At the beginning of the year, I set myself some hair goals for the year ahead. It is now June and we are halfway through the year so let's take a look and see how I am doing:

Keep it Simple & Be Consistent

I have definitely been keeping things simple with my hair year to date. There has been the occasional weekend where I just couldn't face washing my hair so instead would apply extra virgin olive oil to my hair so that I was pre-pooing my hair until  I decided to wash it. I have been very consistent with moisturising and sealing my hair, and have found that now I am blow-drying with cold air every washday, I no longer need to moisturise and seal my hair on a daily basis as my hair isn't as dry as it would be if I air-dried.

Grow Out Breakage Areas

Due to the breakage I suffered last year and again at the end of 2016, I was on a mission to grow out these sections of hair to get my hair back to one length. Well as mentioned in a previous post, I gave myself a trim in April to get rid of all breakage and now I just need to ensure my relaxer touch-ups are consistent with regards to the time I leave it on my hair to avoid any further under processed hair leading to breakage. I also use a light protein conditioner on a weekly basis whether to deep condition or to pre-poo and do a medium protein treatment every 4-5 weeks.


Restrain My Inner Product Junkie

I have done really well with this goal as I have just been sticking to the staple products that I know work for my hair. Interestingly as well is the fact that I used to follow a lot of blogs and vlogs of girls who were relaxed and were always trying new products and giving them rave reviews which always got me excited and I'd find myself buying products that I didn't even need just to give them a try. A year or two later and majority of the relaxed ladies I used to follow have either gone natural or are transitioning to natural so I don't see as many products reviews and relaxed hair regimes which has definitely helped my product addiction.

Achieve Thicker Hair

To achieve thicker hair, I am still oiling my scalp at least twice a week with an oil mix which consists of; Jamaican Black Castor Oil, extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin coconut oil.

Extra virgin coconut oil is my go to when it comes to pre-pooing my hair, however, in recent months I have become obsessed with extra virgin olive oil and have used this quite often to pre-poo instead. Going forward, I will use extra virgin olive oil to mix with my deep conditioners, to seal my hair and in my scalp oil mix, but I am going back to using either extra virgin coconut oil to pre-poo either on its own or mixed with a light protein conditioner.

I purchased some Vitamins for the Hair purchased from Holland & Barrett back in December to see if taking them would make a difference to the health of my hair but unfortunately, I am never consistent with taking them. I have a reminder that comes up on my phone every morning at 10am but I am always busy doing something and tell myself I will take them later but always forget. I have changed my reminder to lunchtimes as I have my lunch pretty much the same time every day and can take the tablets as soon as I finish eating.

Drink More Water & Eat Healthier

This was one of my goals last year which I failed. I only became serious about drinking water in November and I would like to say that I have been consistent but I have failed on this goal a good few times.

My goal is to up my water in-take and also start to work out more at home. I rarely get to the gym as I always have so much on, however I can always find time to work out at home. I tried to get up and do early morning workouts and I just couldn't get out of bed so instead I switched it up and now go home from work, change into work out gear and do a workout before I do anything else, even if it's a 20 minute workout, it's better than nothing.

Let's see how I get on in my next update in December.

What goals did you set yourself for 2017?

My last self-relaxer touch-up was on April 30th and yet again when washing out the relaxer; I noticed I was left with a lot of texture to the front and crown of my head. I was annoyed as I had prepped my hair by sectioning it into 1 inch sections so that when I'm applying the relaxer, I could apply with ease. I left the relaxer on my new growth for 20 minutes and only used my hands to apply and smooth so I believe this is where the problem lies.

I by no means wanted to do a corrective relaxer on my hair but given the amount of texture I was working with, it was inevitable and not a question of if but instead when I would do it.

I have previously suffered from terrible breakage due to having near natural under processed hair and this was made worse by the fact that I tried to just soldier on with it instead of correcting it sooner. My hair strands cannot cope with too many textures going on so I now have to aim for slightly straighter results with a kink.

I wanted to get my Mother-in-Law to do my hair next weekend, however, next Sunday is father's day in the UK and we have a busy weekend so I decided to do it myself.

I applied pure castor oil to the length of my hair excluding the new growth and the under processed sections which was directly below my new growth. I sectioned my hair into 4 and then divided these sections again into 1 inch sections to make it easier to apply the relaxer.

Starting with the back right section, I applied relaxer to my new growth leaving my edges and nape until last, then went through and applied the relaxer to these sections. Once I had applied the relaxer to my new growth, I began the smoothing process this time using a relaxer brush to smooth out the texture.  As I had sections of hair needing to be corrected, I ensured to smooth the relaxer a little further down my hair to cover and smooth those sections; from start to finish, my hair took 22 -23 minutes. I then rinsed out the relaxer thoroughly and then applied Aphogee 2 Minute Reconstructor to the length of my hair and left on for 5 minutes then rinsed.

I shampooed my hair using ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo and made sure to lather 5 times to make sure all traces of relaxer was out of my hair. I wrapped my hair in a towel for 5 minutes to rid of as much water as possible and then applied my deep conditioner mix of ORS Hair Replenishing Conditioner, extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin coconut oil. I wrapped my hair with cling film (saran wrap) and sat under the hood dryer for 45 minutes then rinsed once cool.

I t-shirt dried for 30-40 minutes and then applied my leave-in conditioners; Crème of Nature Strength & Shine Spray, Aunt Jackie's Quench Moisture and then sealed with Silk of Morocco Skin & Hair Treatment Serum. I detangled my hair in sections and then blow-dried my hair section by section using cold air.

Before bed, I moisturised and sealed my hair in four sections using Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter and extra virgin olive oil.

Monday's Protective Style For Work

I am very pleased with the results. My hair still had a slight kink to it but I have managed to straighten out the texture which I knew would give me issues later and I am not bone straight which is always a worry when doing a corrective relaxer.

Going forward, I need to ensure I am leaving the relaxer on my hair for just over 20 minutes as my hair takes longer to process and I cannot afford for this to happen again. Looking back before I started my hair journey, I'd leave the relaxer on my hair for 22-25 minutes and was never left with bone straight hair so this is what I need to go back to doing.