****UPDATE**** My Mother's Hair (Pic Included)

After much anticipation, I have finally got this update blog about my mother's hair together. I hope that you enjoy.

My mother is not on an official HHJ. However, I have been handling my mother's hair for about two years now. I have been relaxing her hair longer than that, but she has given me the go-ahead to take the reigns for about two years. My mother's hair regimen is very limited due to the fact that she does not believe in all of the things that I am doing is beneficial. Also, my mother is not the type of person who will follow a regimen, even if it means growing longer and thicker hair. She is just not that motivated. So bear with me; the things you may hear will be very simplistic, but it is all I am allowed to do because my mother is so hard to work with.

At the end of the summer, my mother and I am still using JBCO. We feel like this is the best thing for us. My mother has five problem areas, but there is a huge at her crown. I have been working tirelessly with scalp massages and trying to remind her to tie her hair up at night. So, without further interuptions, this is my mother's updated hair photo.

 

I was unable to switch the two pictures; HOWEVER, the first picture is my mother's problem area as of this day in October and the picture on the RIGHT is her intial picture when she first stared using the JBCO in August.

I do now know about anyone you, but I am extremely proud of myself. To me, this is great work. I am so proud of me and my mother. I have been treating this area with protein sprays to keep this hair strong. This area stays moisturized with African's Best moisturizer and I am starting to seal it with Kemi Oyl. I do JBCO scalp massages on this area and others about three times a week.

I have made another huge decision with my mother's hair in this small area. I am no longer relaxing this area. I have decided (and she has agreed) that we are going to let this area grow out and we are going to relax everywhere else but here. For the past two relaxers, this area has gone untouched. I do not know how long I will continue to go without relaxing this area. Her birthday is March, so hopefully by her birthday, we will have a great amount of length where she can finally get her entire head relaxed and she doesn't have to worry about combing over her hair over thin spots. But until her hair grows out, she will not get this area relaxed. So far, I am happy with the decision. This small area is a little fro, lol. but it is so thick and it is so soft.

I relaxed my mother's hair on Friday. One side of her hair has grown thicker and longer than the other side. I have decided not to trim her hair anymore UNLESS it gets very noticeable. My mother's temples are another troublesome area. I have cut my mother some bangs to not only hide her trouble area, but to give her hair a different look (pix on that later to come). She is loving the bangs. They really make her hair look thick.

If you have read in earlier posts, my mother suffers from a disease where hair thinning is a symptom. Well, I am grateful to say that I believe that my mother's hair has made a great turn around. I do not believe that her is suffering from her disease anymore. I believe that we have a great handle on her hair. For a while, my mom's hair was thinning really bad. The disease makes it thin, but my mother's poor habits were only contributing to the thinning, if not accelerating it.

IN CONCLUSION, my mother's hair has made great strides in the last three months. I am very pleased. I will be working on the following with my mother's hair:
-a better way for her to tie her hair up at night
-thicker hair
-continue to grow out her major problem area
-finally achieving length

Thank you so much for reading. I would like to update my mother on her again in a couple of months. So, please be on the look out for that blog. ALSO, my hair update post will be coming soon. I am making great strides, just like my mother. Be on the look out for that post and many more.
Thank you so much for staying with me and my mother during our journeys!!!
XOXO

Sunday Random Hair Chat - Topic #1 - Why is Relaxed Hair Gettting So Much Heat?

I have never been the person to jump on fad bandwagons. Where I am from and the university that I graduated from, going natural ended up being a trend instead of colored sister's total decision. Before I continue, I would like to say that I have the most respect for natural sisters because they can do something that I can never do - Big Chop. The words BIG CHOP scares me entirely. I cannot imagine myself cutting off my hair. I hear that when sisters BC it is like a huge relief, a huge weight lifted, a moment of rebirth. I have hear countless analogies. I am happy that you have made that decision, but is it really your decision?

I hope that there are no more ladies doing this because everyone else is doing it. I was once natural. Natural hair comes with a great deal of maintenance. I used to drag WL natural hair behind me for years. But one day I decided that I was going to relax. The motive: to no longer be compared to a cousin, but it was all of my decision to relax and I have never regretted my decision. I wish natural ladies all of the best with their journeys. Now down to the meat and potatoes....

