Useful General Information about natural hair

About natural hair
Hair types and texture

1 year Protective Styles challenge

This challenge is from December 29, 2012 to December 29, 2013. Because I did the big chop and I'm in the military going to school. I am planning on doing a protective styles for 1 year because I'm really busy. My plan is to wear wigs until September 2013 and then do braids or sew in. I want to be able to put my hair in a bun again. I can't wait for that opportunity. I got my hair braided December 29, 2012 and I will wear my wig over it for 2-3 months. I paid $20 to get my hair done into this Beehive cornrow style. 

Beehive cornrow

Big chop Dec 15, 2012

My last true relaxer was January 15, 2012; however, November 2nd 2012 I did do a relaxer using the silky hawaii no base relaxer in mild but it did not process my hair at all. I thought about going natural, but I kept pushing it off by using different treatments to cure my breakage problem. No treatment really helped my breakage problem for long term. I hated the fact that when  I wash my hair I would loose so much hair, sometimes it would make me cry just to wash my hair. December 15 I deep conditioned and wash my hair as usual. ( I did not plan on doing  a big chop at all) I felt that my hair breakage problem was not improving and I knew in my guts I had to cut my relaxed hair off. I got out my scissors and cut my relaxed ends off! I was a little nervous because my hair was grazing waist length. My long hair was beautiful when it was blow dried and flat iron. I experience little breakage when my hair is in its dry state, but the process of drying and flat ironing would let me loose so much hair.  I always get compliments when I wear my hair out straight, but I just hate my hair in its wet state because of all the breakage. I know I was really ready to go natural this time for the health of my hair. My first big chop in 2007, I never really give my hair a chance to thrive. I was really impatient with my hair and since I am military and was not in the states to get all the right products for natural hair I gave up and got a relaxer. Now I am better educated about natural hair, and have ease of access to the right products.

I measured my hair and I have at least 5 inches of  natural all around my head and some parts is 5.5 inches

After my big chop my hair is 100% better.  This is the my breakage after my first wash. I am so excited.

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I am wearing my hair in wigs now because it is easier for me to take care of my hair that way now. My plan is to keep  wearing wigs until I can put my hair in a bun.

Product junkie update #3

                                                           Hair product stash
This is the update of the hair products I have as of 11/2012. It's exactly 60 products. I have a few of them that are repeats because I like those products. I will not be buying anything else for the next 10 months except a relaxer. I have not gone crazy buying stuff like I used to a year ago. My goal is to have no more than 20 hair products on hand at a time.

12/15/2012 Even though I bought my relaxer in preparation to relax my hair, I decided to do the big chop. I gave away some of these products because I knew they wouldn't work for my natural hair. 

Controlling hair breakage

This is my hair after I took my hair out of wearing cornrows for 3 months. I lost a lot of hair, I cried. Maybe it's all the dead hair from not combing my hair in 3 months + breakage. 

 August 31, 2012 as you can see the amount of breakage covers my entire palm!

                                       I use pennies to get a better idea of how much hair it is. 

Hair breakage Sep 21, 2012. 

So this is my hair breakage after I wash, deep conditioned and styled it. (Oct 6, 2012) I started using Joico products, aloe vera juice and hairfinity for the past 3 weeks. I am so happy that my breakage is becoming lesser and lesser.  I don't think it is the hairfinity, but I think it is the Joico and the aloe vera juice that is decreasing my breakage. 

HAIRFINITY

I started taking hairfinity on Sept 21, 2012. I bought 4 months supply because I want my hair to grow a little more so I can cut a an inch or two off to make my hair more even and healthier. Each bottle is about $24 so if I do not see any results I will not be repurchasing these vitamins. I am getting a relaxer in December so I will post an update.


                                                This is my first youtube video. Hairfinity

Long hair under wig

I am currently wearing wigs as a protective style. This is how I keep my hair under my wig. I paid $30 to get my hair cornrowed. I had my hair cornrowed since May 21, 2012. I use braid spray and castor oil every day or every other day depending on how I feel. I wash and deep conditioned my cornrows once a month because I want to keep them in for 3 months. I plan on taking them out the end of August. I am crossing my fingers that my hair won't get matted and dried out. 

