. I cannot wait. I have been scribbling on paper my routine for my relaxer that I will share next week.

More relaxer talk: My next relaxer would have been October 10th, only a seven or eight week stretch. But I am seriously considering doing an even longer stretch: 20 weeks!!! I know, its crazy, but its for two reasons. ONE, while stretching this relaxer, I have definitely more NG that I usually have. TWO, I have a personal goal to only relax my hair four times a year, well not exactly four. However, I want to be under five. I have already relaxed February, April and now soon to come August. December would the end of my stretch, and I am seriously considering it. I have two emergency cut out points: my seven week checkpoint, October 10th and my 16 week checkpoint, November 21st. But I am shooting for 20 weeks. More info to come.

-Lex-

My Personal Hair Interview

Hello, Ladies. I decided that I wanted to do an interview about my life pre-HHJ and during my HHJ. It is something that I wanted to share with world about my hair's struggle and my personal struggle. It is a wonderful story, kind of inspirational, to me and hopefully to others. I hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of enjoyment going down memory lane. ENJOY!!!!!

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WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Alexis Moore

...AGE? 22

MAJOR? Biology

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE? Medical School

BEFORE HHJ, WHAT WAS YOUR LONGEST LENGTH OF HAIR? WL about eight years ago

RELAXED? I am relaxed

ANY DAMAGES, CUTS, BREAKAGE, etc LEADING TO YOUR HAIR NOT BEING THE SAME LENGTH? I decided to cut my hair, from WL to EL to avoid comparison of other family members, its weird, I know
DO YOU HAVE A HAIR INSPIRATION?

IS THERE A LOT OF MEMBERS IN YOUR FAMILY WITH LONG HAIR? On both sides of my family there are people who once had long hair but doesn't have it anymore. On my mother's side, I have the longest hair. On my father's side, I am in fourth from the longest hair. My aunt is about MBL.

WHAT IS YOUR WORST HAIR EXPERIEMENT? ugh, the dreaded dye. It made my hair really weak.

WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR HAIR? I believe I wanted to make a difference around January 2008

WHEN DID YOU START YOUR HHJ? December 2008

HAVE YOU BEEN COMMITTED? I have been ever committed. I have done everything in my power to keep my commitment to healthy hair

HAVE YOU HAD ANY SETBACKS WHILE ON YOUR HEALTHY HAIR JOURNEY? Yes, At first I did not have any growth

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PRODUCT? Creme of Nature Deep Active Moisturizing Conditioner

DO YOU HAVE ANYONE ROOTING FOR YOU ON YOUR HHJ THAT IS NOT APART OF THE SITE? yes, My mother and my boyfriend are great supporters

DO YOU HAVE ANY DISCOURAGERS? Most definitely. My father's side of the family do not know about my HHJ, but they do not believe that I can grow my hair out.

WHAT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING ANYONE HAS EVER SAID OR DONE TO YOUR HAIR? One day, my father's mother saw me outside my yard one day and saw my hair and asked was it a weave. I told her no, and while I was walking away from her, she grabbed a fist full and gave a hard tug. My head hurted for about three days.

IF YOU CAN GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT YOUR HAIR IN THE PAST? I would never relaxed my hair. I feel like its so weak when relaxed.

IF YOU COULD, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT YOUR HAIR NOW? My hair tends to look dull, I love for my hair to have a natural sheen. Also, my hair is very weak when wet. I would love to change that too.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU RELAX? I at least wait ten weeks. I have gone 12 and I am currently doing 15.

