Wash Day: Twist Take Down

New growth after 4 weeks

By the time I took my twists down, I was 12 weeks post relaxer. Because of the fact that I was so lazy about taking care of them while I had them in, I really didn't know what to expect from my hair. Yet, I didn't experience a lot of breakage or anything along those lines so I was pleased.

{1} After removing all of the twists, I coated my braids with PM Tea Tree Moisturizing conditioner and my garlic oil mix. I put on a plastic cap, scarf and left it on overnight.

{2} When I took the braids out my hair felt great. I finger detangled, but some how forgot to fully detangle before shampooing. Always a mistake after protective styling!

{3} Sectioned my hair into 4 and shampooed with ORS Creamy Aloe three times. My hair wasn't feeling the best at this point. I could tell detangling was not going to be good.

{4} Towel wrapped my hair to soak up excess water.

{5} Applied L'oreal Damage Erasing Balm and Aubrey Organics Replenishing conditioner for several hours under a plastic cap.

{6}Rinsed with cool water followed by an ACV rinse. I did not rinse this out of my hair. I let it sit for a few minutes before squeezing out the excess. My hair was back to feeling pretty good, but still tangled.

{7}Towel wrapped my hair to soak up the excess liquid.

{8} Section by section, I detangled and applied my leave-ins (Elasta QP H2, Shea Moisture Reconstructing conditioner and safflower oil). Detangling took about 45 minutes. It was definitely due to not thoroughly removing my shed hair in the beginning. A lesson I shouldn't have had to repeat. It could have been a lot worse though.

{9}Put some Eco-styler gel on my edges, brushed them smooth and put on a scarf. Let my hair continue to air dry.



So, initially my hair felt great. But the more my hair dried, the more the moisturized feeling disappeared, which left my hair feeling so dry and crunchy. Ugh. I knew I was going to be co-washing pretty quickly. I moisturized it again to give myself a day before I had to wash it. I think protective styling spoiled me because I really was not thinking this wash day. I didn't detangle properly. I didn't think about how far into my stretch I was and how that changes things, i.e. I should've washed in braids and used more moisturizing products. Thankfully, my mistakes didn't leave me with any damage and I already know how to fix my dry hair issue.

10 comments 12 weeks post, crochet braids, senagalese twists, taking out crochet braids, wash day

Share:

Wash Day - Quickweave Takedown

During the time I was wearing my quickweave, I was diligent about moisturizing & sealing, and applying my growth aid. The whole time I've been on this journey to long, healthy hair, I've never had my hair cornrowed for more than a couple days. So, I was a little nervous about the state my hair was going to be in when I took them out. One thing's for sure, I had the best braidout ever once I did. It had so much volume and definition! I was upset I did it right before washing and didn't have a chance to wear it out anywhere. Here's how my wash day went:

{1} When taking the braids down, I loaded my hair (and hands) with grapeseed and coconut oils to ease both the friction between strands and removal of shed hair. My hair felt surprisingly soft and moisturized! I was glad my diligence paid off.  

{2} I separated my hair into 4 sections, applied a protein conditioner to my ends, L'Oreal Damage Erasing Balm, and put on a plastic cap for about 20 minutes.

{3} In the shower, I rinsed then shampooed with both Shea Moisture Deep Cleansing and CON Argan Oil Moisturizing shampoos. It's not unusual for me to use both in one wash, but I did want to make sure I got a good deep cleaning this wash.

{4} After letting the excess water soak up in a towel, I applied my deep conditioners,
Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose and Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner (1st use), and put on a plastic cap. I ended up leaving it on overnight. Simply because I got tired and did not feel like getting back up to rinse my hair.

{5} The next day, I rinsed with cool water and did an ACV rinse. Let it sit for a few minutes before doing a final rinse with cold water.

{6} I t-shirt dried for about 20 minutes before applying my leave-ins: Elasta QP H2 and Aphogee Green Tea & Keratin Restructurizer. 

{7} I let my hair air dry clipped in sections in an attempt to stretch my roots. I left it that way until it was about 80% dry. 

{8} Everything went smoothly until I got to this point - detangling. Ugh. My new growth was still so coiled together it was hard to separate into smaller sections. I lost enough hair to fit inside the palm of my hand, but when examining it, I found that the majority of it was shed hair (bulbs still attached). Not necessarily bad for over two weeks, but still more than I'm used to experiencing. And it took so long to get thru all my hair.

air-dried and detangled

My guess with the shedding is that it's just that time for me. A lot of women experience increased shedding when the weather changes in the fall/winter. The same thing happened to me last year around this time, which caused me to start trying tea rinses. Until this summer, I was a regular tea rinse girl. I'm not sure where or how I let those fall away, but this is a sign I need to get back on that. I'm also considering trying a coffee rinse to see if that makes any more of a difference than the black/green teas I normally use. 

This wash day made me long for a relaxer. It also made me wonder how I will ever go natural. Lol! I'm sure, like with anything, learning to deal well with my different textures just takes practice. Stretching is definitely a testament to that truth. I never would have thought I'd get to the point of being well past 3 months post relaxer either, but here I am :)

Has anyone else's shedding increased in the past month? 

12 comments 12 weeks post, acv, air-drying, apple cider vinegar rinse, braidout, wash day

Share:

Random Hair Chatter @ 12-14 Weeks Post

• I'm actually staring 14 weeks post relaxer in the face (in just a matter of days) and can't believe I've made it this far into a stretch. What's more unbelievable, to me, is that I have no plans of relaxing soon nor of transitioning to natural at the moment. I plain and simple just have not been and am still not in the mood to relax my hair. I just do not feel like it! It's so weird because I'm usually quite eager to relax by the time I make it to 12 weeks post.

