Hair Update & Dry Scalp Remedies

I am currently 7 weeks post-relaxer... I have been in my crochet braids for the last 4 weeks and I have absolutely enjoyed having this style on. I have experimented with it and quite a number of styles have worked really well!

The latest style I have tried is a simple blow-out. I simply made use of my denman brush to brush the curls out, and this was the result...

Since starting this healthy hair journey, I have learnt the importance of taking care of my hair even while it is in a protective style. This is what I usually do to my hair:

1.) Moisturize: I have been using this moisture spritz that I recently bought from the cosmetic store. I am loving it so far, but because of the dry season, I can feel that my hair is a bit dryer than I would like. I sometimes spray my hair with a watered down conditioner mix for an additional moisture effect.

2.) Scalp massage: I do this at least three times a week. When my scalp is dry, a little bit of castor oil + peppermint oil + rosemary oil always does the trick. When my hair is not in a protective style, I also like using a peppermint tea rinse which makes my scalp feel fresh and relaxed!

3.) Dry shampoo: I know that many ladies prefer  not to wet their hair when in a protective style, but I cannot go for more than two weeks without my scalp feeling itchy. The oil scalp massages also require a clean scalp for maximum effectiveness. So I use my ORS Dry Shampoo and alternate with a "full" wash every other week.

4.) "Full" wash: I mix Creme of Nature Sulfate Free Shampoo with lots of water, and spritz the mix onto my scalp and hair. I make sure to rinse it out thoroughly before applying a conditioner that will stay in my hair for less than 5 minutes.

What do you to keep your scalp clean during protective styling?

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Wash day with aPhogee 2-step & Avo Masque

Because of exam preps, I have only been washing my hair every 10 days, but thanks to great moisturizers + moisturizing Deep Conditioners i.e. Hairveda Sitrinillah, Keracare Humecto, Kenra, Silk Dreams I have not experienced any (eye-raising) breakage. My wash days have been pretty much the same since I relaxed my hair, except for the latest one where I tried something new:

0.) Pre-poo'd with Coconut Oil and Cantu Shea Butter Leave-in (yayy I have found a use for this product, the scent was too overbearing for me to use as a leave-in).
1.) Shampoo'd with my new sulfate-free clarifying shampoo, JBCO Shea Moisture Shampoo. I like it more than ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo (which is what I have been using as a clarifying shampoo), so I will be using this shampoo to clarify once a month.
2.) Towel dried for 5 minutes and quickly applied aPhogee 2-step protein on my hair and combed it out to make sure there were no tangles before the treatment dried out. After this I left my hair, no touching, no nothing for 15 minutes under my hooded dryer until it completely dried out.
3.) Stood under my shower for a few minutes as the treatment washed out, and applied aPhogee Balancing Moisturizer and Aussie Moist Conditioner to restore some moisture to my hair.
4.) Rinsed out the conditioners after 5 minutes and towel dried for 5 minutes.
5.) Deep Conditioned in dry heat for 15 minutes and without heat for 45 minutes with my homemade Avo Masque, see more info in this post.

6.) Rinsed the masque with warm water. Unfortunately this deep conditioning session went horribly bad. My hair was kind of locked and very hard after rinsing it out and I was not going to let Avocado give me a setback, so I accepted the situation and did everything I could to fix it, starting with another deep conditioning session.
7.) Overnight deep conditioned with a concoction of all the super moisturizing DC's I could find in my house: Hairveda Sitrinillah, Keracare Humecto, Kenra Moisturizing DC + 1 tbsp Castor Oil.

8.) Rinsed the DC thoroughly and t-shirt dried for 15 minutes before applying my leave-ins: L-Kinky Curly Knot Today (Great detangler!!) & O-OGX Anti-Breakage Serum.
9.) Carefully detangled my hair in 4 sections, and I was soo relieved that did not lose to much hair after that experience with the Avo.

9.) I have been blow drying my hair with the cool air setting (my blow dryer is so old that only the cool air setting works anyway lol). I have found that my hair looks better with less frizz when I blow dry, as compared to when I leave it to air dry.
10.) Plaited my hair into four plaits and flung on my wig, scalp massaged the next day with castor oil.

Other hairstyles that I have been trying in between my wash days:

Hope you had a great wash day!

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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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