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.

Ten weeks post

so i am ten weeks post. i have changed my shampoo and conditioner to Cantu. so far i have noticed a tremendous difference. hand in hand with the Cantu, i have been using the AphoGee green tea spray. it has also help with the shedding. i cant run my fingers through my and take out as much of hair i like i used to. i try not to use it every wash to avoid protein overload, but i love that my hair is strengthening already. i straightened my hair and realized that my hair is getting longer. yay!!!!....for me, lol. i really feel like if i use this castor oil until i relax december 23rd that i will be at my goal for the year, APL by Christmas. i am so excited. i am also hoping for BSL by August 2010. its one goal at a time, but my APL and BSL goals are the two i am the most excited about. I don't know why. I was once at WL and i am not that excited about reaching it, lol, its backwards i know.

so i have four more weeks until i relax. i cannot wait until december.

9 weeks in

so i am officially 9 weeks into my stretch. i am experiencing severe shedding. however i have no plans on relaxing my hair early (however, do not quote me in case of emergencies). my goal is to solve the shedding when its at its worst. if i can manage my shedding during these dire times, it will be a breeze any other time. so my goal is to stop it or slow it tremendously. from this day foward, i am going to collect my shedding hair and have a comparsion at my next nine week mark of my next stretch. i am only washing my hair once a week. i have gotten lazy with the moisturizing and applying castor oil. i promise to get back on the bandwagon. december 23rd is the day. hopefully i will hit my APL mark. i am excited. no more trims until mid febuary early march. im so excited. if i don't hit APL, i know i will get close and i know that i have worked hard for it. i will be disappointed but i will be ok and i will relax again march 20-31. between june and august, i am praying for BSL.

until next time.

14 week stretch

so. i have decided to stretch my relaxer for a total of ten more weeks, giving me a grand total of fourteen. the decision was an immediate one. i really didn't do too much thinking about it. there are a couple reasons why i am doing this:

one, i am now four weeks post and i do not have any NG. i was going to have to relax my hair in seven weeks and i wasn't going to have that much NG.

two, i have been debating about whether i am going to go natural or not. i feel like this stretch would give me my true answer, whether i can handle it or not.

so i am excited about doing this stretch. if i want to go natural, i am pretty sure that i am not going to relax my hair and continue to transisition. i am so scared. lol. i have always had some kind of hair. so cutting it eventually scares me. my friend is actually transisitioning now. its been a month since her last relaxer, so she is already on her way. she is shaved in the back so the back of her head is already natural. another friend of mines went natural and she looks so good. another friend of mines is going natural too and she hasn't had a relaxer in four months.
my mom is going to hate my natural hair. i am going to continue to think about it, just to make sure my heart is in the right place and that i will not regret it. right now, i am just on the fence.

september relaxer

so i finally relaxed last tuesday. i know this blog is a little late, but i had to catch up on my school work. so i the longest portion of my hair is at an inch from APL. i am excited. but i am also nervous because when i take my shirt and do a bare back check, it looks like i am a long ways away from APL, it can be as far away as three inches it appears. i get a little discouraged. but the relaxer did really well except that i started to burn really bad so i didn't get to bone straight relax my hair in the front. but i still love my hair. its healthy and its getting longer. one side is a little longer but i will work on it. i am going to use my castor oil like its no tomorrow. hopefully i will have pictures up soon so you can see the difference.

third wash in september

so just updating that i washed my hair for the third time last night. after my hair completely dried, my hair was so soft. i can't wait until my relaxer. i decided to relax tomorrow instead of friday because i do not think that i can last with all of the bad shedding that i am doing. i am losing alot of hair. lol. sometimes i think that if i go too long with out a relaxer, i may wake up bald. isn't that crazy, lol?

nine months into my hair journey

ok. how in the world did i forget to talk about yesterday was my ninth month into my healthy hair journey. i guess because i was in the hospital. oh well. the truth still remains that i am nine months in and the point is that i am really disappointed at where i am as far as length. i felt like i should have been a little longer than where i am, but the past is the past and i have nothing to show for it but health, which is very important. at least i got the health. by december i want my hair to be the healthiest its ever been.

in december i am so excited because it marks a year for me. also i may have APL hair and i believe that my hair will be at is healthiest. so so excited.

i may have another hair anniversary: september 1, 2009. i am not sure yet. i may celebrate them both. december 9, 2008 was the beginning of everything, so of course i have to celebrate that one. but on the first of this month this year, i realized that my hair like the more simpler things. i decided to dumb down my regimen a lot and start very simple: shampoo, conditioner/DC, leave in, castor oil, sealing oil and moisturizer. this is it. this is all i am doing, i know until the end of the year.

so, here in september i have been using the herbal essences hydralicious moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. the shampoo gets my scalp really clean and the conditioner does a great job of softening my hair. i use the HE LTR as my leave in and i seal the leave in with african best oil mixed with castor oil. its only been two washes and its been going great. i love it so much. right now i have thick NG and so when i am detangling i lose a lot of hair. i try to make sure that i am treating my hair like silk, lol. braid outs on dry hair and rollersets on wet hair has been working for me being nappy near the roots. seven weeks post tomorrow, this stretch went by pretty fast, but i am two weeks earlier than i usually relaxing at. but thats ok. these last two stretchs of the year will also be about seven or eight weeks, by me wanting a fresh relaxer in time for christmas.

next month i am switching it up to another shampoo and conditioner, suave daily clarifier and suave humectant. i love the humectant but i haven't tried the clarifier. also i am going to use the HE LTR as my leave in. i actually am thinking about using the september method in october and maybe until the end of the year, lol. i just love what i am using a lot and i wold hate to stop using it and try something that may decide not to work for me. i will have my mind made up about what i am going to do before october.

i am going to use this simpler method, i said around about march, but now i am thinking about the end of next summer, unless something dire comes up. my hair gets really dry and i could really use this extra moisture that i am getting from the leave in and the moisturizer and the oils. i have been worried about a protein. i am going to buy my protein, which i have decided will be mane and tail mixed with a little HE hello hydration moisturizing condtioner because my hair cannot handle alot of protein. i will only use the protein when my hair is limp. other than that, i won't use it. i think that i won't have to use a protein no more than once a month. i am afraid that the clarifying shampoos that i will be using will strip my hair of the moisture and have my hair dry again, but my scalp needs the cleaning because i have been getting a bad case of dandruff since i started doing this simpler method. i was hoping to only have to wash my hair once a week but i am already up to twice a week. hopefully i can cut down the dandruff without adding another product into my regimen. after a month, i MAY incorporate a pre-poo to help add a little more moisture IF NEEDED.

a little look into my relaxer prep:
since i washed my hair tuesday night, i am hoping that i won't have to wash my hair until i am rinsing out the relaxer. i hope. lol. but i doubt, so the only time that i will allow myself to wash is only monday, no later. starting this sunday, i will oil my scalp and hair every day, hopefully twice a day to prevent burns. i will also moisturize and seal my hair everyday to prevent my hair from over processing.
the day of my relaxer will be friday. the night before i will oil my scalp with vaseline. friday morning i will go over my scalp again only on the places where my scalp is dry. friday afternoon i will relax my hair, base my scalp and ends. i plan to buy coconut oil for my ends. i am hoping to be an inch from APL.
after my hair is rinsed, i am going to DC with my CON. hopefully i can do thirty minutes with heat. i plan to DC for an hour and a half to two hours. after rinsing my DC, i will apply my leave in, HE LTR with my oil, africans best without the castor or kemi oil, which ever i have available. i will only airdry and flat iron my hair on the lowest setting on completely airdried hair.

and thats about it.