TRIM? every other two relaxers, so about two times a year

DUST? whenever its needed

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT GOAL? I have been trying to get to APL since 2008 lol

WHAT IS YOUR OVERALL GOAL? I would love to be WL againHAVE YOU

INSPIRED OTHERS TO START A HHJ? I want to think that I have inspired my mother to do better by her hair

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY SELF INTERVIEW. ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE ASK.

week 10 of 15 : so tempted to relax

My mother is trying to talk me into relaxing due to my inability to have cute styles while I am stretching. She wonders why won't I go back to what I used to do : relax every five weeks, flat iron my hair every other day, wrap my hair everynight. These horrible habits have cost me my length and I refuse to go back to these wicked ways. I feel relieved and refresh after giving them up and "starting new" with different methods. It is a good feeling that I know that these were dangerous to my hair's health and I had the will power to not go back to it. I have not wrapped my hair in about 11 weeks, which isn't a long time for some, but it is long to me. Unfortunately, I feel like I may have to wrap my hair on relaxer days, I am vowing that will be the only day. I am making the vow not that I will wrap my hair once per stretch and that the wrap will not proceed three to four days. Giving up the flat iron was so easy. At first, waiting eight weeks instead of five weeks to relax was very hard. However, I have been able to go ten and twelve weeks without one. This stretch, fifteen weeks will be my longest stretch to date and I am so excited about it because I have not had many problems. I have encountered a few things: I cannot detangle my hair, I cannot style my hair, I am too impatient, my hair does not like to be touched while wet. My hair is the weakest when wet, so I try not to manipulate it, especially while stretching past four weeks. My NG is plentiful and defined with curls. You can definitely tell by first glance that my NG is present. I have about an inch of NG, cannot wait to see if I have made APL yet. I have been on my HHJ since December 2008, starting at SL and I have yet to make APL. Over these next five weeks, I am going to start planning my relaxer regimen. I am going to continue my castor oil and my Biotin, both has helped so much. After my August relaxer, I am definitely going to be on a mission to finish strong in the year of 2010 with full APL hair and length proceeding to BSL. I cannot wait, I am so excited!

I am double excited to get to blog about it!

ACV Review : as a hair washing prep/prepoo/clarifier

Hello. Here is a review about apple cider vinegar as a clarifier and a prepoo. So I diluted my appple cider vinegar with hot water and let it sit for a few days. Today I decided to clean my hair and I wanted to try this method. I parted my hair in sections and sprayed my scalp with my mixture. I let it sit in my hair for about an hour. I rinsed. My scalp felt very clean, especially after I started sweating really bad at work. Its a wonderful feeling. Next, I did a light protein with Mane and Tail and left it on for about five minutes. Following that, I DC'ed with Suave Humectant.

Overall, I give this method an A and I cant wait to try this again in about ten days.

NEW GOALS!!!

I have decided to set myself some goals. I loathe setting goals because I never meet them when I think I should, even when I give myself plenty of time to meet the goal, it always seem like I back track. There has been times where I have ended up shorter than where I started from. I have finally decided to try goals one more time because I am so serious about meeting them.

My goal for the end of Summer 2010 is APL, FINALLY. I am claiming APL, because I am very close and I know for a fact that I can make it this time.

My goal for Christmas 2010, I want to be HALFWAY between APL and BSL. With my vitamins and my ability to not touch my hair, I think I can do it.

My goal for Summer 2011 is BSL. I think I can do it. But if I cannot...

My Goal for Christmas 2011 (the semester I graduate) I want to be BSL. I should definitely hit it having a whole year to grow my hair, right?

My goal for Christmas 2012 is MBL.

My goal for Christmas 2013 is WL. I have plans on getting married between the ages of 25 and 26. The years will be 2013, 2014, 2015. I want my hair to be as long as it can be. I want to have a lot of hair on my head for my wedding pictures, lol. So my three major goals are APL before this summer is over with; BSL hair for my Fall 2011 graduation; WL hair for my wedding (but preferrably in the year of 2013).

I think they are reasonable enough!
LET's Start Growing!!!

week 7 of 15 : HAIR REHAB

beautiful week seven...and five days. I am officially half way through my stretch. I am so in love with my NG, when wet and moisturized. LOL. My NG is long, almost an inch unstretch. Hopefully by relaxer day, I will have double the NG. Thanks to castor oil and my Biotin vitamins, my hair is trying to grow like a weed. My hair is so full when air drying. My hair is really trying to make an improvement. Its Hair Rehab time!!! I have decided to try a new method to clean my hair and prepoo: apple cider vinegar. Next time I have dirty, matted hair, I will review this new method. I am going to also do a review on a new HE leave in. I plan to do other reviews, including this towel made especially to dry hair, kind of. So, look out for that really soon. I am actually trying it out right now.

