Fluffy hair

As with all knowings in life, your hair will whisper to you, then it will nudge you, then it will hold you by the face and shout at you.

So I've been busy, thus the radio silence, I really hadn't realised it had been so long since I'd written.

I haven't worn my hair straight down since maybe November time, due to our delightfully ever-changing weather, it's just 2 flat twists, and undo it and put a grip in it in the morning. I'm 7 weeks post now so it is more like 3 big canerows and undo it with a grip in the morning.

But the fluffiness! In my busy-ness I just couldn't get why even though my hair was well moisturised and oiled, it still came out fluffy in the morning making the curls look very undefined and undignified too while I'm at it. I know how I wish to present myself and quite frankly I left the flat looking frazzled in the morning.

So you know, if you've done moisture and there's no change then do protein - I did protein spray's and... nothing, or very little movement. It took maybe 2 weeks for me to realise I hadn't done a deep protein treatment - which with the Jason thin to thick on my hair is about 10 minutes MAXIMUM.

So I mixed it in with my Jason Aloe Vera conditioner in my co-wash this week after netball, and that really did the trick. But why did it take me so long to realise what was up with my hair?

Because I was busy, and getting lost in busy-ness not to be confused with business. When I stray from my routine, when I get wrapped up in social media and news because of the election. My mind loses it's usual ability to process the simple things.

The routine that I have that works isn't even that hardcore regimented, there's lots of room for flexibility but as with all aspects of life, you have to acknowledge the addictions you have and how much control they have over you, even down to the basic things like taking care of your hair. It may not seem like a straight swap "If I watch another hour of tv I won't do my hair tonight" but seriously I know this and I'm re-teaching myself everyday. Too much of some of the unnecessary stuff just teaches your mind how to not think. Eventually you just won't think about you at all.

Shampoo-less regime

About a month ago or so, I over moisturised my hair. I thought I'd use that mess up as a good excuse to try the shampoo-less regime so as to lesson the amount of water interaction my hair had.

This is where you only wash your hair with conditioner either 100% of your wash days or most of them. My usual regime was, shampoo and deep con on a sunday (with a oil prepoo in the second half of my stretch), and a co wash on a Wednesday. I changed this to full shampoo and deep con every 2 weeks, and the rest of the time just conditioner.

In summary - it didn't work out for me. It might just be because I've got fine hair or that it's relaxed, but it just wasn't having it.

It's definitely quicker, and at first  your hair definitely doesn't feel like it needs a day to bounce back after the wash, but over the weeks it does build up - even with the shampoo every two weeks.

I also use natural shampoo and conditioner so that may have played a part in why it all built up on me. I just wasn't expecting it as I rarely put silicone in my hair and if I do it's neat so I can see the exact amount.

But, on Saturday, having done this for about 5 weeks, my hair just wasn't playing ball. I put the leave in in which is primarily water, and it just couldn't get to the strands. So yes, my hair had build up and yet my scalp was so dry, every day I felt like I had to put more and more water on.

Really pleased I did it though, as at least I know I can go without shampoo for a week if I needed to.

I have now at this late stage in my life, made a firm decision to use one set of shampoo and conditioner at the beginning of the stretch and a different one at the end. I for some really weird reason, was only using that second set when my hair became too tough to handle, rather than using it as prevention so that it wouldn't become too difficult to handle. Perspective and hindsight.

Beginning of the stretch shampoo and conditioner

Ending 4 weeks of the stretch shampoo and conditioner - Rosemary

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.

6 weeks post - baby hair

It feels like I have baby hair. I'm going to take that as a good sign.

On the other side I have found another grey (white) hair today. I don't feel stressed so I imagine it's genetics from the Mr's side. All the men in that side had a triangle of white hair front from a young age and then didn't go fully grey until about 70.

I'd rather not go grey at all to be honest. I do have a good face though so maybe it will be flattering to me like a Rogue look. The white hairs feel good though, they don't feel any weaker or thinner and that's the most important thing.

Rosemary EO is supposed to be the best for grey hair, I'm not exactly sure how, really need to prioritise reading more of the science of black hair book. This is my second read and I'm already understanding more than I did the first time. I think that's what helped me to understand how baggying works.

Deep conditioner wash day today, will add more Rosemary into the hot oil mix, and then add a touch of that mix to the conditioner as well, should make it easier to detangle; although I did pick up my avocado oil that I use on my ends - how did I forget how good that stuff was?  I might just add a touch of Rosewood oil again, just to give my hair a little more strengthI'm only doing an 8 week stretch this time so this will be the last shampoo and conditioner. I only use conditioner in the 10 days or so leading up to it.

5 weeks post

I'm 5 week post relaxer now. I do believe I have sped up the growth process with Rosemary oil. It's the reason why this week has been so hard.

