Wash Day - in my braids

Hello! So, last night I did my first wash with my braids in. 

The first thing I did was separate my hair into two big sections. I took my ACV in a nozzle bottle and went through my entire scalp with it. I only concentrated on my scalp. After waiting about 10 minutes, I took a spray bottle of hot water and sprayed onto my scalp and dabbed dry. After this, I made a mixture that consisted of water, setting lotion and  my CON Argan Oil Moisturizer. I mixed this up, and sprayed this onto the roots of my actual hair as my leave in. After spraying this, I took a bottle of mixed oils and spayed on to my hair. 

That's was pretty much my braid-wash routine. The entire thing may have lasted about 25 minutes. 

My braids do not look disrupted nor do they feel like they have been disrupted. I plan on using this new mixture everyday while I am in my installations. I hate that moisturizer and I hope this is my way of finally ridding myself of it. Since I plan to use this everyday on my roots, I will be using my diluted clarifying shampoo with the next wash. I plan to wash these braids every five days. It has only been four days, but my scalp was so itchy. Now, it's a drastic difference since I washed it. 

Thanks for reading! 

.:Lexis:. 

My Protective Style (pix included)

So this is the results of my new style. I like it a lot. Right now my head hurts lol and I cannot do much to my hair right now. Lol. But as soon as the initial shock and pain wears off, I will try out some type of styles with my new extensions. My goal is to leave them in for at least 8 weeks;12 weeks is my long term goal. I will also keep up with a HH regimen while in these twists. Follow me as I learn how take care of my hair while hidden. 

.:Lexis:. 

Wash Day + prepping for protective styling

Today I am saying goodbye (temporarily) to my hair. I am extremely frustrated with my inability to style my hair. Products play a role in my problem. Some of my products have left my hair hard and unmanageable. Another thing is retaining length. My hair has come a a long way as in health but not as far as length. December of this year will make 5 years since being on my HHJ and I have only grown my starting SL hair to a budding APL hair. That's extremely sad but I have come to learn a little something along the way. Sorry for the ramblings but there is a source for this. On to wash day tho: 

1. I prepooed with Suave Shea butter and almond oil conditioner with almond oil, grapeseed oil and jojoba oil. I lightly covered all of my hair with this mixture. After it stay on for about 15 mins, I rinsed it clean. 

2. After my hair was rinsed clean, I shampooed my hair with my cheapie shampoo and rinsed it clean. 

3. While my hair was rinsed clean of shampoo, I sprayed my hair with black tea due to some shedding. It stay on for 20 minutes and rinsed. 

4. After rinsing my hair clean, I DCed my hair with generic Nexxus Humectress Conditioner. It stayed on for about 40 minutes. And I rinsed it clean. 

5. After conditioning, I tshirt dried for about 10 minutes. After removing the Tshirt, I air dried my hair up to about 40 percent and then applied a homemade moisturizer mixture. (Review to come)

With this wash, I prepped my hair for some weave installation that I am having done in the morning. I am so excited. I haven't had any done in months. I am hoping that this set of installations will help me retain length. I have no idea how long I am going to keep them in. But my goal is 2 months. 

Here is a pic of my hair air dried. 

Goodbye, wrestling with unmanageable hair. I will deal with you in a few months!!! Pix will be added tomorrow. I am so excited!!! I hope I can sleep tonight, lol. 

This is my last length photo four weeks. I am hoping great retention and growth. 

.:Lexis:.

Purging My Product Stash

Maybe my title isn't that interesting, but it is what it is. I am purging my stash. I was supposed to be doing IMPORTANT research today, but I found myself on youtube channels about hair (which is just as important in my book). I watched this one lady who had a beautiful back story. In a very stilted and shorted version, she struggled with her natural hair. At its longest, I would say it was inching towards TBL, which is amazing to me. Well, she decided to cut it to almost Full SL. She said that its healthier since cut. After watching more of her videos, I saw her talk about ingredients she watch out for in her products.

HONESTLY, I have NEVER paid attention to the ingredients on the back of hair products. I have seen some of you ladies do so, but I have never brought myself to do so. Well, tonight, I decided to go through my stash and eliminate or find a different way to use these certain products; whether half full, full or near empty it was getting out of my house (well, my parents' house LOL).

Before I go through my products, I did research on "bad" ingredients. Out of all the ingredients I researched, these where the main ones I looked out for and to avoid: Isopropyl Alcohol, Mineral Oil/Petroleum, Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Now that I have found the products, I went through my stash.

Disclaimer: I am not being sponsored in any way for the products I am about to name.

1. Motions Moisture Plus Conditioner:
Pros - Panthenol ingredient

Cons - Mineral oil ingredient

Previous Use - I would use this product as a DC. I found that this product would hit and miss. I would have good DC days and bad DC days.

Previous Results - It is not a consistent DC. I would have soft wet hair some days and hard wet hair on other days.

Improved Use - Instead of discarding this product, I am going to use this product as a pre-poo
eventually.

Expected Results - I am expecting better, moisturized pre-poo sessions when I begin to use this product as a pre-poo.

2. Blue Magic Coconut Oil Hair Conditioner:
Pros - Coconut oil ingredient

Cons - Petrolatum and Fragrance ingredients

Previous Use - I would use the product on scalp a few times a week and seal my moisturizers.

