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.

Baggying for moisture

Baggying is something that I have seen on many a blog for years now, and yet for some reason I just never paid any attention to it. Maybe it was because I wasn't sure when it would be appropriate to do it. As with most new fantastic products, they're probably great but if you use it at the wrong time, when your hair isn't ready, then you're not going to get the right results.

Baggying is when you put a shower cap or sealed plastic bag over your freshly moisturised but unsealed hair in order to keep the moisture in. I think it goes a little deeper than that actually, or at least for me any way.

I used to use mane n tail detangler religiously. At first I used to put way too much on because I was impatient, I eventually realised by accident (distracting phone call) that when you put it on and leave it to work - not immediately trying to comb or finger comb your hair - then the hair is actually much more agreeable, I didn't have to fight with it nearly as much and didn't have to use as much detangler.

The same applies to my standard leave in (water and conditioner mix in spray bottle with essential oils). My night process was to spray some the hair and scalp - I don't oil my scalp - and then finger comb, apply hair oil sealer and style for bed. This works fine at the beginning of my stretch, I don't need as much leave in or sealer. But at the end of the stretch, it just doesn't work, leaving me frustrated and running my hands through my hair too quickly, pulling out hair's from the fragile demarcation line. So I end up using more and more leave in, leaving me with wet hair, and then it's so wet you feel like it needs to dry a little before putting the oil on. As a night time routine, this gets really annoying as my hair is at this stage for about a month.

With baggying however I've found that giving my roots, scalp, and ends a nice light spray when I come home in the evening, putting the shower cap on while I cook, read, meditate; by the time it's time for my night time routine, you can feel the moisture is on the inside of the hair rather than just sitting on the outside. My tight and rough roots are flexible without feeling weak like that over moisturised feeling.

I don't have a lot of time in the evenings as I work pretty far away from home so the shower cap is only on for just under 2 hours. Even when I had a couple of evenings out this week, I still got the benefit from only keeping it on for 30 minutes while I showered and got ready for bed.
I am also using a small amount of protein every other night though - during the sealing process, I believe that keeps the balance.

Some people manage to baggy overnight, I have no idea how, after the 90 minute mark my scalp screams give me air! But if it works then it works, it's probably a little different if you have a lot of natural hair. I've also seen some worries that it would cause the hair to smell, I haven't had experience of that personally, smell as far as I know is caused by bacteria, the essential oils in my leave in and sealer put a stop to that pretty darn quick.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the growth in a couple of weeks when I relax again. I haven't worn my hair down once since February, but my friend had commented that it looked like it had grown. It probably just looked healthier / thicker as result of all the new growth and moisture that's in side the hair, but I do believe/hope that I have retained more hair this stretch. I won't be trimming again until the early Autumn. I went from 1 trim a year to 2 trims for the past 2 years and I really think that's part of the reason why I haven't seen much improvement, about an inch left me each time. I hardly ever have split ends but my hair does grow at different speeds all over my head so that would be the reason why it was levelled out quite so severely.

Pretty big breakthrough for me, it might have seemed obvious but sometimes you have to learn for yourself.

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.