Why are they A FEW natural ladies who look at us relaxed ladies like we are drug addicts; we cannot get off the creme? Why are ladies calling us sell-outs? Why are ladies looking down on relaxed hair now? I have never given a lady grief about the texture of her hair. All colored hair is beautiful hair, ESPECIALLY the colored hair that no one believed would have grown to lengths like APL, BSL, MBL, WL and beyond. I am giving you all my respect. Why not give me a little? I was walking down the street in the parade I mentioned a few blogs before. I was rocking an airdried "fro". After the parade, a young lady approached me and asked me how long have I been natural. I told her that I was not natural, but my hair gives off an illusion that I am natural when I am getting up there in weeks post relaxer and airdried. She called me a Wannabe and told me that I did a poor job trying to blend in with the natural sisters. o_O I have never tried to come off as a natural sister. So, for her to call me a wannabe was very insulting. I would NEVER try to be anything other than myself. I am thinking to myself, "And I was just about to compliment this girl on her natural hair and she calls herself going off on me.  No, thank you." Sadly, this has not been the first negative response I have gotten about my hair being relaxed by a natural lady. A few weeks ago, I was in the mall twirling my hair in my fingers when this girl I went to high school with approached me. As we spoke and caught up, she asked me was I relaxed, and I told her yes. Her face fell. She told me that I was not doing a great job taking care of my relaxed hair because my roller set came out so poofy. She told me that I was obviously doing my hair more harm than good and I should just go natural. o_O If anyone knows me, they would tell anyone that I love big hair. So, whether my hair is freshly relaxed or a couple of weeks before my next relaxer, I am aiming to wear my hair big as possible. From her, she believes that a relaxed lady is not supposed to have thick hair because a relaxer is supposed to relax the hair from this type of appearance (this is her words). She believes that I am underprocessing my hair for my hair to look like this. As much as I tried to explain, it was not getting through to her and we parted ways on a sour note. I am a very opened minded person. I have no issues with ladies going natural. I take time and try to understand their reasons why. I am not biased, and I would appreciate a little respect back, right? THE POINT OF THIS POST IS NOT TO START A TEXTURE WAR! But I just wanted to know what other people's thoughts were. Is anyone else experiencing any issues with ladies of different texture. I wanted to just chop it up to me living in a small town. But before I conclude on my experiences, I just wanted to know what you all think. I welcome any and all comments. Please do not take anything I have mentioned as an insult. Like I have said, I have great respect for naturals, I really enjoy looking at all of the natural ladies and their evolutions of a HHJ. SO, please hit me with some feedback!!!

Wash Day + Flexi Rods

I haven't done flexi rods in a LoooooooNG time, lol. Last time I washed my hair was Thursday. My job required me to particpate in a parade on Friday. So, I decided that I wanted to wear big, airdried hair in the parade. So, Thursday, I had my wash day. Jump ahead six days and here I am, my hair is a greasy mess from moisturizing everyday. It feels so gross. Also, I was very sick from Thursday to Monday. I could barely get out of bed, barely style my hair. I thank God for my mother. She has been a great part of me getting better. My mom was so worried about me being sick and so ready for me to get better, she saturated my chest and back with Vick's Vapor Rub. How Sweet?! Me being so out of it, I didn't realize that my mom was putting this stuff on me while my hair was down on my shoulders every night. LOL. So, when I realized what happened, my hair smelled like Vick's for days. LOL! Oh, well, I am better nonetheless, despite that my hair smells like a hospital. So, I was over the sick look, and I was over not feeling cute. Well, I decided that I was going to bring sexy and feminine back with a flexi rod set. I am too excited!!!

When I washed my hair last Thursday, I incorporated an egg protein treatment. I usually do not use eggs, but hair mayo. But, due to the fact that I was starting to feel bad and I did not want to go out into that night air, I used three eggs and a tad bit of JBCO. It was great. I have had little shedding since. However, I do not feel like my hair has not regain its maximum moisture. I did DC'ed after the eggs were rinsed from my head, but I was starting to feel really bad, so that may have had a part in why my hair did not come out that soft after protein. So, I am adding something to my regimen that I have not had in a long time.

This is my pre-wash photo. My camera is not of great quality, but my hair does not have much life and is very stiff. This is after several days of moisturizing and sealing. I was also using satin rollers to give me alittle body. My hair is beyond in need of help. So, began this wash day!!! Yay, wash day!!!

