Second Diy relaxer

Not going to lie to you, I was not paying my hair the proper attention I should have been. Don't worry nothing went wrong but I did experience more breakage than acceptable. Simply because in my efforts to not touch my hair 24 hours before a relaxer due to it's fragility and general curliness, I didn't give it the moisture and oil it needed. So my hair was dry going in, and needed a lot of water love to get back to normal. I basically got scared to touch my hair rather than redouble my efforts to make heal it.

It feels fine and looks quite stunning actually, I have a lot of natural shine and I didn't use any Cyclomethicone either.

I left on for a little longer this time to ensure I relaxed to at least 90%, that's good enough for me.
Also made use of an Apple cider vinegar rinse and will be doing so again at my next wash (co wash) which will either be tomorrow or Wednesday. It depends how dry my hair and scalp feels but at this point, I imagine it will be left to Wednesday though as everything feels pretty ok today.

I am however getting frustrated at protective styles. I feel like single twists would be easier for my hair with a quick touch up in the morning, but I read that flat twists or big canerows are better because all the ends are hidden. I think rather than being religious about it I'll just have to listen to my hair at the time. I can't even see the evidence of new growth yet but that will show itself in time.

My next relaxer will be about a week before I go on holiday in July. Hopefully I will have learned even more about my hair. I'm still getting through the science of black hair book and am relearning a lot of things, have changed my hair oil (sealer mix) slightly as a result.

Need to remember though, my hair does not like being untouched, it sounds counter intuitive but it behaves like a child that needs to be picked up all the time. When I haven't run my hands through it twice a day it doesn't behave well, it's only marginally better at the beginning of the relaxer stretch. One of the primary reasons why consistent smaller canerows or weaves won't be in harmony with my hair.

Late off the mark - Relaxing my own hair

It was at our dinner before going to see Hidden Figures, that it dawned on me. Or rather was obviously stated to me. I had a really busy week of client meetings and I wasn't quite sure how I was going to make it to the hairdressers. I stretch for 9 weeks and at this point I was at 8 weeks - just on the fringe of madness. I told my friend this and she replied shocked "I'm surprised you don't relax it yourself" I said "I'm just lazy I suppose". That was my instant reply but it wasn't actually true, I just had never thought about it. I've been mixing my own leave in conditioner and making from scratch my own hair oil for just over 3 years - and had never not once thought "shouldn't I just relax it myself?"

So last Thursday I did just that, I made the trip to the hair shop and the chemist to by Crème of Nature Argan Oil Relaxer - Regular, and a box of non powder latex gloves. As I was working from home that day, I took my hair out of it's 1 remaining hair do at about 3pm (1 big sweeping canerow on the right and combed down on the left, small neat bun at the back.) I got started as soon as the clock struck 5:30. And then...

1. I combed out the hair - I had to, my hair is 4B tight corkscrew curls and it's fine.
2. Applied Cantu Shea Leave in Repair Cream to my scalp - I bought a fresh tub right before my natural hair care kick started
3. Parted hair in 4 with the grips and the protected the pre relaxed hair with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4. Applied some Vaseline all the way around my hair line
5. Set to working the relaxer
6. I did go over it again with the smoothing step
7. Relaxer from first application to wash out was 35 minutes - SHOCK HORROR. My hair doesn't take quickly, never has, also because I oil my scalp it gets on the new growth and slows everything right down.
8. I rinsed twice in luke warm water only
9. Put a protein treatment in for 10 minutes (can't remember which one and I threw the bottle away because it was finished)
10. Shampoo'd with the neutraliser twice, then on the third time let it sit on the hair for about 5 minutes
11. Rinsed the shampoo out and then did a Apple Cider Vinegar rinse - only a slight sting
12. Put the conditioner that came in the box in
13. Put my heated cap on for about 45 minutes - turns out I didn't need it on for that long, 30 will do
14. Made and ate my dinner

My scalp didn't burn, I have no sores, and in fact I could / should have left it in for another 5 minutes because I didn't apply it fast enough, one corner of my hard is marginally underdone. I'd say it's mostly relaxed to 85% rather than the squeaky bone straight that my hairdresser does. I liked bone straight, I thought that was how it was supposed to feel. I thought it was normal that it would take 2 weeks after my relaxer for my hair to feel like my hair again. I don't know if that's true now.

I t-shirt dried my hair, put some Chi protein leave in on it and put my diy hair oil on, wrapped my hair with a satin scarf (with a cotton scarf on top of that - it's cold and my hair doesn't always dry itself by the morning if I don't) and went to bed.

In the morning I was very pleasantly surprised, my hair felt... good. It never felt good after a relaxer. Straight yes, slick yes, shiny sometimes. But not good, it always felt delicate both hair and scalp.

Nearly a week on I haven't washed it yet - I usually wash and treat on Sunday and co wash after Netball on Wednesday. And after a relaxer which is usually mid week, I actively want to co wash with a treatment on the Sunday. I decided to leave it this time as I didn't really have an urge to, the hair felt fine, and it was only my ingredients in it so there was no build up.

So this is the beginning of this journey, I will be relaxing myself again, as the feeling of my hair is very reminiscent of when I first switched to natural products, just that good solid (for hair anyway) feeling. I'll be co washing it with JASON Aloe Vera conditioner tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.