30 Weeks Post and Update: Texture, Trim and Family Visits

Hi everyone! Just popped in to update you. I know it's been a while, but everyone is coming in from out of town to see my first born! It's exciting but exhausting. I've been visited by my mother-in-law (who stayed for two weeks but despite being a bit annoying was a God-send in the helpfulness factor), my sister-in-law, her husband, and their three kids (who stayed for five days at the same time as my mother-in-law...insert exhaustion here), my other sister-in-law,  her husband, and their 2 kids (who stayed for...wait for it...ONE DAY, which was too bad because she is one of my favorite in-laws), and guess what? MORE are on the way! My other sister-in-law and her FOUR kids are coming to stay...sigh...can a new mom get a break? I suppose you might be wondering, "How many sibling-in-laws do you have?" Well, you may not be wondering that, but I planned on telling you anyway. My husband has NINE sisters and TWO brothers for a grand total of ELEVEN in-laws, some of which may still be on their way here! Who has time for hair with all of this going on?

Well, that's kind of the reason I decided to try the simple bun again. Now, let me tell you. I LOVE simple buns. But the combination of my natural hair and relaxed ends have something to say about that...and it's "NOOOOOO!!!!" It ends up EXTREMELY puffy in the end and kind of looks like I'm smuggling contraband of the large round persuasion in my hair. But needless to say I didn't give up and I tried the bun again. This time it didn't come out so bad. My plan going in was: WEIGH IT DOWN. I used products that I had moved to No-Man's Land in the back of my bathroom cabinet back when I was in my light and moving relaxed hair phase. I decided on Redken Smoothdown Butter Treat again. My relaxed hair loved it for moisture, but I only used it if I were going to wear my hair up.

Alright, I'll stop rambling and going through the process. Soooo...I took out my plaits and braids, trimming each plaited section after I took down the plait. I sectioned my hair off into six sections with haphazard bantu knots and claw clips for extra security. I coated each section with V05 Moisture Milks Passion Fruit conditioner as a prepoo, but on a shower cap and left it in for two hours while I did laundry and nursed my sweet baby. I rinsed this out and shampooed with another No-Man's Land product: Giovanni Deep Moisture shampoo (I forgot I owned this and hadn't even used it once!). I deep conditioned with Organic Root Stimulator Deep Penetrating conditioner for another two hours, rinsed, finger combed under running water, and used the Aveeno Leave-in and Redken Butter Treat on each section, finger combing once more out of the shower (remember: I'm purposely trying to weigh my hair down). I sealed with Africa's Best Herbal Oil and put the sections in ponytails to dry.

Once my hair was approximately 80% dry, I took out the ponytail holders and finger combed my hair back into a ponytail. I then used a little water and Organic Root Stimulator Edge Control on my edges, added a little more oil, brushed back, and tied it down for the night. The result in the morning wasn't super relaxer-flat hair, but it was definitely my best attempt at flattening my hair. In a couple of days the plan is to spritz my hair with water and braid it down for a nice braidout.

Notice I only finger combed my hair and never used a regular comb. This is my first time doing this and I'm hoping I can better manage the inevitable breakage of my relaxed ends this way. Hopefu

Anywho, here are the very few pictures I took. Here's somewhat of a texture shot with my hair in the bantu knots:

And here are a few shots of the ponytails I airdried in. They also show my 4b texture:

Now here's the bun process. The first two pictures are before I tied the bun down. The third shot is the bun.If I can find the shot of my puffy bun, I will post it later.

That's all folks!