Wash Day: September 17, 2013

Happy Hump Day!


Welp. The Havana twists are out. They were starting to look raggedy and I couldn't take it anymore. So I got to work...and about an hour later, that Marley hair was in a pile beside me.

Marley hair all in a pile

I can't lie. It felt great to run my hands through my hair again. I was also low key excited about this wash day. It's funny how sometimes wash days can be so tedious but when you hide your hair for awhile, you yearn for another wash day. Life is funny in that way. Anyway, I knew this wash day would be some work because I am 19 weeks post (I will be 20 weeks post this Saturday). So in addition to all the shed hair that I have to remove, I have some serious, serious new growth to deal with as well. For that reason, I don't plan on manipulating my hair much after wash day either. My hair will be plaited for a half wig and I will call it a day (SN: Leaving your hair alone is the best way to deal with long stretches. Constantly being in your hair will frustrate you. Trust me on this one). This will be my plan of action until the beginning of October.

My hair before I started my wash day
I started my wash day by coating my hair in Tresemme Naturals Moisturizing Conditioner (you know..the condish I wasn't all that impressed with but still had a huge bottle of it in my cabinet?), detangling my hair with my wide tooth bone comb, and prepooing for 4 hrs (I had to go to practice and I didn't want to start the wash process and wind up having to stop midway). Following the prepoo,I proceeded to perform my post extensions wash routine. I washed my hair using the sulfate free KeraCare 1st Lather shampoo (clarifying shampoo--removes any dirt that may have accumulated while my hair was in extensions) and Shea Moisture Moisture Retention shampoo (to put moisture back into my hair. Even though it is sulfate free, that clarifying shampoo still strips my hair). Next, I applied Aphogee 2 Minute Keratin Reconstructor to my hair and got under my heat cap for 5 minutes since I wanted to give my hair some much needed strength. Then, I applied Aubrey Organics White Camellia conditioner to my hair and DCed for an hour and a half. I finished up my wash day by spraying Jane Carter Solution Revitalizing Leave In on my hair and detangling with Dacy's Botanicals Transitioning Creme (a must at this stage of my stretch). I then sealed my hair with coconut oil and place my hair in a ponytail to air dry.

Also, during this wash day, I did an impromptu length check, which you can see here. I'm thinking that I have hit MBL.


Today, I will do a search and destroy to find any splits and plait my hair for my half wig. I must say, it feels good to get back into the swing of things hair wise. After spending this summer in protective styles, I'm actually glad to see my hair and give it some TLC.

Wash Day: April 15, 2013

Or the "How I Wash at 13 weeks post and beyond"

I know this wash day post is a little late this week...I simply wasn't in a posting mood at the beginning of this week. But now, I finally got myself together and am back to posting.

I've recently realized that it has been 13 weeks (well 14 weeks come Friday), since my last relaxer! I really hadn't paid attention to my last relaxer date but when I realized that my new growth had become more prominent, I had to figure out how many weeks post I was and when to schedule my next relaxer day. Since I am so far gone into this stretching thing, I realized that now is the time to cut down on the manipulation to my hair until my next relaxer day. In my own hair care journey, I have seen that decreasing the amount of manipulation to your hair during a stretch helps soooooo much in decreasing any breakage. Notice I said I decrease the manipulation, I don't eliminate it completely. Nowadays, all the manipulation to my hair occurs only on wash day. The rest of the week, I put my hair in Celie plaits, pin them down, and wig it up. I will continue to do this until the first week in May-when I will get my next relaxer.

This wash day, I washed my hair with Shea Moisture Moisture Retention shampoo. I then DCed with Aubrey Organics GPB since I had used a moisturizing DC on my last wash day. Re-incoporating a protein DC into my reggie has been the best thing I could have done for my hair. Seriously. My hair has a certain strength to it that has been missing for awhile. Anyway, following the DC, I detangled my hair with my bone comb and moisturized my hair with Hairveda Whipped Ends. My hair absolutely LOVES this stuff (and you should see a review here soon)! I finished up by making six plaits, leaving out a small section to blend with my half wig, and pinning them down as flat as I can. I tied my hair up and was done with it.

How I keep my hair under a wig cap. No cornrowing..I'm not very good at it and I'm lazy. I also leave out a small braided section to blend into my half wig

My detangling bone comb. I love being able to comb my hair without my ends popping off.
In the morning, I woke up and put on my Outre Tammy half wig (I ordered a new one since that I had was about 2 yrs old....yeah). I absolutely love it. The week before, I wore Model Model Super Mingo- which is another great wig (check it out below!). I will be continuing this wig thing until my next relaxer.