• My last wash day, which I will detail in another post, made me seriously consider relaxing soon. Tangles and shedding galore! That is one of the usual motivations for my eagerness to relax. A certain amount of new growth throws my wash days all the way off. 

• I have had this dilemma in my mind for a month or so about what long term protective style I would like to try out. I tried out a quickweave wig (pictured above) to decide if I wanted to go for wigs for awhile. I think I would enjoy the ease of wearing wigs, but I would also have to invest in some good hair or a good unit if I was going to be wearing it long-term. I can't walk around looking all matted within two weeks. So, I think I'm going to save up a little for that investment. Perhaps at the beginning of the new year I'll go for that. In the meantime, I decided to get box braids. After much deliberation! A number of people I have talked to about getting them doubt my ability to keep them in long term. Ha! Because they know how bored I get with hairstyles and how much I enjoy washing my hair weekly, both of which may work against me during this time. For me, if I can keep them in for 4-6 weeks, I will be proud. Plus the price is extra motivation for them not to come out after a few short weeks. That might not seem like very long-term to some people, but it definitely will be to me. This is a reason (besides not feeling like it) that I didn't want to relax as scheduled. Putting braids in after a fresh relaxer would set me up for failure I'm sure.  

•  I am itching to buy some new hair products! I probably don't actually need any of the things I want to buy, but that's nothing new. I'm just trying to hold out until Black Friday so I can get some goodies from online companies. I got some great products during the sales last year, and haven't repurchased any since. Some of them I will be repurchasing, some of them I won't, and some of them I haven't even used up yet. Shame on me and I'm talking about buying some more already.

• Heaven gained a very close family member of mine about two weeks ago. While it is devastating to us, I know the angels are rejoicing. Understandably, my blog was the last thing on my mind. I am going to attempt to update it with the posts planned for that time. I knew during this time I was not going to feel like dealing with all this hair and a new level of new growth, so back to the salon I went. Same stylist as my last salon visit. Straight hair is just easier to manage sometimes. While she did a great job, I did decide I will probably never let her or anyone else detangle my hair again. There's just something about combing from root to tip, no matter how patient you may try to be, I cannot deal with. So, I will be returning to her the next time I want my hair straight without doing it myself, but it will be after my hair has been washed, deep conditioned and thoroughly detangled. It's cheaper and means less time sitting in a salon anyway. Here's a pic of my hair after she blew it out. My ends still look nice to me! :)

My hair is inching toward full bra strap length pretty quickly, in my opinion. That was my original hair goal. I changed it to mid-back length because I want to cut some nice layers in it for my dream hair and think that will ensure I'm still around the same area after the cut. I was so very tempted to have my stylist go ahead and cut into my hair right now though! My one-length hair kinda bores me when its straight, but not when its textured. After watching another stylist cut and feather a woman's hair so beautifully, I thought about just going for it. My stylist kindly reminded me that that woman's hair was weave and mine is not, and I should just keep growing until I get to my goal. Thank God for her! I would have regretted that cut for sure.

Hope everyone has been well. I am going to start blog stalking soon!

11 comments 12 weeks post, 13 weeks post, 14 weeks post, random hair talk, salon visit, stylist

Share:

Surprisingly 11 Weeks Post Relaxer

So, last week during my wash day, I felt like my hair was thicker than ever! As it was air-drying and I was applied my leave-ins, I had to take a moment to figure out how long it had been since my last relaxer. 11 WEEKS!! I cannot believe I went 11 weeks and didn't even realize it. To me, this is exciting for a couple different reasons.

The first reason is that my goal time of stretching between relaxers is to reach 12 weeks. Personally, I think that's the perfect amount of time for my hair. It limits me to about four relaxers a year and ensures I have a nice amount of new growth to prevent me from over processing my previously relaxed length. I have no desire to go any longer than that. My stretches will stay between 10-12 weeks. My stylist (who I miss dearly!) got me into stretching the time between my relaxers. That was about two years ago, when I was pretty much barely making it to 8 weeks between relaxers. 

The other reason is that I made it to 11 weeks without noticing. I didn't feel like my hair was becoming such a hassle that I needed to figure out when my next relaxer until it was pretty much time for the next one. This is a really big deal to me because one of my biggest struggles has been taming the beast that is my new growth. Seriously, that stuff has a whole attitude of its own. It can be downright disrespectful at times. I've officially learned to deal with it! It has been sooo soft. I can get my fingers through my hair and I'm not dealing with a bunch of breakage at the line of demarcation (the line where my new growth and my previously relaxed hair meet). #SCORE!! 

Needless to say, today will be relaxer day! Since realizing it had been so long, I have had trouble with my hair. Ha! Its probably totally a mind game. It was tucked away or in a bun all week, as I anticipated being able to get my hair to relax some :) 

For anyone that is currently trying to stretch out the time between their relaxers, be patient with yourself. (Do you hate when people give you that line for advice as much as I do??) Clearly, it took me about two years to add 4 weeks to my time between relaxers. I would just add one week at a time and not add another until I felt I was dealing well with my hair at that step. I was stuck at 10 weeks for a long time. Hope that makes sense. Stretching can be really beneficial when you take your time and listen to your hair. If your hair is getting dried out, breaking and/or shedding more, it is better to just relax, in my opinion, than to let your hair get damaged for the sake of reaching a stretching goal. 

4 comments 11 weeks post, 12 weeks post, air-drying, relaxer stretching

Share: