Keeping Yourself Motivated

One of the first things I always tell my friends when they start their hair journey is to TAKE PICTURES.

You're with your hair everyday... do something (at least in my case) to your hair EVERY DAY... so sometimes it's really hard to see the progress (or even setbacks.. hopefully not though) you are making because you look at your hair every day. 

Then YouTube doesn't help.. you see all these women whose hair grows INHUMANLY fast (I'm actually probably one of the ones people say this about though lol) and you're like... "Man, my hair isn't going ANYWHERE!" 

I saw a video of one YouTube who went from barely SL to WAIST LENGTH in a YEAR! And I'm like what the heck do I need to be doing? Because I want waist length and it's taking what seems to be forever lol 

Tonight, while moisturizing my hair I decided to take a picture of my hair (from the front) to see how much progress I was making... and you know what.. I was actually pleasantly surprised! 

Measuring your hair from the front can sometimes be tricky because it doesn't show your full length.. but even with that being said... I just saw how far I had came and got my motivation back. 

My hair was air dried and moisturized in this picture. This is the back 1/4th section of my hair... and actually this was one of the 4 sections split in HALF... and even that piece was thick... so if I had done the entire section it would have been even thicker!

My texlax stretch is actually set to end NEXT WEEK on August 2nd. But I'm really thinking I can go about 4 weeks longer, if not more! 

I'm still contemplating transitioning as well so I don't want to do anything too hastily and have to start a stretch all over with 3 months already in the bank so to speak lol 

Dealing With Detangling... One Day At A Time...

Whenever I do my stretches I always fall in love with my natural texture all over again.

I don't mean to toot my own horn... but my texture is gorgeous. I love my hair lol (*toot toot*)

Before this summer when I would stretch (which is pretty much EVERY time) I wouldn't see much of my new growth..nor would I have to find creative ways to deal with it because I was constantly re-straightening it... (if you've read my mini tumblr rant on my "Hair Truth" you know that my hair is training pretty well... it doesn't revert that often and it is pretty heat tolerable) but now that I'm doing EVERYTHING with ENTIRELY NO HEAT.. yeah... I'm having to find ways to cope lol

My coping strategy has gone from simply putting coconut oil on my new growth to soften it, to using my moisture mix, to my process now..

1. Completely detangle in the shower (this takes A LOT OF TIME and often results in me taking a cold shower... but it's worth it)
2. Do EVERYTHING in 4 sections 
3. Moisturize new growth every night

I got some new goodies to help me along the way. 

Luster's S-Curl No Drip Activator/Moisturizer. 

This was another product (like Elasta QP's Olive Oil and Mango Butter Moisturizer) that I've seen time after TIME on many of my hair journey sister's product list, and I was EXTREMELY reluctant to to purchase.

I've been trying to get my hair on a set schedule of 2 washes per week, equally spacing the days apart each time.. but since I started back my workouts yesterday I HAD to co-wash afterwards. My hair came out incredibly soft after the co-wash (air dried over night) but since I was so tired I did nothing to my new growth last night (as it was still wet and I wasn't staying up to wait on it) and I immediately bunned and went to work this morning. Well, I was dreading opening my bun tonight to moisturize my hair so I decided today was as good a day as any to go out and give this a try. 

I think this will give my new growth just a tad bit more moisture than my mix. It does contain glycerin and B5, which is good. 

If everything goes well.. I think this is going to allow me to stretch my wash day a couple more days instead of the intended Sunday.

I do try to leave my new growth alone as much as possible as far as raking a comb through it... but when I'm detangling in the shower.. I'm sorry.. those standard "shower combs"... do NOTHING for my new growth! I mean absolutely NOTHING. 

I needed something that was going to really get in there... but was still wide tooth. This is geared specifically for curly hair. 

When dealing with new growth, detangling, and thick hair in general... sections are your best friend. 

I don't use rubber bands on my ends... i don't care how many times they say "won't break your hair" on the package.. they will.. and they do -_-

These are what I will be using in the shower to section and tie my hair with at the ends. These are great for shower detangling because they are a) cotton and will soak the water in while in the shower and won't grip your hair too hard. b) are small so you don't have to wrap around that many times (I hate trying to use pony tail holders on my ends in the shower and having to wrap it around 18 times to get it to stay) 

Note: Because these are cotton and will soak up moisture... I only use these in the shower.. these can dry your ends out in any other circumstance. 

Making Adjustments

As your hair begins to grow and change, your regimen will most likely not stay the same. 

