Wash Day & Relaxer Update!

This past Saturday I relaxed my hair at 8 weeks post. As always I went to my stylist. Here's what I did to prep leading up to my relaxer:

• 1 week prior used Nexxus Emergencee as a protein treatment.
• 1 day prior:
• Thoroughly detangled using my Mane N Tail Detangler
• Coated the length of my hair with the GVP Smoothing Serum
• Applied JBCO to my new growth and ends

These preventive steps help to protect my hair from relaxer run off. Here's how my visit to the salon went.

• My stylist thoroughly based my scalp
• Next she applied the Mizani Honey Shield to the length of my hair.
• She began applying the relaxer. My total processing time was 16 minues.
• After she thoroughly rinsed out the relaxer she applied the Pherphecting Creme Normalizing Conditioner for about 20 minutes.
• Lastly she shampooed my hair twice with the Balance Hair Bath Neutralizing and Chelating Shampoo.

I recieved a trim as I do every 4 months and got my hair flat ironed. This is normally the only time that I use direct heat. Overall I was pleased with my results. The biggest question for me was did I finally make it to Arm Pit Length?! Based on my length check picture below I believe that I did, however I believe that I am only grazing APL and am not full APL. Clearly I was having a my hair doesn't seem that long moment because based on the picture I've OFFICIALLY REACHED APL!!! **Throws Confetti** At first I was aggrivated with my progress until I looked at my progress pictures and realized that my hair is growing and while I'm not where I want to be I'm a lot closer than I was! With that said now that I've reached APL what's next? Don't worry I plan to dedicate an entire post to answering that question so stay tuned!

For more details check out my quick video!

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The Washday Experience | Relaxer Update!

So this wash day post will be a bit different for me because I didn't actually wash my hair myself. For those who are not familiar with  my relaxer routine I leave it all in the hands of my beloved stylist. I did however make sure I paid extra special attention to what was done so that I could share with you guys!

First let's talk about my relaxer day prep process...

• Even though I rocked a fabulous roller set for the first part of the week my scalp was super itchy (am I the only one who experiences that only on the week leading up to your relaxer?!) so in the name of caution I did a quick cowash and bunned my hair for the rest of the week.
• On Friday afternoon I detangled using my Mane N Tail Detangler (shout out to Divachyk for giving me the idea to try this). I also applied JBCO to my scalp and new growth, but did not massage it in as I didn't want to risk irritating my scalp.

• After my detangling session I moisturized my hair in sections using my Giovanni Direct Leave In and sealed each section with a bit of my GVP smoothing serum (equivalent to the Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum).

Overall my hair felt super soft and moisturized and quite frankly it hadn't felt like that in weeks. To put it simply, this stretch SUCKED. I believe it all started with a new product that I tried and my hair never seemed to get back on track again. I plan to cautiously give that product, which shall remain nameless for now another shot before I ban it from my hair forever. Either way between this last bout of winter and more shedding and tangles than normal I was happy to put an end to this stretch. Despite all of my hardships I did experience a bit of a growth spurt which was confirmed by my stylist! Now onto the actual relaxer day.

• Per usual my stylist assessed the state of my hair making sure nothing was out of the norm (breakage etc.) She also likes to keep an eye on my problem area (my crown since I experienced breakage in that area from not detangling properly last year).
• She then based my scalp thoroughly and proceeded to apply my nomral relaxer of choice, the Mizani Butter Blends Sensitive Scalp formula. I love how gentle this relaxer is.
• The total processing time was about 17-18 minutes. She noticed that I definitely had more new growth than I normally do (Whoop whoop!).
• After rinsing out the relaxer she applied the Mizani Moisturefuse to my hair (this stuff smells amazing by the way) for about 20 minutes or so.
• Lastly she neutralized my hair with the Mizani Phormula 7 Neutralizing and Chelating shampoo. She always shampoos twice to make sure all remanents of the relaxer are gone.
• Since I was not getting a trim she applied a bit of the Keracare Foam wrap and some of some sort of Mizani oil that I forgot to get the name of and roller set my hair. 

Overall it was a great relaxer day experience and based on an unoffiical length check I'm almost certain I've reached APL! I'm not doing an official length check until May so you'll have to wait until then for confirmation! How was your wash day?

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Wash Day...Back To The Basics!

In the name of using up products I somehow managed to get away from the wash day process that has always worked best for my hair. Well this wash day that came to an end and I got back to the basics! Here's how it went:

• Applied my Tropical Isle Red Pimento Oil to my scalp and gently massaged it in for about 2-3 minutes.
• Deep conditioned on dry hair with my Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner and my One N Only Argan Oil Deep Restorative Masque on my ends for a shot of protein for about 20 minutes using my heating cap.
• Rinsed and applied my As I Am Coconut Cowash to my scalp *newbie alert* 
  
• Rinsed and applied my PMSSDT to the length of my hair for 1-2 minutes.
• Did a final rinse and wrapped my hair in a t-shirt for about 20 minutes.
• Applied my leave ins using the LOC method (Chi Keratin Mist, Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum, Kimmaytube Leave In). 
• Sat under my dryer for about 25 minutes using the cool setting. 

