HOTD - Frizzy Mess

Back with another hair of the day. I did a cowash on my hair thursday and left it to air dry. Since then I didn't alter my hair I just left alone and whola! Despite it being a frizzy mess I kinda like it :) 

Omg can you see the new growth on my edges??
 I didn't notice them until today, making slow progress but I'm happy!

Shot from the back

This hairstyle is so not protective, but I couldn't resist :( 

Hard Water + University

Image Source

The other day I was on the internet just messing around, and I thought it would be a good idea to check whether my university flat will have hard water.
Turns out the water in my university flat is 'slightly hard water', great!

 My home doesn't have hard water, so I have no idea about reducing the effects of hard water on your hair.
 If any of you ladies have any information you would like to share about hard water feel free to tell me!! 

I'm off to go find some information, I shall keep your posted.

For the UK ladies you can check your water suppliers website for the hard water levels in your area:
Thames water - London and surrounding areas
Southern Water - Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Severn Trent Water - Midlands

Yorkshire Water - Yorkshire

Northumbrian Water - East of England

Essex & Suffolk Water - South East England

This website has a list of all the water suppliers in the UK

Product Spotlight: VO5 Nourish Me Truly

My hair was feeling a little dry, so I decided to co-wash to boost some moisture into my hair.
My process of co-washing is as follows: I drench my hair with water for a few minutes, then saturate my hair with conditioner, then I carry on with my regular shower routine, then finally I rinse out the conditioner and do a final rinse with coldish water.

Love: 

• The price, picked this up for a pound, from poundland.
• The amount of oils this conditioner has.
• Pleasant smell.

Hate: 

• The last 10 (or so) ingredients.
• It contains sulfates.

Ingredients: Water, cetearyl alcohol, cyoclopentasiloxane, steramidopropyl dimethylamine, cyclohexasiloxane, hydrolysed keratin, jojoba seed oil, apriot kernel oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, argania spinosa kernel oil, rosemary leaf extract,  sunflower seed oil, tocopheryl acetate, aspartic acid, dimethicone, quaternium-18, citric acid, disodium edta, peg-20 castor oil, behenamidopropyl, dimethylamine, isostearamidopropyl ethyldimonium ethosulfate, peg-9 sodium laureth sulfate, methychloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, parfum, hexyl cinnamal, citronellol.

Verdict: When my hair was damp I wasn't really impressed with the conditioner, my hair just felt OK. But when my hair was dry, it strangely felt soft and moisturised. The conditioner gave me plenty slip on wet hair, which is good for detangling process. 

Overall I give this conditioner 3/5! 

Sulphur Oil Growth Update

 As you may know I'm currently applying a mix of sulphur and oil to my scalp 3 times a week. I thought it would be a good idea to see how much growth I've achieved so far since my last relaxer. I'm currently 11 weeks post (2.5 months).
On average hair grows 0.5inch a month, so being that I am 2.5months post I should have about 1.25 inch of new growth.

As you can see in the first picture, I have marked the line of democration with a blue marker. This is where I measured the new growth from. I measured my new growth to be around 3.5cm, which is 1.377/1.4 inches!
Now I know some ladies receive an inch a month with their sulphur oil mixture, but I'm actually happy I'm  making progress in my own time.
(FYI - my mixture is 1 teaspoon sulphur + 8oz Africa's best herbal oil)

Hair Of The Day - HOTD

For those of you who read my CoWash + Braidout post, know I want to find some cute protective styles. I thought doing hair of the day posts would be a nice fun way to share hair styles i'm doing at the moment.

So today I did the fishtail braid with the help of some clip in extensions. I just used a pack of premium now and sewn on the clips. I used 3 tracks of extensions for this braid, and each track was doubled up.

Wash Day

Hey ladies, I washed my hair over the weekend and did a rollerset. I forgot to do a post about it, so without further or do...



 Pre Shampoo Treatment - dove damage therapy intensive repair express treatment conditioner mixed with some olive oil. I applied a plastic cap on my hair and left the conditioner on there for 20 minutes.
Shampoo - Coconut VO5 shampoo followed by giovanni 50:50 balanced
Coffee Rinse
Deep condition - Giovanni smooth as silk conditioner + grapeseed oil I went under the dryer for 30 minutes
 Leave ins - HE beautiful ends + cantu serum
Then finally went onto rollerset my hair using the mohawk arrangement. (My hair was 90% dry before I roller setted. I just re-wet each section with water before placing in the rollers).

I really like the giovanni smooth as silk conditioner, I love the ingredients and my hair always feels soft and moisturised after using this product. I think I may have found a staple product!!

I stayed under the dryer for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, my hair wasn't completely dry but I couldn't take being under there any longer. I did a quick spritz of my aussie heat protectant and used my hand held dryer on the back rollers because they were a little 'damp'. Despite not staying under the dryer for long enough, I think my rollerset came out alright. Picture 3 was just after I finger combed the curls out, I was going to keep it curly but I didn't like how it looked at all haha, so I just did a saran wrap (stayed under the dryer for about 10 minutes) then finished!

Recent Buys

I was so excited when I seen these products in pound world. I picked up the VO5 clarifying shampoo and the moisture milks conditioner for a pound each! I've always heard ladies on the hair boards speak about these products, and I always wanted to try them out, but i could never find it in my local hair store, or I could buy it online but postage and packing was always more then the total cost of these products.