Product Junkie update #2

These are just images of things that I either finished up or decided to quit using them because they weren't working for my hair. This is about 40 different products that I've gotten rid of. I am still working on curing my pj-ism. I still need to do a real update in June of what I have. So far I'm using up a lot of what I have and I only buy products that I really need.

Creme of nature argan oil shampoo and conditioner review

I love love these products. The shampoo will always be in my staple. It leaves my hair soft, detangled, moisturized and not stripped of moisture. I've been using these products for about 8 months now. The conditioner makes my hair extra soft. I am not 100% about the conditioner yet because it doesn't control my breakage. It is not the conditioner's fault it is my hair type. If I give my hair mild protein or deep conditioning treatment it still breaks. I am trying to find the balance between my protein and my moisture to make my hair stop break. Overall I use to the conditioner to restore moisture, but it doesn't help with my breakage. They both cost under $10 bucks and they perform great. This shampoo makes me feel like I found my holy grail shampoo, but their are a few more sulfate free shampoo that I want to try before I am completely sold out to creme of nature argan oil shampoo. 

No lye relaxers (Relaxer reviews)

This is a list of no lye relaxers that I have tried. They were okay at the time except for ORS olive oil. I will never use these products again because I felt like no relaxers made my hair dryer. I now use lye relaxers.


ORS no lye did not process my hair at all. 

Mizani butter blend Relaxer review

I HAAAAAAAAATE this relaxer. I used it back in 2010. I used it in regular and it left my hair

UNDER PROCESSED. The first time I used it I was like 12 weeks post and it left my hair under processed. I left it on past the intended time because I still saw the curls in my new growth not getting straight (keep in mind I have fine hair). I was getting scared because I had it on passed the allotted time so I  had to rinsed it out. I was so mad, it was like I did not get a relaxer. I waited 1 month later to give the relaxer another try and it was same result. I got so frustrated so I decided to try the silk element relaxer a few weeks later. I ended up giving the relaxer away. 

CHI deep brilliance relaxer (Relaxer review)

For those of you who don't know that CHI does make a relaxer, they do and they also have a line that is catered to ethnic hair called deep brilliance. This line is a bit on the moderate to expensive side ranging from $10 to $50 for small amount of products, but they are good quality products. I used this relaxer twice in no base mild. This relaxer would have been great, but I feel it is too strong even for mild. I base my scalp heavily and I still got burned. I have one more application of this relaxer left, but I put it in the trash because my hair is breaking and it is not acting right so I want to hold off on doing a relaxer and do a 6 months stretch. (I put it in the trash because I am in the process of moving from overseas back to the states and I do not know anyone who would want the rest of it.) 

This relaxer is really creamy and does moisturize the hair during the relaxer process. My hair was still silky after the 3rd wash using the relaxer, which is a good thing. It cost $9.99 for 1lb tub which could give 3 to 4 applications for bsl length hair. I want to find another lye relaxer that is not so harsh on the scalp. (I do not have sensitive scalp) I want to try the Hawaiian silky no base in mild because I heard good reviews about it not being harsh on the scalp and plus I used to use their no lye back in 2005 and I loved it.  If I can't find a better relaxer, I would always come back to this and add oil to the relaxer to cut down on the burning, but for now I will not be repurchasing. 

Hair Frustrations

Right now I am completely frustrated with my hair. I feel like my hair is so fragile and is constantly breaking no matter what I put in my hair. My hair has grown and I always get compliments on it whenever I wear it out, but I am having too much breakage.  I think my hair is on over load from all my products. This is why I am getting rid of most of my hair products and I plan on only repurchasing a handful of items that I already have. I was even contemplating on going natural, but I thought that I tried that 4 years ago and it didn't work out so I got a relaxer again. I am just completely frustrated with my hair all around with the breakage, one side being thicker and longer than the other, horrible ends! I can't really tell if it is moisture or protein is the problem!
My game plan is to start wearing wigs when I get back to the states next month and leave my hair alone. I am currently 3 months post relaxer and I plan on wearing wigs to get to 6 months post and decide if I want to go natural or what. I highly doubt that I will go natural though. I just need to give my hair a break.

