I Finally Made My Decision

It is now 12.44am, NZ time and I'm going to try and make this post short.

I spent the past week deciding whether to go natural, texlaxed, or stay relaxed. I've been on an unintentional stretch for 5 months now (unintentional because I kept putting my hair in protective styles and didn't bother to relax). So after taking out my twists earlier this week, I noticed I had an incredible length of new growth. My new growth had grown to almost 3 inches, and the next few days was tough as I've had to wash-day through my textures. In addition to that, I also noticed I had texlaxed hair in between my natural hair and my bone-straight. So I had a decision to make - Relax all, cut off bone-straight and texlax all, or cut off bone-straight and texlaxed hair and go natural.

I rang up one of my hairdressers who advised me to texlax and possibly colour the ends of my hair and go roller-setting. I visited another hairdresser or mine who said colouring is a bad idea. My mother was against cutting my hair because in her words, "Don't you know your hair is your beauty!?". I went on YouTube and all the hair blogs possible to find type 4C bloggers who I can get as much info as possible from to make my decision. I was leaning more towards texlaxed and natural as my bone-straight hair appeared incredibly thin against my natural growth.

Long story short - I chose to stay relaxed. Why?

1. I am blessed with a head full of hair coming out of every hole on my scalp. For this reason, my new growth was incredibly thick difficult to comb unless I moisturized and conditioned continually. I thought to myself: If I was to go natural and it grew a couple of inches more, do I really have the time to struggle with it? The answer was no.

2. Flat-ironing. I know there are so many styles one can do with natural hair. However, I would love straight hair from time to time. So if I were to flat iron my natural hair from time to time, wouldn't the heat damage it? The answer was yes.

3. Tangling. Many naturals have noted that natural hair tends to tangle more. Knowing my fragile hair, I'm totally not ready to deal with tangles. Even so, my texlaxed has been tangling with my new growth and I don't like it.

4. Texlaxed - prone to different textures. They say to do a strand test if you want to go texlaxed so you can get texture consistency. I'm really afraid of this and it would be time-consuming if I were to do a "corrective relaxing" for when I don't get my textures right. Besides, again I have loads of hair so texlaxed which basically feels natural wouldn't be easy to deal with.


On these basis, I headed out to get my favourite relaxer - ORS No-Lye Relaxer in Normal strength...and so my relaxed hair journey continued.


Next post: Relaxer day regimen.

Texlax Journey

Back and energised to continue blogging! Whoop.

My relaxed hair got too much to deal with. It's so difficult to retain length on fragile 4c relaxed strands. So I've decided to go texlaxed.

How would I do that?
For every inch of new growth, I axe an inch of relaxed hair.

When will I apply relaxer to texlax?
After I achieve 2.5 inches of new growth. Due Date: October 10 (5 months post relaxer)


HAIR CARE REGIMEN

Wash day regimen (Saturday)

* Friday night: divide hair into 4 sections and apply Olive Oil to whole head using Roots Only applicator. Cover with a shower cap and go to sleep.

Saturday:

* Dilute Crème of Nature Moisturizing Shampoo with water and wash scalp.

* Tea rinse (1 bag each of green & black tea –warm) - prepare tea night before

* DC afterwards (add 2 spoons of Roux Porosity Control + Coconut oil to DC)

         Option 1: RPC + Coconut oil + ORS Replenishing conditioner

         Option 2: RPC + Coconut oil + Aphogee 2 min reconstructor + moisture mask

* Wash out and tshirt dry

* At 80% dry, apply Shea Moisture Leave In + Paul Mitchell Skinny serum

* Before bed, part into 4 sections to moisturize & seal

To tackle high porosity (sunk strand test): ACV rinse after DC.

When new growth is thick and noticeable: Co-wash during the week (Herbal Essence Moisturizing Condish) then DC with Aussie 3 minute deep conditioner

'If I have no time' DC: Aussie 3 minute deep conditioner

3 times a week

Moisturize (S-curl) and seal (Coconut oil or JBCO, preferably the latter)

Occasionally

Scalp massages with peppermint oil + jojoba oil

Once a month

Clarify (ORS Olive Oil Creamy Aloe Shampoo) and follow up with protein treatment (ORS Mayo or egg/mayo/honey/olive oil mix)

Texlaxing

Coat hair with oil, dilute relaxer with oil, apply normally, don’t smooth, leave for shorter time, use ORS lye relaxer in Mild/Normal strength.

Vitamins!!! Daily - take. Daily. take. Daily!


REMEMBER NO.1 RULE!!!!
Always check the moisture+protein balance of my hair. This is the MOST IMPORTANT part of a healthy hair journey.



