Curlformer: My first try

Wow it has been a while since I've posted anything on my blog. For the most part I've been washing my hair every other week. I was so stressed during my school finals that the last thing I was thinking about was hair.
On Black Friday I did some online shopping and purchased some metal hair clips and an imitation of curlformers called Magic Leverage. Youtuber Naptural85 did a review on the rollers just in time. I was not willing to pay the $70 for the real deal so anything that did the same thing (or worked even better) would be fine for me.
After washing my hair (see previous post) and applying my leave-ins I split my hair in half and parted my hair in various 1 inch sections and installed the curlformers so I could have curls for my birthday (Yay!). It was difficult getting them in at first. I spent most of the night yanking at my hair (not quite) until I got a streak of successful installments. Believe me when they say to hook your hair with the wand away from your roots LISTEN! Lol. It will save you lots of anguish.
I will post the results of the Curlformers later.

 

It's Offical: I'm Going Natural

Like the title says, I've finally decided to go natural. After giving it long thought and weighing the pros and cons, I figured that this is the best thing to do.
                           Reasons I'm going Natural
(1) I have been hearing a lot about the side effects of the chemicals in a relaxer. To think that I am applying those poisons on my scalp is very disturbing. I have no doubt that a lot of the problems Black women have to deal with can be traced back to the chemical in relaxers.
(2) I'm a college student now and some day hope to marry and have kids. First of all I want to find a man that loves me for me (my natural hair and all) and won't be shocked that I want to rock the hair I was born with
(3) I want to be an example to my future kids (especially girls). I want them to see that to be just like 'mommy' doesn't have to include getting a relaxer. I've never had to deal with the pressure from kids to get a relaxer but I know that what you see around you influences you a lot.
(4) I love the hair thickness I see that those natural women have. Right now I am frustrated with the limp twist outs and braid outs my texurized hair produces.
(5) I want to see what my natural hair texture is like. I haven't had to deal with it since I was 14 and I have forgotten how it was like. I want to learn to manage the hair I was given.
I plan on doing a long transitioning. No big chop. I most likely will trim a couple of times but for the most part keep my relaxed ends until my natural hair grows to my shoulders. Right now Youtuber alexxxhes is my biggest inspiration. We'll see how it goes!!

Wash Day- 15 Weeks Post Texurizer

Lately I find myself looking at more and more natural hair videos. I've pinned so many natural pics on Pinterest that I wonder if I heading down the natural route. It will be a total new experience since I haven't dealt with my natural hair since I was twelve. Right now I can see a great bit of new growth and after having twists in for a couple of week detangling was especially difficult.   

I took down my twists yesterday while I was trying to get my school done. In the end I ran out of time and ended up shortening my regimen significantly.

 [1]I skipped my usual hot oil treatment and went straight to shampoo. I felt like my hair needed a good cleanse so I used the Just for me shampoo
[2] Rinsed  with green tea.
[3] Applied my Just For Me conditioner and detangled. I was a bit worried with the amount of hair I lost while detangling. Most of it was shed hair by I had a few tangles in the front of my head that took some time to get through. I still did not get all of them out!
[4] Rinsed the conditioner out and applied my leave-ins.

I tried to get a good picture of what my new growth looks like but I failed. :| Anyway these are some pics of what my hair looked like after the wash. I had not put any product in my hair yet.

                                 
                                               
                                              

October Goals

   

  October Goals

• Organize my time wisely
• Moisture and seal my hair every other day
• Continue my stretch until it no longer helps my hair growth
• Try the Inversion Method to achieve longer hair 

                                           

                                                 

Protective Style: Twists / 13 weeks Post Texurizer

   School has been taking up the majority of my time and effort. I've gotten lazy with my hair, so I decided it was time to tuck it away for a while. I chose mini twists because I want it to last at least for 4 weeks. I didn't use any extensions. It took me about two days to finish. Since my hair is texurized, it doesn't hold the twists as well as if I was natural :(  so after I applied my leave-ins, I used the Fantasia High Potency IC Hair Polisher Styling Gel to    to hold the twists in place.