First, I rinsed my hair with warm water to open my pores. If you haven't read this from any of my other posts, I feel like rinsing my scalp with warm water is very vital. Warm water opens my pores that allows the shampoo to reach places that would usually be unchartered areas, lol. Since washing my hair like this, my hair has been so much cleaner. My shampoo experiences have never been this wonderful. I feel like I have a squeaky clean scalp without too much of my natural oils being stripped away. After I let the water cover all of my scalp, I applied my shampoo. After lathering and rinsing, I left my hair in a towel so that I could drain the water from it. After my hair was no longer dripping wet, I applied an old buddy of mines: Queen Helene Cholesterol Hair Conditioning Cream. This product was introduced to me in 2011 by a sorority sister of mines.When I first started using this product, I was only using it when I going to have a heat pass. I would not normally use it during a regular wash day without heat. But here I am using it with this wash. I haven't used this product in months, but it has been in the back of my mind to try to work this particular product back into my regimen. So, I lightly coated my hair in this conditioner along with some JBCO. I sat with my hair covered with no heat for about 45 minutes. Next, I DC'ed with heat for about 15 minutes. Giving me a total of an hour DC'ing, I washed my hair with cool water.

Next, I applied my setting lotion by ORS, diluted with water, that is. I began to set my hair. I was goiing for the spiral look, but I set my hair on flexi rods differently. I set the rod at my roots and wrap the rest of my hair around the roller/rod until I have reached the end of my hair. By doing it this way, I am draining excess product out of my hair and keeping my ends straight and slick on the roller/rod. I coated my hair with Tressemme's Thermal Bliss Heat Protectant (such a wonderful product), and I covered my head and went to sleep.

So, it is ten hours later (8:30 in the morning to be exact). I awake to began this long drying process under the dryer. My hair did not air dry as much as I wanted it to :( . So, I got under the dryer from about 8:30 to 9:30. After an hour of unbearable heat, I needed a break. So, I rummaged around the house for a while until I forced myself to get back under the dryer for an additional 60 minutes, for a grand total of 2 hours under the dryer and 10 hours of air drying from the night before and two hours of airdrying between the two dryer stints. I guess that is the only downside (to me) about HHJs, the dryer stints get longer as your hair does. ***sighs*** Oh, well. Finally! My hair is dry!!! Here are the results.

 

I have not done a flexi rod set in so long. I really love how my hair turned out. Usually this style can last me about four to five days if I sleep in rods every night. I maintain this style by slightly separating the curls after the intial styling. I add alittle oil for shine and go about my day. At night, I moisturize and seal lightly and re-rod my dry hair for bed time to ensure maximum style for the next day. My hair does not hold up in this style if I am not putting my hair back in rods every night before bed. I have recently purchased a larger size of flexi rods. I cannot wait until they get here so that I can experiment with them.

In conclusion, I believe this is another successful flexi rod set. I give it two thumbs up, and I cannot wait to step out of the house with my bouncy hair!!!

 

 

SN: I believe that I am going to try to let this style last me a week. After that week, I am hoping to hide my hair the entire month of November and finally relax at 14 weeks on December 23rd. That is my goal. I am hoping that I can make it. I want a sew-in for the month of November and I will try to survive off of flexi rods for the month of December until my relaxer.

***FINGERS CROSSED***

XOXO

Question: How did your family respond to your hair before/after HHJ???

I want to take the time out to thank my co-worker for asking me this question. My co-worker is natural, but we talk about hair and products all the time. I try not to talk to much about natural hair with natural people, because honestly, I believe that we (as hair types) would not understand each other and why we do certain things. Like I do not understand why she hasn't used shampoo in years. She doesn't understand why I would go so long with a relaxer (stretch); I might as well finish going natural. LOL. It is never any hard feelings, because I love to talk about hair. She does too, but she didn't want to seem hair obsessed. Girl, Please!!! I have been hair obsessed since I started this while ride I call my HHJ. I was explaining to her that I am involved on hair boards and blogs, and that I have my own blog that I rant about my findings and misfindings about hair, products, techniques, reviews, etc. Well, she asked a question that really struck a nerve with me. Well, let me clarify. She asked a question that was an extremely touchy subject for me at one part of my life. But, I put my big girl britches on, and I got over it. So, here I am, giving you a look into that conversation, and to paint this horrible picture that I called me struggle, lol.

Her question was, SO YOU ARE ON A HHJ NOW, BUT HOW WAS IT LIKE BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER YOU INITIAL START?

This is going to be a wordy blog, so if you have something to do, come back when you have alittle time. Lol! I am going to tell you my story first before I tell you my response to her.

