Quick Life Update- I Graduated!

This past Saturday I was blessed to end my undergraduate career!!! After four years, I completed my Bachelors of Arts and Sciences in Communication degree from the University of Missouri. My college experience has been amazing and I have truly grown into myself. Even though I am a little scared of what lies ahead, I'm really excited to see where life takes me next.

2nd Year HHJ Anniversary- Part II

    In part one of my 2nd Year HHJ Anniversary I discussed what brought me to my journey. My hair has definitely been through a lot, and thank God it has been so forgiving. As I stated before, I'd hoped to have achieved longer lengths by now, but my July setback pushed me back on length goals. Nonetheless, I have learned so much about my hair and I know this next year will begin to show great results.

Main Things I have Learned

Aug 2012- 3 months into HHJ

• Every fad is not for everybody
• I personally do not benefit from multiple washings every week
• When it comes to styling, less is more
• Low Manipulation styles are nice but can be overdone
• There are no short cuts in this journey
• Hair bonding glue is a huge no-no
• People will always have an opinion on your hair, but at the of the day it's yours
• If you fall off, you can always cut and start back again
• Protect your ends!

To see my progress over the last two years, check out my Relaxer Updates tab. By next relaxer I should be SL or full SL. The longest my hair has ever reached on this journey is line 7 (APL) which I hope to reach by the end of the year. The wig regimen has been amazing so far which consists of 2 weeks out and 10 weeks under wigs. As my hair gets longer I plan to stretch longer and allow more time for my hair to be "out" and enjoy it. Maybe this regimen will take me all the way to WL :)

Happy Healthy Hair Journey!

ps. I'm more than excited to be graduating this Saturday!

2 Year HHJ Anniversary!! Part I

    So today marks my the end of my 2nd year of my healthy relaxed hair journey. This journey has had it's ups and downs but I really do enjoy being on a journey, and I could not imagine my hair life any other way lol. Dramatic, but true. I thought I would be well on my way to BSL by now but my journey had it's own path I guess. I thought I would reflect on how I got here :)
My Hair Story
       When I started this journey it was the end of my sophomore year of undergrad and I was fed up with the state of my hair. I got my first relaxer in the 8th grade and I had super thick APL hair. Most girls at my school considered it long, but I was not happy with how thick it was. My old school beautician refused to relax my hair bone straight, so for me a 12 year old it was still difficult to manage. I mostly kept my hair is buns or pony tails because I didn't like for it to be down. Later on I switched to a younger stylist who would relax my hair bone straight and do any crazy, stiff, hard style I desired. Who knew that years later I would be wishing I had my thick texlaxed hair back.
   

hair in h.s. had nape breakage and thinning edges

Glued in tracks for prom- with my parentals!

 In high school I kept my hair in micro braids because I played three sports all year round and I did not want to deal with my hair. The take down process was brutal and left me with breakage but I was careless and just thought of hair as just hair. Micros were also hard on my edges and to this day they are not the same. For prom I had my first experience with glue-in track and it was over, I knew I wanted to wear sew-ins.

last set of micros- kiss them goodbye!

1st sew-in... I'm 5'2 btw lol

      The first semester of college I got my last set of micros and was very disappointed in the length of my hair. I always had so much new growth, but never retained any length in that style. After that I got my first sew-in and fell in love with them. I had all this hair, who cared what my hair looked like under-neath? That summer I wore my hair out and it wasn't so bad. When I started my sophomore year it was back to sew-ins but I was not taking great care of my own hair underneath. I started to realize how the weaves were taking a toll on the health of my ends and length.

Summer before sophomore year

   March of 2012 I found KISS and Traycee from youtube, and started to stalk hair forums and youtube channels. I had unintentionally stretched my hair for 5 months under weaves and ended the stretch on May 15th 2012, the start of healthy hair journey.

crappy picture but this was the beginning

My Current Protective Style

At three weeks post I installed a new wig that I made on a sports dome cap. I am currently 5 weeks post and I have been officially loving this style. For the past six months I have been using wigs to help retain length and keep my hands out of my hair.

My wig regimen consists of...

• Weekly washdays
• Hair kept in braids 4-8
• Little to no leave out (closure)
• Moisturize and Seal braids every other day
• Co-wash wig every 3-4 days (curly hair) 
• Spray hair daily with conditioner & water, followed by Shea Moisture's Curl & Style Milk, and ending with a serum of my choice

two colors I used 14 & 17

I purchased my hair on Aliexpress by a vendor called Luvin Hair Co. The texture is Brazilian Curly in lengths (18, 20, 22, with 14 closure) but the bundles were not true to length. I ended up trimming the 22 because I received two bundles of 18, but so far that is my biggest complaint.

When I received my hair I went ahead and bleached the knots on my lace closure. I sewed the closure to the cap first, then sewed all 3 bundles of hair on the cap. Surprisingly, I used a majority of the hair with only a small amount of "22" left. After constructing the wig, I mixed to blondes together to create highlights and dimension in the hair. I left the color on for about 15 minutes before washing it out and deep conditioning it.

I am able to take the wig off everyday to cut down on tangles and matting. The hair does shed a little, but I did not seal my wefts so that is my fault. After two weeks I still really love the hair and would buy again. I will do another update on the hair in about two weeks.

