My hair story in pictures

I haven't really shared my story so I thought this would be a good time to do so...

2008 is as far as I could go to find any pics of my hair...

2008: My hair was thickest around 2008/2009. I was crazy about growing my hair, I did not have all the knowledge that I have now, but I kept my hair in plaits 90% of the time, and I used to mistakenly texlax my hair (I did not know this is what it was called at the time).

2009: The thickest my hair has ever been...

2010: Being a broke varsity student came with some pros, I did not have the cash to go to the salon for regular styling, this is the only time in 2010 that I remember flat-ironing/ curling my hair.

2011: A big setback happened in 2011 - I did a hairstyle that the stylist said could be done on relaxed hair and it involved using molding gel/ wax. My hair was twisted with the gel and then plaited in a ring shape around my head. When I took these twists out (about a month later), so much of my hair was tangled, it was a terrible mess. I lost all the thickness I had gained, and a lot of length too.. 

2012: Got a new stylist as I moved towns, and my hair came out bone-straight, as you can see in the picture below... My ends were also very thin and only got worse since this time.

I clearly remember leaving the salon on this day after a relaxer (pic below), my hair looked lifeless and the ends were really bad. I had lost a lot of length, compared to my 2010 pics.

2013: I did some serious stretching between January and June 2013, and it paid off. My hair had gained some thickness, but not so much length...

My hair had started to recover, and looked so much healthier at this point. This was fresh from a relaxer.

In the same month, my hair went from healthy and luscious to unhealthy and thin. I did not know how to properly take care of hair, so the progress I had made was quickly turned to nought.

2014: I moved countries in this year, and got a new stylist...again.... I think I had about 6 relaxers in 2014, thanks to the stylist who kept insisting that I should relax my hair as soon as it had growth!

I also got my hair flat-ironed every time I went to this stylist, again he insisted that as long as he used heat protectant, it was fine.

As you can see in the picture below, my hair suffered so much, especially my ends. My hair was relaxed bone-straight every relaxer day of 2014, and I am almost certain that there was overlapping when my new growth was relaxed.

In September 2014, I became desperate, and really wanted to know how I could take good care of my hair. I did not know where to start, but I knew I had to change stylists as a start...

Somehow my sister in law hit a "like" on Jen of justgrowalready.com's facebook page, and it happened to show on my home page. Curiously, I wanted to know what this was about... When I saw Jen's progress pics, I was mesmerized that our hair could grow that long in that amount of time.. I would spend nights and nights reading her posts on anything and everything about hair.. From Jen's website I found other hairbloggers that I follow such as savingourstrands.com, rehairducation.com, and many others...So thank you to Jen and all the other bloggers who have been helpful and willing to share their tips on how to grow hair!

I am now 4 months into my new hair journey, and equipped with the knowledge, determination and faith that I have , I am sure my hair will grow to healths and lengths that I never imagined, sooo:

ready, steady, grow it!!

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The relaxer day: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

This was my second self-relaxing experience, although I used to self-relax when I was a teenager, I guess I kind of forgot the art of doing this.

The good: I have retained some length (about 2 inches) since my last length check, although I will have to dust of about two inches of my ends, so I am not claiming APL just yet...

The bad: My hair was more processed than I wanted, so I have to start working on thickness from scratch...

The ugly: A drop of relaxer fell on my skin, and I did not realize until I felt a burn - my skin had peeled off. Thankfully I had an ointment that I used, and the skin is healing...

