My Hair Story (The NEW Story) *Pic Heavy

To kick off the new year, I've decided to re-do my hair story, since there's been some MAJOR changes.

Currently, I am relaxed. As of right now, I'm not too sure I'll be that way forever (I'll get to that later).

Here’s the timeline:

May 2009 - Made Decision to Go Natural

May 2009 - April 2010 (11months) - Transitioned to Natural

April 10, 2010 - Did Big Chop and Became Officially Natural

October 2012 - Relaxed my natural hair/Started relaxed hair journey

I'll try to  make this as short as possible because I have the attention span of a gnat and I know plenty of others with the same problem. I'll make it into a Q&A sort of thing.

• Why natural?  I broke the golden rule of relaxed hair care, SCRATCHING right before the relaxer. I was using super strength ORS at the time and had THE worst burning of my existence. Literally right after I rinsed it out, I vowed that it would be my last time. My hair was severely damaged at the time because my mom would apply the SUPER strength relaxer to my ENTIRE head. I was tired of having short hair, so those factors came together and produced a new, natural me.

My Damaged Relaxed Hair

My TWA

• How'd you transition? : Sew-ins and the twist n' curl using perm rods

• How long were you natural? : 2.5 years

My Natural Texture

Mini Twist Out

•         Why did you relaxed your natural hair? : Sigh. This one's kind of tough. I've had a REALLY difficult time retaining length since…forever. My hair was in that awkward stage between TWA and full SL right when I went to college as a freshman. The workload + 4b/4c natural hair = a disaster. I resorted to wearing berets and scarves to get it to look semi- decent. As the months went by, I literally began to hate my hair. Wash n go's were a NO because my natural texture is pretty much like a cotton ball. No visible curl whatsoever. That meant that I would have to either twist or braid my hair to form the style that I preferred, which just wasn't going to happen If I wanted to dedicate my time towards my grades.

I officially began thinking about relaxing it around my 2 year anniversary (April 2012). So, this wasn't a brash, random decision. I began thinking about what I originally wanted the Dream Lexi's hair to be like. The dream me didn't have natural hair; She was relaxed.  At that point I wasn't being natural because I liked it, but because everyone else liked it. I had inspired my cousin, aunt, and mother to go natural and I felt like a traitor to  'the cause'. Around September 2012, I said eff it. This was the same problem I was dealing with when I was relaxed. Listening to what others wanted and not what I wanted. So during Fall Break, I went to a stylist and got a virgin relaxer. Couldn't be happier.

P.S. If there are anymore questions I'll be more that happy to answer!

Happy One Year Anniversary to Me!

I made it! I'm one year natural! I've let my hair grow at its own pace for a year just so I could gauge how my hair acts alone with nothing added. I'm very happy that I actually made it without getting a relaxer.

Here's my length check:

I don’t really care about inches. I’m really only concerned with how it looks. My growth isn't exactly what I want it to be. I think I could have gained a lot more length by now. I know I'll get there though. The first thing I want to try to increase my length is vitamins. I think I'm gonna take Biotin, MSM, and a multivitamin daily and see how that works for a month.


Supposedly, MSM lengthens the growing phase of the hair so that the hair can grow longer. Biotin is supposed to promote stronger and thicker hair. I'll keep you posted if anything changes.


My goal for next April is shoulder length hair unstretched. My inspirations are Blackonyx 77 and BlakIzBeautyful on YouTube. They are 4b naturals who are rockin it!

Avocado Hair Treatment

 

After two weeks of having my hair plaited up underneath my wig, wash day has finally come. My hair was dry as a bone! I totally violated my Natural Hair Challenge rule of moisturizing every other day. To combat this dryness, I conditioned overnight with Vo5 conditioner and olive oil.

My regimen has basically been anything I can find until I run out. I used Alikay Natural's Black Soap Shampoo to wash and Vo5 to condition.

This morning, as I was looking through the refrigerator, I saw an avocado that I had bought a week ago. I figured it would HURT to have an extra deep conditioning treatment. Plus, I love making concoctions and getting my hand dirty.

So, I mixed one avocado with 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1/2 cup of Vo5 and blended the ingredients until it had the consistency of a smoothie. It was left in my hair for 20 minutes. I didn't Youtube it because I didn't want to have an expectations for this treatment that would alter the actual results.

My hair definitely seems more moisturized. It's soft without feeling oily and it has a lot of shine.  I went on Amazon.com to look up the price of pure avocado oil and boy is it expensive!! I'm talking, 25-30 dollars for a 16 ounce bottle! Because I'm cheap, I will just keep buying $1 avocados from my local grocery story and doing a treatment once a week.