You'll have to make adjustments for your hair and you'll be able to read the signs your hair is trying to give you a long the way. 

Sometimes your products will change as well. You will find with the more hair you have... (and if you're transitioning) and the change of texture... what used to moisturize your hair just doesn't work anymore. 

This is what I'm currently going through. 

With me doing a no heat summer I've been trying to really buckle down and find a nice routine for my hair that is little stress... and keeps the moisture/protein balance in my hair. (It's amazing how down packed I had gotten my routine for wearing my hair straight... but when you are working on no heat styles... you're in a whole new playing field)

For me, as of lately, my scalp has been my biggest hurdle to overcome. I'm having to find a way to get that moisture (water) back in my hair.. and at the same time keep my scalp moisturized. 

Over-washing your hair even the sulfate free shampoos and co-washing can be damaging. While your actual hair may feel fine, you can be really drying out your scalp. And while length retention is important, it's always good to remember your hair grows from your SCALP. So don't neglect that either. 

My scalp was getting so dry that I have literally been getting scabs. I wasn't sure what they were at first... but after youtubing and really giving it some thought... that's exactly what they are. Kind of like when you get chemical burn from a relaxer... well this is coming solely from my scalp being try, scabbing and then flaking off. (I had a pictures but I decided to spare you the nasty details lol)

Right now I am washing my hair twice a week. 1x with HairOne and 1x Co-Wash. 

I've seen so many women on YouTube to have said they only wash their hair (period) once a month. But I have noticed that 99% of these women are natural. While, their hair is gorgeous.. you have to watch these videos and take what you can apply to your hair and leave the rest. 

One thing I did see that I am going to start doing on my (shampoo) wash days is only washing my roots. 

First I saw shortysweet59 do it, then I hear HairCrush talk about it. 

Basically, all I will be doing it getting the shampoo good on my scalp and massaging it into my roots, and then rinsing out. 

This is supposed to prevent the drying of the oldest parts of your hair, while cleansing and nourishing your scalp. 

The rest of your hair and any build up is supposedly grabbed by the access soak and rinsed out on the way down. 

I'm going to give this a try and see how this works for me. 

As for my sore and dry scalp.. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I have been massaging coconut oil in.. but that seems to only make the soreness worse... I have also been treating the extremely dry patches with shea butter. 

My shampoo is also for dry scalp. We will see. 

Why I'm Donating My Hair

I was hanging out with my friends last night and a good friend of mine who hadn't seen me in a few months commented on how long it had gotten. I said to him, "How do you know it's long? It's in a bun? *laughs*" He said, "Because it takes a lot of hair to wrap around that many times. That's what's up" So I say to him, "Yeah, it is getting long, I'm hoping I can get it to waist length so I can donate it..."

Another one of my friends who was sitting near us, happened to hear our conversation and said "So... you're growing your hair just to cut it?" ... all I could say was, "Basically... yes." 

But it really kind of bothered me, and hurt me a little that either I didn't have a better way of explaining the reasoning why I was doing it, or that my friends couldn't understand the beauty of the blessing I'm trying to give. 

It's not just "cutting" my hair... 

And donating it is not the same as dropping off your clothes at the donation aisle of Goodwill. 

The thing of it is... when you DONATE something, many times we fail to really look at the impact we could be making in someone's lives. 

When you donate clothes... what clothes are they? They're either the clothes that you have outgrown, don't like, or never wear anymore. 

How many times do you go out and SPECIFICALLY buy clothes to donate? Probably never. And if so, you definitely don't buy the best of the best..."just" to give away. 

It's always better to give than to throw those clothes away... Growing up we NEVER threw clothes away. If there was anything we didn't wear anymore... or outgrew... my mother ALWAYS said "Give those to me so I can donate them". It was just second nature.

But I challenge you to say, does that really require you to GIVE anything of yourself? Are you really being pushed to be a blessing?

THAT is why I'm donating my hair. 

EVERYONE know, a black woman LOVES her hair. 

Women in general... LOVE their hair. 

Even in the bible, it is spoken on more than one occasion about the value of a woman's hair. 

"Growing my hair... just to donate it" is like the equivalent of buying those expensive clothes...with the INTENTIONS of giving them away. 

I want to be able to give a gift that actually PUSHED me to be better. 

It is NOT going to be easy. 

Someone made a comment about the just the other day, "She's always talking about her damn hair" (yeah, someone told me about it lol) 

And even though it came from a malicious place (because we ALL have things that we are passionate about, and I challenge anyone to say that there isn't one thing they discuss more so than other people.. there IS)... my hair IS one of the things I am passionate about. 