Style: This past week I made the most of my flat ironed hair and wore my hair down almost every day and loved it since I don't get to do that often. Of course it was time to get back to protective styling because I've got goals to reach! This week's style was super simple AND I even recorded a tutorial for it *Yay!* I created a cute full high bun using kanekalon hair for added fullness. I promise to post the tutorial to the blog once it airs on my Youtube channel!

How was your wash day?






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Relaxer Update, Length Check Sneak Peek, & Edges Update!

This past weekend I got a relaxer at 8 weeks post. As I've mentioned before I am currently not a long term stretcher yet ironically enough I still had a ton of new growth! I guess I can credit that to my consistent protective styles and continuous application of my JBCO. Overall my salon experience was awesome as it always is. My stylist is phenomenal and together we've helped my hair to make a complete turn around from where it was a little less than 1.5 years ago! As usual I used the Mizani Butter Blends Sensitive Scalp relaxer. I've been using this relaxer system for the year and a half and have had nothing, but great results! This relaxer always leaves a bit of texture in my hair and never leaves my hair feeling dry or like straw. In case you couldn't tell I LOVE the Mizani Butter Blends relaxer system.
Also, you guys may remember me mentioning my personal edges growth challenge that I created for myself after removing my senegalese twists. My edges are coming along nicely and although they aren't where I'd like for them to be they are certainly well on there way!

Now let's get to the good stuff...Pictures!

Based on the measurements of myself and the boo I'm only about 1/2 inch away from officially reaching APL!!! Length check comparison pictures will be coming next week! For more info about my relaxer update check out my video below!

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Totally Twisted (Part 4) | How To Safely Remove A Braid Install

Here's part 4 of my Braid series! In this video I give tips (hopefully helpful) as well as demonstrate how I safely remove my braid install. I will also have a pictorial of sorts coming soon showing how I removed my Senegalese twists as well!

Wash Day!

 After reading tons and tons of wash day posts while rocking my Senegalese twists I finally am back to doing my own wash day posts! Don't worry though I do have a video and pictorial of sorts showing how I removed my Senegalese twists. 

So after the long process of removing my braid install (the next day) I began my wash day process which went rather well if I do say so myself.

• Detangled (FOREVER) using my Up and Up Spray Detangler from Target and a bit of coconut oil making sure to remove as much shed air as possible. Of course the amount hair was much more because of my 8 week braid install. 
• Prepooed with a mix of my GVP Moisturizing Conditioner, coconut oil, and JBCO under my heating cap for about 20 minutes.
• Shampooed with my beloved Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo. 
• Deep Conditioned with my Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner (Newbie Alert!), which I sealed in with a mixture of grapeseed oil and EVOO. I sat under my heating cap for about 30 minutes.
• Applied my leave ins which were a bit of my Kimmaytube Leave in Mix and GVP smoothing serum.
• Dried my hair using my salon dryer for about 1 hour on a medium cool setting.
• Finger detangled to remove any remaining shed hairs.
• Moisturized and sealed using my Giovanni Direct Leave in, coconut oil, and JBCO for my ends. 

Left: Hair lost post wash. Right: Hair lost prewash. 

After finally finishing I looked at my 11 weeks post hair and tried to figure out what I was going to do with it for the week until I visit my stylist next Saturday! My hair felt so soft, but honey my roots were on another level! After a bit of thinking I remembered the pack of braid hair I'd purchased a few weeks ago and decided to try my hand at Goddess/milk maid braids. My plan is to rock this style all week until it's time to go to the salon. Of course if my hair starts to feel thirsty I will cowash and restyle. Here are the final results. What do you guys think? 

Dear Hair....I Miss You!

So over the last few weeks I've been reading tons of wash day posts (which are my favorite types posts by the way!) and each time I read about someone's wash day it makes me miss the heck outta my hair! The oddest part about all of this is I decided to get a temporary long term protective style to give myself and my hair a break from each other and now of course I'm missing my hair like crazy. I'm seriously counting down the days until I take my Senegalese twist install down. I'm planning to remove my braid install on the weekend of November 16th and since my hair is thriving and moisturized I will stick with that plan. For now I'm living vicariously through every wash day post and lovingly feeling my super soft and moisturized new growth to help deal with my slight case of seperation anxiety. On another note the next part of my Braid regimen series (Totally Twisted Part 2) will be up this weekend. Stay tuned!