23 Days

 

I'm down to my last 30 days of my natural hair challenge. I'm 11 months natural and will be celebrating my natural hair anniversary in April.

For the most part, I wanted to see what my growth pattern and potential was like with no hair aids. No exercise, no pills, no nothing. Just a good regimen.  Now, I'm ready to add some things to my army of natural hair care tactics to maximize my potential.

For my second year of being natural, I'll try to following things.

1. Vitamins
2. A STRICT exercise regimen
3. Henna
4. More protective styles
5. Save up for a Huetiful Hair Steamer
6. Oil Arsenal Including:
1. Avocado Oil
2. Olive Oil
3. Tea Tree Oil
4. Jojoba  Oil
5. Rosemary Oil
6. Grapeseed Oil

7. Clarifying Treatments with Bentonite Clay

These are the products lines that I want to try:

1. Kinky Curly
2. Miss Jessie's (just because I'm curious)
3. Shea Moisture
4. Aubrey Organics
5. Alikay Naturals (coconut line)
6. Carol's Daughter
7. Giovanni

I'll have to do more research about the specifics of those steps to so that I can give you guys a final plan. If any of you guys have tried any of the above mentioned products/product lines, PLEASE leave a comment about your experience.

Thanks!! 

Option D) None of the above!

So yall remember when I was talking about changing my hair up a while back. Well…I did!  My choices were 2 sew-in hairstyles and one quickweave. I didn't get either actually. I got a full out wig! And it's super cute! I've flat twisted my hair to the back so my big ole 'fro won't interfere with the wig.

So, I'm technically still adhering to my Natural Hair Challenge. Yay for me! I should get like, maximum retention now.  I have 40 days left! 

Anyways, my online purchase came FINALLY. It took like a week to get here and I'm impatient. The ScalpMaster brushes I ordered seem really awesome. They're heavy and are nice to look at. Unfortunately , I already twisted my hair to the back so I can't use it yet for another 2 weeks.

The wig is made of human hair, was ordered from blackhairspray.com and costs $40 without tax. The shipping was a little over a week. I definitely recommend this product for anyone.

Condition Yo Hurr

Me with blown out hair

As the title states, this post will be about conditioning the hair. This applies to ALL hair, not just natural hair. I cowashed my hair with Vo5 conditioner (Cost $1 from Family Dollar) and deep conditioned with the same Vo5 PLUS coconut oil.

So what's the point in conditioning the hair in the first place?

From what I understand, DEEP conditioning gives nutrients directly to the hair shaft by entering the cuticle, the first layer of the hair and reaching the cortex, the second layer of the hair. Deep conditioning isn't the same as any other kind of conditioning technique because it actually gets INSIDE the hair shaft instead of sitting on top of it like a leave-in conditioner would.

This stuff won't 'fix' your hair, rather, it will reduce as much damage as it can. It will NOT fix 1)Split Ends, 2) Broken Hair, 3)Chemically Damaged Hair, and lastly 4) Heat Damaged Hair.  BUT, it will fix 1)Dry Hair, 2) Weak Hair, and 3) Overly Porous Hair (to an extent).

Here are my top 3 HOMEMADE conditioners.

1. 1 Banana and 1/2 cup olive oil
2. Olive oil, honey, and coconut oil
3. Mayo and olive oil.

I love making things so I usually use a homemade conditioner. The Vo5 that I mentioned above is half decent. The slip is amazing. Detangling has become a much happier experience now. Unfortunately I used about half the bottle in one sitting, so I'll have to get more.

The reason that I say that it's half decent is because I'm not feeling the ingredients in it. I can barely pronounce the majority of them. The quest for the awesome conditioner continues.

But seriously, PLEASE condition your hair at least once every 2 weeks. Once a week is best but if you're doing a protective style like me you can tailor that to your own needs. Try the Vo5 out and tell me whatcha think. 

I Think I'm Finna Henna

 

I've having a serious problem with dryness right now. I guess the combination of the winter and all of the gel I've been using in my protective styles has jacked me up. I've seen a couple of people do it on youtube and they had awesome results.

Problem is, they were 4as. I've never seen a 4b/4c do it. So, when I get some money, I'm going to order some Jamila Henna and try it out.

I've gotten most of my Henna info from curlynikki.com. She has a tutorial on her website that simplified the process. I'm willing to try anything at this point to cure this dryness.

I also noticed that her hair was tinted a red-ish color afterwards. I DO NOT want that to happen. I like my naturally dark hair. For me, red=ghetto and that ain't cute. But, if it does, I'll deal with it if I get the moisture that I'm seeking.

These are the links that give info about henna.

http://www.curlynikki.com/2008/10/im-henna-head.html

http://www.curlynikki.com/2008/12/henna-pictorial.html

Would you try henna out?