                                

                                            

Egg Protein Treatment

  I decided that my hair was in need of some care so last Friday I did an egg protein condition.

      *  Three medium sized eggs
      *  Two tablespoons of coconut oil
      *  One tablespoon of honey

I whisked the previous ingredients together until fully combined then applied the mixture to my hair and let it sit for 40 minutes. Let me tell you, having raw egg  running down your face for 40 minutes is not pleasant at all.
I more than happy to rinse the egg out and shampoo my hair. However the results were okay. My hair felt stiff like I had done a protein treatment, but my hair also was shiny. Overall I could tell my hair needed it.



                                           

Wash Day- 10 week post texurizer

It has been awhile since I've posted anything. School started 2 weeks ago, and I've been busy ever since.
Last Friday was wash day. My hair has been a bit neglected since school began, so I decided to do a egg protein treatment. Here is how my wash day went:

[1] I Pre-shampooed with my egg mixture. I left it in for 40 minutes. To read more about the egg treatment click Here.
[2] Shampooed with Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo.
[3] Rinsed with Green tea.
[4] Applied Just for me hair milk conditioner right after the tea, and covered with a plastic cap.
[5]  I rinsed out the product.
[6] Applied my leave-ins.
 I can't wait until the Summer ends simply because my hair doesn't love the humidity. My hair has felt dry no matter what I put in it. Augh. Wishing for colder weather.
   
                                              

Wash day- 7 week post Texurizer

I'm finally back from my trip and one of the first things I wanted to do was wash my hair. I haven't been treating my hair the way I wanted to. For 4 weeks I haven't done a hot oil treatment or rinsed my hair with green tea.   

But that changed on yesterday. (Thursday). My wash day went like this.

[1] Pre-shampooed with my hair with my castor oil mixture.
[2] Shampooed with Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo.
[3] Rinsed with Green tea. I also brewed the tea with a blend of the Orange Pekoe and Pekoe Cut Black tea. I don't know if there are some benefits to using Pekoe but it was in my stash of teas. Lol
[4] Applied Just for me hair milk conditioner right after the tea, and covered with a plastic cap.
[5] I rinsed the product out in the shower and wrapped my hair in a cotton shirt until it dried about 70%.
[6] Applied my leave-ins

I've been trying to grow out the nape of my hair. It has always been shorter than the rest of my hair but now that I've been reading many blogs I realize that it doesn't have to be that way. I'm going to try braiding my hair differently and babying my nape until it reaches its full potential.

                                              

Upside Down French Braid Bun

This is a hairstyle that I did for church yesterday. However instead of the braided bun I did a flower type bun. Last night I took out the bun and braided the rest of the ponytail without disturbing the french braid. Today I just wrapped my braid in a bun and secured with an hair band.

5 Week post Texurizer

I haven't been up to date with my blog since I've been out of town for almost three weeks now. I'm sorry to say that while I've been enjoying the salt water I haven't been as consistent with my hair routine. :( I made sure to wash my hair every week and condition it, but I haven't done a hot oil treatment, or a deep condition. I also have neglected rinsing with green tea. It's hard when you're in a different environment with a totally different schedule. *Sigh* I told myself that when I get back I'm going to pamper my hair to make up for what I haven't done the last couple of weeks.

On a side note I've been able to enjoy my hair on my trip. I never considered my hair as long and still don't but on this trip while I'm visiting family I've been getting compliments on how long my hair has grown. My Grandmother saw my hair and now insists that I where my hair down, to "show it off". However that doesn't fit my personality. I've gotten so used to protective styling that it's weird to do otherwise. :P

Oh and I'm so happy to find out I've been featured on Justgrowalready.com! It's been awhile since it has been posted but like I said I'm out of town so I'm behind in the blogging world. Anyway Thanks Jen!  :)

Wash day- 2 week post texurizer

I don't like the way my last touchup went. I used a texurizer that was in the freezer from a last touchup and I paid the price. It didn't process my hair the way I wanted and I can barely tell that I did anything to my hair at all. The nape of my hair doesn't really hold the texurizer that well so I can tell it is starting to reverse. Oh well I don't want to put my hair through some more chemicals so soon so I'll have to wait awhile.