I have taken the time to learn about it, to take GOOD care of it.. and aside from my schooling and bible study, it's probably one the things I spend the most of my time doing. 

So to say... I am putting so much energy into something just to give away... you bet it's going to be hard!

But one of the reasons I talk about it, is because when you make an open promise to do something... it convicts you to keep your word. 

I knew by saying it out loud, by TELLING other people that I was going to do it... that people were going to hold me to it. 

I didn't want to be able to back out of it. 

People may not understand the true weight of what I'm doing, but the truth of the matter is, they don't have to. I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it to help someone else. And probably, even more importantly, I'm doing it for me. 

We will never become a better person if we don't push ourselves to the edge of our comfort zone. 

I know I am most comfortable having long hair. I learned that from when I cut it all off the first time. But it's bigger than that. It's about where I'm comfortable with the kind of difference I'm making. 

God blesses you to be a blessing to someone else. 

It's not always about blessing someone when it's easy. 

It's EASY to give money. It's EASY give things that you don't care about anymore. 

It's harder to give your time. To give things that mean something to you. To give your last so that someone may be able to have a first chance at something. 

Cancer is real. It's right next door. It's in your homes and in our families. 

It seems like everywhere I turn lately, the true madness that is cancer is slapping me in the face every time I turn around. 

And what slaps you in the face may not be cancer. It may be Autism (which is a second passion of mine. Just AWARENESS of Autism, and the stereotypes and misconceptions) It may be heart disease. It may be poverty. Domestic violence. 

Whatever it is... 

I just woke up one day and told myself that life is short.. but it is the longest thing that we will ever do. And while I'm on the earth, I want to do something that will STAY. 

I'm growing my hair just to cut it... but I will be giving it to a little girl (or an adult) who looks in the mirror and doesn't have hair just to cut.

It was time I looked in the mirror and decided a change needed to come. 

This will be the last post I make explaining why I'm doing this. 

At this point, I know everyone won't understand. 

I will be continuing to countdown, continuing to talk hair, and continuing a healthy hair journey. If my particular passion bothers some people who think all I do is talk about my "damn hair".. I'm sorry in advance lol

9 Months... 

To see my original post (inspired by Cristal Steverson) and find out exactly how much I'm donating, click here

So refreshing to hear someone from the other end say it...

I was just on YouTube and this video popped up as one suggested to watch. And I'm so glad it did because she spoke my mind COMPLETELY. 

I was been going back and forth with my decision whether or not I wanted to transition back to natural, and my main reason I am against it has nothing to do with the actual state of my hair... it has mainly to do with the fact that I don't want to give in a be just another one part of the crowd. 

It seems like these days, EVERYONE is going natural, and not only that.. if you aren't you are frowned upon and even scolded for you decision NOT to do so. 

I've made many posts about this, but it's really disheartening to see that this Natural vs. Relaxed is growing into another form of "Light Skin vs. Dark Skin" in our community. 

I wanted to show people that relaxed hair CAN be healthy, and how you wear your hair can TRULY be a choice! 

You don't have to be "forced" into natural hair just to get your hair to grow. It is possible on both ends of the spectrum.

I totally agree with her that when you decide to make decisions on what's healthiest for you body (chemical wise) and what you what the statement you make about YOURSELF to be... you have to decide whether natural is for you... but I HATE to hear women talk down to other women because of a decision they have made. 

I'm probably about 80% leaning towards continuing a transition to natural at this point... but if I do, it will be solely because I want to do something different with my hair now... Not because I was peer pressured into a new movement/trend. 

My New FAVORITE Moisturizer!

Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer by Elasta QP

Now, I have been using this moisturizer for about 2 weeks now. 

I've seen it pop up time and time again on video, after video from my fellow HJS but I must admit, I was being quite stubborn. I really don't know why. I've used Elasta QP products in the past and haven't had anything bad to say about them. I think it was just be stereotyping Elasta QP products in without a lot of other products geared directly to African American women that contain mineral oil and petroleum. 

(Note: It wasn't until writing this post that I checked the ingredients to make sure this didn't have either of those. I was just taking the word of women whose hair I liked. Which is a no-no. You have to know what's not good for your hair and stick to it. Luckily, it doesn't contain either of those)

It wasn't until I saw that Shorty2Sweet59 used it that I said I HAD to go out and get some. 

I purchased the moisturizer and some 100% African shea butter at the same time.