Let me go back as far as elementary school. My mother did not know how to come hair, so I was forced at a very young age how to put my hair into ponytails. My mother was a big fan of bangs, So I had to have bangs in every hairstyle. My mother only hair curlers and rollers, so there were no such thing as flat bangs in my house. So, I was forced the rock the big poofy bangs to school. I had all of this poofy hair and these big bangs; it was like being a walking target. I was picked on for my hair everyday. I would come home crying and my mother would say that infamous line, "They are jealous of you hair." RIGHT! I couldn't believe that someone would make you feel that bad about yourself because they were jealous. I mean, come on! Where do they do that at? Lol. In middle school, my mother let my straighten my hair with hot combs. So, I was this natural-hair girl with this big, massive cape of hair behind her. At this point, I was about WL. I was teased about coming to school looking so homeless with my hair like that. Really, homeless? I don't know where it came from but it made me upset. Now that I think about it, why didn't my mother just ever put my hair into a big ball. I bet that would have been cute. But back to the point, let me take you away from school and into my homelife. My father's mother is white. She married a black man and they have three mixed children: two girls and a boy. The boy is my father. Only one sister had a daughter, and boy was my older cousin kept up. She always had very nice clothes on. She always had her hair so pretty. The family doted on her. But here I was, that side of the family did not dote on me like they did her. And that was fine. I wasn't into all of that cute this and pretty that. Soon, my dad's family became very hurtful. They were almost as bad as the people I had to deal with at school. They would talk bad about me and my hair, to my face. It was worse than anything I ever experienced in school. One day during these times, my older cousin and I went to stay with sister with no daughter. She told me that She wanted to take US to the hair salon and the THREE of us would get our hair done. Well, they got their hair done, and I was the purse watcher. It felt so bad to sit there, thinking that I was going to share in the spa experience, only to be let down. Then later, my aunt would tell me that she did not think that I would have appreciated it because I let myself look so disheveled all of the time. o_O Things like this  follow you for life, you feel me?
Fast foward into high school days, I got a part time job working with my uncle in his little store. So, he would pay me alittle money on the side. I would save that money and finally was getting my hair done by a professional. It was a wonderful feeling. At this point, this was not my first time going to a salon, but it was the first time that I was calling all of the shots. I was going to the salon once a month, and I was feeling pretty good about myself when I was coming out. My hair was looking good. I was paying for it to be done. By me doing all of this, I was cutting down MOST of the bullying that was going on. You know they will always be some naysayers and salt throwers, lol.  But nevertheless, I was feeling good. In high school, I was getting compared to my cousin mighty hard then. I was getting sick of it. Both of us had very long hair, my hair was actually longer than hers. BUT I was still getting compared to here, like I had no name, like I had no personality of my own. So One day, I went to the salon for one of those monthly trips and asked her to cut my WL hair to NL! She did not want to do it. She actually cried cutting my hair. But when my hair was falling onto the floor, I felt like I was finally emerging as my own person. There would be no more comparison, right? Sure, I would be known as the fool who cut all of her hair off, but at least the name they would give me would be one of my own, and not "That's so-and-so's cousin. She tries so much to be like her."
I graduated high school with relaxed, APL hair. During my senior year, the bullying was not so bad. By this time, I was learning how to do a few bun tricks that really saved me for weeks on end without washing and styling and applying heat. I even cut down my visits to the salon about four a year that year. So graduation was in 2006. Skip ahead to December 2008, I decided after watching alot of videos on HHJs, it was time for me to whip my hair back into shape. So on December 8th, I was officially obsessed with my hair. As far as who knows about my obsession, only my mom knows to the full extent. Everyone just does not know. When I first started, I went and bought a lot of products to try. My mom was so against it. She told me that my hair was going to fall out because I was putting too much in my hair and that I wasn't getting a relaxer regularly. But I had faith in the videos. Also, I am in the business of proving people wrong. So I had to prove my mom wrong. The first year of my HHJ, my hair did not flourish. I was disappointed, until someone told me that my hair looked very thick. So, I picked myself back up and worked alittle harder. 2010 came and my hair was starting to show alot of progress. At this time, my mom was taking notes and wanted me to help her with her from that point on. I took that as the white flag of surrender. I had proved my mom wrong. It was exciting, but that wasn't my mission. Deep down, my mission was to grow beautiful, healthy, long hair. In the back of my mind, I also wanted to show my grandmother and my aunts on my father's side that my hair can be awesome, too. Well, come 2011, my hair is thick and falling down my back. Here came the infamous "weave-checks." I got weave-checked by those three so many times, that I have lost count. At first, I was really offended. "After all of this hard work, you still cannot believe that this is my hair?!" But now, it doesn't bother me. If anything, it just makes me feel even better. Because my hair is continuing to flourish and they cannot believe that it is all mine. I purposely wear buns and ponytails around them just to keep them guessing about what is my length and all. Here it is, 2012. They hype about my hair has subsided. I am hardly getting weave-checked anymore, lol. I believe the got the picture: its my hair. But sadly, the things they have done and said to me have been permanently scarred to my heart. I feel bad because I would have thought family would have uplifted you more than anyone else. I was very wrong.