My hair was drinking water like as if it's life depended on it. I think I just got caught out with the warmer weather and strength of the curl.

I did remember that I had a rescue conditioner - Conceived by Nature. Who don't seem to make much but the one bottle I have tried I am always so very thankful for. I use this roughly this time every stretch, I don't know why I completely forgot it was their until I was about to put my normal conditioner in.

Before I remembered I had it I was just going to add some oil and Calendula EO to my Green people Conditioner, I think I'll do that next time. I'm really trying to treat the 2 different versions of my hair differently, (fresh relaxed vs curly at the roots, straight in the middle frizzy at the ends petulant hair). It's the frizzy at the ends part that annoys me the most, because it's not split ends, they're just dry. I just let my hair get much too dry for whatever reason.

I'm going to give baggying a try, I'm currently doing a bit of the reverse by putting a loose satin du-rag on with a shower cap on top. I'm drying my hair but not too much. In a little while I'll take the shower cap off and leave the slightly thick satin du-rag on before I start my nightly routine. Then I'll think I'll just baggy it in the evenings while I'm reading/eating etc. Especially during this end of stretch part. I probably won't need to do it often at the beginning of my stretch.

I do think I'll have to re purchase some Avocado oil and try using that as a detangler as it's quite a dry oil but very penetrating. I put the oil that I used as my pre poo on the ends before air drying, I'm hoping that together with the baggying and that amazing conditioner will get it back to normal. Plus maybe a quick spray or 2 of protein before sealing as well.

Thin to Thick - Hey JASON...

I have found that some conditioners that are supposed to provide protein are really just light touch detanglers. JASON Thin to Thick is not one of those.

I wanted to give myself a few days after doing a co-wash with it before writing. At first I felt like it just made my new growth soft and that was nice but nothing to write home about. As the days went on though, my usually fine hair just felt fat for want of a better word. It felt like I had about double the amount of hair on my head.

By the 4th day I realise that actually my hair now needs significantly more moisture than it usually does. That's on me rather than JASON, where I thought it may just be a light tough protein conditioner I used it when my hair only needed a top up of protein. This is much more like a reconstructor.

I am pleased with it, but I think the next time I use it I'll have to follow it up with a moisturising conditioner for balance, or alternatively add a couple of drops of Calendula essential oil when applying. Calendula is seriously moisturising - I only use it when I'm in real need like when I've had a bad cold for a week and haven't been able to wash my hair. Over moisturising can be as bad if not worse than over loading hair with protein.

I only got the Conditioner but they also do a Shampoo, a Scalp Elixir, and a Volume Spray. Using this really reminded me about timing with hair. I'm much better at listening to my hair now but maybe I was a bit too eager to use my new sparkling product. I'll do better.

This weekend I'll do another hot oil scalp massage before my deep condition. My hair is getting rally curly now so I really need to spend more time detangling gently, it's so easy at night to just want  to get through it, put on my head tie and get on with my meditation.

Rosewood oil - my secret weapon?

Rosewood Essential Oil!

I don't know why this works but it does. As I've been making my cosmetics over the past 2 years or so, I've steadily been stocking up on my essential oils. I think I may have about 20 or so at the moment, I'll write about them all at some point I'm sure.

As I'm naturally curious, I've been adding a drop or 2 to my shampoo or conditioner (after doing my research) to see what it would add to my hair. Some of my favourites for wash day are:

1. Rosewood (obviously)
2. Rosemary - used most frequently
3. Lavender - go to fix all if I don't know what I need
4. Cedarwood - for those itchy / painful scalp days
5. Calendula - by far the easiest way to make your hair drink water fast

Now my Lady Rosewood is a tricky tricky EO. Mostly because I can't find anywhere on the internet that says it does what it does to my hair. I did however find a few mentions of it being endangered and to use Ho Wood oil as a replacement, but all of those articles are from several years ago, and when I bought it, it wasn't that expensive, so I'm hoping I haven't hurt a tree somewhere.

The best I can find is that it's an Astringent so if I work that out in my head, that means it will flatten the cuticles. So I can say, I use Rosewood oil to straighten and strengthen my hair. At 3 weeks post relaxer that was only 75% done in the first place and an awful lot of massaging rosemary oil into my scalp, I had a lot more curl than I was used to, so I thought it's time to put some Rosewood in because I remembered the first and only time I used it, I got a lot of shine and it just felt strong. So here I went again.