I must say.. this is the BEST moisturizer I've tried. And I've tried a lot of them. 

I've tried: 

• Silk Elements Silken Child (which is second favorite.. no bad things to say about it)
• Neutrogena Triple Moisture (I didn't really care for it... made my hair too wet.. but it smelled great so I gave it to my brother)
• My own moisture mix.. (which is GREAT for my new growth.. but over all is just a tad too much moisture for my relaxed ends)
• ORS Moisturizing Lotion -- ABSOLUTELY NOT! It has petroleum. 
• Silk Elements Leave In Moisturizing Cream (It's ok.. leaves my hair too wet)

And I'm sure a few more that I'm just forgetting to name. 

So basically, I've tried a little bit of everything and this stuff is BOMB.COM

I have been moisturizing and sealing my hair with it (and Shea Butter) every night since I got it. 

My hair is soft.. My curl pattern in my new growth is defined... and I don't have to use gel when wearing my hair in a ponytail. 

I just apply the moisturizer... seal with the butter.. tie my hair down and the next morning my hair is so wavy and pretty. 

I really like it. 

I've recommended it already to another one of my friends who is relaxed and she likes it as well.

I'm curious to know how it works on natural women... seeing as their hair needs a tad bit more moisture. I think it would work great. It's thick enough to do the job, in my opinion. 

My First Black Tea Rinse

After my "mini meltdown".. I just feel like I've still been seeing more hair come out in the comb than I would like... So I decided to try a tea rinse today.

Now tea rinses can be done with green tea or black tea. I decided to use black. (Because I don't mind my hair being stained, in kind of welcomed it)

1 tea bag makes about 8 ounces so I boiled 3 cups of water and used 3 tea bags. 

I boiled for about 5 minutes, removed tea bags and let cool for about 20.

I put half of the tea in an applicator bottle... and half in a cup.

Next I hopped in the shower... thoroughly rinsed my hair (I didn't wash or co-wash) to get any of the excess product off my hair.

Then I used the applicator bottle and got the tea on my scalp really good. 

After doing that.. I poured the rest of the tea from the applicator in the cup and then poured the rest from the cup onto the remainder of my hair. 

I put a plastic cap on a let process with no heat for 30 minutes.

Out of habit, after 30 minutes.. I hopped in the shower to rinse the tea out of my hair (like I would my conditioner)... realizing what I was doing.. I quickly stopped, leaving a good bit of the tea still in my hair... (I did this because most recommendations I've seen say to apply your conditioner on TOP of the tea.. but I have seen some that say you can completely rinse the tea out first... it's totally up to you)

I'm currently deep conditioning for 30 minutes. 

I'm not sure how my hair will turn out... I do know that I didn't see much, if any staining of my hair. This may just be the amount of tea I used (I saw suggestions from 3 all the way to 10 tea bags)

Black tea rinses (tea rinses in general) are said to promote thicker hair and most importantly LESS SHEDDING. 

You can do it anywhere from 1-3x a week. 

I'm going to see how my hair looks and feels after it dries... and then give it another shot on Saturday on dry hair and with more tea. 

I will keep you guys posted :)

Mini Hair Meltdown

Tonight I experienced what I'm going to call a "mini meltdown"... I'm saying mini because I think I have it under control, as of now... at least I'm praying I do... but this could have EASILY turned into a bigger problem.

So if you saw my videos from this week's wash day you know that this week I decided to apply a black rinse in my hair by Clairol. (I have used this rinse PLENTY of times in the past) To prep my hair for the color I pre-pooed with Herbal Essence Hello Hydration and EVOO, then washed my hair with ION Color Solutions for Color Treated Hair (Purple). After that, I applied the rinse only to bottom half of my hair using the "ombre method" (which is very easy... next time I touch up my rinse I will do a tutorial for those who would like to try it).

I left the rinse in my hair from anywhere from 35-50 minutes (I honestly lost track, but since it wasn't a permanent color I wasn't too worried)

I rinsed out the color and then applied my deep conditioner... THIS stayed in my hair for over 2 hours.

Long story short... by the time I got all the product out my hair... my hair was on the verge of going into major MOISTURE OVERLOAD.

Well to counteract this problem I applied Organix's Anti-Breakage serum after it had air dried. This seemed to fix the problem for the moment.