Wash day was Thursday.
(1) Pre shampooed with castor oil mixture.
(2) Shampooed with Paul
(3) I forgot to brew the green tea so I went right ahead and applied my conditioner.
(4) Rinsed it out and applied my leave-ins then braided my hair.

During these summer months my hair has been feeling unusually dry. I'm going to up on my moisture.

Texurizer Touch Up

After having my twists in for 3 weeks I was ready for to take them out. I still have to figure out how keep my twists moisturized and neat. They became fuzzy and I tried to moisture it at least every other day but I couldn't tell if I was doing it right.
Anyway.... I ended my 14 week stretch on Thursday. I used the Just For Me texurizer. To prep, I applied sunflower oil to the length of my hair and parted my hair in four sections. My mom helped me apply the texurizer and then we rinsed it out. I rinsed my hair with green tea to stop some of the shedding. My hair felt really hard and tangled afterwards, so I applied my conditioner and carefully untangled it. I let the conditioner sit for awhile then rinsed it out. Finally I used my leave-ins.    

I can tell that I have retained some length since my last relaxer. Not a lot but enough to encourage me to keep at this hair journey. :) I don't know why my hair looks lopsided in this picture. It isn't actually that uneven.  It seems like my hair takes so long to grow. Maybe only half an inch every 3 months!   


           
                                                

12 weeks post texurizer

I haven't been posting any wash days posts because I have braids! I had them done last week Tuesday on May 21st. I'm trying to stretch my relaxer as long as possible so I decided to try a long term protective style. I haven't had braids with extensions for awhile since my hair thinned out in the front from the weight of the braids and the lack of care. Hopefully I've learned enough not to repeat that bad experience.

I intially wanted twists done but about half way through my head I realized the twists were not working with the hair I was using. I ended up having to go back and braid everything. Ugh.

Wash day (10 weeks post texurizer)

          Wash day was Thursday. Hopefully I don't make it a habit of documenting my wash days long after the actual date. Anyway here is my routine:
      [1] Pre-shampooed with castor oil mixture.
      [2] Washed with Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo.
      [3] Rinsed with Green tea.
      [4] I've never had a protein condition so I decided to try it. I used Palmer's Coconut Protein Pack. I've had it for awhile and finally mixed it with the Just for me Conditioner and applied it to my hair. I let it sit for a couple of hours underneath a heating cap.
      [5] I rinsed the product out in the shower and was surprised by how hard my hair felt. I couldn't get a comb through it without feeling like my hair was breaking off. I tried putting more of the Just for me conditioner to soften my hair but it didn't work. I finally left my hair alone and hoped that my hair would be more manageable when it dryed. 
      [6] I wrapped my hair in a cotton shirt until it dried about 70%.
      [7] I then applied my leave-ins and proceeded to carefully detangle my hair. My hair didn't feel as hard when it dried after the protein pack but I still don't like the result. My hair hasn't been the same after the protein. After detangling I braided my hair in five cornrows.

Overall I know that I'm going to do more research on protein conditioning and obtaining a proper balance between moisture and protein. I'm always learning so I guess that is why I always say..... 
                                                 

                                                    

Wash Day (9 weeks post texturizer)

Just for the record, I did wash my hair last week on Thursday. However I was too lazy to write about it.
For the first time I tried roller setting my hair. I really don't know what to think of it. I certainly still have to get the hang of it. I don't plan on repeating last weeks roller set until I figure out how to it right. I imagined my self having soft bouncy curls. Actually my hair ended up looking so poufy that it looked I had a wig on my head. Not to mention that I chose a wrong time to try and wear my hair out for church. It was rainy and humid, so I ended up pulling my hair in a ponytail before church was over.   *Note* I clarified my hair with a mixture of a tsp. of baking soda and a cup of water. I felt my hair needed it.

