Well hello there…

I know, I know.. It’s been about 6 weeks since I last posted and I feel terrible. Life has been so hectic recently, I have been working ridiculous hours at work putting in the time so I can progress at a quicker pace,  my son has officially finished primary school, it's the summer holidays and we are preparing for Secondary school (High school), my birthday came and went and then it was my son’s 11th birthday so it has been go go go…

I have missed documenting my journey and I hope to get myself organised and posts scheduled in advance so I am not MIA for any longer than a week going forward. I would also like to get into making a few videos as I think it’ll be easier to see my progress, texture etc. better in video and it will be nice to interact via a different platform so watch this space…

So what’s been happening with my hair….

The last time I posted I was 8 weeks post, throughout the rest of my stretch to 11 weeks I continued to protective style and kept my regime  as simple as possible. From 9-11 weeks, my new growth was so out of control that air-drying was not an option, so I tension dried my hair using cool air. At 10 weeks post, I have no idea why I could not wait but after blow-drying my hair I trimmed of two inches off my ends and felt good for it as my ends looked thicker already.

Root2tip Honey rain juice was my new growth’s best friend, I mixed together extra virgin coconut oil and Lavender JBCO for my scalp to help make my new growth easier to detangle. My hair seems to go through phases where the moisturizer I use has no effect and my hair just drinks it and laughs leaving my hair mega dry… During my stretch this is exactly what happened so I found myself going back to Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer and my hair loves it and had me wondering why I ever deserted it.... (I do know why, my hair went through a phase of rejecting it)

Breakage....

I relaxed my hair at 11 weeks because I noticed breakage at the nape and at the front of my hairline due to the many textures I am working with and at first the plan was to get it done by my mother-in-law but something came up so we planned it for a different day but by the time I got home knowing my hair was prepped, I decided to self-relax.

These are the steps I followed…


Relaxer Touch up 19th July 2015 

• Applied extra virgin coconut oil to the length of my hair including new growth the night before.
• Next morning applied Vaseline to scalp, hairline and the length of my hair.
• Applied relaxer to my hair in four sections and then went through each section and smoothed through. I am slower than I was as it took me 23 minutes but my hair was prepped with oil so I didn’t panic and plus I am not about that leaving too much texture life anymore.

• Rinsed and applied Aphogee Two Minute Reconstructor to my hair and left on for 5 minutes.

• Neutralised my hair using ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo lathering 4 times, the last two lathers I left the shampoo to sit on my hair for 5 minutes.

• Deep conditioned with Crème of Nature Intensive Conditioning Treatment, Aunt Jackies In Control conditioner and a teaspoon of lavender JBCO, covered with a plastic cap and sat under hood dryer for 25 minutes then finger detangled and rinsed once cool.
• T-shirt dried for 40mins then spritzed with mane and tail detangler. 

• Applied leave-ins; Root2tip Honey Rain Juice, Crème of Nature Strength & Shine Leave-in and Organix Coconut Milk Anti-breakage Serum. Spritzed with Fantasia IC Heat Protectant Spray then tension dried my hair with cool air in sections.

• Moisturised and sealed with Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer and Grapeseed Oil. Oiled my scalp with Lavender JBCO & extra virgin coconut oil mix.
• The next day, having only trimmed my ends at 10 weeks post, I just tidied up the ends now that my hair was straight and took off just over a centimeter.
• I am still left with slight texture to my new growth which was the intention and I am happy with it and will continue to use the same above steps going forward.
• I will no longer be aiming for the more under-processed look as no matter how moist I have kept my hair, I have experienced some breakage in the areas which were under-processed when I touched up back in December, I find my hair thrives more when it is left with a little texture so that is what I am sticking with from now on.