Stretching = Tangles

I will be 9-weeks post relaxer tomorrow and my new growth definitely reflects that. Since the last time I cut my hair, I have been making it a point to air dry only after I wash and condition my hair. This worked very well for the first 3-4 weeks. Recently, I have noticed that when I air dry, my hair is soft, but my new growth has dried in a manner where it is has curled around other strands of hair to a point that I could never get a comb through it (not that I would want to anyway), or my hands for that matter. And yes, I do detangle before I air dry. My roots become so tangled that last weekend when I washed and air-dried my hair, I had several knots that I had to gently remove with my hands, one of which I could not and had to cut out. Luckily, that knot was a small one and I only loss of few strands of hair in the process. 

My point is….I don’t want to encounter tangles and knots in the process of stretching my relaxers. This will lead to more damage than good. After I worked those knots out with my hands, I decided to blow dry my roots to straighten them out a bit. I did not want to flat iron them because that would be too much unnecessary direct heat, but just a few seconds of concentrated warm air from the blow dryer while gently combing through the roots will straighten them enough to where I don’t have to worry about tangles and knots all while making my hair more manageable overall.  

I think I will start letting my hair air dry first, then lightly go over the roots with a blow-dryer to relax them a little in the future when I am this far along in my stretch. I really wanted to no use heat at all except for rare special occasions but these tangles are kicking my butt. I don’t have this hair thing all figured out yet, but I think I am on the right track. I just got to keep at it. Talk to y’all again soon!

Weight Loss

Well, the weight loss blog I wanted to start is a no-go. I just figured, after I lose the weight, what really will I be able to write about that would be worth dedicating a whole blog to? So I scrapped that idea and decided I would share bits and pieces of my weight loss journey here on this blog.

Progress so far:

May 7 (Start) - 185lbs

June 20 (Today) - 172lbs

That is down a total of 13 lbs in 6 weeks

An average of 2.1lbs per week
 

I am okay with my progress so far. It is slow and steady. Here is a poem I wrote to my dear old friend WEIGHT, lol. 
 

Dear Weight,

You never wait for me to say yes you can come visit

And what room is yours to stay in

You just show up

Choosing the plop down with your luggage in areas already full

And before you know it

I am trying to find ways to get you out

Because every single time, you overstay your welcome

You seem to spread out and take up more and more space

Giving people the impression that I am lazy

When it is really you making a mess of me

Before you know it, things are out of control

And I must demand for you to leave at once

I work diligently everyday

Cleaning up the mess you have made

Putting my “rooms” back in order

Making things look nice and neat as they had before

Let me tell you, it is a lot of work

And I don’t appreciate having to do it

So please don’t visit me again anytime soon

Just call me every now and then

To remind me of what can happen

When I let you come around

So that I will never become complacent

And leave my front door open for you to walk in
 

I’ll be back with hair updates soon!!!

Beauty Break -- Fun Summer Nails!

I love hair, nails and especially make-up. I love all things girly. Girls can have so much more fun with their appearance than men can, lol. Check out my new nail look. It’s only temporary though because I change my polish every 3-4 days before it starts looking raggedy. I am excited to try something else next, I am thinking yellow nails with a leopard print accent nail. What do you think?? You probably cannot tell from the picture but the color is a bright, almost neon green.

Summer Heat

The summer heat is drying out my hair so badly. On Sunday, I deep conditioned my hair (on dry hair) with my favorite moisturizing conditioner by Giovanni. After deep conditioning with a plastic cap for about an hour, I rinsed my hair and did a co-wash with the same conditioner. My goal was to try to infuse as much moisture into my hair as possible. After co-washing, I put in my leave-ins and let my hair air dry. My hair air dried nicely, it felt moist and supple.

We decided to go a friend’s house around 1pm and just the trip to their house and back home dried out my hair so badly. The heat was intense even though we did use the air conditioner riding there and back, but before the air conditioner kicked in, it was sweltering hot. When I got home that evening my hair felt crispy and crunchy like it was dying of thirst (moisture). I detangled it with my hand ever so gently because when my hair is dried out, it gets tangled and tends to break easily if I try to comb through it. After I detangled, I moisturized my hair and sealed it with my olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil mixture. This mixture is so healing and though they are oils, seems to be so moisturizing – I like to think of them as emergency oils.

That is just one occasion but my hair gets so dry almost daily having to go outside to work, the store, etc. I normally moisturize and seal once a day, but to combat this summer heat, I have been moisturizing twice a day – in the morning when I style my hair for the day, and in the evening when I go to bed. Unless it is a special occasion, I try to wear protective styles to retain some of that moisture in my hair.

I am six weeks post and my new growth is fierce. My hair is sitting on top of my head like a helmet – you know how the hair sits out from your head a little bit before it falls straight down. It’s that gravity defying new growth that makes kinky textured hair grow out and not down. I contribute my lush new growth to the Maxi Hair vitamins I have been taking for the past three weeks but I will do a separate review on that listing the pros and the cons after my stretch is over and I can see how much length I have gained.

I am excited to grow back all the length I cut off…..quickly but keeping the health of my hair as priority.

Until next time….

Ebonee