2.5 year update

Hello all!

It's been too long! Life has gotten shockingly busy, but it's time to get back to doing things I enjoy, like blogging. I'm going to jump right into it...

It's currently the middle of a super cold and snowy winter in nyc, so my hair has mostly been in a bun or under a hat, which has been excellent for retention! This weekend, I decided to blow my hair out to give my scalp and edges a break from all of the bunning, here's my wash day in pictures:

Pre-Shampoo Treatment:
I applied sweet almond oil to my scalp to help with the dryness from the week. To prep my hair for washing and heat styling, I decided to use the ORS Hair Mayonnaise as a light protein treatment on hair that had been lightly moistened with a spray bottle. I then added a light coating of sweet almond oil over the conditioner, put on a plastic cap and put on my heating cap for about 30 mins.

Wash:
I shampooed twice with the L'oreal Everpure Sulfate-Free shampoo (diluted with water in an applicator bottle for easier application). After rinsing, I used Aussie Moist conditioner and let it sit with a plastic cap over it for the remainder of my shower. I then rinsed and detangled my hair under cool water and did a final cold rinse. I then t-shirt dried for 30-45 minutes.

Post-wash and styling:
After t-shirt drying, I applied my leave-ins (silicon mix bambu and organix argan oil of morocco weightless healing dry oil)   in 4 sections to detangle. After that was completed, I began blow drying using the Conair Yellow Bird blow dryer on cool air for the length, and warm air to dry the roots. Before drying my ends, I applied a bit more of the silicon mix bambu. After each section was dried, it was pinned away and I spritzed some of the organix spray oil on the section.

Here are the final results:

  

Yay! So I was quite pleased by the final results. I haven't clipped my ends since November, but from all of the bad winter weather protective styling they've been doing quite well! I did a lot of trimming and cutting last year to get my ends together, and it seems to have gone well. The last pic im showing my bra strap, so i believe as of right now I am grazing bra-strap length! Fingers crossed for reaching bsl by my next relaxer (if the weather stays this bad I should be good, lol).

Thanks for reading :),

Salon Visit and Length Check

Good evening,

I planned to wash my hair this weekend, air-dry it and then trim it but I was feeling lazy and now that I am much closer to the dominican salon I went to during my pre-hair journey days, I decided to stop by. I figured I would carry on my wash day the way I normally do, pre-poo, wash, DC, etc so I did some work at home and then brought my desired products with me to the salon. Here are the steps and the products used for this wash day:

1. Pre-treated at home with coconut oil on my scalp and coconut/sweet almond oil on the length.
2. Shampooed 3x (she slipped that last one in smh lol) with Shea Moisture Moisture Retention Shampoo.
3. Deep conditioned for 20 minutes under hooded dryer with ORS Hair Masque (love this!).
4. Rinsed.
5. Applied leave-in (Silicon Mix Bambu), rollerset on gray rollers (2''?) and sat under the hooded dryer again for an hour.
6. Since I hate wrapping my hair, I just had my hairdresser apply argan oil and comb out the curls.

After I left the salon, I realized that my roots still had the dents from the rollers and I also needed to trim my hair. I applied Redken Smooth Down Heat Glide to my hair in sections and flat ironed my roots with my Solia 1'' flat iron on 300 degrees, dusting each section as I went along. So here are the final pics, and I guess this is my first length check since July. 

I would say that I'm mostly at armpit length, and now the layers in the back are a bit past that. While I still have way more trimming and maintenance to do, I am still hoping for bra-strap length by the summer.

Thanks for reading :),

My 1 Year Hairniversary!

Hi there!

Yesterday marked one year since I embarked on this mission to take better care of my hair. After months of research, trial/error, adapting techniques to work for me and product selection, I've made more progress in one year than I ever imagined. I have learned so much about my hair, skin and body since I've started this journey and I still have so much more to learn.

At the start of my journey, at a choppy shoulder length

 

First trim during the journey 1'' in October '11

 

Current length now as of July '12 (air-dried after relaxer, prior to trim)

I do certainly still have a long way to go, but I am definitely pleased by how far I've come! I would def like to give a special thanks to those that read my blog + those that have subscribed, as well as to a few of the special people in my life who have supported me since day one and that stayed interested [my mom, Sof, Sammi + Sam ♥]. I look forward to the next year and what it brings!

Thanks for reading :),