Here is how it went:

0.) Parted my hair into six parts, and twisted about 1 inch sections. 
1.) Applied Vaseline to my scalp, edges and ears, after twisting the sections.
2.) Applied Olive Oil to the length of my hair and sealed with Black Magic Castor Oil.
3.)  Used the half and half method and applied Mizani Butter Blends HG Relaxer - Normal Strength. I took 20 minutes to apply and smooth each half, and I used a sprush, which I think also smooths the growth out as you apply the relaxer. I mixed about a teaspoon of Olive Oil to the relaxer, which was probably too little given the amount of relaxer I applied to my hair.
4.) Rinsed the relaxer and shampoo'd with Elast QP Stop Action Shampoo. It took about 40 minutes to get the lather from the shampoo to turn white! This is when I realised that I was way too heavy-handed when it came to the amount that I applied. I just did not want a repeat of my last relaxer day, where my growth came out almost untouched...

5.) Applied ApHogee 2-minute Keratin Restruturizer, and left it in my hair for about 10 minutes.
6.) Rinsed and applied my DC: Silk Dreams Vanilla Silk Cream Moisture Dream. It smells lovely, although the coconut oil scent overpowers the vanilla scent..I was too tired to go under the hooded dryer, so I DC'd overnight.
7.) In the morning, I rinsed it out and detangled & wrapped my hair with Kinky Curly Knot Today, CHI Silk Infusion and OGX Anti-breakage serum. 
8.) Sat under my hooded dryer for 30 minutes on cool heat (my ends absolutely hate any heat, even indirect heat)
9.) Continued to air dry for about 30 minutes. When I combed out my hair, I noticed that there was some texture remaining, so I was quite relieved - I absolutely do not like hair that has been thinned from overprocessed relaxers :-((
10.) Flat ironed with my BabyLiss Flat Iron in sections (I haven't used this baby since my last relaxer, so proud of myself!), I think I used more CHI S.I than I needed, hence my hair looked weighed down in the length-check picture above.

Overall I have learnt from this experience, am happy with my progress, and will just have to keep working at regaining thickness and maintaining healthy ends. For 4 months since I started my healthy hair journey and not relying on a stylist, I think I am on the right track..#thankful#grateful

How have you increased and maintained thickness in your hair?

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Wash day: Relaxer prep...finally!

I actually got to 14 weeks post relaxer purposelessly: I planned to relax at 12 weeks, but due to the breakage I was experiencing I did not want to risk applying a relaxer and experiencing even more breakage. I can safely say that breakage over the past few days has decreased alot, although there are still those 3/4 hairs that I see on my pillow after I moisture & seal... I am ready to relax my hair this weekend!

This is how the past wash day went:


0.) Detangled and Pre-pood for an hour by: 

• scalp massaging with my cast of oil mix
• applying coconut oil to the length of my hair and detangling in six sections
• applying ORS Hair Mayonnaise (Protein DC) and sitting under my hooded dryer for 30 minutes 

1.) Shampoo'd with 

• Clarifier: ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo (lathered once) 
• CON Argan Oil Moisture & Shine Shampoo (lathered once)

2.) Towel dried for about 10 minutes before applying tea to my scalp (peppermint+green+black tea) & my deep conditioner: Aunt Jackie's Oh So Moisturizing Deep Conditioning Treatment. My room smelt like a super strong lavender perfume for the larger part of the evening! The scent is way too strong, I won't be using it again as a DC - perhaps as a pre-poo mixed with other stuff to lighten the scent...

3.) DC'd under my hooded dryer for 30 minutes

4.) Rinsed out the DC, my hair was feeling soft and moisturized up to 2 days after I washed my hair.

5.) Towel dried until my hair was 80% dry. Sectioned into 6, detangled, and then applied my leave-ins: L-ApHogee Green Tea & Keratin Restructurizer + L-Herbal Essences Touchably Smooth Split End Protector  + C- Shea butter.

6.) Plaited 6 twists and flung on my wig the next day, the amount of growth is not making it so pleasant to style my hair. 

How was your wash day ladies? How do you prep for your relaxer day?

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New product haul from Sizzelle

Product junkie tendencies??

I ordered all these products all the way from NG, I do not know if I can find them anywhere else on our beloved continent! I am so excited, its like hair heaven here! First DC that I will try is Hairveda, so many of the blog sistas I follow use this product, I hope it works for me too :)

Will give updates as I try each product...