Improved Use - I will ONLY use this product for basing my scalp and my previously relaxed hair during relaxer time. I have no other use for this product. This product is practically full. After I use this product up, I will have NO reason to purchase this product again.

Expected Results - I am hoping that this product will help with relaxer preps. Other than that, I am not expecting anything further.

***Products that I am just throwing out***
-ORS Edge Control - - -> I did not care for this product at all. I did not slick my edges down. All it did was add extra product on my edges and cake up. Goodbye!

-Proclaim Professional Care Cholesterol ---> Not only did this product contain petroleum and mineral oil, this product was extremely hard to rinse out. It has left my hair very dry, I do not know whether this is from the constant washing out this product or the product itself. Goodbye!

-Suave Max Hold Volumizing Mousse ---> This product did not do anything to my hair but leave it weighed down and take up room in my stash. Goodbye!

-Cantu Shea Butter Leave In Conditioning Repair Cream ---> This product is supposed to mend breakage and leave hair soft, shiny and manageable. This product has not done anything to my hair. Realizing that this is a protein leave-in conditioner, I was hoping that I could find a different way to use this product. I saw a youtube where some ladies were using this product as DC instead of a leave-in. I tried it. I did not work. Goodbye!!!

At the end of my purging, I threw away four (4) product bottles, whether full or near empty, and used up an additional product bottle which totals at five bottles/containers thrown away tonight. Am I excited? Of course I am. I am ridding my stash of products that did nothing for my hair, will not do anything for my hair and that was taking space in my stash area. Do I notice a dent being made in cleaning my stash. That is a big NO! Lol. I even bought a product today. However, I have no  reason to buy any other product. I plan on ridding myself of more products. Remember, my goal before the new year is to HAVE ALL OF MY PRODUCTS IN THEIR RIGHT PLACES, NO PRODUCT OVERFLOW. I have a while to go. The product junkie struggle is real, but I plan on not letting it be my reality anymore. I am working hard.

Until Next Time!!!

July Goals Recap + August Goals!!!

Hello, everyone. Today is the last day of this month, and I am coming to you with the recap.

So, here is July: 

1) castor oil everyday - SUCCESS 

I am so glad that I was able to do this every single day. I can tell where my edges have grown in. I also sealed my moisturizer with the castor oil. So I believe that I did great. 

2) flexi rods with every wash - FAILED

I did them for half the washes of July. I realized that sleeping with flexi rods was pulling and breaking my hair. I decided to end this challenge early. 

I also said that by August 1st, that I would get rid of 6 product bottles. Altogether I got rid of six. It felt good, but my hair stash is s very large and filled with some products that I do not even use. I plan on changing that slowly but it will be changed nonetheless. I have challenged myself to minimize my stash by the 1st of December. This will include me not having any products overflow onto my floor. Everything will have a near place. 

So other than that goal, here is my August goals: 

1) prepoo withgrapeseed and almond oil mixture

2) apply jojoba oil to my hair everyday

3) use one moisturizer consistently

That's going to be about it. 

My Relaxer Update (pix included)

Unfornately I had to relax my hair early due to drying hair. I rather relax it then try to figure out what was wrong after trying for three weeks. I didn't have a great deal of new growth in the front. However I had a ton of new growth in the back. This is the only texture pic I have and I was actually trying to catch a pic of my gray hair rather than texture lol. 

I know it isn't much but it was crunchy and dry. I truly couldn't deal. So I relax a few days shy of 8 weeks. I really agonized over it, but I am very happy that I did. 

I have a typical relaxer prep, but I won't bore you with the details. Instead, I'll show you a few result pix. 

The left pic is from May and the right pic is from July. I think that I am going to officially claim APL. I'm so happy, however, it did take me 4 and a half years to get from SL to this point. I'm thankful. I had to learn about retention, I am just really learning about it this year. Any who I am extremely pleased with the results. 

So what is my plan for my next relaxer stretch? I am planning a 20 week stretch. I am extremely excited and nervous. It will be my longest stretch and my last relaxer of the year. So I am going out with a bang!!! I will also be participating in the nape challenge. I am going to try to grow my hair as close to BSL as I can before the new year! Wish me luck! I can't wait to keep you updated. 

New Relaxer Date!

So, to jump right into it, I had to get an emergency relaxer on July 14, 2013. Granted, that isn't many days ago. Here is my reason:

I have been washing my hair and to no avail, my NG would be dry. I would DC with the best methods I have, but my NG would remain very dry, very hard and very stiff. On top of that, my hair would snap off at the roots. It was a very sad day, but I had to relax a couple of days shy of 8 weeks post.

Thanks to Instagram, I have found myself joining forces with a couple of people in regards to stretching until the end of the year. That is exactly what I am going to do.

As you can see from this Ticker, I have a while until my next relaxer. In other words, I will not receive another relaxer until December 1st!!! I am super nervous, but I am extremely excited. My plan is to use braids, rollersets, maybe a weave and a couple of buns as protective styles.

Please follow me as a begin my long journey in stretching. I will update my blog regularly and my Instagram (@enduring_ego1920).

My relaxer post will be available in a couple of days.

-LEX