It was my co wash day so I put 2 drops in my hand with my JASON Aloe Vera and worked it through, by the time I finished I thought I could feel the hair was straighter but it was just me. I put a grip in it and showered, then rinsed it out with luke warm water. It was probably only sitting in for about 2 minutes. Let me tell you, my hair as I was finger combing it, maybe 2 were left on my hands. Audrey Davis-Sivasothy says that healthy hair will only have about 20 broken strands a day (I think it's a day). These days I'm about 10 in the morning and 15-20 at night which I can tell you is so much better than I was back in the day, when I was brushing my hair and cleaning countless strands out of it.

The ends were so straight and strong that they barely held a curl that first night, which I know sounds counterintuitive but the initial electric shock style hair wears off. As the days went by it was much easier to style, the texlaxed curls and new growth were now just waves. This stayed this way through to Sunday when I washed and deep conditioned it. And I forgot to take a picture before I did - sorry - but I will do next time.

So even now as I'm air drying my hair, the roots are only slightly puffier than they ought to be at this point. I don't even want to put Lady Rosewood into my hair oil or leave in conditioner for fear that my hair gets to used to it.

I did a lovely new scalp massage today which I will write up later, and just added 2 drops of Cedarwood to my conditioner. If anyone ANYONE else has used Rosewood, please let me know how it worked out for you.

Until next time.

Detangling - without distressing my tresses

Cyclomethicone is a silicone found in a lot of leave in conditioners. If you haven't seen it listed then you've definitely seen Dimethicone. Dimethicone is the one that you need a SLS shampoo to wash out as it builds up on the hair. Cyclomethicone on the other hand is a little more friendly, it can evaporate and is easily washed out with co-wash.

I have a bottle of Cyclomethicone because I use it when making lotions, it adds a really good silky feeling without leaving your skin feeling oily. So of course, knowing that worked, I tried putting it in my leave in conditioner (JASON mixed with water and essential oils). The first few times I put too much in and my hair just wasn't liking it. It felt consistently dehydrated.

Then I made a dry oil body spray using oil and Cyclo, so I thought a touch on the hair might work to detangle - no, no it doesn't.

It was only on Sunday after I washed my hair and realised that my hair is now needing assistance in detangling again, (is it growing faster is it just me? I have been religiously adding Rosemary oil to conditioner...) I thought maybe if I just put a couple of drops on my hands and in between my fingers and run it through my hair as it's air drying, that might work. And I think it did, detangling was very easy, so much so I think I used too much Cyclo even then. I had used 3 drops, next time 2 will do for my whole head, as the next morning I had to add more moisture.

I like this. Where I had been on an all natural products kick for years, I did miss that slick feel. But also and weirdly, I used my ElastaQP shampoo for relaxed hair and moisturising conditioner, they used to be my staple before Green People; I realised I had some conditioner left so thought I'd just use those and my hair was not happy at all. It felt really coated and sickly for want of a better word. Clearly either my hair or my fingers got used to the Green People set pretty damn quickly.

Anyway, I'm glad I got the Clyclomethicone game right, if my hair is growing at the speed I think / hope it is now that I'm taking care of it, I'm going to need it. I'm also going to need to become friends with adding a little extra Jojoba oil when styling in the morning, the hair isn't dry but I do know I should be adding extra oil on places that pulled in any way like with a hair band.


Little by little

The first wash after relaxer

And... I still have hair. So I used JASON aloe vera conditioner to do my mid week co wash. Where I'm still not used to not having the bone straight feeling, my hair felt a little weird before the water hit it, slightly wavy and a tiny bit frizzy at the back. But the water just sorted everything right out. I added 1 drop of Rosemary essential oil to the conditioner as usually about 10 days after a relaxer I have a terribly dry flaky scalp that I need to condition several times to get rid of the dead skin. I didn't actually have a dry scalp but I thought it doesn't hurt to pump up the conditioner a bit.

Towel dried the hair, no need for the diy leave in spray as it's already moisturised. Put my hair oil in finger combed and did 2 long twist rows. The hair feels fuller I can't tell if the rosemary was necessary or not but I feel better for adding it rather than leaving it out.

This is how good I was feeling.

It's pretty weird weather in London at the moment, with all the various storms and annoyingly windy weather. I did catch up with my natural headed friends yesterday though and thought well if they can do it - and look good while doing it, I need to man up a tad.

As I write this it's Sunday and I'm sitting with the conditioner in for a while. I had to do a pre poo with a olive and sunflower oil as I was out late last night and neglected to sort out my hair before bed. I know better why don't I do better? Currently using Green People Moisturising shampoo and conditioner. I think it will be a week of hats to work again and twisting it up in a grip at the back. As protective styles go it's easy and still looks good so I'll keep going with that.

Going to start reading the Science of Black Hair by Audrey Davis-Sivasothy again. A fantastic book that taught me pretty much everything I know and started me on my natural products journey many years ago.

Now off to do a cool rinse and finger comb (yawn).

Next post will be about my much loved DIY hair oil.

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.