Starting A New Regimen

I have been doing some additional research about hair care. Last night, I watched a few youtube videos and ended up making a list of things to pick up today. So, I got up today and went to my local BSS and bought a mixing bowl and a couple of applicator bottles. I also got my a 100% boar bristle brush. So, not a huge load, but it was over ten bucks. So, I am done shopping for the week, lol. I try not to spend too much money on my HHJ at one time. I do have other responsibilities, lol. So, I only hair-shop once a month. This is a mini hair haul, so at the end of the month, I will be right back at the BSS, lol.
I went to the BSS for the sole reason of revamping my regimen. I have realized that my regimen is simple and great, for someone who isn't that serious about hair health and length. I am extremely serious, so I realized that I needed to make a few changes.
For one, I believe that I am going to have to cut down the amount of times I shampoo my hair. I have officially decided that I am going to shampoo my hair every other week and I will do a apple cider vinger rinse the other weeks.
The reason for the applicator bottles that I purchased, I applied two tablespoons of ACV with a cup of water in this bottle. I will be applying my rinse like this. I rather not put it in the spray bottle because I am not interested in applying to my hair, rather just my scalp. The other bottle will be my diluted shampoo, my ordinary shampoo with the rest filled with water. I am trying to prevent as much drying, natural oil stripping, etc. from my hair.
I usually do not DC once a week, but I realized that my hair is in desperate need of it. When I touch my NG, its sounds like someone is kicking fallen leaves during the winter time. I AM SO SERIOUS! I am extremely embarrassed. So, I am trying to work as much moisture I can into my regimen. I have bought a new moisturizer that I am going review on next month. It is by Dark and Lovely. I am going to buy an additional leave-in conditioner/creme.
I am going to start applying eggs to my regimen, also. I have read someone's blog post and done further research about the benefits of eggs. My goal for my hair the rest of this year is strength, so I believe that eggs will help me here. I believe that I am going to incorporate eggs in my regimen every other week. I am also planning to do lots of DC mixes and masks, so I believe that my new mixing bowl will come in handy.
I bought my boar brush because I wanted a safer brush to use on my hair, and I must say that it is best brush I have ever had. I am talking about my 100% boar bristle brush. When I went to BSS, I was look for a small brush because I wanted it to be the tool I used when I am flat-ironning. I read that brushes help straighten hairs better than combs will when flat-ironning. I will do a post about that when I try this out. But the brush is like a little taste of heaven. It is so soft, and I do not have to put no pressure on it at all when I am brushing my edges. I am so happy that I made that purchase. I want to throw away my old brush now. NOTHING compares to my new found treasure.
As of right now, I am not sure of what products I am keeping and what products I am replacing. But I do have a great idea of what my new and improved hair regimen will look like. So, below is my new reg:

FIRST WEEK:
-Rinse scalp clean with warm water
-use diluted shampoo and rinse
-egg mixture for 20 minutes and rinse
-condition hair and rinse
-DC hair for an hour and rinse
-air dry hair
-apply leave in
-apply oils
-style hair

SECOND WEEK:
-apply ACV mixture and rinse
-condition hair and rinse
-DC hair for an hour and rinse
-air dry hair
-apply leave in
-apply oils
-style hair
RELAXERS - no sooner than every 3 months

This is pretty much it. Its a big change, but it is still extremely simple. My goal is for stronger, healthier and longer hair. But that is going to be a later post. I have tried out the ACV as we speak, and my very next post will be of how I am applying my new regimen to my hair. I am hoping for great results. I am super excited. I am sitting here with my flexi rods in now. While I am getting ready for work, I will blogging and taking pictures of everything. OOH!
The next post will be up in a few hours!!!
I can hardly wait!!!

p.s. - I am feeling another self challenge....;)

CASTOR OIL CHALLENGE IS OFFICIALLY OVER!!!

Wow, did these three months fly by?! If you have seen my page, it says that today is the end of the castor oil challenge. It has been good. When I first got my JBCO, I couldn't believe how thick it was. I couldn't believe how small the bottle was for the price I paid for it o_O, lol. But I am not complaining. When I started this challenge, I only wanted length to be my outcome. However, I paid attention to my hair and realized that I had some problem areas that needed to get addressed. My temples were thinning and starting to recede backwards. OH, NO! That was not going to sit well with me. So, after a month and a half of using this product, my temples were practically back. Now, not only have my temples grown in and are thick, but I have length to my problem areas now. God is amazing, and patience is a virtue.

Thanks for reading! Pix will come in a later post.

Sunday Random Hair Chat #2 - Are there parts of your HHJ that you have yet to tackle?

In other words, is there something about your HHJ that is troubling you still? After four years of hard work, patience and prayer, I have yet to tackle something. The one and only thing is hair retention. That was very hard for me to write that because I have felt like this entire journey I have never had a setback. But lack of retaining length is my hair setback. I have been setback with this issue since day one and it has not let up. I have seen people get to multiple lengths with a year or two. In my four years of working on my hair, I have been back and forth between Full SL and APL.