The following is how much hair I lost from flat ironing. I cowashed the day before air dried and the flat iron the next day and this is what is happening. This does not include the hair that's in my brush and that I lost when I did the cowash. 

Silk Elements relaxer (Relaxer review)

I had dry and dull hair even after deep conditioning weekly and doing frequent cowashes per week. I was using no-lye relaxer at the time and I discovered everywhere that no-lye leaves mineral deposit on the hair and cause it to be dry and brittle. I even purchased Keracare chelating shampoo and used Ors aloe rid shampoo to try to remove the minerals but my hair was still dry and brittle. 

So I decide to purchase the silk element relaxer in regular because I've read so many good reviews about this relaxers. I used this relaxer for about a year and a half.  I used it for this long because I tried to make the relaxer work and plus I was relaxing every 4-6 months. This relaxer burned the crap out of my scalp every time I used it even after basing my scalp with vaseline and mixing the relaxer with oil. Mixing the relaxer caused some parts of my hair to be under processed. I decide to switch because I felt that I would damage my scalp with this relaxer. I had a 15 oz full jar in my stash and I gave it away to someone else that like the relaxer. 

I WILL NEVER REPURCHASE AGAIN. 

Deep Condition Alternative

This is for those who do not have a hooded dryer or a heating cap and want an alternate way to deep condition. I do have a hooded dryer, but I am in the process of moving so it is not accessible right now and I feel like deep conditioning with a blow dryer is time consuming and tiring. So here is what I did.
1. Saturate my dry hair with a conditioner.
2. Cover my hair with a shower cap or saran wrap.
3. Place a knit cap over the shower cap my head.
4. Go for a 30 to 40 min run.

Voila you have the heat that is produced from your body gets trapped on your head and moisturize and condition your hair. Doing this method you'll be killing two birds with one stone by deep conditioning your head and staying fit at the same time.
 WARNING. Make sure you are well hydrated before your run and if you feel dizzy or anything of that sort stop running and ease your knit cap/ shower cap up to allow some air to get to your head to cool you off. Haha don't embarrass yourself now by allowing everyone to see the gunk on top of your head if you must allow air to get to your head. 

HAPPY DEEP CONDITIONING!

Why I became a Product Junkie?

A product junkie is a person who keeps buying different hair products for their hair. I became a product junkie for a number of reasons.
1.  I became a product junkie because I did not know what my hair needed. 
2. I see people on the internet, blogs, hair forums, youtube, and friends that said this product work for them so I would go out and buy what they use. 
3. I was on numerous bandwagons like aphogee, dominican products, monistat, megatek, shapleys MTG, relaxer stretching, natural oils, ayurveda powders, sulfur challenge, castor oil challenge, cowash challenge, no shampoo method . . . You name it I was on every bandwagon.
4. I became a product junkie because products were on sale. 

I finally realize that a lot of the products I was using is not really working for my hair.  With all these products I was using I didn't see the results everyone was raving about. I wasn't focusing on the fact that everybody hair grows at a different rate.  It get me mad when I would not get the same results so I would keep going from one bandwagon to another to try to attain the results people were getting. Don't get me wrong, my hair grew a lot but I still had problems with extreme breakage, moisture problems, protein problems, detangling . . . 
I don't believe it takes having  80, 100, 120 products at once to have healthy hair! Because as of two weeks ago I had over 120 products for my hair. How sad? 
I am starting to understand what works for somebody else hair is not guaranteed to work for my hair. So there is no reason for my to run out and buy that particular product. I need to focus on what my hair needs for example protein, moisture . . . 
I will now do extensive research and only purchase sample sizes or the smallest size of products if I'm going to try anything new. And I will not have piles and piles of different shampoos, conditioners, treatments . . . when in actuality I'm not giving a product a chance to work for my hair because every wash I'm using something different and when I moisturize it is a different moisturizer.
The big draw back from this is that when something is affecting my hair in a negative way I don't really know what it is because I'm constantly using different products. 


