Relaxer Day & Length Check: No. 2 of 2015!

This post is long overdue, but better late than never. This is my second relaxer for the year. I texlaxed my hair at 18 weeks post relaxer on 1 August 2015, my longest stretch to date.. It was abit difficult to part my hair with all the new growth as I applied the relaxer, but I would like to try a 20-week stretch again and see if I can improve on my relaxing technique. I have definitely found that my hair thickened up a bit, and I think that this relaxer stretch came with more benefits than disadvantages for my hair. This is how it went down:

0.) Parted my hair into four parts, spritzed with water & Kinky Curly Knot Today to detangle my hair gently. This took about 1.5 hours, YES 1.5 hours,  handling new growth is alot of work! Slept after doing this and decided to continue the next morning.
1.) The next morning, I applied Vaseline to my scalp, edges and ears.
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 mixed 2 teaspoons of olive oil into the relaxer I used for each half. 
- It took me 18 minutes to apply+smooth my left half, and 20 minutes for my right half which always seems to have more growth than the left half. 
- I smoothed my edges more than I usually do, because I wanted to try more hairstyles that look better with smooth edges.
4.) Rinsed the relaxer and shampoo'd with Elast QP Stop Action Shampoo. It took about 40 25 minutes to get the lather from the shampoo to turn white! This time I thoroughly rinsed the relaxer as much as possible before using the shampoo. I then washed & kept the shampoo 3 times in my hair for 5, 5 & 10 minutes. Shout out to Kim of fancyflairlady.com for giving me this tip in my last relaxer post, it definitely reduced the amount of time I spent removing the relaxer from my hair.
5.) Applied ApHogee 2-minute Keratin Restruturizer, and left it in my hair for about 10 minutes (I did this step after rinsing and shampooing each half)
6.) Rinsed and applied my DC: Silk Dreams Vanilla Silk Cream Moisture Dream. I still love this DC, but I keep it for the first few weeks after relaxing, so that I can get more uses out of it than when my hair has lots of new growth.
7.) Sat under the dryer for 25 minutes, and then I rinsed the DC out with warm water.
8.) T-shirt dried my hair for 20-25 minutes, and then detangled each of 4 sections with Kinky Curly Knot Today + OGX Anti-breakage serum. 
9.) Wrapped my hair after detangling using some ORS Wrap Mousse, and then sat under my hooded dryer for 30 minutes on warm heat setting. My hair was not fully dry so I combed it out and left it out to air dry.

10.) 2 days later, I flat ironed with my BabyLiss Flat Iron in sections. This time I only applied Olive Oil & Mizani Thermastrength Heat Protector to 4 sections of my hair & ends before flat-ironing. The last time I flat-irond my hair, I used CHI Silk Infusion and I did not like how thin it made my hair feel, maybe I used too much I don't know..

Overall I am happy with the results, my hair was a bit more relaxed than how I wanted in some areas, so I know that I need to cut down the application + smoothing time for next time.

Length Update: I have not retained any length since my last relaxer, as I trimmed/dusted about 3 inches off during this stretch :-(. I am trying to get rid of thin ends, and I actually like how my hair is looking a bit thicker than my last length check pic. I hope to grow & retain 2 inches for this stretch which I aiming for 20 weeks.

Have I reached APL yet? Grazing APL: YES, at least this time more of my hair is reaching line #4 which is the APL line on my length check t-shirt! Woohoo, I am really excited for the remaining part of the year, I am hoping for more volume to my hair more than anything else. I just love big hair! Then the length can follow :-)

Excuse the poor quality pic, iPhone camera is still not as good as a DSLR!

Hope you had a good wash day!