I answered my co-worker's question like this: GIRL, WHEN I STARTED THIS HEALTHY HAIR JOURNEY, I WAS EXCITED BECAUSE I WANTED MY HAIR BACK LONG AND PRETTY. HEALTH WASN'T ON MY MIND, BUT I HAD TO LEARN THAT TO ACHIEVE LONG HAIR, YOU HAVE TO ACHIEVE HEALTHY HAIR FIRST. YOU CANNOT  GET FLOWERS TO BLOOM IF THE STEMS ARE NOT IN TIP TOP SHAPE, RIGHT? RIGHT BEFORE MY HHJ, I WAS READY TO BE ONE OF THOSE WEAVE QUEENS. I WAS READY TO CONSTANTLY HAVE BRAIDS AND WEAVE IN MY HAIR BECAUSE I DESPISED MY HAIR SO MUCH. INSTEAD, YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND HAIR CARE BLOGS HAVE SAVED MY HAIR AND HAVE SAVED MY CONFIDENCE. THERE IS NOTHING MORE CONFIDENT THAN THE FEELING OF YOU DID IT, AND YOU DID IT YOURSELF. WHEN I FIRST GOT ON MY JOURNEY, I WAS SCARED BECAUSE I THOUGHT ANY WRONG MOVE WOULD TAKE MY HAIR OUT. THANKFULLY, I HAVE NOT HAD ANY KIND OF SETBACKS. ALSO, THE BEST THING ABOUT GETTING INTO YOUR OWN JOURNEY IS THAT YOU ARE EDUCATING YOURSELF. SO, WHEN YOU ARE OUT AND ABOUT AND YOU ARE SHOPPING OR SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SELL YOU SOME TYPE OF HAIR PRODUCT, YOU ALREADY KNOW ALITTLE SOMETHING RIGHT? AFTER BEING BLESSED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE YOU ALREADY KNOW, YOU WILL NEVER WANT TO DO WRONG BY YOUR HAIR AGAIN. SINCE BEING ON MY HHJ, I HAVE NOT WANTED TO GO BACK AND DO HARM BY MY HAIR. I CANNOT SEE MYSELF DOING BAD BY MY HAIR AGAIN.

So, that was the question. That was also the extremely long answer. I am so grateful that she asked me this so that I could take a stroll down memory lane, lol. It was very hard to talk about some of this because what my family did to me was heartbreaking. It doesn't seem like much, but I am a very family oriented person. I felt like my family was turning their backs on me. I felt like my family could not accept me. I felt like I had to be someone that I am not just so that I could get some kind of reaction or acceptance from my family. In the end, my family is still here. They have upsetted me in the past, and I have forgiven them. But that does not mean that you are supposed to forget. I use that time and experience as foundation for me to continue on. Sometimes, family is not there for you. That to me is rock bottom. So, you have nothing to do but pick yourself up and start climbing.

Thanks to everyone who read this extremely long blog post.
Until next time, XOXO!

My Hair Used to Make Me Its Prisoner

THIS POST HAS BEEN IN MY DRAFTS FOR WHILE. I DECIDED TO POST IT TODAY. IF YOU HAVE BEEN KEEPING UP WITH BLOG, SOME OF THE THINGS YOU WILL READ WILL SOUND VERY FAMILIAR AND VERY REPETITIVE, BUT PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, LOL.


