Flat ironed hair, May 5th 2013

I am so glad that I don´t use heat too often, air drying usually takes me no longer than one hour but using heat to get my hair straight takes me almost four hours.

My setback update: April 2012-May 2013

After weeks of bunning i decided to blow my hair dry with cool & Low Heat to make my texlaxed hair blend in with my relaxed hair.i then did Four Bantu knot Outs and and Left them in for 30 minutes. I love the Loose waves:)

Anyone who is on a hair journey dreads getting a setback but sometimes they just happen. In April of this year i too got to experience a major steback. The funny thing is that it happened in such a short period of time and by the time i noticed that something was going very wrong, i had already lost a lot of hair. i had a huge gap at the back of my head and this was just a blow to my face, how could that be happening when in my opinion i was doing everything right? i was washing and deep conditioning my hair religiously every single week. I had to find out what i was doing wrong because any kind of breakage meant that something was wrong somewhere.

 Left: Hair in April 2012                                                  Right: Hair in August 2012
(Gap very clearly visible.)                                                   (Gap filling up yay!)

It then hit me that i had started texlaxing and that meant that i had three different textures to deal with, i realised that my hair had been breaking at exactly the point where the relaxed hair and the texlaxed hair were meeting. This point is commonly known as the line of demarcation. After doing some reasearch on how to transition to natural without doing the big chop i came to the conclusion that my hair need more moisture so i i started co washing my hair in the middle of the week and this really helped. So since i have been making sure that my hair is well moisturised.

Since i experienced this first hand and wouldn´t like anyone else to go through the same thing, i would advise anyone who wants to do any kind of transition, to do some research on it before starting. and also remember that a hair journey is really a journey. Sometimes there is traffic and red lights and it takes us a bit longer to reach our destination but we will get there. So don´t give up on your healthy hair journey.

My hair is not yet where i want it so i will still keep trimming until it fills up completely, however i am very happy that the gap keeps getting smaller and smaller. My goal is to have it completely gone by Feb 2013, so wish me luck.

Have you ever suffered a setback? If yes how did you deal with it?

Thanks for reading!
Joanne

Since i´m still stretching my relaxer and on the no heat challenge till september 2012, i try to do low maintenance and protective styles that don´t require and heat or combing.
I have a lot of new growth which i touch only once a week when i wash or twice a week if i decide to condition wash my hair in between.
This time i went for a high bun, i´m trying to vary the position of my bun to avoid putting stress on only one area which might cause breakage.

I get my edges flat by applying my moisturiser and then tying the edges down with a scarf, works like a charm. sometimes i use aloe vera gel but i have currently run out of that.

As most of you already know i am on a no heat challenge till september 2012, so i have been experimenting with different protective hair styles.
( protective styles are those that keep the ends of your hair from rubbing on clothes or simply keep your hair or ends of your hair hidden. these include: braids, weaves, wigs, buns, hats, scarves e.t.c).
Here is one i tried out and really liked, i applied flexi rods on my hair in a mohawk style in order to be able to sleep in peace and left them in overnight, i think i did the set on damp hair.
 This is what it looked like in the morning after removing the flexi rods and applying my banana clip.


Do you have any other tips on  heat free protective styles i could try out? I would really appreciate your ideas.
or do you want to join me on this challenge? then jump on i  could use some company just click here for the rules of the challenge. Even though i started on June 15th you can still join me and extend to october :-)

I was just looking at old pictures on my computer and i came across one picture, which i just had to share you. a picture of what my ponytail looked like in 2010. my hair was much shorter then, but my ponytail was really full and thick. i am working towards getting that thickness back.

I also noticed that back then i held my hair with a rubber band, something i would never think of doing today because they can be very damaging. This is just one of the many things i have learnt during this journey.





Are you on a hair journey or are you starting one then please make pictures of your hair as you go on, pictures will show you where you have come from and help you get to where you want to be.

Joanne

A few months ago i straightened my hair and to my surprise i had lost a good ammount of hair at the back of my head, honestly i was mad about it for a while and then it hit me that even though i had suffered this setback my hair had really come a long way and i should be proud of that. i realised that a hair journey is really a journey, sometimes we get to our destination on time, sometimes there´s too much traffic and it takes longer to get there and sometimes we take the wrong turn, but all in all it is possible to get to our destination. All we need is a lot of patience and consistency.
Here is a summary of my hair journey to help you understand better where i am coming from.

So after a failed hair journey (I retained no length for about 5months due to protein overload which led to dry, brittle, breaking hair) this was in august 2009. So i officially started another one in feb 2010

The progress was amazing, my hair was not only thicker but it had gotten a lot longer. 2011 was no different i noticed a increase in length with every relaxer. my ends looked great and i loved how the back looked.

And then 2012! i decided to stop relaxing my hair bone straight, this is called texlaxing unfortunately i didn´t do enough research on how to transition to texlaxing and this was a big mistake. As a result my hair was breaking off where the relaxed hair and texlaxed hair were meeting, unfortunately i realised what was happening too late! the damage was already done. I think it is so annoying how hair takes such a long time to grow but it takes only a few days to damage. so here is what it looked like in April.
The problem area is very visible :-(

Here is what i´m doing till my hair gets back on track, i will make sure that my hair is moisturised at all times especially the back to keep it from breaking even more and i am trimming my hair every four weeks until the middle catches up with the rest of the hair, so this means i will keep my hair at this length until the problem has been solved, this is my new goal.

 I hope this encourages you too not to give up on your hair even when you face a setback. And one last thing if your regimen is successful and you finaly reach your goal don´t stop doing the things you did to get you where you are. For example if you feel moisturising and sealing daily helped you reach your goal, don´t stop doing it even after reaching your goal, otherwise you might learn the hard way.

Joanne.

I love protective styles because they keep the ends of my hair tucked in.
I have been asked many times how i manage to protect my hair and retain length without braiding or weaving my hair. well my strategy is very simple i bun my hair alot. Buns, when not done too tight can help to keep the ends safe and will help with length retention.
You are probably wondering why i choose buns over braids or weave, well i am one of those people who can´t keep one style in for a long time and other than that i always want to have access to my hair at all times. washing & deep conditioning braids and wevaes is a bit tiresome for me so i just have fun with my buns.
I am currently in the maximum length retention challenge on Gahl and one of the rules of the challenge is to keep my hair in protective styles 90% of the time.
Here are a few styles i have tried out since the challenge started. by the way if you would like to join us in the challenge you are most welcome.

Cute bun




Faux bun




Ponytail bun

 My Braid out in 2009




















My braid out in 2010













 my braid out in 2011






























































My braid out in 2012.


It´s funny how no two braid outs look the same :-)  I think braid outs are a great low manipluatiion hair style but in my opinion they are not protective styles because the ends are always down. I always end up bunning my hair even with braid outs to protect my ends.

Thanks for reading!

Joanne.