Wash day & Final Length check for the year

It has been an awfully long time since I did a wash day post. This is the first wash day post since my 11-week protective style stretch. For the few weeks since I removed my crochet braids, I co-washed on most wash days with my new Co-wash As I Am. I like it very much because my scalp always feels clean, it never feels like there is residue remaining after doing a co-wash with this product. So I give it a thumbs up.

The last wash day happened over two days..

Day 1:
0.) Detangled in sections with olive oil, and then pre-poo'd with my Aussie Moist Conditioner for 20 minutes. At 19 weeks, my new growth is giving me a lot of trouble, detangling took a long time and despite this, I still had a few knots to deal with afterwards!
1.) Shampoo'd with Creme of Nature Moisture & Shine Sulphate-free Shampoo.
2.) Tea Rinse with Black tea leaves mixed with Rooibos tea. I left the tea in my hair for about 10 minutes and then applied a conditioner on top of it to make my hair easier to rinse.
3.) Applied Tressemme Ultra Moisturizing Conditioner and waited for about 2 minutes before I could rinse it out.
4.) Towel-dried for a few minutes before applying my DC mix: Neutrogena Triple Silk + Keracare Humecto + Olive Oil.
5.) I Deep conditioned overnight, as my hair was really needing some moisture. The weather has become hot and dry here, and my hair has followed the weather patterns with dryness. 

Day 2:
6.) Next morning, I rinsed the DC and t-shirt dried for a few minutes. This overnight DC helped so much, I could tell the difference in how my hair felt for a few days after the wash day.
7.) Sectioned my hair in 4 and applied Kinky Curly Knot today to the roots and length of my hair. This helped a lot in detangling and remove some knots and tangles.
8.) Applied Shea Moisture Transitioning Milk to each section as my leave-in, and sealed with Olive Oil
9.) In the evening, I sprayed each of 6 sections of my hair with my new Tressemme Heat Tamer Spray.
10.) I then blow dried using the brush-chase method on low heat. I used my new Denman brush to do this. This really helped to stretch my new growth, and I blow dried in small sections to make the brush pass through my hair as easy as possible. Warning: Your hair must be thoroughly detangled before you try this method, or you may rip your hair by forcing the brush through it!


11.) I proceeded with my flat iron, applying the IC Fantasia Serum to each of my sections, with literally 1 drop of the serum for each section, to avoid my hair from being too weighed down by the serum.
12.) I started flat ironing with the comb-chase method, but it was causing too much breakage for me, at the point where the two textures of my hair meet. So I stopped and continued using the normal method of flat ironing.
13.) I applied the Olive Oil Glossing Polisher, and I love both the ORS Polisher and IC Fantasia Serum! My hair had a natural shine, and was not weighed down by these products. I love the scent of the ORS Polisher too!
14.) After doing both sides, my right side (the first side that i flat ironed) had already reverted, especially the new growth at the crown area...sighh.
15.) Here comes the length check....

Honestly, I am very proud of myself, for this achievement. I wanted to look at this picture above even with the bad ends, because I still believe it is progress. So I celebrate the good things that I have achieved (in a separate post), but for now I can say that I am happy with the health and I will keep improving as I go along. 

I decided to trim away some of those ends, which looked unattractive. I also decided to do it at a salon, and I made it very clear that ONLY the ends needed to be removed. The lady took my brief very well and did a pretty decent job. 

Here is the after pic:

My hairline has improved significantly, and the V-shape that I so much dread is slowly disappearing so I am happy and grateful for this progress. I am back to Armpit length, but I would rather have that with a full hairline than hang on to ends that I will have to let go of at some point in the future.

I am not yet done with those ends, but I wanted to remove them gradually. I will assess them again after my next relaxer retouch, I am not sure when that will be with all the festivities happening right now.

I will do a detailed post reviewing my first year on this healthy hair journey, lessons learnt, etc.

Hope you had a good wash day, and remember to celebrate the good things about your hair :-)