     I had to go out yesterday, so I postponed my weekly wash to today. I basically did everything mentioned in previous posts.                 
[1] Pre-shampooed with castor oil mixture.
[2] Washed with Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo.
[3] Rinsed with Green tea.
[4] Applied Just for me hair milk conditioner right after the tea, and covered with a plastic cap and cloth
[5] I rinsed the product out in the shower and wrapped my hair in a cotton shirt until it dryed about 70%.
[6] I then applied my leave-ins and braided my hair in five cornrows.  

     In the beginning of my HJ, I kept on checking if there was any new growth. It seemed like I was the only one who never had a problem with there being a visible difference between my texurized hair and new growth. My hair always lasted the longest. It seemed llike my hair never grew.
     Well although I feel like my hair can grow much faster, I can now tell the difference my two textures! My hair has been growing, and now it is getting harder to pull the comb through and it seems to tangle a bit more easily. I don't want to apply a texturizer in my hair just yet, since I want to stretch. I was thinking of putting twists in my hair for awhile. Who knows.    
                          
                                                  

Wash Day (7 weeks post texturizer)

      Yesterday (Thursday) was wash day. I really didn't do anything different from last week or the week before. I want to start trying new ways to style my hair, but right now I'm uninspired. So until I find ideas, This is my schedule.

[1] Pre-shampooed with castor oil mixture.
[2] Washed with Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo. My hair felt heavy and oily even after two lathers.
[3] Rinsed with Green tea.
[4] Applied Just for me hair milk conditioner right after the tea, and covered with a plastic cap and cloth
[5] I rinsed the product out in the shower and wrapped my hair in a cotton shirt until it dryed about 70%.
[6] I then applied my leave-ins and braided my hair in five cornrows.

After the hot oil treatment, my hair felt very heavy and clumped together. Even after the shampoo and conditioner it clumped together and seemed to dry very quickly. It was like the oil made the water just glide off my hair. I think I might have to clarify soon.

                                                         
   
                                              

Wash Day (6 week post texurizer)

     Thursday was wash day again. I didn't want to repeat last week's laziness so I got to work on my hair. lol

  (1) Pre- shampooed with castor oil mixture.         
  (2) Shampooed with Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo. This shampoo doesn't need alot for it to lather up which I like. However, my hair still felt a bit oily and heavy after to two lathers.
  (3) Rinsed with two bags of green tea. I keep forgetting to let the tea steep overnight so it always seems so weak.
  (4) Applied  Just for me hair milk conditioner without rinsing out the tea. I keep telling myself that I have to get a protein and deep conditioner.
  (5) After I rinsed out the conditioner, I applied my leave-ins using the LOC method:  I first sprayed Pro 23 Infusium leave-in treatment. I sealed with sunflower oil. It was leftover from my texurizer kit. I liked the avocado oil I used last week but, my mom is taking it hostage. :) I finally added the Cantu shea butter leave-in conditioning cream.
  (6) After applying my leave-ins I cornrowed my hair seven braids for a future braid out.

          I haven't unbraided my hair yet so I can't tell how it is staying moisturized just yet. I don't know if I'm liking the sunflower oil.


                                  
                                                

Scarf Updo

    Today I tried a new twist on a the most popular protective style: the bun. I always wanted to try using scarfs so today was the day.

 Sorry for the poor quality pictures. I used my phone and the lighting wasn't good.

How I did it:     

             

 (1) I parted the front of my hair and flat twisted it to create a faux bang.
 (2) I gathered the rest of my hair like i was going to create a ponytail. However, I instead of using an elastic band, I semi twisted all the hair around and pinned it.
 (3) I took my scarf and placed the widest part on the back of my hair and brought it forward. I did a semi knot in the front and cross wrapped the scarf ends back toward the nape of my hair, tied it, and tucked the ends in.