Product Review: Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Moisture Retention Shampoo

Price: $7.99 (On sale). The normal price is $9.89 with a Beauty Club Card

Place of Purchase: Sally's Beauty Supply

Ingredients: Deionized Water , Decyl Glucoside (Sugar Beets) , African Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) , Aloe Vera Leaf Juice , Argan Oil , Panthenol (Provitamin B5) , Rosemary Extract , Sea Kelp Extract , Vitamin E , Lonicera Caprifolium Flower Extract (Honeysuckle) , Lonicera Japonica Flower Extract (Japanese Honeysuckle)
Directions: Apply shampoo to wet hair and wash until scalp and hair are completely clean. Rinse thoroughly with warm water.

Promises: Shea Moisture Retention Shampoo cleans hair and repairs strands. Hydrates, smoothes and repairs strands, leaving hair manageably soft. A great shampoo for dry, damaged hair.

My Thoughts: I actually tried this product about a year ago and HATED it. I'm not sure what went wrong, but my hair felt dry and so I decided to give it away to my honey bunny's sister since she loved it. Fast forward a year later after hearing rave reviews on youtube and practically everywhere else I decided to give it another try. I still love my beloved Hair One, but I needed something that could give my scalp a deeper cleasning without stripping my hair. I'm so glad I decided to give this Shea Moisture Shampoo another chance. It leaves my scalp feeling squeaky clean, but also leaves my hair super soft and moisturized at the same time! Of course the fact that this product is sulfate and paraben free and contains some great natural ingredients only sweetens the deal. I've found the best way to apply this product is diluted with water in an applicator bottle. This allows me to focus solely on my scalp and also helps the product to last a bit longer. Overall this is a great product that I would recommend to anyone.

Relaxer Update #6!

As promised here's my relaxer update video! Next week my official 1 year length check video will be up! I can't wait to share with you guys and show you the progress that I've made!

Quick Cowash!

 Ok so first of all I'm sorry I've been kind of MIA the past two weeks, but I have a really good explanation. I went back home to spend some time with my family and when I came back apparently I brought a lovely summer cold right along with me :/

Anyway after a week of intense rest I'm finally starting to kind of feel like my old selft again. This past weekend I went to the salon and got my hair washed and conditioned so I didn't have to worry about dealing with it, but as usualy by Wednesday I couldn't take it any more. In my true exercise fashion as of lately I applied my One N' Only Argan Oil Hydrating Mask to my hair and deep conditioned while I power walked for an hour. When I got back I hopped in the shower and rinsed my hair and then followed up with hair one for about 30 seconds just to give my scalp a light cleansing. Lastly I applied my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily Treatment for about 3 minutes. After doing a final rinse I used a  t-shirt to soak up the excess water from my hair and then applied my leave ins using the LOC method (more details to come in a later post!). After this I air dried my hair. This morning I moisturized using my Giovanni direct leave in and sealed using a few drops of the proclaim oil (it was the only thing near by and I used to love this stuff so I figured it would hurt). Now my hair is happily in a neat little bun until Friday when I attempt my first flexi rod set in about 2 years! I'm excited and nervous about it, but I figure since I mastered rollersetting why not set my sights on mastering flexi rod sets?! Stay tuned...

Monday Morning Cowash

Since I'm working the 'graveyard' shift at work this week it left me with a lot of free time today to do some chores around the house, exercise, and cowash my hair. This morning I decided to take advantage of this ridiculously humid weather we've been having by going power walking around my neighborhood. Before I left I applied my oil mix of EVOO, grapeseed oil, and coconut oil to my scalp and to the length of my hair. I then dampened my hair with water and applied my Silk Elements Kera Minerals DC to my hair. I placed a shower cap and satin scarf over my hair and went on with my exercise routine. When I got back home I was soaked and I could tell that my hair had gotten a really good deep conditioning treatment.

I hopped in the shower and rinsed my hair thoroughly with warm water. After squeezing the excess water out of my hair I applied some of my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily treatment to my hair and allowed it to sit while I showered. Once I finished I did a final rinse with cool water and then wrapped my hair in a cotton t-shirt to soak up the excess water. About 30 minutes later I removed the t-shirt and spritzed both my scalp and the length of my hair with my Chi Keratin mist. I then applied about a quarter sized amount of my kimmaytube leave-in w/ a twist and a dime sized amount of my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum and allowed my hair to air dry for about 3 hours while I did random chores around the house and caught up on my tv shows.

Next I detangled my hair in four sections using my fingers and then applied my Giovanni Direct Leave in and sealed with coconut oil. I applied my Liquid Gold sulfur based growth oil and JBCO to my scalp and gently massaged it in. Lastly I sealed my ends with a tiny drop of JBCO to lock in the moisture and voila I was done! Since I will be working odd hours this week my hair plans will be limited to bunning and a mid-week cowash! Here's the final product!

