Saturday 3rd October

Friday after work, I applied coconut oil to the length of my hair including new growth, oiled my scalp with my castor oil mix then left in overnight.

Saturday lunchtime, sectioned my hair into four and applied Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the length of my hair including my new growth then followed up by adding petroleum jelly to the length of my hair from my demarcation line downwards. Divided sections into one inch sections and twisted for ease of relaxer application.

Applied relaxer to my new growth starting from the crown, leaving my edges and nape until last then went through again smoothing through each section.

Rinsed thoroughly and applied Aphogee 2 minute reconstructor to my hair and left on for 5 minutes whilst I prepared my deep conditioner mix. Shampooed with ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo, lathering 5 times to ensure all relaxer was out of my hair then towel dried for 5 minutes.

Deep conditioned with Joico Moisture Recovery Treatment Balm mixed with 2 teaspoons of my castor oil mix, covered with a plastic cap and sat under the hood dryer for 20 minutes then rinsed once cool.

T-shirt dried for 45 minutes then applied leave-ins; Creme of Nature Straight from Eden Leave in, Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Leave in and sealed with Creme of Nature Argan Oil. Detangled my hair in sections with wide tooth comb then air dried with satin scarf laying my edges.

I usually moisturise and seal when my hair is 90-95% dry but I was having a movie day with the Mr so put my hair in a loose bun and chilled, plus I wanted to trim my ends and I prefer to do this without too much product in my hair.
Whilst I am happy to have made it to bra-strap length, I am all about health over length and all being well, I will be back to if not just past bra-strap length after my next touch-up in December, plus I'm doing the castor oil challenge which ends in December and it will be interesting to see the results.

Made it to Bra-Strap Length (Air-dried Hair)

I am officially bra-strap length which has been a goal I didn't think I would ever reach. I am surprised as with my texlaxed texture I experience some shrinkage, I never flat iron my hair and these days I rarely even tension dry my hair so it's hard to see the true length of my hair. I am happy to have achieved my goal, however my ends were in need of a trim so last night I trimmed my hair, taking off an inch. I used a similar method to Babilon Kay in her video which can be seen here. I thought I would have to take off a little more but following my trim, I went through my hair and am pleased with the results.

Before bed,  I lightly spritzed the length of my hair with water, covered with a plastic cap and left on for 30 minutes then moisturised and sealed with Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer and my avocado and castor oil mix. I oiled my scalp with my castor oil mix then cross wrapped my hair and covered with a satin scarf.

I am really happy with how yesterday's relaxer touch up went. Dividing my hair into one inch sections prior to applying the relaxer was definitely a great help when getting through my hair. I have the perfect amount of texture left in my new growth and I will definitely follow these steps for my next relaxer touch up in December.

Over the last few days I noticed my ends were in need of a trim and although I have been dusting when necessary, I haven't had a trim since June which was 4 months ago. I decided to book an appointment at a salon called Belle Hair. I went to this Salon about a year or two ago and had a really good experience there, the girl Lauren who trimmed my hair trimmed exactly what I asked for and nothing more. I gave the salon a call on my lunch break on Friday and was sad to hear that Lauren was no longer working there... Very sad times...

Usually when this happens, I'll resort to going back to a salon I used to love until the stylist kept cutting my hair back to the same length and would ignore my request for a half inch trim.... This time, I knew better, under no circumstances would I go back there...

Instead I knew that Lauren who had left Belle Hair was the girlfriend of my cousin's best friend, so sent my cousin a text to find out where Lauren was working now.

I had a lazy day yesterday watching hair related youtube videos, catching up with TV recordings and dozing off every now and then on the sofa so pinned my hair up and patiently waited for an update from my cousin. I woke up at around 6.30pm and with no messages waiting to be read, I decided to trim my own hair....

I followed the steps shown in the below video by Jeni from Just Grow Already!

Do you self trim? 

I decided to wash my hair on Saturday afternoon as I was having a lazy day and planned to have a family day out on Sunday. 

Over the last week I've been noticing that my ends were in need  of a mini trim which brought back the painful memories of October last year when I asked my hairdresser at the time to trim my ends and ended up with a hacked hair mess. 

Instead of picking up the phone and making any hasty appointments, I decided to dust my hair myself. My ends were not terrible, they just needed the very ends to be trimmed.

I combed through my hair to ensure there were no tangles and then parted my hair down the middle. On each side I sectioned my hair into 4 sections, twisting them as I went along. Then going through each section I re-twisted the hair and using my hair scissors I trimmed off the short stray ends which stuck out along the length of the twists.

To trim my ends, I parted my hair into four sections, securing each section with a clip so I could deal with one section of hair at a time. Pulling the section of hair taut, I gently clamped the hair between my fingers running them down to ends leaving 0.5cm of the ends which I trimmed off. I went through and did this to each section. 

This is the amount of hair taken off from the whole head. Pretty Painless!

After my dramatic cut in October last year, the front of my hair was layered so I parted my hair as if to create a fringe and pulling the hair taut, trimmed the ends using the same method I used throughout the hair.

Call me crazy but just taking off half a centimetre made my hair feel healthier and thicker. I will continue to dust my hair as and when it is needed.

Over the last few weeks I have been noticing my ends starting to get a bit wispy, nothing major at all but in need of a little dusting.

Last night, I moisturised and sealed my hair, oiled my scalp and put the length of my hair into one big pin curl and secured my hair with my satin scarf. This morning  when I took my hair down, it was lovely and soft and my ends were well moisturised which highlighted I would say 5 millimeters of wisp.

What is Dusting?

Dusting your hair is when are just snipping off the tips of your hair. You will not lose any of your length and won't have a breakdown when you look down and see what has been left in the sink. It's like hair dust!


Dusting is not a quick fix for anyone in need of a good trim. Once you have a had a trim, dusting will maintain your trim for longer.

Here is what I did:





I sectioned my hair into 6  and secured with clips.


One section at a time I twisted my hair in a downward position. I have long layers in my hair from my last trim, the ends of the layers as well as any split ends stick out of the twist.

Holding the ends of the twist taut; I went up the twist carefully snipping off the layered / split ends which stuck out of the twist. 

After going through each section, I took my twists out and combed my hair down straight before clipping off just the very tips of my ends.





This is the amount of hair that was in my sink after my dusting session. Nothing to lose any sleep about and my ends are looking and feeling much healthier and rid of split ends. Dusting my ends every 4-6 weeks will keep my ends healthy.

Nice clipped ends...

Saturday 22nd June 2013

So I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks as I've been busy with work and We Love Button Jewellery.

The day after my trim and blow-dry