#Relaxer update

Recently got my hair relaxed after 12 wks..... Here are the results:

Still got a few inches to go in growing out my layers..... but it lays very nicely. I am loving how my hair is thickening up; even though this summer I didn't do a fantastic job of maintenance with my strands..... So for the fall I plan to:

- continue to wash 1x a week and keep my hair off my shoulders as much as possible (even though my husband likes to see my hair down) 

-DC with every wash alternating protein and moisturizing conditioners

-moisturize and seal my ends at night

-look into some different protective styles to wear through the end of the year

My goal is to be pushing APL by the end of the year..... think I can make it?

Relaxer update

Recently relaxed my hair after 11wks of stretching. I would have gone longer since I have discovered wigs but with my family coming into town for my pinning ceremony and my new growth becoming more and more unmanageable, I figured I should go ahead and get it done. 

State of my hair before the relaxer

Around 6wks post I purchased a bottle of MSM tablets that were 1500 in strength instead of the normal 1000 mg that I bought in the past. This was actually partly an accident because I realized I bought the wrong dosage as soon as I walked out of the store, but since they were tablets and not capsules I figured it couldn't hurt to take these and see how things go. I also started doubling my hair nail and skin supplement for the vitamin benefits. 

 Needless to say, by 9wks, my new growth (in my eyes) was CRAY. No amount of product would lay my edges or any part of my hair down... it only got worse as the days went on. It was hard to blend my hair in with the wigs anymore. 

State of my hair after relaxer

I cut it! Let's face it thouh: it needed to be done. After a long thought and reflecting on how the only way it would be a complete full head of even hair again was to even it up completely.... I just went for it. I didn't even feel bad! Best part about this is that now the underprocessed  parts of my hair strands are my ends so as my hair continues to grow, I can finally do away with it with each trim. I'm excited! My hair is so shiny and bouncy.... I miss my hair being like this, but most of all I've missed wearing my hair down!

Hair currently
It sits about shoulder length in the back and slightly above in the front. Amanda cut light layers all over to offset the portion of my hair that is still recovering from damage so that it didn't look choppy in the back. I'm really feeling cut, it fits my face and goes along great in this transition phase I feel myself going through... My husband approves it to so that's always a +!

Love this fresh start for my hair, ready to make great hair moves next year now :)

Relaxer update

After having my sew-in  up for around 4 weeks I had no other choice but to take it down, it was becoming difficult to blend my leave out with the hair since I wasn't flat ironing it. At the take down I was 10 wks post relaxer and I felt like 13 wks! My hair was so unmanageable, along with the tangles from shed hair that hadn't been allowed to escape for 4 weeks was my new growth and the under processed portions of my hair that were NOT allowing me to accurately comb through my hair without unnecessary breakage. So I decided not to wait any longer and got a relaxer at 11 wks.

Relaxer Update

**Written July 12th, 2013***

Relaxed after 15 wks, my longest stretch this year. I think I like it better when I stretch 11-12 wks, so I'm thinking I'll be sticking to that from now on. I didn't really have much of a problem with the stretch itself [mainly because my hair was in a protective style for 6wks of it] it was just at 13 wks post, I felt like I had to blow dry it after every wash just to be able to manage it and I didn't want to rely on heat to stretch it out.

I am pleased with how quickly my hair is recovering from the damage and how nicely it's growing back in. There is still maybe about a 2 in. difference between the broken pieces and my unaffected hair but I plan to just get my hair to certain length and then trim back to that length until all my hair is one uniformed length again. I've been APL since April but I began to trim it up then...... I'm just going to let it grow back to APL and then keep it there until my strands "catch up."

I feel as though the senagalese twists were a good protective style, I think I just like braids better. They hold there form longer and your hair isn't as noticeable as with the twists. My verdict: I'll stick to braids.

Focusing on keeping my ends as healthy as possible and retaining length!

Relaxer update

Decided to take me sew-in down after 4 wks because my scalp was itchy something awful...... and since I'm in a no heat challenge blending my hair with the weave was becoming more and more difficult. The style I wore is great as a protective style for me and I plan to definitely re-visit it again! My hair was 10wks post when  I took the sew-in out but I wanted to make sure my scalp and hair was really clean and pre-treated so I waited an extra week to relax. I was looking for a chelating shampoo locally but ended up settling for a hard water shampoo from Sally's by Ion when I couldn't find one. In my opinion, that shampoo was money well spent! I hadn't felt my hair hold moisture like that in.......EVER lol. It got my hair way cleaner than the clarifier I had been using (since the beginning of my hair journey) but when I think about it then I was dealing with different water too so, I won't trash talk my old faithful!