"What are you talking about, Lex?" Well,  I am glad that you asked. Let me go back in the year of 2006. I grew my hair out from this dramatic cut. My hair was about APL. I was not on a HHJ. I did not have a lot of passion into my hair care. I did not wear a bonnet to bed regularly. I relaxed every 5 weeks. Yea, it was an easy going life for my hair. BUT, I was not having any problems with my hair. I wasn't using  heat, though. I graduated high school in 2006 and started my freshman year August of the same year. Here I wanted to experiment with coloring my hair, so I started by all of these sprays and dyes. I wanted lighter hair. Even though these color were not permanent, I experience devastating issues. I had extreme breakage and dandruff. I once again cut my hair back to EL to rid my hair of bad ends.
2007 comes and went with my hair's health about the same. But I still was not putting in much effort to help.
In 2008, I graduated from my community college and went to a university. So my very first class here, I would meet what would later be my boyfriend. When I met him, I have full SL hair. I was in a seat in this music class, and Michael (my bf) sits down besides me. He introduced himself, and told me that he was going to cheat off of me in this class. He hit a soft spot with me; I love a man that can make me laugh. So, I was hooked from that day on...but back to the story...I didn't know him and he didn't know me but he was constantly putting his hands in my hair and running his hands in my hair! I did not know this boy, but he was all up in my hair. Even crazier, I did not stop him nor did I complain about it. Why? Because I was not this obsessed person about my hair. It was ok for people to touch my hair. December of this same year was when I decided that I needed to get on a HHJ.

2009 of my HHJ, me and then good friend Michael was talking at my apartment, and then he reached for my hair to rub it. I jumped on him like a spidermonkey. "DO NOT TOUCH MY HAIR!" He looked like I was having an exorcism. I felt weird, too. What is happening to me? Why am I acting so crazy about my hair? I apologized, but we laughed because it was so funny. But deep down, I was serious. I did not want anyone touching my hair anymore. What's the deal? I started to realize then that my HHJ was starting to take over. You would not believe the things I have missed out on. I did not got to clubs, parties and concerts. Why? Because I did not want to smoke out my hair or sweat my hair. I did not go swimming or participated in water activities on campus. I could not trust the water. You already know I did not participate in the college sponsored food fights -____- Really?

In 2010, Michael and I decided to make it official and became exclusive. The last two and a half years have been totally ridiculous. I did not let anyone touch my hair hardly. I haven't been to a stylist since 2010. Before then was 2008. Trust me, it was only one visit each of those years. I refused to let anyone other than me relax my hair. Some of my close friends called me sadity with my hair. Really? I didn't think I was being weird about it, but I did grow my hair back from the countless things and people who have hindered my hair from growing. There have been nights where I would not get any sleep because I was forcing myself to toss and turn to make sure my bonnet and scarf was not coming off at night. I was getting ridiculous.

Even with heat passes, I felt guilty about flat ironning my hair. Even though I had went so long without heat, I still feel like I was harming my hair. To subside my guilty feelings, I researched the best heat protectants that I could find and money could by. I only flat iron and blow dry my hair on the lowest of low settings. Still, I would feel like I was sticking a lighter to my hair. Why? Because I felt like that I was basically doing the same thing with any type of heat, small in amount or not. The same goes for wrapping. I felt like I was tearing my hair out of my head wrapping. So, now I feel like wrapping (wet or dry) is the enemy. But now, I have decided that I am going to do better.

So, what do I mean about BETTER? Well, I haven't been able to enjoy my hair because I have been so tied up with health, health, health where I refuse to enjoy it. Granted, I feel like protecting my hair means hide your hair and not enjoy it at all unless you want to be thin and/or bald tomorrow. Silly, right? But this has been my reality. I have decided that I am going to enjoy my hair FINALLY. I i may have not reached major length goals, but my hair is the healthiest that it has ever been. It is very thick and it has a lot of body. It is time for me to show it off and love it without putting too much effort into hiding it. So, what am I going to do different, now? Well, I am going to do more roller sets and flexi rod sets. My facial frame looks so good with a head full of curls. Why not feel pretty and feminine? Why should I deny myself a moment to feel good inside and out? So more curls it is. I am planning on doing countless amount of curls from January to March. I am also going to do a couple more sets before the year is out. Another thing that I am going to do is updos rather than buns. My hair tends to look very thin in buns; from here, my buns look very shoddy. My buns make me feel unattractive because the styles never look attractive. So, I am doing research on how to do my own updos. In the past month, I have attempted about three updos. They looked so full and pretty and feminine. I really enjoyed wearing them because they offer so much versatility in my styles.  So, now I would rather wear an updo than a regular bun. I am going to wear a few weaves so that I can give my hair a break. I am only interested in wear half sew ins. I rather would wear a weave so that the back of my hair could get a break from hair ties, hair wrapping and giving my nape a break. I am trying to learn how to properly wrap my hair without losing much hair. Twist outs are not working for me anymore (unless I just want a textured bun). I am going to start doing braid outs again. I haven't did braid outs in months.

