I have been
unintentionally texlaxing (using a
relaxer to purposely under process my hair so it's still has some texture ) my
hair since 2011/2012 due to both self-relaxing my hair and also having a friend
come round just to apply the cream and obviously I was washing the cream out
quicker than necessary. I used heat with each wash day so the texture was never
an issue for me as I rarely saw my hair in its wet state as I would wash then
blow-dry. Stretching to 12 weeks was never an issue prior to my hair journey because
of the use of heat which straightened my new growth.
I began my hair
journey in June 2012 and it was only maybe a year or two into my journey that I
realised my hair was texlaxed and this was when my mother in law had started to
relax my hair for me and I noticed my roots were straighter than the rest of my
hair. I did some research and realised what had happened and was devastated
that without noticing I was in love with texlaxed hair and was sad to be bone
straight again but I did enjoy the fact my hair was so easier to manage.
Once I knew what
texlaxing was, I began to purposefully texlax my hair and loved the difference
in texture and how thick my hair was becoming. I did not really have a set way
to texlax as it had always been accidental before, so I began to focus on
shortening the time in which I left the relaxer on my hair. I shortened the
time from 25 minutes to 15-18 minutes which worked sometimes but other times where
I failed to apply the relaxer to my hair as quick as required, I was left with
way too much texture in my hair and this eventually led to breakage. Sections
to the very front of my hair and the back at the nape were near enough natural
and as much as I tried to baby those section and keep them moist 24-7, slowly
but surely the most textured parts broke off and after a while I had no choice
but to do a corrective relaxer to save the textured areas which luckily had not
broken.
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| Sections of my hair towards the roots were near enough natural. |
The areas of my
hair cut to shoulder length are now armpit length and the nape which was cut to
just below the neck is now touching my collar bone so I am slowly but surely
making progress in these areas.
For my next
touch-up, I decided to try a different technique so I started oiling my new
growth with either extra virgin coconut oil or extra virgin oil which enabled
me to have more time to apply the relaxer to my new growth without panicking
about time. This process worked, allowing for me to go through my hair at a
steady pace in 22-24 minutes leaving me with manageable and visible texture.
My shower
stopped working in August or September 2015 and so when I did my next touch up
I had to rinse my hair in the bathroom sink as I could not find a shower
attachment that would fit onto my bath mixer tap. My previously relaxed ends
were protected with coconut oil but my biggest regret is not using petroleum
jelly as when I rinsed out the relaxer, I forgot I was using the sink and not
in the shower so my hair was left dangling in the sink whilst I was rinsing and
this lead to the last 3-4 inches of my hair over processing from texlaxed to
bone straight. I kid you not when I say I could of cried, in fact it went
beyond crying as I actually got a bit depressed for a while as I just could not
believe what had happened. The sad thing is, I did not notice straight away as
my hair which still baffles me so it kind of hit me about 2-3 weeks after I had
done my relaxer touch-up. One morning I went to put my hair in low ponytail and
could not believe my eyes when I realised how straight my ends were. I had no
choice to put my hair in a bun and keep it moving but I had that sick feeling
in my stomach all day at work as I racked my brains as to what the heck had
happened to my hair and then it hit me!
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| Before the setback of over-processing my ends with relaxer run off. My ends were beautiful and thick! |
I started the
castor oil challenge in September 2015 which included not only oiling my scalp
with Jamaican black castor oil and adding it to my deep conditioner but also
mixing it with a lighter oil to seal my hair with which is just what my ends
needed. With this, I kept my hair in buns for the duration and although my ends
were sadly straighter than the rest of my hair, they remained healthy and moist
throughout the challenge and when I touched up in December 2015 towards the end
of the challenge I was pleased and amazed to find my ends were in great
condition and I was able to retain my length.
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| Results from from Texlax Touchup December 2015 |
For my touch up
in December 2015, instead of oiling my new growth with extra virgin olive oil
to slow down the relaxer process, I decided to try mixing the oil to my
relaxer. I added one tablespoon of oil to ½ - ¾ of a tub of lye relaxer and
applied to my new growth. My timer was set for 18 minutes and when the alarm
went off I was still smoothing so total application and smoothing time was
approximately 22-24 minutes and I was and still am so pleased with the results.
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My ponytail is not as bad as I first imagined although taking part in the castor oil challenge has definitelty helped and the picture above shows my hair in a ponytail last weekend on the left which was air-dried with no product, it then on the right shows my hair in a ponytail with product but admittedly the picture with product was taken last Sunday which was wash day so there is 6-7 days worth of product in my hair. You can see that with my hair moisturised the different textures in my ponytail are not as drastic otherwise I think I would have cut the straighter ends off by now.
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| Wet hair - texture shot |
The picture
above shows the most recent texture I am working with and I love it. My hair is
still manageable, easy to moisturise, easy to detangle and style. Obviously I
have less texture throughout the rest of my hair but it is still texlaxed and I
will not be wearing it in its curly state so once air-dried and moisturised, the textures are
less noticeable. I am happy to do a very long transition to fully texlaxed
achieving the texture above and hopefully by the end of 2016 I will have
managed to rid of most of the bone straight ends. I had noted in a previous
post that by June 2016 the bone straight ends would be gone but I think that is
highly ambitious unless I cave in and go for a long bob style which I have been
thinking about but we will see nearer the time.
I am 10 weeks
post today and planned to do a relaxer/texlax touchup on 9th March
2016 at 12 weeks post but (touch wood) my hair is playing ball and has been
easy to manage so I may try to stretch to 13 weeks and then gradually work my
way to stretching to 16 weeks then maybe even to 20 weeks so that I am only
applying relaxer to my hair 2-3 times a year instead of four.
What’s happening
with your hair right now?
