The braids are out: 17 weeks post relaxer!

Today I finally finished taking out my waist length braids. It took me three days to undo them, mainly because I started with a little at a time and I wanted to work as carefully as possible. 

My patience has definitely paid off! Below is a photo of how much shed and broken hair I lost after having my hair in braids for 4 weeks.

I think this is a moderate amount of hair compared to the amount I have lost in the past when my hair was braided regularly as a child. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not experience heavy breakage. Most of the hair in my hand are shed hairs. While I wore my braids I deep conditioned twice, used my African Pride Braid Sheen Spray weekly and occasionally I sealed my hair with jojoba oil. Now, about three days after my last wash day in braids, my hair is soft and surprisingly manageable. Cheers to successful protective styling!

I used my jojoba oil to lubricate my braids while I took them out. I think the oil did a great job of loosening tangles as well as keeping my two hair textures soft and moisturized.

My new growth @ 17 weeks post relaxer.

For the present I'm wearing my hair in twists for the next few days. Next weekend I have a formal event to go to, so I plan to shampoo, deep condition and hopefully do a proper curly braid-out style to blend my two textures.

My new growth is extremely obvious now that I'm 17 weeks post relaxer. I'm so excited for it to grow out!


Love,
~Hatter

Relaxer Update

On Saturday 3rd November 2012 I had my hair relaxed at the salon at nine weeks post.

The hairdresser used Ultra Precise Relaxer in Mild formula, and again, my results were excellent.

Ultra Precise relaxer in mild strength.

This time the hairdresser didn't base my scalp (eek!) but, gloriously, my scalp hardly got burned by the relaxer (yay!) It's either due to the mild relaxer strength or the fact that my scalp hasn't been very sensitive lately. In fact, I haven't had a flare up of seborrhoeic dermatitis for over a month =)

I'm quite impressed by this relaxer. Compared to the Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Relaxer in normal strength, the Precise does not irritate my scalp nearly as much and it gets my hair much straighter. (Maybe this is because I can leave the Precise relaxer in my hair for a longer time? Either way I'm loving it!)

On to the results! Wait! Before you look, can you guess how much length I've retained? =D

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September relaxer results.

My November relaxer results: I'm almost armpit length!!

I'm almost armpit length!! Woooot! APL is my goal for December and I might have one last touch up for the year in late December or I might stretch to early January. Either way it feels thrilling to get closer and closer to the first length goal of my hair journey :)

As I'm sure you can tell, I need a good trim! I tried to trim my hair and it was a failure but I'm determined not to let my hairdresser come near me with scissors. Hopefully doing a thorough dusting of my ends again within the next few weeks will even out their appearance.

    

Celebrations aside, I lost a lot of hair during the relaxer process! On my last wash before relaxer day, I literally just left my hair alone with all its tangles and knots. Consequently, on relaxer day, the dreadlocks that formed at my roots were broken down by the relaxer and combed out:

Hair I lost from matts and tangles being combed out after my relaxer.

My hair doesn't feel much thinner but I can definitely tell that I've had quite some breakage throughout my hair.

Anywhooos, I'm now two weeks post and I had a very good wash day today. I'm glad that, after the hair drama I experienced these past few weeks, my hair still looks modestly healthy.

I can't wait to regain the full health and thickness of my hair! Don't you hate feeling that just when you make progress something happens that puts you two steps back again?

I'm seriously doubting that I'll be stretching to nine weeks again in the near future. My last experience just took too much of a toll on my hair. 

Has anyone had a similar experience? How did you overcome your hair health setbacks?

Much love from

~Hatter

Back to shedding

Above is the amount of shed hair I lost on two wash days in the past few weeks.

My shedding has definitely increased and although I'm trying not to worry about it, I still don't like seeing so much hair come out of my head!

Ugg, trying to wait out this shedding period patiently.

Do you do anything to reduce shedding, or do you just wait until your shedding season passes?


Have a hairry day

~Hatter

Relaxer stretch: 8 weeks post!

Good Thursday morning! =) Who's enjoying this lovely day like I am?

This week marks my eighth week post relaxer. So far my new growth is continuing to behave nicely! =)
I'm still wondering if I'm experienced decreased growth rate because at this point on my previous stretches I would be pulling my hair out! loool

Some styles that have gotten me through the stretch include buns, bantu knot-outs (still need practice), braids and braid-outs. Low manipulation is key to managing my hair at this point...and staying sane.

On Tuesday I washed (and rollerset!) my hair. I'm pleased to report that the breakage I experienced last week seems to have stopped. (Good ole' ORS Replenishing Conditioner! =D) My shedding also seems to have reduced over the past couple weeks. I find it a bit ironic since many ladies experience more shedding the deeper they are in a relaxer stretch. Here are some pictures of the hair I would lose on wash days:

Wash day: shed and broken hair at 4 weeks post.

Wash day: 7 weeks post

Wash day: 8 weeks post

Its possible that I'm at the end of a heavy shedding cycle. In the first photo, the ball of hair is much denser than the hair I've lost at 7 and 8 weeks post. Its such a relief not to see the heavy, dreaded hair ball every week!

I've been trying my best to keep my hair moisturized, especially my ends. Last night I made a high, giant pincurl and tied my hair down with a satin scarf. Just to make sure the moisture was locked in, I covered that with a satin bonnet. This morning I unwrapped and my hair was nice and moist!
That's all for now folks!

Happy hurrr-day!
~Hatter