Thanks Sizzelle (www.sizzelle.com) for your online store, great customer service if anyone is looking for a good & reliable online store...

4

Wash day: 13 weeks post & tackling breakage

My last wash day was great especially because my first ever roller set came out well... My new growth was actually stretched compared to the sponge it is today :-/ I am running out of patience and I'll be surprised if I last another week before relaxing my hair.

I noticed more breakage than usual during my last wash day and did a protein treatment again this week, thanks to the ladies who suggested this last week :)

0.) Pre-pood for an hour by: oiling my scalp with my castor oil mix & applying coconut oil to the length of my hair. I layered with Mega Growth leave-in conditioner (a protein leave-in).

1.) Shampoo'd with CON Argan Oil Moisture & Shine Shampoo (this is probably my staple shampoo until I get a better deal, and I am not looking for one at the moment). Lathered once, and then again with Keracare Detangling Shampoo (as it has less of the unwanted chemicals such as parabens that CON has).

2.) Towel dried for about 10 minutes before applying my deep conditioner: Dr Miracles Damaged Hair Treatment + castor oil + glycerin (I did not measure these but probably 1.5 tbsps of each).

3.) DC'd under my steamer for 30 minutes

4.) Rinsed out the DC, my hair was feeling so soft, I doubt whether the hydrolized protein in this DC is effective (it is number 16 on the ingredient list)...

5.) Towel dried until my hair was 80% dry. Sectioned into 6, detangled, and then applied my leave-ins: L-ApHogee Green Tea & Keratin Restructurizer + O-OGX Anti-breakage serum  + C- Shea butter.

6.) Wrapped my hair (which was very soft at this point) and the next day, my new growth was as coily as a sponge, completely reverted! However, my ends were still breaking more than normal.

Results:

My ends are almost at a point of no return at the moment and I do not know what I did for them to become like this. Which is so dissappointing because this is how I lose length ***tears*** I moisture and seal almost daily, I do DCs weekly, I almost never keep my ends out... I hope I can find the cause of this problem soon enough.

I need to do some damage control soon, probably after my relaxer though. At this point I do not think another protein treatment will revive these  ends..

Anyway, here is my attempted protective low-manipulation style (unfortunately I have to redo it every day, I am still learning how to make these flat twists last longer).

How do you keep your ends healthy ladies? Hope you had a great wash day!

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Recap on my box braids

Hi ladies

I recently took out my box braids, a 4-week long protective style. During this time, I still took care of my hair, almost as often as I would when my hair is not in a long-term protective style. This is the first time that I actually took care of my hair while it was in braids - before I would just leave my hair, spray a braid spray once in a while, and take them out after 6-8 weeks. 

I have seen the benefits from taking care of my hair while it was in braids. The shedding and breakage was much less than it used to be before I started my healthy hair journey.

Here is a recap of what I did during the 4 weeks:

Week 1: 
1.) Moisturized my braids daily with my DIY spray. I mixed 1 cup Tressemme moisturizing conditioner + 2 tbsp glycerin + few drops peppermint oil & rosemary oil + 1 cup aloe vera juice + 1 cup water (you can see that the water content is quite high because the conditioner that I used was very thick, so I needed to dilute it so that it would spray well on my hair). Sealed with my coconut oil mix.
2.) Scalp oil massaged every 3 days with my JBCO mix.
3.) Dry shampoo'd with ORS Dry Shampoo Herbal Cleanse. Sprayed CON 2-in-1 leave in conditioner afterwards.

Week 2:
1.) Moisturized my braids daily with my DIY spray & sealed with my coconut oil mix.
2.) Scalp oil massaged every 3 days with my JBCO mix.
3.) Washed my braids using journey to waist length's method. I used MegaGrowth Stimulating shampoo.
4.) Deep conditioned with Skin Dr Argan Oil moisturizing conditioner under my hooded dryer for 20 minutes. Sprayed CON 2-in-1 leave in conditioner afterwards.