I went back to Amanda (who did my last relaxer) and she hooked me up like last time. She actually gave me a complimentary DC which I was appreciative of! I tried to explain to her that my hair was still underprocessed but I guess because she couldn't flat out see the texture difference (when my hair isn't straightened, it's very hard to see what's new growth and what's relaxed... O.o awh lawd) when applying the relaxer, she didn't get to go over the underprocessed hair like we planned. She could really see what I was talking about once she fully washed my hair and was getting ready to put me under the dryer.

"Oh wow. You have about 2 1/2 inches of underprocessed hair all over!" was her response after she examined my strands.......Finally somebody sees what I see! We talked about what I should do about it and came up with a plan. I feel like I'm in good hands!


Enough babbling, on to the results!

I am thrilled to have such noticeable growth from one stretch to the next! Although my hair is still uneven, it's filling it nicely and that is something to be happy about. The longest piece measures down to APL and the rest of my hair is not too far behind it! Amanda took the courtesy of showing me the broken strands that are the reason behind my thin and uneven strands..... So now I know what I need to focus on.

My next relaxer will be 1-2wks before my wedding, which puts me at either 14 or 15 wks post...... I think baggying my ends and putting my hair away is the best way for me to retain most if not all of the length I gain this stretch!

I'm ready.

Relaxer update

I recently bit the bullet and headed to a salon for a relaxer re-touch. Let's face it, I felt I had entirely too much under proccessed hair I was dealing with and could not properly correct it. My salon visit went surprisingly well.... and I'll speak more on that in a second. Let's take a look at my hair........

Ya'll I just can't get it right, apparently. No, what I think seriously happened was this: I already had a thinning spot in my ends and I struggled with finding a proper moisturizer for my VERY THIRSTY ends during this stretch. So I ended up with more thinning and breakage. I wanted to just tell the stylist to cut my hair when she showed it to me, but I am in KISS boot camp challenge and I want to try and at least nurse my ends for a while until I know for sure what I want to do. My hair goal for the challenge was to make BSL by June..... that light is already looking really dim. I'm not a quitter though! I've already made the necessary changes to my hair routine to get me (hopefully) on the right track. I've incorporated Elasta QP Mango Butter and Olive oil moisturizer and Aphogee's pro-vitamin leave -in conditioner into my hair routine ( a moisturizer and a leave-in are what I have been searching for this past stretch!)..... wish me luck with these items, I'll give my opinion after a period of use

My salon visit: It went sooo well! I actually found Amanda (stylist) on Craigslist....Where I find everybody and everything else lol  and she was the most pleasant person to be around! She told me she specializes in healthy hair and that she had alot of natural clients....... what surprised about the entire visit was the fact that she was Mexican! Amanda told me that she first learned how to do hair on African American textures..... What a blessing! I may go back to for other services she offers but I know definitely I'm in her chair for my next relaxer! I'm just excited that I finally found someone who listens and gives helpful advice..... Thank you baby Jesus

I will admit, I slacked last year with my hair, especially toward the end. And I hate that I have to start off the year with my hair looking like this, but this really just gives me the motivation I need to go hard in this too along with the other aspects of my life.

I'll call it a SET-UP not a SETBACK.

Have any of you had any recent hair issues? What types of moisturizers do you use? Leave-ins? Got any tips you want to share....... leave them here!

Weekend Love

Happy Saturday folks! I hope you guys are having a great weekend whether it be by shopping running errands, cleaning, or lounging around the house (I've actually done a mixture of all of these things today)

Today makes 60 days that I have been taking the Mineral Rich energy drink that I talked about HERE. I FINALLY scheduled a relaxer for next week so I'll show my length and talk about my progress then. I do feel like I have gained and retained some good length so I'm really excited to see what this relaxer holds for me!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Quick updates

Hey guys! Sorry I didn't get around to posting a  Mind Right Monday yesterday, I worked all day Sunday and yesterday and was too lazy/tired to turn my computer on at all once I made it home. 
I am going to prolly keep this post short and sweet since I'm in the process of doing 8 different things at once..... Here goes:

