42 Weeks and Temptation Abounds: My Stylist Visit

Okay this is going to be quite a story. Let me begin with what I had been doing to my hair before the stylist visit.

So you all know that I was washing my hair weekly in three ponytails. I had started only combing through with a shower comb while soaking wet, and letting it dry in the ponytails. I think we determined that was where the problem started. Previously I was combing once or twice during the drying process with a normal-sized comb, but I stopped that when my hair started coming out in large quantities. Coincidentally (or not), it started coming out in large quantities when I went two weeks without washing or combing my hair.

Now when my stylist got to my hair, she looked quite befuddled as she tried to figure out how she was going to get through all of the matted hair. She put a detangling conditioner on it and put me under the dryer for 15 minutes before she even attempted to shampoo it. She said washing it in the state it was in before would only do more damage. After that, she gave me a protein treatment AND a deep conditioning treatment before carefully blowdrying and straightening my hair. All in all, the process took over three hours!

Once it was straight, the temptation to relax again was overwhelming, especially with my husband showering me with compliments all day.

I will never let my hair get like this again. No more ripping and no more laziness. My transitioning 4b hair requires a lot more care than that. Honestly, I'm thinking I will keep my hair straight most of the time throughout the transition by visiting my stylist every 4 weeks. Once the relaxed ends are gone I think I will enjoy my natural hair more.

Without further adieu, my straightened hair:

The Lesson: Even though life is a bit busier with my loving little baby boy, I still have to take time for myself to take care of my hair. I feel like when I'm not at work I always need to be caring for him. Sometimes I forget that I have a supportive husband and wonderful mother who are more than willing to watch my dear son while I take some time for myself. So now, Saturday mornings are all for me. I will either wash my own hair and take better care to remove the tangles, or go to the salon.

Learned My Lesson

After my last hair debacle, I decided to try something new. I bought a deep conditioning product called Bioinfusion Critical Care Deep Moisture Masque. I liked the ingredients and decided to give it a try. To be honest, right now deep conditioning is not a priority because I really don't have time for the process. My son is now 13 weeks and I'm both breastfeeding and pumping, I've gone back to work, and my husband is working and going to school almost full time.

Anywho, my hair is almost dry right now, but unfortunately I lost a TON of hair. I keep finding knots at the line of demarcation where the two textures meet. I've decided to make a big change to my regimen that I refused to consider before: I'm adding a mid-week conditioner wash, or cowash. I thought the extra manipulation would cause a problem, but honestly I don't think it could get much worse than this:

I put the quarter next to it so you could tell how much hair I lost. And this was just in the shower. Once I put the Bioinfusion product in my hair, I detangled in a painfully slow manner, finally getting through most, if not all, of the knots and tangles. I lost quite a bit more hair then as well. The finger detangling didn't work for me. I was missing too many tangles. I think I'm better off running the shower comb through my damp hair immediately after adding my moisturizer or leave-in products. My next post will of course be concerning my mid-week cowash experience. Wish me luck!

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!

28 Weeks Post - The Wash and Rebraid: Nursing and Washing Hair--WHEW!

Hey guys! The little one is asleep and I had a three hour nap this afternoon, so I'm awake and ready to go wit a new post!

Soooo....I undid my braids in the FRONT of my hair only (remember the back is in plaits with my own hair), coated the hair with V05 Moisture Milks conditioner, detangled, and washed all of my hair yesterday morning in the shower with my Creme of Nature Kiwi and Citrus (I was going to take a texture shot but...i kind of forgot! Next two weeks, I promise!). I then used Organic Root Stimulator's Deep Penetrating Conditioner and coated all of my hair with that. I did a few chores, nursed my newborn, then washed it out about 3 hours later. I would normally prefer 45 minutes (the recommended amount of time), but I'm and on-demand feeding supply, lol.

Anywho, after I rinsed out the deep conditioner, I added a little Aveeno leave-in to all of the hair, put the front of my hair in two ponytails to airdry. Once dry, I used As I Am twist cream to braid up my hair. The braiding probably took 3-4 hours all together (without all of the nursing and naps in between). Remember, I'm a novice braider. This is only the second time I have ever braided my hair. The braids are getting better I think, but I need to work on my parting. Here's the results:

Gosh I have a big head, lol. 

I think it came out better with the twist cream. They are neater. But that might have to do with the size of the braids. Anywho, I'm happy! I still have a few plaits to redo in the back that are HUGE because I got lazy, lol. Oh! And I have a half wig that I think will go perfectly with the braided front. Stay tuned!

Transitioning with a Newborn Update

Whew! It has been one SERIOUS week. And you know I must love my hair because I just gave birth to my little Ethan on May 12, 2012 and here I am back on the hair blog! I want to make this short and sweet because I do have a newborn to care for so here goes.

I have had NO time to do my hair. I finally washed it two days ago in that same plaited style I showed you in my last post and am in the process of rebraiding it. Breastfeeding a newborn and transitioning is tough, so I probably won't change my hair unless one of my family members coming in town to see the baby offers to do it. Here's my hair after I had Ethan. I put my phony afro puff on that day. I'm using Aveeno leave-in for moisture every few days.

Similar style at 41 weeks pregnant (not my favorite pic of myself, but focus on the hair, lol):

I had an appointment with the pediatrician this morning and I STILL have not finished rebraiding it. It's super fuzzy and crazy looking. So here is the style I threw together to run out the door. I unbraided the one braid in the front, threw on a beanie and ran! Little Ethan almost made me late! I didn't even wear makeup (first time in years I've been in public with none on). I should have undone that ponytail in the back where the bump is. Next time!

Again, my hairstyle throughout the next 5-6 months will NOT change much. I will keep it braided with my own hair, wash in braids every week, and rebraid (rebraid the front every week, and rebraid the back every 3-4 weeks). I will keep you posted on my progress! And I'm sure you are all curious, so here he is: the newest love of our lives!