My oils

Since I started this healthy relaxed hair journey, I've picked up the following oils and added to my regimen:

Castor: I use the Jamaican Black Castor oil on my scalp to thicken my new growth and I also use the cold pressed plain Home Health brand (available at Wholefoods or online). I recently bought the Rosemary infused Castor oil for that essential oil touch. I hate the smell of anything strong that is not food-smelling but its a great scalp oil that I use every 2 days and add to my moisturising deep conditioner conconction.

Coconut: I love the smell of coconut. This is definitely my favorite. I use for weekly hot oil treatments (Friday night), wrap my hair with cling film/ saran wrap and wash out with shampoo (Saturday morning). I use the Nutiva or Nature's Way brands but just got gifted Dabur Vatika (Indian mix of coconut oil, lemon and herbs) which I will be using for the rest of the year.

Grapeseed: Ceramide-rich oil. I use this lightweight oil to seal my hair after moisturising. Its a heat protectant so good for summer weather. I am running out and will replace with hempseed or jojoba oil however or just use coconut.

Shea: I use shea from Nigeria. It is thick and heavy but makes hair super soft. I use this in the winter and over my braids. I also heat it up and use as a moisturiser when my hair is super dry.



In the fall of 2012, I will add Jojoba and argan to replace grapeseed. Updates will come then.

Black Tea Rinse, Post relaxer fix-that-mess

Since I relaxed my hair a few days ago, I'm super happy with the growth, tried every style possible as loaded the hair with styling products. I also started feeling really paranoid about the effects of the relaxer. That 'go natural already' feeling so I did a quick fix-that-mess routine with hot coconut oil treatment, a tea rinse and an overnight deep conditioner.

So yesterday, I did a hot coconut oil treatment: basically warm 3 heaped tablespoons of coconut oil and apply to hair. Then, I  covered with 2 shower caps for 2 hours, shampooed with nuetralizing shampoo (haha, incase the descendants of the relaxer are still in the hair somewhere).

THEN the almighty tea rinse. I poured 2 cups of cold Black tea (Lipton Yellow Label) all over my hair. I forgot to massage my scalp as tea rinses help reduce shedding especially after relaxer can make hair more vulnerable to shedding. This ish made my hair hard like no other. I rinsed out the tea immediately. Note: I do tea rinses only once a month

Deep conditioned overnight (2 shower caps and a scarf) with Mane and Tail (mixed with coconut, shea, and castor oils).

I rinsed out in the morning, airdried while dressing up then applied my Gentle Touch leave-in (made my hair super soft after that tea), Provectiv growth lotion and sealed with my oil mix.

Put my semi-wet hair in a bun and off to work.... The ride on the Okada from palms to Lekki phase 1 was like a blow drying session, my hair is basically dry now.

My internship ends in a few days. I'll get kitson hanu (yorubas call 'didi') plaited over the weekend. So excited to be 8years old again.

:)

Relaxing after 4 months

My new regimen for this year includes stretching my relaxer for 4 months/ 16 weeks so I relax my hair only 3 times in a year. I like to let my hair breathe every now and then but braids (not weaves which i abhor) have been the best way to stretch the relaxer without me obsessing over my new growth. I don't hate new growth but I can't get my hands out of my hair detangling the coils with my fingers and you can imagine how ridiculous I look- like I'm picking out lice.

Its important to moisturise this new growth to minimize breakage at the demarcation point where previously relaxed hair meets natural/new growth. I devote a little extra time to part my hair in about 12 sections and moisturising the new growth and sealing with coconut oil while massage my scalp a bit with Castor. I promise its not that difficult or time consuming. I do this while watching Gossip Girl or Real Housewives.

Anyway,

I successfully stretched for 17weeks and I liked it so I got a touch up in it... o o oh!!!. The Olive Oil ORS relaxer kit did not have a lotion to protect previously relaxed hair from relaxer (running through during rinsing which can damage the hair) so I mixed coconut and shea butter and applied to the lenght of the hair. I put Castor oil on my scalp 2 days before to minimize burning.

Clockwise:Relaxer, deep conditioner concontion, vatika coconut oil, GT nuetralizing shampoo, GT leave in, shea butter, castor oil in applicator bottle, and SheaMoisture serum

The shampoo in the ORS relaxer kit is NEVER enough to clean the hair so chemicals remain in ones hair and continues to work its evil. Have you seen how brown some people's hair has become due to relaxing not dyeing? So I bought my neutralizing shampoo to wash at least 2 more times. I will continue washing with neutralizing shampoo for 2 weeks after to ensure there's none of that crap lurking around.

The conditioner in the kit is also too little for my big head/hair so I mixed it with coconut oil and Mane and Tail replenishing conditioner to balance out the protein.
Finally, the stylist trimmed my ends, moisturised and blow dried. Done.. until another 4 months.

*pictures to come

Ladi

Modifications

Making changes to my template so pardon the jagajaganess of the blog.