Wash Day -1 week post

Initial texture after co-wash

After a week of silky straight hair I was ready for a wash day last weekend. I was happy to retain a lot of length from my last stretch, but I am always paranoid that my stylist did not leave me enough texture. I was pleased to find out that I was left with a nice amount a texture, which was very consistent with my last relaxer in December. This week was my 2nd and last heat pass for this stretch, so I can enjoy my hair for 2 weeks before I return to the wigging challenge.

After doing hot yoga on Saturday I did a quick co wash with Hello Hydration by Herbal Essences, after doing a quick coconut oil pre poo. I let my hair air dry and kept goddess braids in my hair until my wash day a few days later.

WASH DAY

• I started my wash day with a 1 hour pre-poo using Coconut Oil. After abandoning EVCO for so long, I'm glad I came back to it this last stretch. It is really great with detangling and controlling tangles during shampooing.
• Washed with Organix Awapuhi Ginger Shampoo and lathered twice. This has pretty much been a staple, it does a great job of cleaning my hair with stripping and tangling. 
• Once I got out of the shower, I t-shirt dried for about 10 minutes. Then when I applied my deep conditioner (Silk Dreams Vanilla Silk Cream Moisture Dream), I separated my hair into 3 parts and focused the conditioner on the ends. Sadly, that was probably my last application since I still have not ordered more Silk Dream products :/. I left the conditioner on overnight because it was late and I needed to be up early the next day.
• The next morning, I rinsed the conditoner out of my hair. I followed the rinse with my smoothing conditioner, Paul Mitchell's Super Skinny Daily Conditioner and left it on for 3-5 minutes. 
• After rinsing, I t-shirt dried for about 15 minutes and followed with my leave-ins. My leave-ins this week were Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Restructorizer and Paul Mitchell's Super Skinny Serum. I continued to air-dry for another 30 minutes
• Since I was flat ironing this week I used my Silk Elements Heat protector before lightly blow drying my roots. I separated my hair into 4 parts and used a paddle brush with my blow dryer. I really hate blowing drying because my arms always get tired, I'm so glad my blow drying days are far and few since being on a hair journey. 

  

  After blow-drying

• Finally I flat ironed after applying another coat of my heat protectant on a medium heat setting. Unfortunately I was in such a rush to get out the door that I did not get pictures of the final result. It was very full and thick like a press and curl lol. I've long given up on trying to achieve salon silky results and I actually love my hair both ways. I can never get the body that my stylist gives my hair, but she never gets the fullness that I do. Either way it was a successful wash day(s).

Relaxer Update 2.1- first relaxer of the year

Hair is my hobby :)

On Saturday March 15th I relaxed my hair at 12.5 weeks post. This year I will be sticking to 12 weeks to get me through my wig challenge for the year. Anyway, I visited my regular stylist back home with detangled and pre-pooed hair. I meant to time the application of the relaxer but I always forget to look at the time when she first begins lol. She quickly applied the relaxer and even though I experience NO BURNING, I was anxious to get to the sink because I wanted to keep a little texture.

The relaxing experience was great, I have no complaints and my scalp does not feel bothered. My last relaxer left my scalp feeling a little tight and raw, but I believe I was not oiled properly. After she neutralized me, I went under the dryer with a protein treatment for about 30 minutes. From there she rinsed and blow dried my hair, then proceeded to style. The one complaint I do have from my visit is the fact that she blow dries my hair while it is still dripping wet. Personally, I hardly ever blow dry my hair, so it makes me cringe when she does this.

7 months since hair cut & no more layers

 Progress over 7 months/ official length check tee- between lines 2 & 3

Once my hair was straightened out my stylist cleaned up my hemline to give it a nice clean look. I wouldn't considered it a trim, but my front was a lot longer than the rest of my hair and she even it out a bit. My ends are still looking great, and I feel like I am retaining a lot of length each stretch even with the light trims each relaxer. In my opinion I am very close to shoulder length hair, and I will be willing to claim SL around my next relaxer in June.

My next stretch will consists of...
1. 12 week long stretch ending in June
2. Wigging weeks 2-12
3. Continuing to  apply castor oil to edges & pre-poo with hemp and coconut oil
4. Washing in braids beginning around 4 weeks post*
5. Continuing to take silica supplements*
6. Alternating each wash day with shampoo and a cleansing conditioner*
*New things I'm taking from the last stretch

Last Weeks of my Stretch!

11 weeks post washing in braids

This weekend I will relaxing my hair at a little over 12 weeks post relaxer! Since cutting my hair in August, I have slowly been extending the amount of time I stretch my relaxers. I did not want to do extremely long stretches with really short hair so I've finally made it back to 12. I will be updating soon on the results :)

After rinsing out DC... Back is catching up with front

These last two weeks it has been s0 hard to keep my hands out of my hair lol. Am I the only one who is guilty of playing in their new growth? I did something a little different in my wig prep this week instead of cornrows I put my hair in 2 strand twists to keep the new growth stretched before my relaxer this weekend. I've also been loving washing my hair in braids, especially when I have about 2 inches of new growth in some sections. I've been learning the less I manipulate my hair the better off it is.

To prep for my relaxer this weekend, I took down my two strand twists and detangled my hair with my Mane and Tail Detangler. The only oil I had at my parent's house was castor oil so I smothered the ends with that to protect my ends from overlapping. After 10 weeks of wigging I am sooo ready to wear my hair out for 2 weeks before I begin wigging again. Looking forward to my relaxer update!!!