The Healthy Hair Diary: June 2013

Big chop

Health Over Length... The Big Chop - 22.06.13

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Castor oil challenge

Castor Oil Challenge

Sunday, June 23, 2013

hair regime

Wash Day Diary - 1 Week Post Relax 04.06.13

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

healthy hair

Relaxer Update - 24.05.13 12 Weeks Post

Saturday, June 01, 2013

apl

My 1st Hair Journey Setback - 2 Inch Trim (26.04.13)

Saturday, June 01, 2013

At 8 weeks post, I had a shock of a lifetime, I had faced my first setback since starting my hair journey last year. On Thursday evening (25.04.13) after washing my hair and air-drying, I noticed that at least the last two inches of my ends were thin and see through, it was 10.30pm at night and if I could of I'd of got to a hair salon there and then. I called my boyfriend to examine my hair and I'm sure he was just being polite as he said it didn't look that bad at all but I was determined these ends had to go and reminded myself that my goal is to have healthy hair so I had to choose health over length.

My boyfriend suggested I try a new salon as I always complain whenever I get my hair trimmed with my usual hair dressers as they always end up cutting off way more hair than I agreed to but when it's done it's too late. I had been told about a salon in Reading used by quite a few girls I know so decided to book an appointment with them the very next morning.

The Salon is called Belle Hair, based in Reading and they also have another salon in London I believe. At work on Friday I was excited for the end of the day as I couldn't wait to get rid of the dead ends and have healthy looking hair again but as the time came closer I was also nervous and annoyed that I obviously wasn't assessing my hair as good as I had thought otherwise my ends wouldn't have got to the stage where they looked thin and dead.

From the minute I walked through the door, I felt at ease, I was greeted with a smile and the girl at reception informed me that she had not too long ago spoken to my boyfriend on the phone who had rung to emphasise that I was only in for a trim and to warn them I may not even agree to a hot blow-dry as I was on a hair journey. I had to laugh as he knows I mean business when it comes to my hair and he's also worried that someone will cut off my hair and he loves long hair. I was then taken to have my hair washed by a lovely girl who was talkative but who also knew when to let me relax when she was massaging my head. Wow, the girl can give a good head massage, I was in heaven as I'm sure it has been at least 18 months since someone other than myself has washed my hair and that was in August 2011 in a Bajan Salon. I forgot the luxury of having a professional taking care of my hair from start to finish, it was amazing.

After my wash and condition, another girl then came and directed me to my seat and asked me how much I wanted taken off, I was real and said I wanted all the dead ends cut off even if it meant losing three inches of hair. She agreed the ends were dead but luckily said that I only needed to lose two inches so I was quite relieved as that extra inch always makes a difference.She gave me a wet trim and then proceeded to give me a blow dry, using a denman brush. I declined her offer to use the straighteners afterwards as I haven't used a straighteners in my hair for over two years and I wasn't about to break that cycle.

Just from the blow-dry, my hair felt and looked gorgeous and it reminded me why I loved blow drying my hair for the silky straight look and feel every wash day so I was worried I may fall back into my old habits of using heat. I shouldn't of been worried as I am determined to have healthy long relaxed hair and heat plays no part in that (except maybe running low heat through your regrowth on a wash day to help you stretch your relaxer a bit longer).

The day after my trim and blow-dry

If you are local to Reading or the Belle Hair Salon in London, I would definitely give this salon a try. I had a very pleasant experience and will certainly be going back for my trims..

See Ya xxx

hair journey

I'm back... It's been a while.... Hair Update 01.06.13

Saturday, June 01, 2013

So I haven't blogged in a long while...2 months to be exact... I started a new job and on top of that I run an online jewellery shop; www.welovebuttonjewellery.co.uk / www.welovebuttonjewelry.etsy.com

so I'm making jewellery after work to keep up with my orders as well spending quality time with my family etc.

(Would you believe I typed this post out on my blogger app this morning whilst at my son's football tournament and forgot to press save, just went to add pictures and there was only two lines of text... KMT!)

Football Tournament with my Little Man this morning
8.30am start = tired eyes

Today I am 1 week post relaxer, my good friend relaxed my hair last Friday (24.05.13) at 12 weeks post. Stretching my hair was an emotional roller coaster as when I got my hair relaxed three months ago, I think I washed my relaxer out before it's due time and ended up with under processed roots. This didn't really bother me at the time as instead of bone straight roots, I had like a loose curl texture which meant my hair had a lot more body to it than I'd usually have until a week or two after my relaxer.

It was when I got to 8-9 weeks post that I noticed that I was struggling to keep the first 3 inches from the roots soft ad moist and realised I was dealing with three different textures of hair; new growth, tex-laxed (loose curl texture as a result of an under processed relaxer application) and bone straight.

I decided to cut back from washing my hair twice a week to once a week to try to retain moisture for longer, and began to rely on my homemade moisture mist which consists of glycerin, rose water and water to keep my roots moist and then sealing in the moisture with either olive or avocado oil. This helped me to get to 12 weeks but it was tough and I just kept my hair in protective styles almost every day.

One of my protective styles; flat twist at the front with a bun (with my girl V at the pub )

I also had to demote S-Curl from my no.1 spot as my staple moisturiser because after using it to moisturise my hair before sealing everyday, I was noticing that if I m&s (moisturised and sealed) at night before tying my hair with a satin scarf, the next morning my hair would feel dry as if it hadn't had moisture for days. I decided to moisturise and seal with my Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter moisturiser and my hair thanked me for it, especially as I was stretching my relaxer to 12 weeks.

Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer

So the stretch is over and I'm not sure if I will go 12 weeks again, I will try but this time round as it got longer into my stretch, I became bored of protective styling, bored of having to maintain the different textures I had in my hair and began questioning why I was stretching when all I really wanted was to be able to run my fingers through my hair from root to tip. I used to stretch to 12 weeks; years before I started my hair journey but the difference is that I was using high heat from the hair dryer on my hair every week without fail and so the new growth would become a manageable loose texture and I had no problems getting the comb through my hair. These are things I will take in to consideration when deciding whether to do a 12 week stretch this time as I am now using no heat at all and instead air drying or using the hair dryer on it's cold air setting and neither of them do much help with my new growth after I am 9 - 10 weeks post.

I will make sure from now on, never to leave it soooo long between posts and will try to update at least once a week with what I'm doing with my hair etc.

See Ya xx

Bloglovin

Health Over Length... The Big Chop - 22.06.13

Castor Oil Challenge

Wash Day Diary - 1 Week Post Relax 04.06.13

Relaxer Update - 24.05.13 12 Weeks Post

Late post

Friday 24th May 2013

My 1st Hair Journey Setback - 2 Inch Trim (26.04.13)

I'm back... It's been a while.... Hair Update 01.06.13

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