The Disaster: Weekly Regimen

It was finals time for me in law school and so I literally did nothing to my hair. I did not wash it, comb it, or even moisturize it. So my hair was a disaster. It was just snapping, crackling, and popping all over the place. I was prepared for the worst though.

I slathered my hair in a coconut and olive oil mix the night before. I pulled a LOT of the broken hairs out. I made sure I could run my hands over it without picking up any loose hair.

I started out with clarifying my hair with Nexxus. I had a lot of build up because of my high use of cones. My moisturizer has the worst ones in it-- I use Silk Elements Silken Child Moisturizing Creme. It also has fabulous ingredients though. But I am going to have to stop using it because it contributed a lot to the dryness of my hair. I am still looking the perfect moisturizer. Hopefully my hairveda purchase will help me out.

In any case, I then used my Elucence shampoo and conditioner. I added some Lustrasilk Shea Butter Cholesterol on top. I sat under the dryer for about 40 minutes. I rinsed, used Porosity Control, and started the LONG process of detangling my hair. I used my Yes to Carrots conditioner but even that could not help me. I had tons of multiple strand knots and mats. I have never had mats before. It was so bad. I had to cut out a lot of my hair. But it's okay. Finals are over and so I am going to start doing a every other day co-washes until the new year. I'll post the end results and a picture.

Listening to Your Hair

I cowashed last night using v05 Free Me Freesia Moisturizing Conditioner. Then I deep conditioned under heat with Elucence MB Conditioner. I decided to just leave it in, take off the shower cap, and dry my hair under my bonnet dryer. My hair felt really dry and crunchy and parts were like glued together. I only used two products so now I have to ask, which one does my hair not like? I am really hoping it is not the Elucence since I got ahead of myself and bought the 33oz size. But the problem could also be that I did not use enough products. Maybe I should have added some more conditioner and sealed. For the next three days, I will just keep tweaking.

On My Way to Healthy Hair--Weekly Regimen

I decided to do a prepoo this time. I mixed up extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and Silk Elements MegaSilk Moisturizing Treatment in a bowl, warmed it for 30 seconds, and thoroughly spread it through my hair. I put on a shower cap and used heat for about ten minutes. Then I just let it sit on my head for about an hour. It was messy. The oil was running all down my face, dripping on my clothes and floor. I would wipe some and more would fall out. Oil went into my eye. . . which was not fun. And I now have some permanent oil stains on one of my favorite T-shirts. But all the mess was worth it. First, the act of spreading all that oil on my hair allowed me to remove almost all of my shed hairs. A pretty substantial amount of shed hairs after not combing my hair for six days. I can only imagine how many multiple strand knots I would have had if I had not done this prepoo. And after I rinsed it out, my hair was really soft and shiny.


I shampooed for the first time with Elucence Moisture Benefits Shampoo. It smelled like peaches, which I found out is a smell I do not particularly care for. But the shampoo worked well. It did not strip my hair and it made my hair even softer.


I then deep conditioned under heat with Elucence Moisture Balancing Conditioner. I can't review this yet without many more uses but I'll give you my first impressions. It gave me slip but not as much as I would have liked. It had a watery, thin consistency when I usually like creamy, thick conditioners. The conditioner did add moisture to my hair so I do love it for that. I'll put up a real review for it after using it for a few months though.

After I rinsed it out, I used Porosity Control Conditioner (like always) to close my cuticles. Then I used the Yes to Carrots Conditioner to detangle my hair. My hair was not knotted at all. Detangling was a breeze.

After, I sat under the dryer because I have given up on using flexi rod sets. It still takes too much time and too much manipulation. So I am now just going to tie my hair back, slap on a headband to control the thickness, and go on my merry way. After drying, I still used Paul Mitchell leave-in conditioner on my ends and sealed with olive oil.

I would just like to say that before I dried my hair, I did a wet hair assessment. I gently pulled on a few strands of hair and they actually stretched a little before breaking. You all don't know how exciting that is. I really feel like I am making progress towards healthy hair.

This Week's Regimen

I have decided to do conditioner washes every couple of days so this week I wanted to clarify. I used Nexxus Aloe Rid Gentle Clarifying Shampoo and shampooed with Ion Dandruff Solutions. I used Aphogee 2 Minute Keratin Reconstructor to keep up my hair's moisture/protein because co-washes really moisturize hair. Then I deep conditioned with Kenra MC under heat for 35 minutes and used Porosity Control for my final rinse.

The result was not good. I had five or six multiple strand knots. These knots caught about thirty strands of hair each. I now know the importance of combing out shed hairs before you wet the hair or washing your hair more so that you can detangle more. Once water hits your head, those shed hairs slide down and knot the heck up. Needless to say, I was pretty horrified. And it was painstaking work to pick each strand from the knot. I still had to cut about ten strands that were glued to the knot. The rest of my hair was very tangled and Kenra did not work at all in the detangling process. But thankfully the product junkie in me had just bought the Yes to Carrots Pampering Hair Mud Conditioner and. . .OMG, it was freakin fabulous! I never knew what people were talking about when they said their hair felt like butter. The comb slid through my new growth so easily. That one is definitely a keeper!

