Overcoming Lazy

I took the plunge at long last as one of my post exam celebration presents. I bought the extra wide and long set, which is suitable for hair up to 16".

 

8 months and exactly 3" of natural hair gives me a growth rate of 4.5" per year. I knew my growth rate was less than the average, but I'm happy with what I've got!

 Protective styling just in time for a summer challenge!

The year from hell has finally finished, although I still have to wait a week or so until results come out and I find out whether I've made it to the next year or have to repeat... Medical school is a marathon. The first thing I did upon finishing was another type of marathon! I twisted up my hair in a cute protective style I've been itching to try for a while. It took me a while to work out how to do these twists and to work with the kinky textured hair, but I love it. I also like the shorter look on me, which is something I've not tried before with braids. I'm going to try my best to not forget about my hair and keep it looked after, but the pre-style wash day was on point, thanks to the products below...

Rubbish quality, sorry. Dark and Lovely Coil Moisturising Soufflé, Dove Quench Absolute Intensive Restoration Mask and Supreme Creme Serum, Dove Intense Repair Leave-in conditioner, and Naked Shine Hydrating Shampoo/Conditioner. Also pictured is my oil mix: shea butter, hemp seed, olive, and coconut with sweet orange essential oil for smell.

I've also sorted through all my products and have stumbled onto the staples I believe I will now be using going forward, which is great (with some Aphogee thrown in every now and again for protein). Dove has never done me wrong and surprise surprise! They've come out with a line for curlies. I really liked this shampoo when I tried it so took a gamble on the conditioner and it's perfect for detangling. Lots of slip and silicone free so reduces build up (which was important recently as I relied on co-washing this past few months). My favourite surprise here was the Dark and Lovely Coil Moisturising Soufflé. It states that it is for tight coils and curls. It's amazing to see something actually marketed to my hair type for once!

I'm a firm believer in the manufacturer knowing what products suit each hair type. I am also veeery lazy (as you know) and I don't like to go to more than once place to get my hair supplies. So I'm glad to now be able to get a shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, leave in and moisturising cream all from Boots (who also do deliveries to your nearest shop, hurray!) and for reasonable prices.

Although I have my staples, I'm also still interested in experimenting with things such as bentonite clay, and I'll continue to do henna treatments on my hair. I like a bit of the natural every now and again! Very much hoping that the 30 day challenge stops me from neglecting my hair, as well as my shiny new products.

xx Lam

 New colour! Caca (I know) Rouge from LUSH

Yeah, I was sleeping on this stuff, I'm not ashamed to admit. I've made a bunch of new purchases recently, my favourite amongst them being my new DSLR (finally made the plunge!) and LUSH's henna blocks. I was actually given a sample square which was enough to cover my hair completely (that's babyfine hair for you). So my block that I bought will last 6 applications which is a lot more economical than their recommendation to use the whole block (that shop sure isn't cheap). Also, the sales people in my local are lovely and even remembered me/what colour henna I wanted when I came in to purchase after my test!

Initial things I've noticed:

Why I like the LUSH henna:

I don't have any negatives of note, just that it is a little bit messy/grainy, but the messiness can be rectified by having the mixture a little thicker than they say you should. It also smells... earthy, shall we say. It's quite the powerful aroma. Also, it was fine to go to sleep in (I was told in the shop that 4 hours max is sufficient, but ehh, I was tired) as long as you've clingfilmed, showercapped, wrapped and hatted that stuff! Crossing my fingers that this strengthening of my hair will make my transition much easier to bear (although it's going very well at the moment).

xx Lam

Time has really flown by on this stretch. I made the decision to devote less attention to my hair as I transition, as honestly it was driving me crazy to think of hair as well as my degree. However, I'm 8 weeks away from the end of the academic year and my sanity is returning.

Look at my hair damp after washing with 5 months worth of new growth and 6 months of texlaxed hair! That bonelaxed stuff on the end is weak...

Ear length semi-stretched? I have around 6 inches of strong hair (including texlaxed)

I've been using a tangle teezer dupe to brush my hair after finger detangling as tangles are getting strong. I'm still working out how best to use it, but I love it so far. Herbal Essences conditioners and masks continue to be my staples and I don't know what I would do without my Aphogee 2 step. I mix it into my moisturising conditioners instead of using it as a hard protein treatment and it does wonders to maintain my hair.

