Wash day | 6 Weeks Post

This week's wash day was all about moisture

[1] sectioned hair in 4, Sprayed sections of hair with Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance Leave in Conditioner and finger detangled each section. Love how this worked last week

[2] Applied coconut oil to each detangled section and used heat for 30 mins

[3] Shampooed my hair with Elasta QP creme and conditioning Shampoo diluted with walnut oil and water.

[4] T-shirt dried my hair and applied Vatika deep conditioner. Used ‘steamer’/ heat treated my hair for 45 mins

[5] rinsed out my hair and t-shirt dried my hair for 45 mins.

[6] Applied Elasta QP Mango and Butter leave in conditioner and Aussie Hair Miracle Insurance leave in conditioner. Detangled with a wide tooth comb

[7] Moisturised with ORS Carrot oil when hair was dry and try installing a crown braid with extensions, massive fail failure, used black extension and the overall look was bad, so went with a simple ends hidden away with a bobby pin look. 2 days later hair was dry :o| am more than frustrated, diluted some glycerine and HEHH Conditioner and some water in a spray bottle and that has keep my hair super moisturised till today  (2 days later). My hair is super puffy and textured, but at least it’s moisturised!

How was your wash day?

Happy Hair Journeys Ladies! :o)

Just the Wednesday wash day link up!

 

‘Things do not change, we change’ – Henry David Thoreau

Technique Thursday| Homemade steamer

I have been on a look at for a steam in the last couple of weeks. I have thought of the idea of getting a hooded dryer or a steamer.

A decent steamer will set me back £100 ($150) and a hooded dryer would be £70 ($130)

The benefits of using heat for the penetration of conditioners and pre poo oils gives your hair amazing benefits.

Its technique Thursday, any great tips, join the linkup hosted by Divayck of Relaxed Thairapy every Thursday.

 

Therefore for the time being, this is what I have been doing.

1.       Regular plastic bag, can use a shower cap or cling film



2.       Heat a damp face towel in the microwave for 40sec to 1 min (Keep your eye on the microwave)

 

3.       Add on a metallic heat cap



4.       Finish off with another shower cap, the one am using is a double layered plastic and cloth one, so it traps in the heat. You can also use a towel or woollen hat to trap in the heat



After 15 mins I heat up the face towel again. For the time being this has saved me a lot of money and space, but has made my hair extremely happy in the meantime.

You can also buy heated shower caps, heated turban etc., this tools are less expensive than a full steamer and work really well.

What methods do you use to get heat during your wash day?

Happy Hair Journeys Ladies! :o)

‘It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs.’ - Confucius

Wash day | Week 5 – Wash day with heat

Last week I had major dry hair issues. By the time my wash day came I had a head full of straw, I tried everything, short of washing my hair

1.       Bagging

2.       Moisturising hair

3.       Water Spritz

The first available opening I had on the Friday I clarified and protein treated my hair – yes you ask why protein and not moisture – well I have been moisture treating my hair for the last 4 weeks and in the last 2 weeks my hair got worse. So it couldn’t be a moisture issue. Well this is how the wash day went:

[1] Sprayed tiny sections of hair with Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance Leave in Conditioner and finger detangled each section

[2] Applied coconut oil to each detangled section and ‘steamed’/ heat treated my hair for 30 mins

My self made steamer, #2 is heated in the microwave for 40 secs.
After 15-20 mins when it has cooled down I heat it again

[3] Shampooed my hair with HEHH Shampoo diluted with walnut oil and water.

[4] T-shirt dried my hair and applied ORS Replenishing Conditioner. Used ‘steamer’/ heat treated my hair for 45 mins (picture above)

[5] rinsed out my hair and t-shirt dried my hair for 45 mins.

[6] Applied Elasta QP Mango and Butter leave in conditioner and coconut oil and detangled with a wide tooth comb. Two strands twisted my hair and BKO at the ends.

 

My BKO result

Comments: Oh my gosh, I don’t know what my hair was missing. By the end of the wash day my hair was sooooooo sooooo soft, my hair elasticity was back! It had so much volume and no breaking hair. What could it be:

1.       Protein

2.       Clarifying

3.       Using heat

4.       Elasta QP Mango and Butter leave in

5.       Detangling with Aussie Miracle Hair Insurance at the start

Have so many variations to my wash day to pin point. But I don’t care I have a happy head of hair.

Weekly protective style, tuck and roll.

How was your wash day?

