Relaxer Day and Personal Health

Hello! I decided to relax a few weeks early at 13 weeks. My hair was feeling very dry and fragile no matter how much moisture or protein I put into it. Rather than continuing to rip out my hair, I decided to go ahead and process. I’m thinking that may have had to do with the braid-outs, and I may have to find a different style for my hair when I hit 12 weeks post to see if I can make it to 16 weeks. Since I had a trim during my last relaxer, I decided not to do another one. My stylist tried to relax my under-processed ends again, but that was a fail! After she applied the relaxer to my roots, she applied it to my ends and asked if I was willing to wait another 6 minutes to allow the relaxer to process. SIX MINUTES?! Ack! I just told her that I don’t need my hair completely straight; just straight enough to easily detangle and straighten when I want to. I still think it’s a little too straight, which is enough reason to try and push for that 15-16 week mark. I notice that the longer I wait to relax, the more difficult it is for a relaxer to completely straighten it. I also chose not to get a trim on this relaxer day. I like to get a trim every other relaxer.

One thing I’m happy to report is that I can already see quite a bit of length since February! I think I have to contribute it to my water intake and green smoothies. I try to drink 64-70 ounces per day, and I try to have a spinach, apple, banana, almond, yogurt, and water smoothie at least five days out of the week. I haven’t gotten back to exercising regularly yet, but my coworkers and I started a legs challenge: squats and toe raises every hour on the hour. We’re starting at just 5 squats and 10 toe raises per hour (40 squats per day) and we’re going to work our way up. I did an extra 10 squats and 20 toe raises this morning, and I’ll do that set again when I get home, plus 80 crunches. Eventually I’ll work in a couple of cardio days, but one step at a time!

Back to my hair. Normally after a relaxer I moisturize and oil my hair daily, but I’ve decided on a different route in the interest of making my professionally straightened hair last longer. So far in the past few days, I’ve put Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Morrocan Sleek Oil Treatment in my hair 2-4 times a day (four times on the weekend, and morning and night during the week). At night, I apply a small amount of my argan, tea tree, and lavender oil mix on my ends and wrap my hair. It still felt quite dry after the first three days, but I figured I would give my scalp’s natural oils a chance to do their work. Surprisingly they did. On the fourth day my hair felt soft, moisturized, and not too oily or weighed down.

All in all, you can definitely see the hair growth from February to May. I’m hoping this will mean I’ll be back to my longest length by this time next year and I can reach toward my ultimate goal of BSL hair!

February 16, 2016 – May 13, 2016