Tired of protective styling

Prior to my hair journey, I always wore my hair out and my ends suffered for it. Then when I began my hair journey, I ended up on the other extreme. I made it to grazing BSL in the early days and never wore my hair out. My plan was when I got to full BSL, I would start leaving my hair out. Well I ended up back at NL and am now aiming for APL.

I have taken a decision to wear my hair out more often and not worry about waiting until I am a certain length to do so. To be honest I am stuck in a rut and I need a change. I think I have forgotten how to even style my hair when I leave it down and out. I have become so paranoid about my hair resting on my cotton shirts that I keep it up at all times. I enjoy my hair even in a bun or an updo, I just need a change so I want to start wearing my hair down once or twice during the work week. To prevent myself from feeling guilty about abusing my ends, I have decided to invest in silk blouses. I will feel a lot better knowing I am wearing my hair out without causing any damage.

Success! One week without washing

Last week I was wondering how I would make it washing my hair only once a week. Well I made it. I went 7 days without washing. I was supposed to wash today but didn't get around to it and will be doing so tomorrow instead. 

Things went well. I had to make a conscious effort not to be too heavy handed when moisturising and sealing to prevent my hair from getting too weighed down. I have to admit that my roots are a bit oily and my scalp itches a little bit, but other than that it's not too bad. I am still so in love with my hair. I fall in love with it after each wash. Nexxus Humectress is the bomb.com. I know it is supposed to be a moisturising conditioner but it has hydrolyzed protein in it and works to keep my hair balanced.

Today I went and bought two more bottles of the conditioner. I am dying to try the rest of the line but I have not seen it in my country. I was thinking of ordering it from Amazon, although I have never really wanted to buy hair products online. We will see though. 

My hair looks and feels the best it has ever felt since I began my hair journey. I'm even talking about the days prior to the setback. I now have my regimen settled, my hair is happy, I am happy. All I have to do now is have patience and wait for the length to arrive. My goal is APL by December.

Attempting to go a week without washing

I started a new job and I have to be up super early to ensure I get to work on time. I also return home pretty late in the afternoon thanks to the traffic situation in my country. This means I only have time to have dinner, iron my clothes for the next day and take an hour for relaxation before I prepare for bed. There is no time for a mid-week wash day which would involve deep conditioning, roller setting and sitting under the hair dryer. It is not going to happen.

My plan is to wash only on weekends. I have been a bi-weekly washer ever since I began my hair journey more than 3 years ago. My face is extremely oily and I believe it is the same thing with my scalp. After a week of moisturising and sealing coupled with the oil my scalp is producing, my hair is usually limp and dying for a wash. I don't even want to think how about I managed pre-hair journey when I washed my hair once a month or once every 2 months.

The game plan for this week is to try and not be so heavy handed on the products as I will be unable to wash until at least Friday night. Hopefully my hair will be ok. I've been enjoying the bouncy hair that is full of body that I get now that I am using the Nexxus Humectress conditioner and I really don't want oily, limp hair.

Texlaxer Results

I texlaxed my hair today at 7 weeks post. I wasn't in the mood to flat iron so I roller set and did a saran wrap and then took length check photos. I am currently not focusing on length as I am focusing on growing out the front of my hair so that when brushed back it reaches the length of the back. That sounds a bit confusing, but what I want is a blunt cut. I have layers but those were caused by breakage during my setback of 2011. With these "layers" my hair appears to have a "V" shape to it which is not bad in of itself but as my hair is on the fine side, I think it looks thicker with a blunt cut.

This is my hair after my mini cut. I can definitely see the front is growing out nicely. I think I could have cut a bit more off the back but I don't really feel comfortable with hair that is shorter than my current length. I know that my hair will never be perfectly even as hair grows at different rates but my goal is to have the bulk of my hair at the same length.

I believe I should only need to cut the back twice more and then I'll be focusing my meeting my length goals. I really want my hair to look pretty all throughout my hair journey. Why have long hair that I feel I need to hide because I don't like the appearance of it-whether it be the ends or the shape? My hair needs to look pretty at all times. I am really happy with it right now.

My picture from my June 20th texlaxer update. My hair has grown a lot in the past 7 weeks.

6 weeks post

I was going to relax as I have enough new growth to warrant a touch up but I have decided to continue stretching. My new regimen is working and i am still happy with the state of my hair. I won't go past 10 weeks though. I don't like extended stretches.

Here is a picture of my new growth at 6 weeks.