More About My Big Chop Part 1

I remember thinking to myself boy my hair has gotten so long and not even thinking that it would grow to this length.  I loved it and liked wearing it out and showing it of, but if only people knew how much love and attention I gave my hair they might think I was crazy.


I looked around at different women black and white who I knew or saw every other day, friends, family and people I met every other day here and their.  Once they had long hair and then all of sudden they cut their hair of.  They just wanted a change, something easy.  


When I really decided to cut all my beautiful long once natural, then texlaxed and only recently relaxed hair of, was when I was having a intimate conversation with my husband.  We where on our way back to the Bahamas from are annual Thanksgiving shopping from Florida.  I was telling him how I really wasn't in to all the work with my hair anymore and was just going to wear a wig for awhile.  Surprisingly he said to me I liked your hair the most when it was natural.


I thought to myself, ok it's time to let go of this hair that I'd being wearing on my head for awhile.  Give up the long time spent doing my hair and put it towards other things, more time with the kids, writing my songs, etc.  It will take time to grow back, but I'm ok with it.  So I went in my bathroom one night and cut of the thick braids that I was going to wear under the wig.


It feels good right now just letting the water run down my hair every day or every other day and letting my scalp enjoy the water.  I'm looking forward to using more moisture in my routine, which is something my hair went without for like a month sometimes.  Boy it's a wonder how my hair hold up and still grew, is it that my natural hair is strong no matter what.  Or the Shea Butter.


I'm looking forward to my new journey and being free to do whatever I want with my hair when I want to do it.


Natural Joyanne

Texlaxed to Relaxed

So I did it I took my texlaxed hair and completely relaxed it all over to make it more straight all in the hopes that on wash day's I would have less hair loss and tangles at the roots.  It was either this, continue to battle the shedding and hair loss on wash day's or cut it. 

Just want to post a few pictures and show my results, it's to soon to tell how wash day's will be, but after relaxing it I didn't have that much hair loss.

MY RESULTS

HOW I RELAXED MY HAIR

1)  First thing I did was prepare my hair for the relaxer 3 days before.  I washed my hair with the ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo and treated it with Queen Helene Cholesterol Conditioning Cream along with the ORS Olive Oil Replenishing Conditioner Professional bottle.

2) I gathered all the materials I would need, the relaxer, combs, towels, timer, cape and clip.

3) When I was ready to relax I based my scalp with Vaseline.

4) I read all the instructions before I proceeded.

5) I mixed 2 jars of  relaxer completely and sectioned my hair in 4.

6) I did a strand test on a shedded hair, waiting for the max time rinse relaxer of and checked the hair.  It appeared strong and straight.

6) I decided it was ok to apply to my hair after doing the strand test.  I applied the relaxer starting at the back, but I was suppose to start at the front, I decided to quickly apply all over my hair starting from the roots all the way to ends, not putting to much on the ends.  I did my best to stay in the time frame but that is never possible for me and went over by 10 minutes.  I also tried to smooth all of my hair but the right is not as smooth as the left in the roots.  So next time I relax I will start on the right.  I applied more relaxer to the ends last and to the hair line.

7)  I rinsed out the relaxer immediately after smoothing and did not let is sit on my hair any longer.

8)  Then I washed my hair with the Creamy Aloe Shampoo provided following the instructions, wash hair rinse, repeat and leave on for 2-3 mins.  Then rinse of.  I don't like how this doesn't have the shampoo that turns from pink to white, will have to consider if to get one of those shampoo's that does that.  But I decided to follow the instructions and do what it said.

4)  Then I applied the Replenishing Conditioner Professional bottle that I already have instead of the regular one they provided, left on for about 10 minutes while I started cleaning up and then went under the dryer for about 15 minutes and then rinsed of.

5)  I combed my hair out  with Kinky Curly Knot Today and didn't have crazy shedding or breakage which is always a plus and it felt nice, it was really late when I did all this so I put it in a bun and went to sleep.

7)  The next day I applied the Kinky Curly Knot to day, water and oil to seal and rollerset my hair.  It came out nice, but my hair was dry and stick together.  That might have been due to the fact that I didn't comb through the hair from the roots.  So I used the ORS Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion that I have in a bottle, sealed it with my shea butter and coconut mixture and took my time and comb it through in small sections, that's why my hair looks weighed down in the pictures.  There was very little shedding and breakage, but on none wash day's that's never a issue.  The ORS Moisturizer sure did moisturize it and it wasn't as tangle.  I put 5 pin curls in it wrap it with my satin scarf and went to bed.

8)  So I started Wednesday night and the pictures of my hair is Friday.

A relaxer is harsh on the hair and so is shampoo on my hair.  I'm hoping when I wash again with Hair One Olive Oil Cleasning Conditioner it will return to normal.  I just want healthy tangle free hair.  Length and body is always a plus.

Natural Joyanne

Switching Relaxers Phytospecific to ORS

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I thought that the Phytospecific Relaxer was going to stay with me for the rest of my relaxed journey, however I have several hair goals


HAIR GOALS


1) Less breakage on wash days.
For some reason I have alot of shedding and breakage on wash days and it's been that way before I relaxed, I was extra careful with my natural hair.  But when I was natural I only washed every month, then every two weeks then every week at the ending of my natural hair journey. Just this Sunday I conditioner washed my hair, then decided that I really needed to relax my hair so I decided to wet it again wash with shampoo, treat it all in preparation for the relaxer.  Well I sure lost alot of hair, my hair was matted really bad, it's only been matted like this one other time when I was natural and I used a shampoo I had never used before on my hair without braiding it in four first.  I washed my hair out, big mistake.  I've recovered from hair mistakes I made before, I'm thinking that in another 6 months the hair that was broken will big longer.  But since I have alot of hair, it's still thick.


2) Length
I have a length goal for my hair and it's getting there, just have to fix this hair lost on wash day's that has battled me since day one of my hair journey natural and relaxed.  The length I want is for my hair in the front to be just below my breast, then I will have to trim it more regular to maintain the length.


GOALS I REACHED FOR NOW


1) Hair Treatment That Strengthens Hair
After trying the Queen Helene I think that this is the treatment for my hair for now, it made my hair much stronger than the ORS Replenshing Conditioner and minimize the split ends.
2) More Moisture
I achieved this, however I really don't like the moisture and seal method it ruins my hairstyle and is time consuming for me.  Doing pin curls and putting my hair in a bun kept my hair from tangling, but protective styles only cause more shedding and breakage for me.


3) Less Heat
I used rollers for a long time, like 2 months instead of heat and found out that using snap on rollers where easier with or without the snaps.  Only started switching to flat ironing more recently because of the humidity and tangles.


Now lets talk about the mean topic switching to ORS Relaxer, I'm going to try this relaxer to see if it will eliminate the hair loss I have on wash day's.  I believe that since the Phytospecific relaxer texlaxed my hair, it is making it difficult to be detangled when wet when the new growth comes in.  The ends of my hair isn't that difficult to detangle just the roots.  Doesn't sound like it makes sense, but I'm going to try the relaxer and see if it will make a difference.  Before relaxing I considered cutting my natural shorter so I wouldn't have to deal with it as much.  But it was hard to give up the length so vanity won in the end.  I also believe that stretching isn't for me, I need to stretch to 2 months and 2 weeks perhaps and just do a small touch up to the roots.  So far the first relaxer I made it to 4 months and this time to 3 months.  Now that I know to base my scalp and just do touch's ups I won't be exposing myself to the chemicals anymore than I need to.  Will post my results.


Natural Joyanne