No Frills, No Fuss! Wash day

So last week's wash day was too eventful, this week I decided to keep it simple, really simple!

1) Pre-poo'd/Conditioned (this was done in 1 step today) with my deep conditioners mixed with a few tablespoons of castor oil. Covered my hair with a deep conditioning cap and kept it in for an hour.

2) Washed the conditioner out with cool water and t-shirt dried for about 30 minutes

3) Detangled and applied my leave-ins: today I tried Mega Growth leave-in and sprayed very little of ApHogee Keratin Green Tea & Restructurizer, as it is a relatively medium strength protein leave-in conditioner. The Mega Growth leave-in is more of a moisturizing leave-in than a protein leave-in in my view, and that is why I used it with the ApHogee leave-in.It also smells much better for me than Cantu Shea Butter leave-in conditioner. But I still need a very moisturizing leave-in conditioner, especially for my new growth.

I then sealed with Olive Oil.

4) Next day I applied Elasta QP and sealed with Olive Oil, the hair beyond the dermacation line felt strong but smooth. The new growth + the ridiculously unprocessed growth from my previous relaxer, ehh, I realised I have not been moisturizing it properly. I moisturized almost every strand today, by applying the moisturizer as I was doing twists. 

Three days later, I had finished box braiding my hair on top of the twists I had done (I will write a separate post about my braids). I am very happy that my hair is getting a well deserved break for now, but I am still continuing with my regimen as usual...

Definitely need to do a proper wash next week, but I am happy with this week's results. Hope you had a lovely wash day ladies? :)

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World's longest wash day!

Ok maybe not the longest wash day that has ever been, but I staggered it over 2 days because I was just too tired to put in the flexi rods I wanted to do. Yep changed my mind on installing braids after it took me a gruelsome 5 hours to undo the braids I had done with my own hair!

There were a few things I had not done to my hair since relaxer day, which was 7 weeks ago, these were:

- protein treatment

- clarifying (can't believe that I once used to unknowingly use a clarifying shampoo every time I washed my hair..#hidesfaceinhands)

0) Undid the braids I plaited as I was in a wig. These braids were on for two weeks only, but the matting and shedding that occurred made me take 5 hours undoing these braids...

Time taken: 5 hours

1) Scalp massaged with JBCO

2) Pre-poo'd with Tressemme Ultra Rich Moisturising conditioner, it has a lot of slip, so my hair welcomed it with open arms...layered some grapeseed oil on top of it.

Time taken: 1 hour

3) I twisted my hair into about 10 twists, so decided to apply the clarifying shampoo to my scalp using my spray bottle. This really helped because none of the creamy Aloe shampoo got directly on to my strands. I lathered twice then lathered once with CON Moisturising shampoo - brought back the moisture to my hair.

Time taken: 15 minutes

4a) For the first time in the history of my hair, I used a hard protein treatment: ApHogee 2 step protein treatment. Kept it in my hair for about 25 minutes after which I decided to blow dry it coz it wasn't hardening up. Gosh that stuff is so sticky, it dripped onto some of my skin which tightened up immediately.. This is some serious protein treatment, I followed the instructions to the letter!

Time taken: 25 minutes

4b) Rinsed the protein treatment off with warm water and then Applied Aphogee balancing moisturizer for 2 minutes. Rinsed again and then used my Aussie miracle moist conditioner and left it in my hair for about 5 minutes and rinsed it off. I used two conditioners in this step because I did not feel like my hair was soft enough after using the first conditioner

Time taken: 10 minutes

5) Towel dried my hair and then applied my DCs: A mix of Doo Gro mega long extreme recontructor, Olive Oil Hair cream and about a spoon of Olive Oil. DC'd for about 2 hours using the plastic bag method, as I cooked dinner. *can't wait to get a hooded dryer!!*

Time taken:2 hours

6) Rinsed out the DC, t-shirt dried for 30 minutes and then applied my leave-in conditioners: Cantu Shea butter leave-in and Elasta QP H2 Leave-in. I still had some detangling to do, oh my, I only had these braids in for 2 weeks, but the detangling work I had to do felt like they were in for 2 months!

On a side note, for some reason the Cantu leave-in scent was so strong for me this wash day, I actually felt sick after applying it (nauseous). I don't think I will be using it again. Any suggestions on a creamy leave-in conditioner which does not have a strong scent?

Time taken: 1 hour 30 minutes

7) Wrapped a satin scarf and slept. The next day I decided to build some arm muscle with do a flexi rod set - used 28 rods in total. Thankfully it did not take forever and a day like it usually does. 

