Current Hair Thoughts

So it’s been about a week since relaxing my hair. This week I have slacked on my moisturizing and sealing but I am about to get back on track. I have to maintain my ends so I won’t have to continue to trim, trim, trim. I will probably wash my hair tomorrow. Since this is the first wash after my relaxer I will be using a chelating shampoo to rid my hair of some of the minerals that the no-lye relaxer leaves on the hair shaft. The minerals can impede moisture from properly penetrating the hair shaft leading to dryness and breakage so it’s important for those who use a no-lye relaxer (like I do) to using a chelating shampoo. I will also do a protein deep conditioning because we all know relaxed hair needs protein.

For some reason, I do not like the first few weeks of my stretch. I feel like I am back at square one, like I have been stretching week after week after week, just to be back at the beginning of another stretch with months to go until I can relax again. Also, during the first two or three weeks of my stretch my hair feels very flat to my scalp. Obviously, it is because my previously curly, kinky new growth is now straight, but I don’t like it. It takes away the volume at my roots that can make almost any style look better. Anyway, those are just my current thoughts. I’ll check-in with you all again later.

Relaxer Day!

Well, I decided to relax yesterday so I ended my stretch at 13 weeks. The stretch was good and I am glad that I stretched more than the minimum 12 week goal I set for myself in my HAIR GOALS.  This time I used a different relaxer. I normally use the Optimum in the red box, but because I have heard so many rave reviews about the ORS Olive Oil relaxer (green box) I wanted to try it so I did. 

I must say that did not like the ORS relaxer. It left my hair texlaxed in a few areas although I relaxed my hair in the same manner I normally do (see pic below). I have been relaxing my own hair since age 14 so I have a good idea of how to use a relaxer to get my hair to the desired texture. Yes, all relaxers are different but I still prefer the Optimum and will be using that next time. I don’t know why I decided to change it because it was working just fine.

 

So I washed, deep conditioned, and blow dried my hair and these are the results below:

Looks pretty nice in the photo, but overall, my ends were reflecting a lot of damage and were very uneven in the back. So I decided to cut about two inches off all around my head which evened up the back on my hair (about what you see under the white line).

I couldn’t take a picture of the end result in the back because I was home alone with no one to take the picture while I turned around, but trust me, it is blunt and even. The goal for now is to continue with my regimen and maintain my ends so that I won’t have to trim on my next relaxer. It is very possible that I will have to trim a least once more because the last four inches of my hair were in pretty bad shape, and the two inches I took off just evened up everything but it did not address all the damage. I will evaluate my hair on my next relaxer and will make the decision from there to trim or not. And the stretch begins again...

Happy Hair Growing Y’all!

Should I or Should I Not? That is the Question...

Tomorrow I am off work and I hear a little voice saying use that day while the kids are away to relax my hair. I wanted to stretch at least 16 weeks. Right now I am 13 weeks post relaxer so I’m not even close if I were to relax tomorrow. My stretch is still going fine. I am not experiencing any breakage or shedding. I just feel a little tired of not looking “polished.” I hope no one takes offense to that word because it is coming from someone who has worn my hair both natural and relaxed in my adult years and I have loved both. The unpolished feeling comes from having nearly 2 inches of natural hair and the rest being relaxed, and the combination of the two don’t always agree or look the best.

If you see a relaxer update post here in the next few days, or possibly tomorrow, you know what decision I made. LOL.

Happy Hair Growing!