Fast forward to today, my hair has been in a bun all day, and I'm getting ready to do my nightly routine of moisturizing and sealing my hair.. and as I'm detangling my hair.. I just notice TOO much hair coming out in the comb! (looking back on the pictures now, it doesn't look like much... but literally EVERY time I combed my hair... hair was coming out... long pieces, which were probably normal shedded hair.. but also SHORT pieces.. so my hair was breaking)

Now I preach this all the time.... ONLY YOU KNOW YOUR HAIR! So I just knew something wasn't right!

Yes, I know when you detangle your hair, there's no way to 100% avoid breakage.. and I know your hair sheds every day... but something just wasn't right.. and I wasn't willing to just leave my hair alone and hope it went away.

I decided something that I did to my hair yesterday had effected my hair and I needed to do even MORE damage control than I called myself doing last night.

I IMMEDIATELY jumped in the shower to wash my hair (I figured whatever was in my hair.. the first step was to wash it out... it may have been some color was still left on my hair... it may have been the shampoo I used, which I haven't used in almost a year... who knows!)...

This gave me a chance to try my new HairOne shampoo/conditioner that I ironically purchased today (I hadn't planned on testing it until next week on my next wash day.. but desperate times)

So I washed my hair 2 times with this... (I will do a separate post on this product)

Next... I did a protein treatment on my hair... I wasn't planning on doing this either for another 2 weeks... but when my hair is shedding like it was... and all that moisture I had put in it... my hair needed some strength.

I applied my ORS Hair Mayo and allowed it to sit for 30 minutes. 

Afterwards my hair felt MUCH stronger. 

I detangled and applied my leave in and now I'm air drying. 

I think I got 2 hairs total when detangling my whole head after this treatment. Here's a picture of the hair I lost after about ONLY 4 passes of the comb through my head before I washed it...

This may not seem like a lot to you.. but my hair should NEVER be losing THAT much after BARELY raking a comb through it. 

I'm monitoring my hair closely over the next few days to see how it acts... especially when I go to moisturize it again tomorrow night. 

I'm really hoping I have caught it in time and was able to give my hair whatever it was crying out for! 

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas why this happened... I swear I'd love you hear from you!

Texture Shots After My Protein Treatment: 

Detangling With Ease... 8 weeks post...

Hey yall. I've been EXTREMELY slow on my posting mainly because I haven't had anything really interesting to say about my hair lol. But I've been getting tons of questions and praise on my 2 year hair growth comparison and I just want to say THANK YOU! ^_^ 


It's really sobering to think how much hair growth I may be able to achieve in 10 months and the state my hair will be in when I decide to donate... I still haven't gotten around to checking to see if my hair was truly bleached when I dyed it honey blonde with the Dark N Lovely brand about a year ago (which would render my hair inadmissible)... it probably was because that's the only way to really lighten your hair... but I'm holding out hope that there is something I can do. 

Anywho. I am about 8 weeks post tex-lax. And if you are texlaxed you know that pretty much after the 1st week.. detangling your textured hair is just about the same tedious task as usual... no where NEAR as tedious as transitioning... (which I am still toying with by the way) but tedious none-the-less.

So... here's my process. 

[My scalp has been EXTREMELY dry, itchy and sore over the last 2 weeks so..] Instead of washing with my normal Sulfate-Free Shampoo.. I decided to wash with my Garnier Anti-Dandruff Dry-Scalp shampoo (this is a bonus to being a product junkie... you never know when you'll pull one of your old products out of the stash... none of my other products are really formulated specifically for dry-scalp... just for moisture) To prep my hair BEFORE the shampoo I pre-poo'd with both EVOO and EVCO and took a nap. Then washed my hair in the shower.

I deep conditioned with ORS Replenishing Conditioner for 1 hour.

To begin detangling, I sectioned off my hair in 4 equal parts

Next, I applied a VERY generous amount of the Silk Elements Silken Child Leave-In Detangler Spray to one section at a time and began to SLOWLY detangle ends to roots using my shower comb. 

 

I initially bought this spray to simply as a leave-in for my hair but it does help extremely with the detangling process. 

After detangling all 4 sections of my hair I applied my Cantu Leave-in Conditioner

Sealed with EVOO and air-dry. 

That's it!

The entire process took me 20 minutes. (I know because I was cooking french fries and set my timer before I started to detangle my hair lol)

Of course as my hair gets more and more weeks post texlax I may have to modify this regimen... but for now this works well for me. 

Other Products That Work Well As A Detangler:

Infusium 23 (3) Leave-In Treatment  (I usually substitute for this when I am applying heat to my hair... because this product works best as a heat protectant and thermal treatment)