Call Me Crazy But.....

I think I'm gonna extend my stretch by 4 weeks. I'll be 12 weeks post on Tuesday and I just don't feel the need to relax just yet. My new growth isn't particularly unruly and I'm wearing loose buns the majority of the time anyway. I'm gonna push it to 16 weeks (which will put me at 4 months post).

Gonna keep you guys posted! :)

To Relax or Not to Relax.....

Wow you guys it has been awhile since I last posted! I have been crazy busy with school...stressing out about presentations and everything. Plus my hair is in cornrows-which is pretty low maintenance so I haven't been experimenting with hair stuff as much.

Anyway, I have been debating if I should relax my hair after I take this set of cornrows out or wait until I take my next set out. I can't call it. I feel like I'm ready for one. If I do it, it will probably be done early to mid August and I will be six months post. I definitely feel like that is a long enough stretch. Plus, my hair has been in protective styles since April. I kinda want a break so that I can wear my hair down for 1 day.

I dunno. Who would've thought that deciding to get a relaxer would be so difficult!

How I Went from Relaxing Every 4 Weeks to Relaxing When It Is Actually Necessary

Hey everyone! Happy Monday!

**This post may be of particular interest to beginning stretchers and possibly early transitioners (or those who may be thinking about it!)**


Today, I actually "washed' my twists (not with dry shampoo either) and now I'm sitting here DCing and thinking about my hair journey. It is hard to believe that a little over 2 years ago, I would relax my hair every 4 weeks faithfully. Shocking isn't it!? All because some stylist told me that with my hair type, I needed to. I was young, gullible, and assumed that surely the stylist knew what she was talking about. So I would relax every 4 weeks and over the course of 4 years, my hair broke off--badly. Fast forward to now. It is now May and my last relaxer was in February and I don't plan to relax anytime soon. So how did I go from relaxing 12 times a year to relaxing 3 or 4 times a year?

To help with these long, long ,long stretches, (aside from the constant deep conditioning) I divorced myself from the idea that my hair has to be straight all the time. Annnd....I had to divorce myself from that idea fairly quickly (my hair was so damaged that I couldn't even think about putting a relaxer in until I handled my massive breakage situation). That resulted in my trying curly styles like bantu knot outs and flexirod sets. I found that when your hair is curly, you aren't obsessing about all that new growth that is coming in and how you're going to handle it or how janky you look because your ends are straight and your roots are puffy. It simply doesn't matter because all your hair is curly. Braids and wigs are a big help too because it means that you don't have to directly deal with your hair all the time.

Now when I hit 4 weeks post, 6 weeks post, 10 weeks post, it doesn't even phase me. I just determine what which style will help me best not focus on the new growth that is there! That's progress!

Short Hair+ Stretching=???

Happy Sunday!

As promised, I am writing a blog about how I stretch my relaxers 13 weeks. I know it sounds impossible, but trust me it can be done. This blog might be a little lengthy but I do different things at different stages of my stretch.

Weeks 1-8: My hair is pretty easy to deal with at this point. I basically do the following:

1) Wash hair and DC hair 1x/week

2) Wet wrap my hair and sit under hooded dryer for 1.5 hours

3) Flat iron

4) Wrap and cover with silk bonnet at night/ moisturize when necessary

Weeks 9-13: Between weeks 8 and 9 my new growth decides to really make itself known. It is really thick and impossible to deal with while it is dry. For that reason I have 2 options.

Option 1: Flexirod set (this can be really time consuming!)

1) Wash and DC hair 1x/week

2) Set my hair on flexirods using Kinky Curly spiral spritz (takes about an hour)

3) Sit under hooded dryer for 2 hours

4) Remove flexirods and style hair

5) Cover with bonnet at night/ moisturize when necessary

**Note: I love flexirod sets, I really do. They take so much time though! However, once you have your curls in, you can do a fro-hawk, a puff, or even a fro. I love the versatility of it!**

Option 2: Wig it up!! ( Yes what you see is a wig)

1) Wash and DC hair as needed

2) Oil scalp with Wild Growth Oil ( helps me get through the new growth)

3) Flat twist my hair (I usually make 6 really sloppy twists)

4) Place wig cap on top of twists

5) Put on wig and go!

**Note: I love this option! You are able to take care of your hair but not necessarily be worried about your hair looking a mess. Believe it or not, wigs can look really natural and are a perfect stretching style*

That is pretty much how I stretch. As a matter of fact, my most current stretch will end Aug.1. Next blog, I will write about wigs--what wig to chose, how to wear them...everything!