I'm coming to you right now from under my hair dryer- deep conditioning with Neutragena triple moisture- getting ready for our trip back to East TX for the holiday! I'm not too excited about being there for a whole 5 days, (where we will more than likely sleep on somebody's floor every night)  but we have a number of things to do while we are in town so I guess I have to make the most of the situation. We are set to leave early in the a.m so all day I have been trying to get packed up and situated. It's been kind of hard for me cause I think I got a little food poisoning last night from the Sonic we went to. I was fine when we went to sleep but around 4-ish this morning I woke up to a crazy pain in my stomach. At first I thought "Oh I just really got to go to the bathroom" but even after I did, my stomach was highly irritated. I felt miserable until about 6:30 when it my stomach decided it was time to get rid of that sh*t. I barely made into the bathroom before I was throwing up everywhere..... there goes my 6 yr vomit-free record. I felt no relief afterwards.... and then my tummy wanted to try again about an hr later. I've been very queasy every since..... I hate regurgitating.


This spur of the moment illness threw off alot the things I wanted to get done today. I wanted to rollerset my hair for the trip but I don't have the energy to deal with the rollers and I really don't trust my stomach today.... so after I rinse I'll prolly be a bad girl by blow drying my hair and more than likely flat ironing just to get the straight look. I realized that I may need a corrective relaxer cause I have under processed my hair these last two relaxers and I am not happy with it at all.

I won't be near a computer long enough to post like I want to, I will try and post some stuff while we are out of town..... Welp, guess I'll finish up my hair and crawl in bed. My tummy is starting to hurt again :/

Hair news: Fall/Winter regimen

It's not really cool here in South Texas yet (if it decides to get that way at all) but after my recent relaxer experience, it has been brought to my attention that I need to create a serious regimen that will correct any potential setbacks and get me on a steady path of attaining my hair goals in the next 8 months.

This is my current length:

Notice the see through spot in the lower middle of my hair.... PROBLEM. I do not want to have to deal with a setback that will cause me to have to cut my hair when one of my goals is to wear my real hair for my wedding! The only thing I can think of that could be causing the thinning is wearing tight ponytails/buns in the same spot. My hair had been giving me the blues last stretch so I wore buns EVERYDAY often..... guess who won't be doing that anymore? Especially if it's going to cause stress to my strands like this. 

I have come up with a sort of regimen that should get me through this potential issue and put me on the fast track to reaching BSL by June:

• Wash every 5 days (alternate shampoo and conditioner washes)
• DC with every wash (usually with heat)
• Apply MN mix to scalp every 3 days
• Moisturize with current product every other day (until it becomes to dry outside for it)
• Seal ends with oils
• Stay away from ponytails/buns and anything else that can create too much tension in my head
• ATTEMPT rollersetting every other week
• Trim/dust as needed

Also I need to look into some protective styles that could last a while, I tend to do better when I'm not able to touch my hair as much. From the pic, I gestimate being about 2- 2 1/2 inches away from APL? I'm really wanting to make it by the end of the year so I gotta be on top of caring for my hair. You know what's crazy? I used to be extremely diligent about hair care in the beginning........ now I'm really lackadaisical; that needs to change if I am serious about my goals.

 I washed my hair Monday and I decided to rollerset it:

 With the humidity being like in the 90's all week it did not stay like this lol but I do still have somewhat of a hair style...... Prolly time to comb these curls out some though:)

I will make sure and keep you guys posted on how my hair is coming along!! 

Hair news: Relaxer update

This post is about a week overdue cause I actually relaxed my hair last week, but I wanted to get this up and tell you guys all about my plan......


I relaxed my hair at 12 wks post and I had never been so happy to see my hair straight (or straighter, I should say). I decided to give self relaxing another go (with NO help from Lewis this time lol) and do someones half and half method I saw on youtube.... IMO it worked but it didn't work, catch my drift? Lol Basically the half and half method was almost what I need to do to self relax, I just need to tweak it to my own liking. For instance I did it where you part ear to ear and relax the top or back first and then do the opposite. Well I don't own a shower hose to wash my hair, I just use the faucet in the tub so trying to figure out which end to do first was a challenge! Then after I decided on the back, the only way I could do it without getting the front of my head wet was to turn on the shower and do it that way...... so by the end of the morning I had basically taken 3 showers relaxing my hair smh. Next time I think I'll part my hair straight down the middle and attempt it that way, seems more faucet friendly.