I trim my hair whenever I feel like it and it continues to bounce between APL and long shoulder length. I think at 8 months post I will get a professional trim and do a length check to see if I've eradicated my problem section or not. So that's where I'm at - low maintenace and following a LITHA (leave it the hell alone) ethos while still enjoying my hair.

xx Lam

So I've been doing a bit of soul searching... After I saw the chunk of hair missing in the middle of my head from two years ago - I've realised that it's because I was very ill then and some of my hair fell out - was growing back but was so much shorter than the rest of my hair, I despaired. Was I destined to always be catching up to shorter bits of my hair?

You've seen the damage but every cloud has a silver lining, right? It's super hard for me to get a good picture of the back of my head but the front is a lot easier and so I was encouraged to see that I have indeed made a fair bit of progress this year. I trimmed around 2-3" of straggly ends so most of my hair was unaffected.

Disclaimer: I'm hella dramatic - It's not all doom and gloom, stay tuned for my more positive length check post in a day or two! 

I don't know what I was expecting from a 25 week stretch, but it wasn't this, unfortunately. At first look, my hair seems to have not got any longer (i.e. no retained length at the longest layers) since April last year. I'm going to have to check thoroughly when I get batteries for my digital camera, but this wasn't the start to 2015 I was hoping for.

Pre relaxer with sooo much new growth

Today was relaxer day and it was definitely due. 25 weeks is no joke. I went to my usual salon and had a mostly positive experience. I like my usual stylist but she got some help to speed up the process (from someone who has also done my hair before) and I didn't appreciate all her input. Here are a couple of the best/worst bits. 

Good things:

It's always good to be remembered! She remembered what I did last time and that I didn't like my hair to be processed all the way. she double checked that the time was 15 minutes with the relaxer on and whether she should smooth. 

Not so good:

The relaxer definitely contacted previously relaxed parts of my hair and when it got smoothed... Probably only the last 2" of my hair were spared. I hope this doesn't cause a setback in the future. I also don't appreciate being told that I need to come in every 2 months (by the other stylist). That's way too short a time for me to have enough length to relax and also I definitely don't have £85 to spare every other month. 

The good thing that I did is that I precoated my hair yesterday with my whipped Shea butter as well as protecting my scalp with it and Vaseline. I put Vaseline on my lengths and ends as well and I hope this protected my (dyed!!) ends from potential damage. 

Next time I will make sure to tell my usual stylist that I do not want the relaxer to be smoothed that much. People will do things the way they want if you don't tell them otherwise. 

Apart from all that, the texture is great. I need to make sure I prepare my hair in the same way next time and follow the same steps as I loved the result. I had my hair flat ironed though, so you'll need to wait til wash day to see!

Hair style this week which I maintained as detailed below...

Soooo, a 4 week wash day break later... ew. I think I co washed once while my hair was braided but that's it. However, I was ripping out my hair every day when I combed and I was just too stressed out to think about hair at all. So while it wasn't the best thing to do, I'm satisfied with my decision/laziness.

 Products (with whipped butter in Herbal Essences tub)

I detangled with hemp oil and left my hair in a bun for about a day. On wash day, I rinsed, instant conditioned with Lee Stafford Argan Oil Nourishing Conditioner then shampooed with OGX Biotin & Collagen (sulphate-free). I then deep conditioned with Lee Stafford Argan Oil Deep Nourishing Treatment for around 45 minutes.

After rinsing, I moisturised with Dove Intensive Repair and Coconut & Almond leave-ins and sealed with my whipped Shea butter (which is the one, by the way. I bought some essential orange oil to mask the smell and I looove it now).

I then flat twisted my hair in six sections, used flexirods on the ends, wrapped my hair up and went to sleep. In the morning, my hair looked awful, so I set it on 4 flexirods to give myself some bounce and repeated these nightly in rough sections. The flat twists were great for stretching my roots though, so on the whole, a success!

 Flexirods

Tomorrow, I'm relaxing my hair. I wanted to wait until the new year, but I restart uni soon after the start of the year and I want my hair freshly done before then. Very worried about the state of my ends because they're thin as heck and I might have to cut more than 2". But we'll see...

See you tomorrow and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

xx Lam