Lazy Wash Day

So Tuesday evening my hair was desperately in need of a wash, but I swear for the life of me I just didn't feel like going through my normal steps (hot oil treatment, detangling, tea spritz, deep conditioning, hair one, towel dry, blah blah blah!). I seriously sat there and contemplated just skipping the wash day all together, but I did not like the way my hair was feeling and I knew ignoring it would do more harm than good. Instead I sucked it up and decided to cut my wash day process in half by skipping most of the steps. Here's what I did.

1. I parted my hair in 2 sections in stead of my normal 4 and oiled my scalp with my (EVOO and grapseed oil mixture).
2. Next I coated each of my two sections of hair with my oil mixture.
3. After that I spritzed each section of my hair with water and then applied my moisturizing conditioner (a mixture of my Silk Elements Kera Minerals DC and the Silk Dreams Vanilla silk DC).
4. I sat under my heated conditioning cap for about 10 minutes and then hopped in the shower and rinsed my hair.
5. I wrapped my hair in my turbie twist for about 15 minutes and then let my hair air dry for about an hour.
6. It was still damp, but I went ahead and lightly detangled each section and moisturized and sealed with my Giovanni Direct Leave and coconut oil.

When I woke up the next morning my hair was fully dry and felt so soft and moisturized. I've been rocking a bun just like this since then!

Washday Fun

So as much as I've been enjoying my 1 week post hair it was definitely time to wash and deep condition it. Here's what I did...

1. I applied my oil mix (grapeseed, olive, and coconut oil) to my hair in 4 sections and sat under my gold n hot conditioning cap for about 10 minutes. 
2. Next I detangled each section with my hercules Sagemann comb.
3. I spritzed my hair with my CC's naturals Marshmallow & Burdock root tea (you can read my review here) focusing on my roots.
4. I then applied a mixture of my Silk Elements Kera Minerals DC, Silk Dream Vanilla Silk DC, with a splash of glycerin and a squirt of my oil mix mentioned above. 
5. Next I sat under my conditioning cap for about 20 minutes and then hopped in the shower and thoroughly rinsed my hair. 
6. I applied hair one to my scalp and the length of my hair and left it on for about 1 minute and then rinsed.
7. After squeezing the excess water from my hair I wrapped it in my turbie twist for about 30 minutes while I did odd chores around the house. 
8. I applied my leave ins (Kimmaytube leave in mix w/ a twist and some GVP Paul Mitchell Skinny serum).
9. I tied a satin strip around my edges and allowed my hair to air dry (I didn't have time to sit under the dryer because Mother is coming to visit and I like to have my house spotless! yay!)
10. After my hair was about 80% dry I gently detangled my hair again and then applied my normal moisturizer (Giovanni Direct Leave in) and sealant (coconut oil).

Length Check #2!

So I'm totally late with my length check post. I apologize, but blame it on a growing crazy work schedule! This is my 4 month update. Overall I'm very happy with my progress although I think my growth cycle did slow down slightly, but I've recommitted to apply my JBCO on a regular basis. I definitely did not stick with it the way I should have during my last stretch! Check out the pictures and the video :)

Wednesday's Wash Day!

Another Wednesday another washday! As most of you know my wash day routine has not changed much recently well because it works! My wash days on Wednesday are all about moisture.

1. I parted my hair into 4 sections. I find this is the best way to deal with my hair on wash days.
2. After sectioning my hair I applied a mixture of random oils to each section. The mixture is random because I am working on using up some of my products.
3. I sat under my Gold N Hot conditioning cap for 10 minutes and the gently detangled each section with my shower comb.
4. I spritzed my CC's Marshmallow and Burdock root tea to each section (review coming soon).

5. I applied a mixture of my Silk Dreams Vanilla silk DC, silk elements kera minerals DC, and a squirt of roux porosity control to each section of hair and then sat back under my heating cap for another 15 minutes.

6. After thoroughly rinsing the conditioner out I applied hair one to my scalp as well as the length of my hair and allowed it to sit for about 5 minutes while I showered.
7. After a final rinse I squeezed out any excess water and then wrapped my hair in my turbie twist (that thing is a God send!). I usually leave my hair in the turbie twist for 30-45 minutes while I do random chores around the house. I find that by allowing my hair to dry until its just damp my leave ins can penetrate my hair better which gives me more soft and moisturized hair as a result!
8. After removing my turbie twist I applied about a quarter sized amount of my kimmaytube leave in with a twist and about a dime sized amount of my Paul Mitchell skinny serum (Sally's generic version)
9. Usually I'll sit under the dryer on cool setting for about 40 minutes but I really didn't feel like being bothered with it so I just tied a satin strip around my edges and let my hair air dry. I was left with soft supple moisturized hair!