The only other problem I ran into with my hair, and this one is the most frustrating at the moment, is that my new growth is seeming very resistant to the relaxer! I was not able (once again)  to get my hair to straighten out-really at all. I mean it stretched out, but that's about it. Literally none of my new growth got straight, not even my edges! So I am again left with texlaxed hair   severely underproccessed hair. It would be all good if that's what I was aiming for, but it isn't. I don't know what to do at the moment..... maybe I should stop trying to do my own hair...... or maybe I'm not working it through enough? Idk.

Although I had my issues with the relaxing process, my hair turned out pretty good!

I do have a thin spot in the middle back (if you can't tell I just pointed it out for ya) that I will address in separate post..... Check my length out though! Excited. I think I could use a little dusting.... but I'll wait until I research the self trim some more.

Welp, thanks for reading and checking my pics out..... if you have ANY tips on self relaxing, self trimming/dusting or anything else please share with me! I refuse to go back to a stylist if I don't have to!

Hair update

I'm 5 wks post as of yesterday..... At this point I feel like my stretch is dragging along, but I always feel that way around this time. Since my last relaxer left me under processed EVERYWHERE my new growth is extra, ultra, thick and full. Don't know how I feel about that right now cause it makes it really hard to do any type of styles with out putting heat on my hair. Not really trying to use heat like that either.

Really at a loss as to what I should do with my hair at this point.... I'm over using buns and clipping my hair up all the time but it's making me look super boring and plain! I plan to wash tomorrow after school and regroup to gather more hair styles for my hairs current state.

Have I mentioned that I'm frustrated with my hair? Yep, last week I was tempted to relax it ::at 4 wks eeek!:: just because it's giving me so much grief..... *SIGH* I digress.

Someone save me from my hair......

Relaxer update July '12

Relaxed earlier this week after my usual 11-12 week stretch, the only MAJOR difference was that this time I didn't go to a salon..... I tackled it myself! So, here are the results:

As you can tell, my NG didn't get relaxed hardly at all......... there is a bit of a story behind that. Last month my stylist sent out a mass text telling everyone that she had moved out of town, which left me with two options: find another stylist to relax my hair who wants to constantly cut my hair or just figure out how to do it myself. 

Naturally I chose the most cost effective method. :)

SN: Revlon regular lye relaxer was used for this session.

I enlisted the help of my fiance'.... only to quickly realize that, next time that shouldn't be the best idea. HA! He claimed that he had helped put on relaxers many times with his sisters.... but maybe that was a VERY LONG TIME AGO because I don't think he fully grasped the idea of the pace you have to maintain in order to apply and smooth the relaxer throughout the hair. So we weren't able to smooth much of any of my hair after my sweet fiance took his SWEET time applying the relaxer to his part of my hair :/... As you can tell from my not-so-relaxed roots. And yes it looks like this all over my head..... 

I'm not knocking the ladies that texlax their hair...... but I hate this!!! I am able to comb thru my hair

but it's not straight ANYWHERE! Not even my edges :( I look about 3 or 4 wks post.

Nothing I can do to correct it for another 12 wks either.....

On the flip side, I got some good growth! And as you can tell, I DON'T NEED A DAMN TRIM! Lol.... Stylists, smh.

I'm SO over the salon experience.

I have just decided that I will no longer visit a salon......

I had only been going now to get relaxers but after this last visit, if I EVER want to reach any of my goals I'm going to need to start doing my own relaxers as well. Why is it so hard for beauticians to understand that you don't need a damn trim every time you get a relaxer???? That hair strands naturally grows at uneven lengths and therefore is not going to be as even from the last time you cut it? ::sigh::  I mean the stylist had just given me a really good trim back in February, there was no need for the trim she gave me yesterday! I calmly asked her what she was doing cause my ends were in good shape and she replied "Oh I'm just getting the strays" I look down at the apron I had on and I saw ALOT of little pieces of hair that were maybe a 1/2 inch long..... I should've just told her to stop cause there went all the new growth I had over the course of my stretch!

I wanted to try and catch APL by the end of the summer..... that dream is dimly lit as of now. The reason why I hadn't thought of relaxing/trimming my hair myself (cause everything else I do already) is because I've always been a little worried about under processing the back. At this point though like I stated before if I want to reach ANY of my goals before the year is out, I need to take all matters into my own hands! As far as trimming goes.....I'll try and figure something out; but for now I must keep my ends in good shape to avoid them.

Well here are the relaxer pics

May relaxer

Feb. relaxer

Right side

Left side. STILL a work in progress

I'm going to start looking at relaxer application how-to's on Youtube.
 Have you ever had an experience like this?