                                                              This is the finished result!

 I love the way it came out and i plan on doing it again soon.

            

Wash Day (5 week post relaxer)

I have to start out by saying: never leave your hair wash longer than your usual stretch. Unless you want greasy oily hair like I did. I was lazy last Thursday so I postponed my wash day to Sunday. However that wash never happened since I ended up be out of town. I had school the next day so I never got around to washing my hair. It was torture! I couldn't wait to get my hands in my hair and scrub.

I finally went hair product shopping. Yay!! I got a couple things like sulfate free shampoo and a moisturizer.
So Wash day was today after a unfortunate stretch.

I started out pre shampooing with my warm mixture of castor oil. I did something different today. I poured some oil in a tiny ziploc bag and baggied my ends. I'll have to see if it makes any difference.

Shampooed with the new shampoo I got: Paul Mitchell Instant Moisture Daily Shampoo. It didn't feel like it was stripping my hair of the oil I applied.

Rinsed with Green tea. I forget to let the tea steep for awhile so it seemed a bit weak.

Conditioned with Just for me hair milk conditioner. Next time I have money I'll have to get a real deep conditioner.

 

This is how my hair looked after rinsing out the conditioner before a trim or leave-ins.

 This is my hair after the trim. I can't wait until my hair is one even length.

 

After the trim, I applied my leave-ins. I got some new products to try out.
I first sprayed Pro 23 Infusium leave-in treatment. I sealed with Avocado oil. I finally applied the Cantu shea butter leave-in conditioning cream. This is the first time I tried the LOC method ( Liquid, Oil, and Cream). So far I'm liking it. :)

   

I've got to say that I was really looking forward to this wash day. It ended well. I was worried that I would lose alot of hair since I had skipped a wash day and had neglected my hair a little bit. However everything ended well.

Always Growing!

Ivy

New Design!

 What do you all think of my new logo? I know it looks a bit amateurish (because it is). I drew the picture on my tablet last night and added text to it. My tablet was acting up so I wasn't able to get the drawing to look the way I wanted to .However I'm glad with the way it turned out. Not a bad try for a first time designing a logo. ;)                                        


                                          
                                                

Wash Day (3 week post relaxer)

Wash day was yesterday. I'm going to try and make Thursday my regular wash day. We'll see how that goes....
Here is a summary of how things went.

I Wet my hair and  Pre-shampooed with my castor oil mixture.
Shampooed with Just for Me hair milk shampoo. I really have to get some more shampoo (or try another brand) since this bottle is practically empty.
Rinsed with two bags of green tea. Then I applied the Honey & Almond conditioner, placed a plastic cap over my head and blew the hair dryer over my covered hair for some time.
 I rinsed the tea and conditioner out in the shower and wrapped my hair in a cotton shirt.

 I tried a different leave-in spray this time. It's called Mane 'n Tail Braid Sheen Spray. I know, I know, your wondering why I would use something that says "Braid Sheen Spray" as a leave-in. My only excuse is that it was sitting on my shelf and I decided to use it since it contains glycerin which is used to draw moisture to the hair. I just wish it smelled better. I'm not feeling the scent.
I sealed my hair with a mixture my mom made. She said she used Shea butter, sunflower oil, castor oil, almond oil, and rosemary and basil essence. I don't know if I like the mixture yet. The consistency was a weird grainy yet oily texture.
Maybe it was the sheen spray or the Shea mixture, but my hair didn't seem that moisturized when I  braided it last night. I guess I'll find out if it was when I unbraid it tomorrow (or maybe Monday.)

Anyway I experienced another almost shed free wash day. I hope this becomes a regular statement.

                                                               Always Growing,
                                                                          Ivy

Hair goals

I'm a check list type of person, so I thought it would be helpful for me to make a list of my hair goals: short and long term.

