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?