Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Washing Frequency

I've realized that I need to wash more than once a week. I used to wash twice a week, but since winter started, I've been washing only once a week. I've been lazy and afraid of the dry cold air, but my hair really thrives when I wash (or co-wash) more than once each week. I usually wash on Sundays, and by Thursday or Friday, my hair sheds and just doesn't look as good to me. I love how it looks when it's clean and freshly rollerset!

Since I'm going to try to keep my hair in a bun all of March, it shouldn't be too hard or time consuming to wash twice a week.

Both of these photos were in the past 2 weeks with freshly washed hair:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

February 2009 Relaxer

My relaxer this past weekend went well. I know I could have gone another week, but I had a formal event to go to. My stylist used Affirm this time. I asked her about it, because she's been using Mizani on my hair for almost the past year. She said she just likes to switch up sometimes and she doesn't see that much of a difference between the two relaxers. I wanted to get get curls, but I punked out. I'm not a big fan of her styling technique, so I just stuck to my old faithful- wrap and bump the ends. She did a rollerset before I got in her chair on a woman's long hair, and I didn't like it. At all. I also got a trim. I didn't really need one, but I didn't get one after my last relaxer. I also like blunt and even ends, and I doubt they would have stayed that way another 8-9 weeks.


My hair came out okay, it just felt a little stiff. I think it's from the ORS hair lotion (which I hate)she put on my hair before she wrapped it. I don't ever remember her doing that before, so next time I'll ask her not to use it. I've had a busy week, so I haven't been able to wash my hair. I'm definitely washing it tonight. I really like how she relaxes my hair, but I don't like how she styles it. She's great with short hair, but not so good with medium and long length heads. The funny thing is that she has long hair (although it's always in a ponytail when I see her) and her daughter's hair is past her waist. Maybe she's just another stylist who thinks that her products work on all heads. Sigh. I'm just going to keep going to her while my hair is growing out. I really don't have the time, courage or patience to try someone new and I only go to her for relaxers, so it's not that serious.

The last 2 times I've gone to her she encouraged me to get a color, but I can do that myself with the same $4 bottle of Adore she uses and save the $15 she charges. I don't think I really needed a color anyway, since I just put some in 2 weeks ago. I decided that I don't want black hair for the summer, so I'm going to start weaning my hair off the black some time next month, and start using some shade of brown.

I'm also going to try to wear protective buns for at least a whole month. Now that my hair is touching the top of my shoulders, I want to protect my ends from the dry cotton and wool sweaters and jackets I wear every day.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Relaxer Time

I'm getting a relaxer this weekend- I'll be at 8 weeks. Since I started my healthy hair journey a little over a year ago, I have been getting relaxers every 8 weeks. This is huge, considering since I got my first perm at age 14, I have never gone past 6. There were even times when I would get a relaxer every 4 weeks. My hair has thanked me for waiting longer by growing thick and healthy. I never want to stretch too long because I don't like all the shedding, but after this time, I'm going to try to go 9 weeks for the next year.

If I didn't have a formal event to go to this weekend, I would wait another week to get a relaxer. I'm really loving my thick hair right now. Surprisingly, my roots aren't too bad. I can see new growth, but the natural curl pattern is looser than usual, so it's very manageable. I like big hair anyway. Even my edges aren't as "nappy" like they usually are this long after a relaxer. I think the co-washes have a lot to do with it- I'm only using shampoo every other week now. I'm getting better at rollersetting, which is helping too.

A year ago, my hair was a little longer than it is now, but it was in the worse condition it had ever been in. My strands were thin and weak, my ends were over processed, and my hair wasn't really absorbing any products. I had just about made shoulder length last March, but what good was it if my hair didn't look good and couldn't hold a style? I am so glad that I got a lot of my hair cut off and turned it into a healthy head of hair. Even my bad hair days aren't so bad now. I actually get more compliments when I put my hair up in a clip!