   §  Overall goal: Just grow healthy hair. Period.

   §  Current length: shoulder length.

   §  Short term length goal: Arm pit length.

   §  Long term length: Bra strap length to maybe Mid-back.

             o   Although I think waist length hair is absolutely gorgeous, I realize that I wouldn't want all that hair. Too much work! But who knows? I might change my mind. ;)

I would love to have this hair volume and length!

In addition to my hair length goals I also have some others.

     §  Dust (trim) my hair every six months.

     §  Find products that work for me

     §  Find ways to increase hair growth (by eating right, exercising, vitamins, maybe products)

As time goes on, I plan on adding to my goals and regimen because there is so much to learn about hair! Like I say,

         Always Growing,

         Ivy

Delayed post "Wash day"

I've got to get used to writing regularly. I've always been bad at keeping journals much less blogs. lol
Last Thursday was wash day.
Products used:
        Pre-shampooed with a mixture of castor and almond oil along with essential oils.
        Shampoo: Just for Me Hair Milk
        Rinsed with green tea and left in while I applied conditioner.
        Conditioned with Salon care honey & almond conditioner 
         and let it sit for awhile while I used the blow dryer to heat up my hair (yeah I know I need to get a real hair dryer!)
         I rinsed the conditioner and tea out and wrapped my hair in a cotton t-shirt for awhile. I then sprayed my hair with a home made leave-in spray  (water mixed with conditioner) and sealed with Shea butter. The Shea butter makes my hair so soft. I have to be careful though not to put too much since it can be heavy.

 Overall it was a great wash day. I think the green tea is really working because I noticed I had a lot less shedding when I starting rinsing with it. I look forward to finding other products that stop shedding and breaking of any kind.


Always Growing,
Ivy



       

Wash day

Just finished washing my hair today. I was supposed to post last week to start off my HHJ but I got delayed. Last week I texurized my hair on March 8, about 12 weeks post from my last relaxer which was on December 14 (my b-day!). I was pretty worried because I had lot of shedding.

Today I basically repeated my regimen from last week. However, today I did the hot oil treatment by applying oil to my scalp and hair early morning and letting it sit for awhile (while I went back to sleep. lol) I then rinsed the oil out and shampooed my hair with the Just For Me shampoo. I really have to get another shampoo that doesn't have sodium laurel sulphate and other drying chemicals. Oh well, I'll have to use it until I'm able to buy a better supply of hair products.
 After the shampoo, I sprayed my hair with green tea then conditioned and let it sit for a few hours. I rinsed it out and covered my head with a cotton t-shirt to dry some. I'm thinking of trying to rollerset my hair for the first time, but it seems a bit intimidating.
          All in all it was a successful wash. I had almost no shedding compared to last week. Yay!

Always Growing,
        Ivy

The Start of My Healthy Hair Journey

About me

Dear world:

You can call me IvyJay. I'm a college student who was always struggling to deal with my 4 type hair. I was very difficult to deal with whenever it was time for my mom to fix my hair. lol  At the age of twelve, my mom finally bought a just for me texurizer and applied it to my hair. I haven't regretted it (yet). I appreciate all those women out there who are rocking their natural hair, but I'm not ready to deal with my curls. 

     But back to my hair.

Looking back, I'm SO glad  my mom didn't put a "bone straight" relaxer in my hair. if she did, I've pretty sure my hair would broken badly. I didn't have a regimen for my hair so up til now my hair has hovered around shoulder length hair. I always wondered why my hair never grew any longer. Without knowing it, I had my hair in protective buns most of the time and almost never flat-ironed my hair. I assumed it could never grow long because I didn't see any women of color with long hair whether relaxed or natural.

However, I started doing some research and was amazed by all the women i found with gorgeous long hair. I decided, that could be me. SO here I am: the beginning of my hair journey.

Always Growing,

 Ivy