Happy Hair Journeys Ladies! :o)

‘It is in playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity’ – Dag Hammarskjold

Join the wash day link up every Wednesday #washdayexperince with Just Grow Already and Saving Our Strands. 

Packing and Monitoring expiry dates

I had a mini haul recently and that pushed me into organising my hair products and monitoring the expiry dates on my products better.

So this is what I did:

I had 4 empty containers that were not being used for much, and a pretty basket that has a cloth lining.

Ready for storage

I put all my curling tools into one box, conditioners in another box and shampoo and instant con in another box

Put awa

I have packed away my heat tools in one bag and hair pieces in another bag

In the basket I have everything I am currently using, DC, moisturiser, leave in con, oils and essential oils.

Date tracker for all my products, tracking expiration dates

Before packing away everything, logged it into my phone calendar with an alarm around the expiry date. The funny thing I noticed with the glycerine is it says it was manufactured on the 12/2013 and expires in 12/2017 but the expiry months are indicated as 24M…. a bit inconsistent…. The other thing I noted was most products don’t have a foil seal therefore when do you start tracking the shelf life? I have knocked off one month from the shelf life of all my products are they don’t have the protective style, and the month I hope accounts for the time before it was manufactured and me buying it. This got me thinking, stocking up is really good, however, with more natural products and a significant delay before you actually use it, we really need to make sure the products are still in their optimum conditioner when we use them as most actually don’t have seals.

Expiration date indicated for 24M

expiration date of 2017, not in line with 24M label.

How do you make sure you are tracking the expiry dates of your products?

Happy Hair Journeys Ladies! :o)

‘What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.’ – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fitness Friday| Exercising with the summer heat

I absolutely love the summer, they just makes me a happier person!

However, I have noticed that it has become hard for me to do my exercises the warmer it is getting. I tend to wake up so exhausted and drained unlike during the winter months, and I know it’s mostly due to not taking in enough water. These are the five things I have been doing to keep me going.

1.       Keep hydrated – water intake has to be increased during summer.

2.       Exercising during the cooler part of the day – This is can either be early in the morning, or during the cooler evenings.

3.       Ease yourself in – At my jogging peek in the cooler winter months I was doing 6K every 3 times a week, I have dropped this down to 3-4K and having more walks to slowly build myself up for the season.

4.       Wear appropriate gear – During winter the more clothing you have the better, now with the warmer temperature the less I have on the better

5.       Know when to stop – It will only get warmer (I hope!) if you feel the headaches coming on and the light-headedness coming, don’t be a hero take it easy. Heat stress, hydration, heat stroke are all soooooo real, prevent is better than cure! Not only with your body been torn down, but it will affect you mentally.

Happy Fitness Friday! :o)

Join the Linkup every Friday hosted by the lovely KLP from SavingOurStrands, Britt from One&20 and Ebony from Longing4Length

 

‘If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.’ – American Indian proverb

Product Haul

So I run out of Aunt Jackie’s DC which I absolutely loved, it performs amazing on my hair *round of applause* am only taking winners!

So I went to a hair store not so far away to replace this conditioner.

30 mins later I emerged from the store with 2 bags *sigh*. What happened was…. While…. I was in the stored I found what I was looking for Auntie Jackie’s DC, took 2, and might as well get enough for 2 months!

Then it happened, I remembered I would soon need to replace my moisturising shampoo *Crème of Nature shampoo*. Ah Elasta QP mango and butter moisturiser, we loved you, in the basket, oh yeah, my instant conditioner is also almost running out and what TreSemme Rich Moisturising Con is down to £2.99 bargain! Hmmm, oh yeah my glycerine run out, this really could help the not so impressive DC, definitely need this. Oh this mixing bowl looks handy, oh what… tea tree essential oil, definitely needed in this journey…hmm what is that, I see this on Youtube, Elasta QP mango and butter leave in, never tried a cream based leave in…maybe I need this, might be why my hair has been feeling dry…no setbacks, no setbacks, I NEED YOU *who is speaking in my head* oh I will be ending my stretch soon… in 10 weeks…that’s like soon! I need some relaxer, ORS relaxer, what new relaxer….ok just take the one we know!

Oh no…they have no Aloe Vera juice…oh well. *thank goodness they didn’t have steamers in stock, I might have walked out with one*

Hmm…felt like I was taken over in that store…this happens all the time! At least I have the DC I came for.

 

All my goodies!