Time taken: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total time taken: 11 hours 50 minutes! 

The results..

Overall my hair was dryer than it was before I did the treatment, but definitely stronger than it was. So the following few weeks will be moisture intense until I get the balance back. 

How was your wash day ladies?

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Simple wash day

1) After dusting my ends yesterday, I did a scalp massage with Wild Growth Oil. Still feeling sad that I parted with about an inch of my hair, but I'm looking at the bigger picture yeeeah.

Then I moisturised and sealed my hair braids. Put on a shower cap, and left it on for the afternoon and overnight (some call this the GHE Method). In the morning my hair was feeling very moisturised.

2) Shampoo'd with Skin Dr Argan Oil Moisturising Shampoo.

3) Tea rinsed with peppermint, rooibos & green tea (got the idea of doing this mix from Jenny of Just Grow Already, #thanksJen), using my spray bottle. I sprayed directly to my scalp, and waited for 5 minutes before washing it off, I am totally loving this new method. I towel dried for 10 minutes before applying the DC.

4) Deep Conditioned with a mix of CON Argan Oil Intensive Conditioning treatment and ORS Replenishing conditioner. Added about 1 tablespoon of EVOO. Left it in my hair for about 4 hours, no heat used today besides the heat from my scalp.

5) Rinsed with luke-warm water and t-shirt dried for 1 hour. Applied my leave-ins: Cantu Shea butter leave-in conditioning repair cream, Elasta QP Leave-in H2 Conditioner.

My hair felt soft once again, thanks to the DC's I used and baggying my hair overnight. My hair is still in braids (wigging it for the next week again), I intend to undo them next week, before installing box braids. I am so happy that I have found a few conditioners that moisturise my hair very well, the product junkieness is hopefully going to slow down now...

How was your wash day ladies?

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My long-term protective style plan for 2015

After dusting/searching and removing my split ends today, I really need to be serious in achieving maximum growth this year. To do this I am going to start long-term protective styling and stretch my relaxers for as long as I can (I know I previously said I don't want to stretch more than 12 weeks, but to see any significant growth I will have to stretch at least 16 weeks)..

I am going to be doing protective styles for the bigger part of the year. I have not decided which styles I will be doing, but the two I will definitely be doing are:

1. Medium-sized long box braids with extensions in my hair, keeping them for 4 weeks at a time.

2. My wig regimen, with my hair braided underneath (I will keep my braids in for 3 weeks before removing them).

I will keep my current regimen, wearing a protective style will not change anything about it, except with the braids, I may wash them only bi-weekly as opposed to weekly. I will also be leaving my hair to rest for two-four weeks in between my long-term protective styles.

So long-term protective styling here I come! I have my braids and my wig for this week and next week. I will probably put braids in after next week, wearing a wig can be abit tiring I must say :(

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Dusting day

I have been thinking about it for a while but today when I looked at my hair and saw how thin the ends were, as well as the split ends, I decided to do a search and destroy. I cut off the split ends to a maximum length of 1 inch. I did this because I want to maintain healthy ends and I do not want split ends to move up the strands of my hair causing further damage. So, sadly (but for the good in the long run), I am back on line #1 on the length check shirt which is about 2 inches below shoulder length. But I am not backing off my goal to reach BSL by the end of the year so I have about 7 inches to grow and retain to comfortably reach BSL. See this post for further details on my plan to reach BSL.

Visibly my ends look so much better and healthier, although I have lost some length I have gained health, and the length will follow :)

I probably will be doing this every 4 months, to remove a maximum of 3 inches this year, ONLY when there are bad ends to cut, I personally do not believe in trimming or big/mini chopping. I really hope what I did today will help with my hair journey for the year.

Removing split ends does not result in hair growth (obviously, although this is something my previous stylists used to tell me), but it helps to maintain healthy ends that are less prone to damage, breakage, etc. here is an excellent article I found that further explains split ends and how to avoid them.

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My wig regimen

So this is my new protective style, the thing I love most about wigs is that you have full access to your hair, so moisturising, washing and deep conditioning is not an issue. I decided to start with synthetic lace wigs (my long one cost me about 70 USD), because human hair wigs cost so much (at least 250USD) and I was not sure if I would like the wiggin concept.

This is how I use my wigs:

1. Braid my hair into about 20 single braids

2. Moisturise and seal as usual

3. Coat my wig cap in some of my oil mixture, this helps so that the cap does not absorb the moisture from my hair

4. Wig it: Wear my wig for the day.

5. Remove my wig in the evenings before I sleep, to moisturise and seal my hair if need be

6. Scalp massage as usual: I have been using Wild growth oil of late, but will be alternating with Castor Oil and Doo Gro Mega Thick growth oil.