My goal for here on out is to wear my hair in the most healthiest and cutest styles. So, be on the look out for a full blog post of pictures of everything that I am going to start doing.

I have never committed a crime, so I refuse to let my hair hold me as its prisoner anymore.

XOXO

Hair Love!!! Buying more tools...

As in tools, I mean more flexi rods. I love flexi rods! Aren't they just grand?! Well, maybe I am more excited than the next person, but flexi rods have been a godsend. I have been experimenting with all types of styles which includes flexi rods. My goal was to have the larger flexi rods at the beginning of this month, but the way my finances were set up....

In other words, due to Hurricane Issac, I could not go to work and was forced to seek shelter during those days. So, I did not get paid for those days, and my check looked like "hell date" as my boyfriend Michael would so nicely put it. Here, I am. I am picking up the pieces and trying to resume ordering helpful tools to give me that push in my HHJ. So, I have order 11/16'' size flexi rods. They are grey and I cannot wait until they get in! Actually, I can. You see, the way my finances are set up, I only bought one pack, lol. Oh well, another pack will be ordered before the end of this week. I have a list of other things to buy to incorporate in my HHJ. For one, I am interested in buying a new dryer. This is my second dryer. The first one smoked on me and I refused to put my house at risk, lol. My second dryer has not been taken care of. I was unable to take it to my fire-alarm sensitive apartment because it was unable to handle the heat that was put off by the dryer. My mother did not take care of it while it was at home, lol. Second, I am interesting in buying another flatiron. I would love a better one. I have bought sprushes and I cannot wait until I do my finally review on them. I am looking into a great coating for my length while relaxing, so that will be on my list. I have bought four bottles JBCO, and I have not look back. I will do my review on them. I am interesting in finding a better bonnet that covers all of my hair from my nape to my temples. So, I am still looking for a great alternative than the one I already have. Most of the things that I have forementioned, I probably will not get until the beginning of the year, lol. BUT I am on the hunt for them now, and I will not rest until I get what my hair deserves, lol.

Until next post...XOXO

To Hide My Hair or To Not Hide My Hair

My Hairlicious Ego is a blog written by me, Alexis. Alexis (which is me) is a 24 year old college graduate who is entering grad school this month. HOWEVER, in my household, I am under such strict rules that I could pull my hair out. These rules I speak of are anything from what time to come in, asking permission to go places, chores to do at home and WEAVE. Yes, weave. I cannot get weave in my household. I am so mad that my decisions about my hair can only go so far. My parents do not believe that women should wear weave. They believe that it is unnatural; they believe that it is ghetto and too fake looking. However, weave can offer good and bad results. Weave gives your real hair a break. If I was to put a sew-in in my hair, my hair could be given a break from combing, brushing and hair ties. Weaves could act as buffers and they could soak the moisture from you real hair, leaving your real hair dry and possibly neglected. Also, there is the point about who are you letting in your head. Can you really trust just anyone to do weaves in your hair. My answer is no. Possible candidates for styling your hair should be thoroughly research. I don't care how you do, but do it. LOL. There is a girl in my neighborhood who just got out of hair academy. She is young with an arm baby, so I wanted to patronize her. But I was still going to do my research. So, she is legitmately license. Ok. So, I started asking other people about her skills. Her best friend works with me at the little job that I am at. Well, I asked her about her friend's skills. The best friend told me that she would rather the girl just do her weaves and not her real hair because she do not believe this girl is "caring" enough about real hair. Now, I do not know what she meant by the statement, but it could have been nothing good. I am putting this stylist on the back burner for right now. I am not ready to lose any progress or get my hair torn out or whatever she meant by that comment. However, I just learned that my cousin is doing sew-ins. My cousin is one of those girls who are not licensed, but she has had several happy cousin. I believe that I am going to let her do them. Yes, I am going to take the risk. My cousin and I are extremely close, so I believe that I can talk to cousin about how I would appreciate TLC when working with my hair. I do not believe that it too much to ask for.

To hide my hair or to not hide my hair. I wrote a blog post earlier about how I am ready to reach APL and no longer predict goals. I would have loved to hide my hair for the rest of the year, but my parents would not care for the weave. I am leaving the weave a secret. I am planning to get a secret sew-in on November 1st and leave it in until December 1st. I am trying to get to APL by my December relaxer. I believe that hiding my hair will be the best thing for me. I really feel confident in hiding my hair for a month. Another thing, this will be my very first sew-in. So, what do you think: should I hide my hair or should I listen to my parents and do it the old fashion, hard way? I would love feedback!!!