Until next time
-Lex-

week 6 of 15

I decided to give up wrapping my hair. I have tried a new method: pincurling my hair in three or three sections. With three sections, I part of my front and divide my hair in the back by half. I pin curl with my curl laying down, real loose and real big. With two sections, divide my hair in the back into two sections. I have tried this for about four times. This method gives me more definition in my straight hair, more than what a normal, regular wrap would. I am satisfied with this new method; however, I cannot wait to use this on relaxed, bone-straight hair. I think I am going to dubbed this method, The PIN-CURLED wrap.

Changes

So, it is time for me to straight fly through these length checkpoints. I am tired of playing around, flirting with length here and there. I got goals, you know, lol. It is time to act like it. Ok....first of all, I am stretching from April 18th to August 1st. It is going to be a 15 week stretch. I am five weeks post. I have the entire summer to get some beautiful length. Hopefully, this will be the stretch and relaxer that gets me to APL finally! I have another goal: to be halfway between APL and BSL by christmas....you know, no more than two inches above BSL. An additional goal is to be BSL by next summer and to graduate December 2011 with big, thick BSLplus hair. I want it to look like a mane under my cap and gown. I am going to take a picture of me in a cap so I can have comparison pictures. I am going to try that up by the end of May.

There have been a few changes to my hair regimen and my hair practices.
1. I am giving up heat after June 1st. I am going to try to only use heat on relaxer days. I think I am going to go as far as throw my flatiron away.

2. I am cutting down my products greatly. There are products I am not using and/or not using often.

3. I am going to rely more on rollers....because.....

4. I have given up wrapping my hair. I am thinner on one side and I am planning on evening my hair.

5. I am so big on hair vitamins now. Biotin.

I have a few things I am going to work on:
-thinning edges
-breaking edges
-thinning ends
-thickening my hair!
SO WISH ME LUCK!!!

my plans for the summer

summer is approaching and i cannot wait. because i have time to concentrate on my hair. my plans for the summer is to use castor oil like there is no tomorrow. i cannot believe that i have slacked as much as i have, but school gets in the way of EVERYTHING. but this summer, i will not be taking any classes. i am going to castor oil and braid my hair the entire time, because graduation will sneak up on me soon and my goal is to have either BSL or MBL hair, i will not settle for anything less than that. right now i am still at shoulder length. APL is so hard to come by these days, but i am still hopeful that i will reach it before the summer. i would have never thought that my hair would grow so slow. but like i said, i am very hopeful and i cannot wait until my birthday. a wonderful gift to me would be APL and why not BSL for christmas, lol. but we are going to take it one day at a time.

2010, so whats new

hello world. happy new year!!!
so if you have seen my latest relaxer pick, you would know that i have not made APL. i am bummed out but i came to the conclusion that my hair just hasn't hit its growth spurt yet. but i am definitely optimistic about hitting APL in MARCH. lol. so hopefully i can be there. my goal is to be there with dry hair. my hair appears longer when wet than dry.

i plan to bun and do a few other low manipulation techniques. a lot of differents things don't actually look flattering to me so i do not have a large selections when it comes to getting something did to my hair by my own hands.

by march, i am hoping to have a human full wig. i believe that will me help me also with my stretching. i said that i was considering a six month stretch. that would be about may 31st. idk about that one, lol. if i can make it until april, i would be so proud of myself and i would be satisfied with that. so i will settle for four to five months, but if i can stretch to a day shy of my 22nd BDAY, which is june 1st, i would jump for joy. right now i am just trying to find a few things that will work for me without me tearing my hair out.

hope to update you soon.