Happy Sunday lovelies!
I am typing this post super excited about my hair and my return to the blog. Now that I have a consistent regimen again, I find myself wanting to try new products (I am a product junkie after all!). This means more First Impressions posts, more style posts...just more posts period! It feels good to get back to my blog because I love sharing my discoveries about my hair with all of you!
This particular wash day actually started on Saturday and ended today. It also marks the second week in a row where I used a light protein treatment in my hair and my hair responded positively to it. My wash day started simply enough: I washed my hair with Elasta QP Creme Condtioning Shampoo. However, I happened to read the ingredients label and saw (to my complete shock and horror) that this formerly sulfate-free shampoo now has sodium laurel sulfate as the SECOND ingredient!! When the heck did this happen?!?! I hate when companies go out of their way to mess with a good thing. Fortunately, my hair wasn't stripped or anything after washing but in the future I will have to use shampoos that I know are sulfate-free (like Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo). I followed up my shampoo by placing Aphogee 2 Minute Keratin Reconstructor on my hair and sat under my heat cap for 10 or so minutes. Immediately after rinsing the treatment out of my hair, my hair felt much stronger than it has previously. This has confirmed my thinking that my relaxed hair needs more protein than I once thought it did and weekly treatments may not be such a bad thing.
After my protein treatment, I DCed with ORS Replenishing Conditioner under my Huetiful steamer for an hour. This was also another point in my wash day where I realized that adding more protein to my regimen was the way to go. After washing my DC out, my hair felt so, so soft! For the first time in a long time I felt like my hair was able to get and hold on to the moisture that I gave it. I can only attribute this to the added protein in my regimen.
This wash day, I wanted to straighten my hair. Typically, I don't want to be bothered with the process of straightening but I realized that my hair hasn't been flat ironed since my relaxer touch up (at the beginning of January) and I want to post a picture of where my length is for the start of the year (so it's not necessarily a length check because I haven't retained much but I do want to see if the changes I'm adding will make a difference by the end of the year). Plus, I figured that a straightening session would be easier to do since I'm about 5 weeks post and I don't have an outrageous amount of new growth to deal with. So, I decided I would give my hair a good flat iron session. Before I did anything, I sprayed my hair with Jane Carter Solution Revitalizing Leave In and then put Camille Rose Curl Love Moisture Milk onto each section. The Camille Rose product is something new that I picked up on a whim while I was in Target on Saturday. I am on the hunt for a great, creamy moisturizer and it seemed like a perfect moisturizer to try. I then sealed with Curls Blissful Lengths Hair Oil.
Before my Saturday night was through, I wet wrapped my hair with Lottabody setting lotion (again, first time use...not sure if I'm a fan of this) and sat under my Conair hooded dryer for 2 hours. My hair still wasn't fully dry when I stopped but....it was 11pm and I was falling asleep under the dryer. I put a scarf on my head and went to sleep.
This morning I woke up and found that the last little section of my hair was dry and was ready to be flat iron. The setting lotion I used (even after I diluted it with water) left my hair a little crunchy so I had to add a little bit of moisturizer and oil to soften my hair up a bit. Once I did that. I applied the Mizani Thermasmooth serum to my hair (in sections) and used my beloved Sedu to flat iron. After flat ironing each section, I added a little bit of Aveda Anti-Humectant pomade to each section to help fight against reversion. As I was flat ironing, I could not believe the results I was getting. It only took 1 to 2 passes to get my hair slick and sleek (sometimes, on my most....resistant sections, it takes more than that)! I think adding the protein, which allowed my hair to hold on to more moisture, played a role in that.
The final step to my super long wash day was to add a little bit of serum to my ends, spray my hair with KeraCare Oil Sheen with Humidity Block, and wrap my hair with saran wrap to further get my hair as sleek as possible. I sat under my dryer for 15 minutes and was done!
Something else that I noticed during this wash day was that, following the protein treatment, my hair had a little bit more heft/weight to it. It was a good feeling that made my hair feel healthier than it did previously. However, I do think that during my next few washes, I did to do a final rinse with Roux Porosity Control. My hair is drying faster than it should.
Be on the look out for my length photo some time this week so that you can have an idea of where I am starting from + compare where I am now compared to this time last year!
Have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday!