Happy Hair Journeys Ladies!

 ‘All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.’ – James Russell Lowell

Wash day | Moisture & tea rinse #week4

Its Wash day Wednesday! Join the Link up with SOS and Just Grow already #washdayexperience

This week’s highlight was same as last week moisture and tea rinsing

[1] Sectioned hair in 4 and pre-pooed with coconut oil, each section was then braided.

[2] Put hair in heat cap for 30 minutes, and detangled

[3] DC on dry hair with Vatika Deep Conditioners (Contains henna and almond oil) and a bit of glycerin, used heat cap for 30 mins, and detangled

 [4] Shampooed hair with HEHH Shampoo mixed with walnut oil and diluted

 [5] Tea Rinse with ginger tea

[6] Applied Luster’s Conditioner for 5 minutes and rinsed out (needed to finish off a sample)

 [7] T-shirt dried hair for 45 mins.

[8] Sprayed Aussie Hair Miracle Insurance Leave in and coconut oil to each section and left it to air dried for the whole day.

[9] M&S with ORS Carrot Oil and a serum. (L = leave in O = coconut C = Carrot oil O=serum method)

[10] During the weekend I wig’ed it, my custom wig is not making me happy at all, I will have to get it unravelled and redo, it doesn’t sit well, the hair doesn’t curl well, the closure is losing hair…not a happy customer at all! :-( see below how the same hair was as a weave and then as a wig.

Left: current wig, the length is uneven, clearly no thought when
wig was being made regarding lengths of the hair and how the hair was
laying, plus there is a hump on the wig, I 'll stop there.
Right: Weave

I PS my hair on Sunday for the week, but oh dear my hair was dry by Monday, I took down my PS and my hair was still saturated with moisturiser but it was dry! So I bagged my hair for 3 hours on Monday (girl on holiday) still was dry after. I saturated my hair with Aussie leave in and then PS it. It felt ok for the day. This morning it was still ok-ish…but I don’t think it will be fine come tomorrow….what is going on??! Winter is gone my hair should be bouncing with moisture!

Weekly PS, before take down.

I will be protein treating (mild) my hair next wash today or TODAY if I can squeeze in the time. From reading last week’s post I had complained about dryness after changing from Aunt Jackies to Vatika Conditioner. Also my serum is rather oil and it has most likely expired, so that has gone. It could be a moisture protein imbalance…

Next week’s wash day will be protein treatment time.

How was your wash day?

Happy Hair Journey’s Ladies! :o)

‘Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’’ – John Greenleaf Whittier

Fitness Friday| 10K I did it…well!

So my fitness activities have not been the best for the past 2 weeks, at the most I have been running once a week, boohoo.

Last weekend I was talking with the office coordinator who is training for a walking marathon, actually happen this Saturday night! As my last gift to her as she embarked on this 7 to 8 hour walk was to join her for one of her works from work back home. Our home route is the same for the first 5K then we branch off.

For the first 5K, I walked with her steadily not wanted to cause any injuries before the big day. Then after the 5K mark I ‘zoomed’ off and jogged the rest of the way home.

I had not really looked at my app tracker till I got home (an hour and a half later) but I had covered 11K and burnt over 990 calories (less call it 1000 :p)

I was super chuffed, I had been so scared to even get this far, the furthest non-stop run I have done was 7K and at the 7 mark my mind went in overdrive and my legs then turned to jelly….instantly! It was the realisation that I had been running continuously for over 50 mins.

Now that I know I can run from work to home I will definitely be doing this more often! The views through the parks are amazing; I have never really appreciated it!

This fitness Friday I have definitely won the battle with my mind! Even though I did not run 10K continuously, after doing this I could so do it! #yay me!

Happy Fitness Friday! :o)

‘Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature ---the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter’ – Rachel Carson

Technique Thursday |I have no time for a HHJ

When I look at people’s hair progressions, I think, man I should have started this healthy hair ages ago! However when I did start researching wow the level of information and time it appeared to take, was so overwhelming.

I have now started a hair journey and after months of doing what my hair crushes were doing, I soon burnt out…Saturday morning was a full working wash day. The prepooing, that you started overnight, shampooing, tea rinse, jump out the shower, remove excess water, DC for 3 hours, jump back into the shower, rinse out, ACV rinse, t-shirt drying, leave in, roller setting, sit under hooded drier for hours then M&S, three times a day, after it’s gone part Saturday midnight you are done! Phew!  

