1. I combed all the hair backwards and help it with a hair tie at the nape.
2. I added a second hair tie as a guide to how much I wanted to cut off and finally cut them off.

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:)

I am not sure about your country but this is the most popular bun in kenya, that´s why i will call it the kenyan bun. This bun looks really cute and is very easy to do because all one needs is a hair tie/ hair band.

Bunning is a great protective style but it can also cause damage if not done correctly. Here are a few tips which have helped me retain length using buns. I hope they help you too.

1. Do not bun your hair too tight as this will cause breakage.
2. Vary the position of your bun to avoid creating tension on one area only.
3. Moisturise and seal your hair especially your ends beofore bunning.
4. Opt for satin, silk or polyester hair bands as these do not suck out moisture from your hair.
5. Opt for scrunchies with no metal parts on them.
6. manipulate your hair as little as possible by combing only once or twice a week. finger combing your hair and using a scarf on your edges will do the trick.
7. clips and bobby pins with rounded tips are also a safer way to hold your bun.

Note:
If you remove your hair band and it is full of hair, you might either be bunning your hair too tight or the hair band is simply sucking out moisture from your hair and causing breakage. You might want to consider trying a safer hair tie.

Thanks for Reading!
Gahl.

I don´t have that much new growth at 5 weeks post but my edges just will not lie flat sometimes, Yesterday was one of those days. So took my home made moisturiser ( water & Glycerin), sprayed it all over but not getting my hair wet. Then i applied some coconut oil and then finger combed my hair up since i wanted to try out a high donut bun like Aphro´s, I have always done Donut buns but they were all just low ones as you can see below.


So after smoothing my edges down with my soft brush i applied a scarf on my head for at least ten minutes and this really did the trick! my edges were down and behaving. I loved the bun ;-)


 Want to know how i make the donut for the bun? please click here!

Thanks for Reading!
Joanne.

Relaxed  ladies listen up! Relaxers are a chemical and how you apply or get it applied will determine how healthy your hair will be in the end.

 I have been asked many times how many jars of relaxers i need to straighten my hair and when i say only one or even less i always get amazed looks, the next question is usually how can you need only one jar when your hair is that long?

This made me realise that most ladies have their previously relaxed hair relaxed again and that is absolutely not good for the hair. Relaxer overlapped hair looks good a few days after relaxer but afterwards it looks very dry and damaged. This means that you should only apply the relaxer to your new growth only if you intend to grow your hair longer and thicker.

Here is a pictorial video we did on that some time back, it´s not the best video but it will get the point across. Note that the ends of the hair and the previously relaxed hair do not get relaxed again.


Did you find this post helpful?
 
Thanks for reading!
Gahl!

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

I decided to texlax my hair at 18 weeks post relaxer. I have been texlaxing for almost a year now and i must say the difference it makes is just amazing. I have lots of texture left in my hair and the texlaxed parts of my hair are very thick compared to my relaxed hair and i love that.

I use the soft and beautiful texture softenner to texlax my hair and this is the same relaxer i used this time too, this relaxer does not burn at all but if left in for longer than advised it will leave the hair relaxed as opposed to texlaxed. I always used to think it could not get the hair bone straight but it can!! the back of my hair ended up getting straight and i am not too happy about that. next time i will have to be more careful.
Despite the fact that the back of my hair ended up kind of straight i still loved the overall outcome. the rest of my hair still maintained a lot of texture as can be seen on the picture below which i took after blow drying on cool air.
Blow dried hair on cool air ( left) right flat ironed hair.




















I ended up flat ironing my hair after three months of not using heat on my hair.
Thanks to the great tips from the lovely ladies on the Gahl community ,  i was finally able to flat iron my hair without getting it worn down by too much product and it turned out awesome. I wore


Joanne.

One of the ways to getting african hair healthy is by keeping it moisturised daily, and in order to keep that moisture from evaporating from the hair too fast you need to seal it in with and oil or a butter. The frequency of moisturising and sealing is different from one individual to the other. some of us need more moisture while some of us don´t. so depending on your hair you can moisturise either once a day or twice a day or every other day.
If you are just starting your hair journey i would recommend moisturising daily until you find out what your hair really needs and how often it needs it. Here is a video we made on how to moisturise and seal straight hair we hope this helps you.

                                                                          Step 1.
Type in this link or click on this link http://growafricanhairlong.ning.com/
you should then see the sign in or sign up page where you can also sign up using your facebook details.

