Wash Day Diaries: a sweet treat for my hair

I had a busy weekend; on Saturday I had to organize a women's event in my church and that took the whole day. I would normally have done a co-wash and deep treatment on Saturday but I had to skip that because I rushed out of the house.

Pre-poo
I decided to do a honey and coconut oil prepoo; for the past week I've been adding honey and evoo to my deep conditioners and decided to try it as a prepoo. I had run out of EVOO so I used coconut oil and honey, along with some grapeseed and castor oil, covered with a plastic bag and shower cap and left on for about 30mins.

Shampoo
I shampoo once a week and did so this wash day, I still haven't bought a sulfate free shampoo and still use ORS creamy aloe shampoo. I diluted it with water, some coconut oil and V05 anti-breakage conditioner.

Deep conditioner
For the deep conditioning treatment I applied organix Moroccan Argan oil intense moisturizing treatment, covered with a plastic bag, a warm towel and a shower cap over that. I left that on and proceeded with breakfast, house chores and playing with my baby. I finally rinsed it out when my son went down for his nap.

Drying and leave-in
Air dried, after using a cotton tee for a few minutes. My leave-in conditioner went on and then following a LCO method; I applied water based cream ORS hairepair anti-breakage cream and sealed with Grapeseed oil.

Observation
Can I say my hair 'thanked' me for this lol, Hair felt very soft afterwards. I think the honey prepoo is something I would aim to continue.

Picture of the day: Rocking my TWA

Most days my hair is under a wig but a few days ago I rocked my Teeny Weeny Afro when running some errands.

Hair Babble: The Moisture Edition

- I'm still very pleased with my big chop (if I'm permitted to call it that). I guess I was just prepared and knew it was necessary.
- I'm struggling to keep my hair moisturised; it feels great after a wash or co-wash and moisturizing and sealing session but after a few hours it gets dry and coarse. It must be due to the kinky type (4c I think) of hair I have. I've tried spritzing in-between moisturizing sessions with a mixture of water, my vitale liquid leave-in and coconut oil.
- I plan to incorporate humectants into my routine; I used honey this week as part of my deep conditioning mixture. I hope to see changes when I begin to use it regularly. I also plan to purchase glycerin ASAP, I have read good reports of its moisturizing qualities for (natural) hair.
- I want to try the LOC method of moisturizing, maybe it will be a more effective moisturizing method.
- Lastly, I've been on a lot of natural hair blogs and they make me want to stay natural, however I want to commit first to being relaxer-free for six months then see where I go from there. Six months Makes sense for me anyway because I don't like the look of uber short relaxed hair.

Have a stress-free weekend!

The one where I cut my hair

So, late last night/early this morning I cut my hair!

This is why;

I did not like the way it was all uneven because of the areas where I had lost hair and finally just cut the longer areas, making it all equal.

Here are some pictures I took after co-washing this morning.

I felt so much better after the cut and it really felt like the right thing to do. This is new to me as I have never had my hair this short. It 98% natural now and I will be relaxing when it grows a few more inches. I have already been using wigs as my protective style and would continue that as well as other protective styles throughout the year in order to grow and retain length

I'm keeping my 2013 length goal as Shoulder- Length and it would be a great feeling to achieve that.

Excited!!!

Newbie Experiences:Regimen building and Choosing my hair products

I love to read about the hair regimens of ladies on healthy hair journeys. I am always interested in knowing what these ladies are doing or have done to grow and maintain their hair. Initially I was taking note only of the product used instead of the hair care habits. Later after reading several regimens I began to pay more attention to what they did to their hair and how they choose their hair products.

Firstly, I noticed frequent washes were a common factor. Secondly, I noticed that the product choices differed from lady to lady but for black hair I discovered the emphasis on moisture. Moisture, moisture and more moisture! Previously I had the 'oil' your hair mentality, and this was using products laden with petrolatum and/or mineral oil. Also i discovered it was not just about introducing moisture to the hair, that moisture had to be sealed in, using natural oils or commercial oil mixes. These two discoveries revolutionised the way I thought about hair care and armed with this information I cleared aside my old hair products and set out to acquire new ones.

I already had olive oil and shea butter which I normally use on my son but then I needed a moisturiser to seal in. So on my first hair product shopping list were; water based moisturiser, sulfate free shampoo and a conditioner. I spent quite a few minutes reading ingredients lists in my local supermarket and ended up purchasing these;

I was very pleased to have been able to get these basics on my first trip. I was unable to get any sulfate-free shampoo (difficult to find in stores here in Nigeria) so I opted for black soap to use for my first wash, Dabs of nhcg mentioned using it in one of her posts. I wanted a growth aid and picked up a small tube of virgin hair fertilizer, I had used this products before and it did increase/aid my hair growth however I was now doubtful because I read the ingredients this time. It contains:

Herbal extract, petroleum jelly, peppermint oil, lanolin and fragrance

After a bit of online research I decided to use it overnight only before wash days so that it would not build up on my scalp.

A rookie mistake I made was not realising the difference between instant and deep conditioners. For my first wash day, I made use of the V05 conditioner after shampooing, while on my second wash day I did a homemade protein deep treatment using eggs and olive oil. We spent the holidays (Christmas, new year) at my parents and luckily my mum had some ORS hair mayo! I used that while I continued my research into protein and moisturising deep conditioners.

I ended up with the products shown below, these are what I am using for my current hair care and regimen building, I will be outlining that in a future post.

 

 

Hair Challenge: 6 inches of growth

I am joining in on the 6 inches of growth challenge hosted by Dabs of Naija Hair Can Grow, the aim is to grow and retain length in 12 months. Challenge details and rules can be found here.

Hair is said to grow about half an inch per month, hence six inches in 12 months. The aim is to practise good hair care practices in order to retain most of that growth. This challenge is perfect for me as I currently am all about growing healthy hair and retaining most of the growth this year.

My first length check with my DIY length check tee. Hopefully my hair will actually land somewhere on the tee as the challenge progresses.

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Hair Goals

This is a first for me; hair goals. I am consciously setting goals for my hair alongside goals in other areas of my life. For me what I want and hope the most to achieve this year is health and length. Towards the end of 2012 I began to learn about healthy hair care practices and have started practising these.

Healthy Hair Goals
1. Moisturise and Seal daily
2. Develop a hair care regime and follow through.
3. Relaxer stretch for at least 12 weeks
4. Deep condition weekly
5. Maintain protein/moisture balance

Length Goal
Full Shoulder-Length


*image source: http://hairdelacreme.blogspot.com/2011/01/hair-length-chart-and-site-acronyms.html?m=1

Happy New Year

Here's to fresh starts in 2013!

My hair mantra for 2013 is health and length.

Happy Hair Growing!