The moisture milks conditioner has a strong scent of strawberries, it smells like something I have smelt before, but I cant remember what it is lol.
I will be using this for co-washes, and the shampoo will be used to clarify my hair monthly. Have any of you tried out this products? Would love to know what you think :)

My Hair Insecurity

So I was a little sceptical about writing this post, but I managed to find some courage. I'm not sure if any of you have a 'hair insecurity', but unfortunately I do. For as long as I can remember, I never had any length on the sides/edges of my hair. I account this to stylists pulling my edges so tight when I used to get my hair braided, I remember one time this lady did my hair so tight I cried (I think I was about 11 at the time), so now I'm left with these horrible edges, I hate them so much!!!
To promote some growth I used to apply the sulphur oil mix to the edges, but as sulphur can be drying I don't want to risk any sulphur getting onto the edges and drying them out. Now I'm using Jamaican black castor oil mixed with a little peppermint oil and hopefully I will see some growth.
Expect an update on the 12th October to see if I have any improvement.

Feel free to share your hair insecurities, if you have any.

Put The Scissors Down

Now I bet your wondering, 'hang on didn't she cut her hair a few weeks ago?' Yes! Yet I'm still chopping.
I've realised when I trimmed my hair before I was only focusing on the ends, so today I wanted to combat them ends that are shorter then the length of my hair (if that makes sense). So what I did was taking a small section of hair I wrapped it around my index finger, and pushed against the hair to show the ends and snipped! I did this all the way down the length of my hair and snipped off some ends. This method does take a while and I haven't even finished my whole head! My hair is probably uneven now but who cares! I'm one step closer to healthy hair woop!

Product(s) Spotlight - Elvive Full Restore 5

So while watching TV today I saw an advert for L'Oreal Elvive full restore 60 second treatment. This product includes ingredients such as pro-kertain and ceramide which instantly caught my attention. After doing some more searching I found that L'Oreal also do a 'masque' in this product line which could be used as a deep conditioner as the instructions advise you to leave it on for 1-2 minutes.

Todays Deep Conditioner

So today I deep conditioned with aloe vera cholesterol (moisture), ORS replenshing pak (moisture + protein), Jamaican Black castor oil protein conditioner (protein) and a splash of olive oil. My deep condition mixture was more moisture base, I'd say 1/3 was protein.

I Get So Bored...

WHEN IM UNDER THE DRYER!! LOL
Hey Ladies, So I'm under the dryer as we speak, and I'm bored!
What do you ladies do to keep yourselves entertained whilst under the dryer?

Co-Wash + Braidout

Hey ladies, so yesterday I cowashed my hair using alberto balsam sun kissed raspberry conditioner, and applied some cantu shea butter leave in sealed with JBCO and proceeded to air dry. Before going to bed i moisturised my newgrowth with sta sof fro comb out conditioner and did 2 braids. <--- Those are my results, I'm trying to be strict with myself about protective styling, so buns will now be my best friend. I'm such a boring person when it comes to protective styles, I don't really do much, but I am on the hunt for some cute styles. Stay tuned for them!

We Can Do This!!

This is a very random blog post, but I was just on the internet browsing and I thought to myself I'm actually going to reach my goals, (my ultimate goal is to have healthy hair at waist length). I actually BELIEVE I can do it!
 I think when starting your healthy hair journey, you really need motivation and self belief, no use trying to accomplish these goals if you don't believe in yourself. Woop Woop! we can do it :D (may take me several years, but I will get there)

9 weeks and 3 days Post Relaxer + Update

So I'm currently 9 weeks post, and stretching seems to be going alright. Im not sure how much new growth I have, as Im not good with measurements haha, if anyone wants to have a little estimate feel free to tell me!
Today I co-washed with Vo5 give me moisture conditioner, and I used a bit of this conditioner as a leave-in, then I just put my hair in a bun. I later moisturised with ORS Olive Oil and sealed with some JBCO. Currently my hair feels soft, I can run my fingers through my hair and not experience any breakage which is always a good sign :)

Every other day I spray my new growth with Sta Sof Fro Hair spray, then give my scalp a little massage to distribute the spray evenly amongst the new growth.

Breakage Update

If you read my last post you know that I did a self trim/cut. While I was handling my hair today, (applying deep conditioner to it, rinsing, detangling etc) i actually noticed I hardly had breakage on my hands, which I  experienced before. Now its only the first day since I cut, but im certain my horrible ends was causing the breakage I was having in the past. 

So ladies if your taking care of your hair properly, and your still getting breakage, it may be time for you to pick up some hair shears and chop them ends off!

It actually feels refreshing, that im a step closer to a head full of healthy hair! :D

Spontaneity!

So I haven't been happy with the state of my ends. So today I did something crazy, I just started chopping them off! Now im not good at measurements so I can't tell you exactly how much I cut off, but I think I'm still APL? 

My goal for BSL will still be in place to give me some motivation, but my real goal now is to keep my ends healthy and to work on the edges of my hair. If I make BSL by the end of this year that will be amazing, but if I don't, I will not be discouraged.

I've banned myself from using direct heat (unless my new growth goes crazy, then I will have to blow dry them to stretch them out) until my next relaxer date, or I may go longer depends how I feel.