Factors That Help Hair Growth

So I was reading this article about how we should be growing 6 inches a year, which is about a 1/2 inch each month. I did the calculations. . .I have been transitioning for about five or six months and so my natural hair should be 2.5 to 3 inches long. But I only have an inch of new growth. Well I will say an inch and a half because the hair is pretty kinky lol. Still, one of the biggest things that people forget about is having a healthy diet. You can buy all the most expensive products and treat your hair like porcelain but if you are not eating healthy, your hair growth will be stunted.

If you are like me and eating really healthy is beyond you right now, there are still some things you can do:


1. Take a supplement: Many people swear by biotin (vitamin B7), which strengthens both your hair and nails. You need 5mg to have healthy hair and nails, an amount that is very hard to get naturally. Small amounts of biotin are in eggs, liver, brown rice, walnuts, and lentils. But one capsule of the supplement will take care of the daily 5mg. I ordered my 10 month supply today. It does take a couple of months to take effect so don't give up after a few weeks.

2. Add more protein and sulphur to your diet: High protein foods include meat, fish, nuts, and eggs. High sulphur food are onions, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, and eggs. There is also a sulphur supplement called MSM.


3. Scalp Massage: A daily or weekly scalp massage will increase blood circulation in the scalp, which feeds your hair follicles and promotes hair growth. It only takes ten minutes. You should at least make it routine when washing your hair. Make sure you are massage with your fingertips and not your nails though!

First Flexi Rod Set

I tried to do my first flexi rod set. It was definitely harder than all the youtube tutorials made it seem. At the very end, I started to get the hang of it but it was a little too late. So I'll post my mistakes and successes in the hopes that you all will learn from them.

Mistakes:
1. I sectioned my hair wrong: I pretty much only set the ends of my hair and the middle is flexi rodless. What I should have been done is part my hair in squares so that the roots would be curled as well.
2. I did not use end paper: Without end paper, I had a real hard time keeping my hair together on the rod. Little pieces would fly out and because of my breakage, I have different lengths of hair. Let me tell you! It is damn near impossible to do a flexi rod set without end paper when you have different hair lengths. Don't even try!
3. I should have air dried my hair in the flexi rods: After shampooing and conditioning, I left my hair in plaits to air dry. The next day, my hair was hard and tangled again. There was also extra manipulation, which means more breakage.

Successes:
1. Lathering my hair with Proclaim Setting Lotion, leave in conditioner, and olive oil. My hair was a lot easier to roll when it was damp and moisturized.



Edit: Pic of my 2nd flexi rod set on 11/19. I am still working on perfecting it but it resulted in some very pretty curls. I had to hide the first one under a hat because only my ends were curled. This time I put on a cute headband and no one could tell that I still did not curl the middle as I should.

This Week's Regimen

I am going to tweak my regimen each week to see what works and what doesn't. This week I shampooed with Silk Elements Moisturizing Shampoo and Ion Anti-Dandruff Shampoo, deep conditioned with Kenra Moisturizing Conditioner, rinsed, and used Roux Porosity Control Conditioner. Then I plait my hair into four parts because I cannot cornrow, sat under a dryer for ten minutes, and let the rest air dry. Tomorrow I am going to try my first Flexi Rod Set, a much easier way to get curls without using heat than plaiting. I'll see how it goes.

Silk Elements Shampoo Review

So I shampooed with Silk Elements Luxury Moisturizing Shampoo. It was kind of stripping and it left my hair very tangled. On the plus side, it lathers very well, cleans well, and smells nice. It has two types of sulfates in it: sodium lauryl sulfate and cocamidopropyl betaine. The first one, though not the worst, is still pretty harsh for your hair and you should try to avoid it. I'll give you all information about sulfates later. So the lesson here is to always read the ingredients list on your hair products before you buy and know what they mean. I did not know that sulfates were bad for your hair when I first bought this shampoo a year ago. Hopefully the Elucence shampoo I ordered will come in this week.

How I Decided To Go Natural

Now that I have a pretty good grasp of hair care, this blog will document my transition. My last relaxer took place in April or May. I do not know the exact date because I was not planning on going natural. I started by stretching my relaxer with weaves for a few months. Then I moved to another state in August where relaxers were far too expensive so I kept getting wash and sets. Then I realized my hairstylist was not giving me good advice and my hair was breaking like crazy and so I have decided to do my hair myself. As for the current state of my hair, I have had severe breakage and it is as dry as the desert and really itchy. My hair is chin length with some raggedy ends. I am about to go wash my hair and I'll let you know how it goes. . .