Then you see others are doing this twice a week! Boy can it be intimidating, plus all the exotic hair products that you have to get!

You will be happy to know you can be on a ‘lazy’ hair journey

Wash Days

1.       These don’t need to be done bi-weekly, once a week will do just fine

2.       DC on dry hair, this avoids jumping in and out the shower

3.       You don’t have to DC hair for 3 hours, with heat 15-30 mins will do just fine

4.       You don’t need to do the tea rinses, ACV rinses, aloe vera rinse every wash day

5.       You don’t need to roller set your hair every wash day

Your wash day can be as quick as this

Prepoo (15mins) >> DC on dry hair 15 - 30 mins with heat >> Shampoo hair >> T-shirt dry >> leave in and air dry.

M&S can be minimised to when you hair needs it and bag you hair at night to retain the moisture, can also count down the times you M&S.

Personally in between the week I protect style for the whole week, so hey, I don’t even need to comb my hair!

As for products, you don’t need the whole shop floor

1.       An oil – for you prepooing and sealing

2.       Shampoo

3.       Moisturising Deep Conditioner

4.       Protein treatment

5.       Leave in conditioner

6.       Moisturiser

7.       Heat Protectant

What tips and tricks do you have that have helped you through those lazy times?

Happy Hair Journey’s Ladies! :o)

 

Do you have a tip to share, come join the link up on  Relaxed Tharaipy  every Thursdays!

‘For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.’ – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wash day | Moisture & tea rinse #week3

Prepooed with coconut oil; DC with Vatika; shampooed with Elasta QP and walnut oil
diluted with water

This week’s highlight was same as last week moisture and tea rinsing

[1] Sectioned hair in 4 and pre-pooed with coconut oil, each section was then braided.

[2] Put hair in heat cap for 30 minutes, and detangled

[3] DC on dry hair with Vatika Deep Conditioners (Contains henna and almond oil), used heat cap for 30 mins, and detangled

 [4] Shampooed hair with Elasta QP crème and conditioning Shampoo mixed with walnut oil and diluted

 [5] Tea Rinse with ginger tea

[6] Applied HEHH Conditioner for 5 minutes and rinsed out

 [7] T-shirt dried hair for 45 mins.

[8] Sprayed Aussie Hair Miracle Insurance Leave in and coconut oil to each section and left it to air dried for the whole day.

[9] M&S with ORS Carrot Oil and a serum. (L = leave in O = coconut C = Carrot oil O=serum method)

[10] During the weekend I wig’ed it and then PS for the week on Monday. (This is my new customise made wig, I will be reviewing it shortly, for now here are a few pictures)

The closure is a 3 part closure, am using the side parting,
The wig is SL. more details and better pictures soon

3 week post relaxer, at this stage I am not expecting to have much new growth, however I have been having dry feeling at the first inch of hair from my scalp. My thoughts are my texlaxed hair texture was more under-processed than usual and this hair is mimicking the behaviours of NG. Also my hair is missing the intensive moisture it got from Aunt Jackie’s. The bank of my hair is LP and leaving out the glycerine/honey from my conditioner is very evident.

Protective style for the week, loved lasts weeks a bit too much

Next week’s wash day will be similar to this week’s, but in between I will be working on moisturising my thirsty hair.

How was your wash day? Why don’t you join the wash day experience linkup with SOS and Just grow alreadyevery Wednesday.

Happy Hair Journey’s Ladies! :o)

 

 

‘In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.’ – Leo Tolstoy

Technique Thursday | A section here, a section there

The one thing I have learnt on my hair journey to minimize tangles and subsequently detangling time, as well as making sure all my hair strands get enough hair product is by doing everything in sections.

Wash day – I always carry out my wash day in 4 braids

·         This helps me minimise detangling time

·         Gives me smaller sections to work with

·         Makes sure I get product on all my strands.

M&S – 6 months into my hair journey a lot of the hair at my crown and back fell off because my moisturiser was not getting to it. Since I started working in sections, I swear the hair at the back of my head has improved.

·         Helps with detangling

·         Helps making sure all my hair gets enough product.

Dealing with hair in sections makes it easy for me to inspect the health of my hair on a regular basis.

It’s Thursday! Head over to Relaxed Tharaipy for more tips and tricks for your hair, or share your hair tricks!

Happy Hair Journey’s Ladies! :o)

‘Don’t change the world, change worlds’ – Francis of Assisi