Being a product junkie sucks!

Product Junkie Rehab update #1

Feb 24, 2012 I have counted all my hair products and I have over 120 hair products. This is is absolutely ridiculous! I had a mini beauty supply store at my house!

I feel like I only find 2 products that will absolutely be in my staple. It's sad that out of 120 products I have only  2 that will not live without. Don't get me wrong there are some stuff that I really like, but I think there is better out there. I feel like a lot of the products I have are just o.k and do not make my hair the way I want it to.
 So I came up with a game plan of curing my hair product addiction.
My plan is to use up a lot of my products, give some away and not buy anymore products until May 2012. I will only buy 5 products the max that I absolutely need. 


Today I went to the salvation army to inquire about a homeless shelter to give a way some of my products. I also let the lady know that some of them were used. She told me where the shelter was and I didn't know where it was so she took the box of hair products from me and will deliver it to the shelter because the salvation army is partner with the homeless shelter. So I gave 25 hair products to the homeless shelter and I gave away 12 other products to two of my friends.

So far I have gotten 37 products off my hands and I am still using up stash. I will update in another month and a half about all the products I have used up. I am on my way to be a recovered product junkie :)

NuNAAT

I have these two products in my hair product stash. My hair goal for now is to use up all my products and to cure my product junkie problem. 

For a good deep conditioner I mix these two products together and apply it to my dry hair  for a deep condition treatment. I go under the dryer for 30 minutes, then wash and condition and then air dry. Both products have a thick consistency and when applied to my hair make it feel soft. I notice that the first time I used both of them I have extremely less hair breakage. These both leave my hair extremely soft and I would definitely repurchase these products again once I cure my product junkism. 

*Just documenting what works for me so in the future I can always repurchase if my hair starts acting up. 

Aphogee shampoo and two minute reconstructor

This is my review on the aphogee shampoo and two minute reconstructor. I hate the shampoo and decided that I will use the remainder of the product to clean my bath. The shampoo strips my hair even though I deep condition before shampooing. The keratin 2 minute reconstructor restores my hair after the shampoo, but it does not help with my breakage. I will not be purchasing the shampoo again, but I would definitely repurchase the 2 minute reconstructor.

Product Junkie

I want to confess that I'm a product junkie. I was always obsessed with long hair and I am always buying new products to make my hair better. Sometimes I would spend $80 on hair products at one time even when I have a lot of hair products. I think that all these products are ridiculous for only one person. I think I have products for at least four or more people. I still have a few more elsewhere not in this picture. These are the products I have as of 24 Feb 2012.

Close up shots of my products: 

My plan is to use finish 20 or more products within the next 2 months because I am moving and I can't take a lot of liquids with me. My goal is to use all these products and only have products enough for one person because I think it is more normal and cheaper on my wallet. 

This is how I usually store most of my products under my bathroom sink. 

My goal by December 2012 is to not be a product junkie.

Molasses

Yes, I know molasses is food, but I use it on my hair. I use about 1 to 2 tablespoon in my deep condition mixture. I started using molasses in December of 2011 and I love it. The very first time I use it I could tell there was an increase softness to my hair. This has become part of my weekly deep conditioning procedure.
How do I use molasses? 
I use molasses by adding 1 to 2 tablespoon in my deep conditioner. I mix it up and then put the mixture on my dry hair. I make sure my hair is completely saturated with the product and cover my hair with saran wrap or shower cap depending on the mood. Then I proceed to deep condition under my hooded dryer for 30 mins. I then shampoo, condition and continue with my routine styling.

This is the molasses used


I read that blackstrap molasses is better, but I couldn't find any where I am. I know that I can order it online, but I'll just wait until I get back to the states to go to a health food store. Whenever I find it I'll use it and make the comparison.

****Disclaimer I cannot attest to the fact that molasses darken the hair or blackened gray hair.

Hair Growth update

This is my hair growth update. These pictures are from November 2011 after a relaxer with the CHI lye relaxer. My hair has grown a lot since 2009. In the second picture I need a trim.