When I was natural, my hair was so long and so thick that I couldn't comb nor style it. My hair was constantly in a ponytail because it was a convienent hair style and it was pretty much all I could do with it. While I was natural, I did not have a flat iron, so the hot comb was a no-no. I refused to use. SO, I didn't and my hair got longer and thicker and unbearable.

Eventually, I made it up in my mind to relax and cut my hair. When I made those decisions, my hair became officially manageable. It was and is an amazing feeling to be able to run my finger through my hair without pulling, tangles and snatching. Since my hair is so manageable, it is always down and out. So, relaxed hair has spoiled me. I still love my hair as is, but why am I not retaining any length?

After countless months of pondering I believe that I have came up with a couple of possible reasons. One, I believe my relaxer plays a huge part in it. What I mean is when I rinse out my relaxer, I usually do not have anything to protect my length with. I have always been afraid that I would use something that would interfere with the relaxer and cause my hair to fall out on the spot. So, I have not used anything. I believe the run off from rinsing out my relalxer has affected my length. My hair literally will snap off. It is very discouraging. I believe that if I am to find something to coat my length with, I could be on the right path towards retaining length.

Having my hair on my clothes is another issue. The problem is when I try to do buns, my buns never look appealing. Also, I never look feminine with my hair pulled up. I would hate to have to make myself wear something that I am not comfortable with. But I am going to have change something if I want to retain length, right? I am ready and willing to try different styles pulled up.

My other possible reason for my inability to retain length is moisturizing. Do not get me wrong, I moisturize very often. However, I do not believe that my moisturizer is a very good one. It makes my hair oily and shiny. But my hair does not seem to really benefit health-wise from it. I believe that it is time that change moisturizers. I am not a great moisturizer shopper. My hair is constantly dry everyday. So if anyone has any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Lord willing, I am trying to stretch 14 weeks, but I will stop at 12 if I feel like I can go no longer. My goal until then is to moisturize and seal like crazy. I am going to pick a new moisturizer tomorrow. I seal with JBCO and Kemi Oyl. I am going to have me a great pre-relaxer regimen set so that I can really cover my length good. I am still searching for something good and I am receptive to suggestions.

So this was my random hair chat on this Sunday. Tell me about you have lacked on tackling. What is giving you HHJ troubles? Got advice for me? Please give it. Hit me with your feedback.

XOXO

Pissed!!! But Motivated!

I am so angry this morning. I had this plan to get my very first sew-in this morning. I have brought the hair (I forgot to buy thread and a needle, though; that won't happen again, lol) weeks before. I didn't want a full sew in. I just wanted to back done so that I could be able to stretch my relaxer longer. I have been so tempted to relax my hair and I am only 6 weeks. So, whenever I start getting tempted, I will go and wet my hair. Sad, but it is the only thing that stops me from relaxing. Also, at six weeks, I do not have much NG, so any relaxer at this point would be pointless, lol.
Back to why I am mad. I have had this hair appointment to get this sew-in for about two weeks. Well, here it is, the day I am scheduled to get it done, and my stylist hasn't contacted me. She will not answer the phone. She will not answer any of my texts. I am beyond pissed. For a professional, she sure is not acting professional. I refuse to try anymore. I cannot beg people to do my hair. If I was a hair stylist, I would do things so much different. I would be on top of appointments, punctual, perform my absolute best work. Word of mouth is crucial. I am too angry to finish this post, I will come back when I calm down....

(This portion was written after the appointment)
But my stylist finally called, THE DAY OF MY APPOINTMENT. No explanation why I didn't get a call back. Oh, well. She started working on my hair immediately, so I was starting to cool down....
UNTIL I realized how she was doing my hair. First she braid only the back because I wanted my front out. She had my braids very big. Like, super big. They were so big that when she was sewing the first weft on, my braids were peeking from under the weave. Then, she started so high up on the braids. Why didn't she start a little lower, I do not know. But she started so high to where when she was done at the top, she had to go back in and add in more weave. That was also confusing and frustrating. After she was done, I went to look at my hair. I was very disappointed. For knowing her personally, I only paid 25 dollars. I honestly feel like I have overpaid for that mess. The way it was sewn it was horrific. If I wasn't care about how I was taking my hair out, I would have lost alot of hair because she sewn it in without even considering me taking it out. Sadly, after three full days, I removed that monstrous mess from my hair. I took it all out. I am totally disgusted in the time and money I have wasted. I did not take any pictures of what it looked like because I am totally embarassed by it. It was not flattering to my face or head at all. I looked really tacky about the head. The sad part about it, it was not cheap hair that I was using.

Yep, I am pissed, BUT I am highly motivated. I am more motivated now than ever to learn how to do my own sew ins. I know in my heart that if I was given the opportunity to fully learn the tricks of a good and simple sew in, I could do it alot better. I cannot bear throwing away anymore of my hard-earned money to someone who is not going to do a good job. She is a license beautician, but I guess it is true that you get what you pay for and the better things in life do not come at a cheap price. My very first sew in experience was a bust, but I am not out for the count. I am excited about learning to do my own. Hopefully, but January or February I will be ready to try again. This experience has really motivated me into becoming more independent. I am ready to rely heavily on myself again for styles.

****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