Pictures!

Root to tip = thick to thin
Difference between my hair textures - 1 inch of new growth and the rest is relaxed.

Cleaning scalp and moisturizing: Diluted ACV + tooth brush, and more!

So I watched a couple of youtubers talk about how they maintain a clean scalp with braids on without using shampoo. I decided to use ACV to clean my scalp as I've got crochet on. I used:

* 2 glass cups of warm water
* 4 caps of ACV
* Medium bristle tooth brush


I dipped the brush in the mixture and scrubbed each line gently (I used that opportunity to tighten the crochet loops). I hope it works. I felt refreshed after the clean and itchiness stopped. But we'll see what happens in a few days!

Also, after cleaning a track, I applied my moisturizer (s-curl) and oil (coconut oil). Then I did a little trimming. And that's it! I'll be repeating these on my washdays.

Crochet is ON!

Crochet braiding is a GREAT protective style because your hair is secured underneath to minimize potential breakage from exposure. You can also moisturize your corn rows and clean your scalp whenever you require. So I've installed CROCHET braids to carry for 2-4 weeks.

I used Freetress Loose Deep. I've used these braids before for 'pick & drop' style and carried it for 2 months. I got compliments literally everyday AND the braids lasted (didn't tangle; kept its curls) which is unusual. Besides, it looked GORGEOUS in pictures. So I decided to bring back these feel good points by installing them again but this time, as crochet.

This will be MY FIRST TIME installing braids on myself (ain't nobody got money for hairdressers in this economy...). It literally took 2 days of fiddling with it to get it right. Here's the final look:

The same braids a year ago:

Learn how to CROCHET braid here

Protective styling: Bun with aloe vera gel finish

All you need:

Aloe Vera gel is optional.

My first co-wash!

This is out of the blue but remember I'm crocheting this week? So on Tuesday, I examined my scalp and when I noticed a little bit of dandruff, my next thought was co-washing. I wanted a clean scalp for crochet so that I won't have to start itching too early. I hear co-washing's advantage over shampoo is removing dandruff without drying. And I gotta say y'all, it's so true. It does wash dirt off while moisturizing the hair. I used Herbal Essences Hello Hydration Moisturizing Conditioner (for dry/damaged hair). I couldn't find one for normal hair but I don't think it made a difference.

This product smells DELISH. It felt nice, lathers great, turns out awesome. After wards, I blow dried my hair (instead of airdrying as I needed to corn row for crochet immediately), and applied leave-in conditioner. Then I applied S-curl moisturizer throughout and sealed with olive oil. I haven't used olive oil in a while (minus the egg treatment). My hair is now in cornrow.


P.S: That egg/olive/honey/mayo mixture I did last week works wonders! I haven't had breakage and shedding since! I noticed because as I was blow-drying and combing my hair after co-washing, nothing came out compared to how it was before doing the protein treatment. My ORS Mayo jar has also arrived. Loving them both.

Wash day 7/09: Eggs, Schwarzkopf Shampoo, & Flat Ironing

Three things I did differently in my wash routine today are: new shampoo, egg protein treatment, flat ironing.

NEW SHAMPOO

My goal: Clarifying

Product: Schwarzkopf Deep Nutrition Shampoo Shea Cashmere

Lathering: Moisturizing. I think it's OK for clarifying 'cuz it contains Sodium Laureth Sulfate (the stuff that CLEANS). And you'll feel that squeak when you step outta the shower.

Results: Great! But you have to detangle immediately before your hair dries out into tangles. Will use again.

PROTEIN TREATMENT

My last protein was 3 weeks ago & my hair felt that loss! Broke easily today! Thought I could rely ORS Replenishing Conditioner's lil protein. I'll revert to protein treatment 2ce a week now!


My protein mix: 
2 egg yokes
1 tbs of Mayo
2 tbs of honey
2 tbs of olive oil

Process: Applied to shampooed hair, wore plastic cap and sat under dryer for an hour or so. The mix isn't runny & the egg didn't cook lol thank God.

Results: Silky soft! Just like how my hair feels after using the ORS Mayo.

FLAT IRONING

After blow drying (with cold air), I decided to flat iron. I'm really skeptical about using heat on my fragile hair but I just really wanted to see how it looks before I install crochet this week. As always, I applied Tresemme's Heat Protectant and my friend flat ironned. And here's the final results!!

p.s: I DC'd after protein treatment. It's very important to soften the hair and restore moisture. Also applied leave-in afterwards. And that's a wrap!! I'll be installing crochet this week x