1. Before a chemical service so that the hair can readily and evenly accept the chemical service.
2. Apply after a chemical service when additional conditioning is required. Leave on for 30 seconds, rinse out.
3. Apply to the hair in sections while detangling the hair with a wide tooth comb. This is great before shampooing. Let it sit for 5-10mins after the detangling process, then rinse out.
4.  Apply after shampooing. Let it sit for 2-5mins. Rinse and follow up with a deep conditioner for better conditioning results (more moisture, shine and elasticity).
5.  Put 2-3tsp of the conditioner in your deep conditioner for added slip, cortex protection, impart shine, and align the bonding of the cuticles.
6.  Use as a final rinse for detangling, and smoothness, leave on for 2-5 mins, then rinse out.

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 deep conditioned my hair with my usual deep conditioner tea tree cholesterol mixed with ORS replenishing conditioner and my oil mix( safflower oil, olive oil, castor oil & coconut oil). after t shirt drying for 10 minutes i applied my  home made leave in conditioner and lastly i applied a serum.

 This makes detangling very easy for me and my hair is always very soft. I will be doing a review on that very soon. I am currently 13 weeks post but these pictures were taken at 12 weeks post, i have lots of new growth which is still easy to manage. i hope it stays like that since i am planning to texlax my hair again in September.I have also realised that my texlaxed hair and my new growth behave the same, these two textures love water( moisture) so i will be co washing at least once a week for extra moisture.



After applying my leave ins i detangled with my wide tooth comb and proceeded to apply my satin scarf to keep my edges tamed. this really works in getting my edges flat. and when my hair is dry i usualy just remove the scarf and bun my hair.

I am really loving my texlaxed hair, i have so much texture and since the natural hair and the texlaxed hair are almost the same texture i don´t have a problem with breakage at the line of demarcation where the two meet, however i do have to be careful with the line of demarcation between the relaxed and texlaxed hair. I will be so glad when i am fully texlaxed but that will take a couple a years.



Two days after air drying this is what my hair looked like. quite nice and soft but i do have major shrinkage of the texlaxed and natural hair.

To find out more about texlaxing & air drying please comment below.

Joanne

Hi ladies, i know that i have been gone for a long time but i´m glad to share with you my hair journey update. I relaxed my hair last week and i´m quite happy with the results. My ends have really improved after i declared war against split ends and gave myself a good trim a few months ago.
Since i got my relaxer done at a salon this time round, i asked my stylist to dust my ends for me and she did a good job :-) here is what my hair looks like now.
by the way i´m wearing my home made length shirt ;-)

please excuse me for sleeping lol!

As i have mentioned above i experienced a setback due to not trimming my ends regularly this led to my ends looking horrrible it was a disaster for me because i was so focused on retaining length. Now i know that both go hand in hand, after every relaxer i will be dusting my ends to maintain them. Here is a comparisson of what my ends looked like a few months ago and what they look like now.


My hair is just a little past APL but i´m ok with that, now that my ends are looking good i´m sure i will be retaining length.
All in all i am very pleased with my progress i remember starting my hair journey with barely shoulder length hair, since starting this journey i have seen a great difference in my hair not only in length but also in health. my hair is always soft, something i never thought would be possible because my hair is naturally very coarse. Daily moisturising and sealing have saved my hair! check out my hair care routine here evelyn´s hair care routine.


now i am more convinced than Ever that African hair can grow long, with a simple working regimen we can all achieve that great hair we have always wanted.

here you can see what an evolution my hair has made.

Ladies if you haven´t started a healthy hair journey yet please think about starting one, if you have been hiding your real hair underneath weaves, wigs and braids because it is simply damaged or you don´t know what to do with it, then a hair journey is definitely for you.

weaves and braids should be an option for our hair to change up styles if we feel like but our real crown of glory should always be healthy no matter what length it is. So give your hair a chance, give yourself sometime to get to know what your hair needs and likes and in no time you should be on your way to getting lovely healthy hair which you can protect with weaves and braids too.

Want to start a healthy hair journey and you don´t know where to start? here are a few links that will help you out:
Have any questions or hair issues post them on our newbie corner, Gahl facebook page or simply leave a comment here.
if you are not a member of our website simply sign in with your facebook details.

join us today and Let us grow some healthy long african hair together!

Evelyn.

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