Week 3:
1.) Moisturized my braids every other day with my DIY spray, & sealed with my coconut oil mix.
2.) Scalp oil massaged every 3 days with my JBCO mix.
3.) Washed my braids using journey to waist length's method. I used CON Sulphate-free Moisturizing shampoo. Sprayed CON 2-in-1 leave in conditioner afterwards.


Week 4:
1.) Moisturized my braids every other day with my DIY spray, & sealed with my coconut oil mix.
2.) Scalp oil massaged every 3 days with my JBCO mix.

I am yet to do a relaxer to see whether I have been able to retain length over this period. However, I have definitely seen an improvement in thickness, but somehow my hair is a bit fragile and breaking a bit. I will keep on doubling up with a protein+moisturizing treatment until I feel that it is balanced enough to handle a relaxer.

I also enjoyed trying different styles on my braids, just to break the routine of tying them in a bun or leaving them out:

How do you take care of your hair when it is in long-term protective styles?

3

Wash day: Protective style out, Roller set in - 12 weeks post

I had really missed the ability to run my hands through my hair, so after 4 weeks of having box braids I decided to do away with them (will post an update on my box braids soon...)

They really helped as I was on a beach holiday for about 2 weeks of that time - can't imagine having to swim with my hair, the tangles and matting that would have happened are unimaginable.

Anyway here is how the wash day went:

0.) Detangled using my oil mix which I usually use for sealing. The shredded hair came out so easily. 

1.) Pre-poo'd with profectiv mega growth leave in and sealed with my castor oil mix.

2.) Clarified with Profectiv mega growth stimulating shampoo (a review on this will be coming soon). Lathered twice.

3.) Lathered once with Creme of Nature moisturising shampoo.

4.) Towel dried for 10 minutes.

5.) Applied ORS hair mayonnaise mixed with some castor oil and DC'd in my new hooded dryer for 30 minutes.

6.) Rinsed it out and then applied tea mix to my scalp. I did not rinse it out.

7.) Applied my moisturizing DC: mix of Kenra Moisturizing conditioner,CON Intensive Conditioning Treatment and some castor oil. Steamed for 10-15 minutes. Kudos to the inventor of the steamer :-))

8.) Towel dried for 1 hour. I've realised that I lose less hair when it is 60-80% dry than when I handle it when it is still damp, and my low porosity hair takes forever to air dry :-(

9.) Applied my leave-ins: Today I tried Nothing but Melted Shea butter and ApHogee green tea and Keratin Restructurizer. Detangled in six sections. Applied CHI Silk Infusion to my sectioned hair, as I was going to go under the dryer with my roller set.

10.) Time to do a roller set... I used Kim from fancy flair lady's Mohawk method :)

11.) When Kim said it takes her about an hour to put on the rollers I thought I could definitely hack it and maybe put them on in less than 30 minutes!!! Shock on me it took my 1.5 hours to put them in, Will I put rollers in my hair again? I want to say No. Do I want to put rollers in my hair again? Oh yes!

12.) Sat in my hooded dryer on medium heat for 25 minutes.

13.) Removed the rollers.

14.) Results:

15.) Tucked my hair in bun the next day. 

My hair (except for my new growth) was really soft and smooth for up to two days after my wash day so I'm pleased with the results of Kenra+CON+Castor Oil moisturizing treatment... Overall I was happy with the wash day but my ends suffered a beating from the heat of the roller set - my hair really hates direct heat of any sorts! I had frizzy ends the next day, but used the baggy method to get them back to normalish.

I am now 13 weeks post, and I have also had a lot of problems with shedding and some breakage at my ends. I need to decide whether the next day will be a relaxer day or not, but I think I'll have to do something before I experience more breakage... What do you think ladies, and how was your wash day?

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