XOXO

Venting: Not Meeting Hair Goals When You Want To

It is Sunday and I am sick. I am actually better than I was Thursday. Today, I got me two shots in the back side and three prescriptions, so I am slowly getting better. I was sitting here reading a couple of blogs and decided that I wanted to vent. This has been on my heart for a while. Its going down on this post.
This is going to be a short post, so don't go away too fast.

Ok, I have been waiting for lengths are lengths, but I am not getting anywhere. Sometimes, I want to tear my hair out because it is not growing how I want it to grow. It has been four years almost, why have I not been able to claim APL yet? Why haven't I made it to BSL yet? Is MBL and WL even an option for me? I have seen where my hair has become extremely healthy and I am very grateful for that. At first, all I was about was length, length, length. I wasn't even thinking about any health. Later in my HHJ, I realized that without healthy hair that there cannot be any longer hair. So, I swallowed my pride and gave my hair TLC. Paying extra attention my hair has paid off. At first, my hair took awhile to adjust to the kind of love I was giving it. My hair was actually repelling what I was doing. If I was doing a protein treatment, DC, relaxer, stretch, moisturizing, sealing, flat-ironning, simply looking at it...my hair would not take nor budge. It took ONE YEAR before my hair recognized that I was trying to right by it. So my hair started thanking me, by complying to the different things I was trying to do. My hair is still extremely stubborn, but I have to listen closely to what it want because it will take absolutely nothing for it to revert back to an non-healthy place. It sounds crazy, but it is just the truth. So, I may have not reached goals, but I am excited that my hair is healthy. Lately, I have not been in the mood to style my hair worth anything. With that being said, I will go out into public and people would say, "I heard your hair was looking good, but it seems like I got some wrong info." LOL. I get so tickled. I rather pin my hair down than be a slave to keeping my hair up at this point. I have not been enjoying my hair. So I am at that stage where I am "resting" from trying to hide my hair from others. So, maybe it will look a little crazy (by crazy, my hair is actually in a pinned bun), but I love my hair and that means a lot coming from me. I used to hate my hair and hide countlessly. But I am going to enjoy it, despite the fact that I have not made it to major landmarks. I will not stress myself about this anymore. By my December relaxer, I am hoping to be a naturally fallen APL (meaning that my hair is naturally APL without stretching my length). This will be my finally landmark goal. Come January 2013, I will continue to take care of my hair as properly. BUT, I will not longer predict length goals. It is added stress that I rather do without right now. I am about to enjoy my hair, what are you about to do with yours???

XOXO

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! GRAD SCHOOL NEWS!

Yes, this is a grad school post. I am writing this post because I am so grateful for what has taken place in my life. Some of you may already know the story: how I applied to the nearest grad school near my house, only to be denied. Yes, it was heartbreaking. I even cried. I was beyond disappointed.

I applied to another grad school immediately after I was denied from my first school, and I was accepted. WHOO HOO! But that is old news. The sad part about this was that I was late about applying and that I could not start school until January 2013. I was grateful, BUT I knew I was going to be bored out of my mind. So, I started trying to find things that would make the time go by faster, lol.

Well, today, I was calling the school I was accepted to, just to make sure that I was going to start registering for the spring classes on time. The woman on the other end told me that the official spring schedule was not out yet, BUT if I wanted to I COULD REGISTER FOR CLASSES THIS SEMESTER. I am like, "Are you sure?" She told me to register and get an early start on things. So, GUESS WHAT? I am officially registered to start grad school THIS YEAR, THIS MONTH. I have twenty days until I begin grad school classes. I am so grateful. I am so thankful. I am so blessed. Words cannot express my happiness. I was once very sad and felt very lost because things did not go the way I had planned for it to happen. But the Lord had other plans and I am grateful for the plan He has for me. So follow my career journey by following my career blog:
http://immadomeandloveit.blogspot.com/

THANKS FOR READING!

DIY flexi rod updo

Last night I decided to try an updo. I slicked my sides and back down. I also pinned the sides down and left my front out. I wet the hair that was left out and applied a few flexi rods in. This morn, I took my rods out and fluffed out my hair. I love it. Its new. Its different. I believe that I am going to continue to perfect this so that I can have this style in my style Rolodex, lol.