I miss my hair so much, but so far I have seen some benefits, less shedding and easier detangling during my wash day as I am able to detangle my hair using the sections from my braids. This is also a good protective style if you can leave your hair in its braids for some time (e.g >3 weeks). Last week, I washed my hair in the braids and removed the braids when applying the DC, it really helped, less detangling to deal with and less shedding shedding.

I think I will alternate between wigs and braids (my hubby is not a fan of wigs *sad face*).

If you're in Kenya and would like to know where I bought them, here is the facebook page of the shop where I got the wigs: 

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My 10 hair goals for 2015

I have decided to set goals that may be abit of a stretch but I know that I can do it! So here are my 2015 commitments to my hair:

1. I will put health before length this year. I aim to have thick, healthy texlaxed hair with healthy ends.

2. Ultimately my 2015 hair goal is to reach full bra strap length. I am currently 2 inches above armpit length. Therefore I need to grow and retain 6 inches of hair. I am fully on line 2 on my length check t-shirt, so I need to reach line 7.

              

3. I will deep condition my hair every week, unless I am in a long-term protective style, in which case I will deep condition every second week.

4. I will try to stretch my relaxers for as long as I can (not more than 20 weeks) I will have a maximum of 4 relaxers this year.

5. I will use the inversion method once a month with castor oil.

6. I will do scalp massages three times a week, alternating between Doo Gro oil and Wild growth oil each month.

7. I will participate in at least 1 healthy hair challenge each month.

8. I will drink at least 1 litre water a day.

9. I will take my groganics hair vitamins consistently every month.

10. I will update my blog by adding at least 1 post each week

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Wash day: Semi-dry wrap

First wash day of the year, and if things keep going like this I will be a happy chappy for the rest of the year :)

My hair was in calabar braids and I had my wig on for the week, just to get a break from my hair and also for my hair to get a break from me. Last week's ordeal where I lost more than usual amount of hair due to the strong tea rinse is what made me wear my wig on top of the braids.

My hair was the softest it has ever been since I relaxed and flat ironed it. Winner: semi-dry wrap! 

1. Pre-poo'd with Tressemme ultra rich moisturising conditioner for 1 hour.

2. Shampoo with Creme of Nature Moisture & Shine Shampoo. Note that my hair was still in braids when I shampood.

3. Sprayed my hair with tea using my spray bottle: green tea and peppermint tea. Winner!! Because I sprayed directly to my scalp, my hair did not have to feel the wrath of hardening from black tea. This is definitely how I'll be doing my tea rinses going forward. And that's why I love hair journeys, everyone's journey is different so finding out what works for your hair is what the hair journey is all about :)

4. Rinsed the tea out of my hair and applied conditioner on the strands, to soften the hair. Rinsed it out and towel dried for 10 minutes.

5. Applied Doo Gro conditioner.

It has a nice smell but I think it's abit strong, felt like gagging a tad bit after applying it. Applied EVOO on top of the conditioner and then removed my braids and detangled. 

I feel like I lost much less hair when I detangled at this point - I may be de tangling after applying DC from now on. Used the plastic bag method and left the DC on my hair for about an hour.

6. Rinsed it out with cold water and R-shirt dried for 10 minutes (less than usual because I wanted to try the semi-dry wrap. My hair felt good so I'm happy with this conditioner for now. However

7. Applied 1 leave-in today (sorry the cantu shea butter somehow sneaked into the picture of the casting crew of today's wash day): Elasta QP H2 leave-in conditioner.

8. Applied ORS wrap/set mousse. Wrapped my hair, which was now almost wet again.

9. Coverd it with my silk scarf, it took about 2 hours to dry...

10. Applied EVOO after 1 hour when my hair was abit dry. It made it soo soft and easy to comb out.

                           

Gosh so many discoveries today and I'm grateful that I'm starting the year on such a high note. My hair has not looked better since my last relaxer day... Thank God, I'm looking forward to the next wash day...

                        

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GroGanics 2-a-day healthy hair vitamins

So I took the plunge and decided to try and boost things this year. I started taking these pills 2 weeks ago. My nails have definitely been growing at a much faster rate than before. I am hoping that the same will happen to my hair.

So far I have not had any breakouts or other side effects so I'm hoping this will remain as is..well off course my hair shouldn't, it should grow thicker and longer I pray!

I think I'll only be able to tell when I do a relaxer and if I see more inches growth than the usual 1/2" per month.

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