My New Hair Routine

I waited about a week before uploading this.

So, as I mentioned before, now that my hair's longer, I have realised that I need to wash it more often. I actually need to wash it every 2-3 days. Due to this, my hair routine has changed quite a it. It is stable now and that's why I'm uploading this. So, here it goes, my hair routine:

Shampoo
I wash my hair with shampoo once every 2-4 weeks using Shea Moisture's Coconut & Hibiscus shampoo. I haven't reviewed this product yet as I have only used it once since I received it and I feel I have to use a product more than once before reviewing it especially if I've been protective styling for a month or more (with extensions). I focus on my scalp, but I work the lather down my hair shaft before rinsing it out of my hair. I would usually shampoo once, but depending on how much build up I feel, I might shampoo twice.

Condition/Co-Wash
I condition my hair after every shampoo wash and I co-wash my every 2-5 days using Shea Moisture's Coconut & Hibiscus conditioner. I really like this conditioner. I had a better experience with it today than I did prior to reviewing this product. I focus on my hair shaft when using this product, but if I'm co-washing, I put a bit of the product on the pads of my finger and massage my scalp a bit before rinsing out the product.
I also use about a dime-size amount of extra virgin olive oil, working it in on the two halves of my hair before leaving the shower. Some times, I partially rinse out the oil, other times, like today, I leave it in.
As a leave-in conditioner, I tend to just use a little of Shea Moisture's Curling Gel Soufflé as I have found this product to be rather moisturising and good at reducing the amount of frizz I experience.

Other forms of cleaning
I rinse out my hair and water-wash whenever I decide not to co-wash, but I need to get my hair wet and ensure my scalp is hydrated/cleaned to an extent. I plan on using my Terressentials Mud Wash every now and then to cleanse my hair and scalp too. Also, I might invest in to Bentonite clay or Amla powder as I find these work really well in cleansing and conditioning the scalp and my hair looks awesome and my curls clump and look amazing after mud washing.

Detangling
I try to keep detangling to a minimum. I thoroughly detangle my hair whenever I wash it so that's 2-3 times a week. However, I might run a comb through it a bit if I want to achieve a really big and neat puff.
To detangle, I first part my hair in two and saturate each section in extra virgin olive oil while moving my hands down my hair shaft in closed fists. This makes some of the shed hair slide out easily. Next I repeat this process, but using Shea Moisture's Restorative Conditioner, but I do not saturate my hair in it because....well....this product is rather pricey and you actually don't need to saturate your hair in it for it to do its job. Some times, I put on a heat processing cap (I have a foil-like one) while I sort out some things then I hop in the shower, rinse out my hair and then start my co-washing process. After applying the Coconut & Hibiscus conditioner, I run a comb through my hair (usually under the shower stream, but I can do it without this). As my hair is longer now, I spend less than 5mins detangling it as the tangles just slide out (whether or not there is product in my hair - as long as my hair's under the shower stream, the tangles are out). I do not comb or really finger detangle my hair before this.

Styling
If I'm not leaving my house, I wouldn't bother styling my hair. I would just leave it in whatever it's setting it - braids, twists, bantu knots, et cetera. If I am heading out, I would've had my hair stretched so all I'll do is take it down from its stretched state and either style it with bobby pins, put it in a bun, do a tuck-roll-and-pin or put my hair up in a puff. I try to keep styling/manipulating my hair to a minimum and most of all, I try to keep the need for a comb to a minimum too so I always end up doing a tuck-roll-and-pin quite often as it saves me from a bad hair day or old-looking hair. When styling my hair, I seldom put any product on it, but if I do use a product, it would be Shea Moisture's Curling Gel Soufflé and a little goes a VERY LONG WAY with this product.

Night Routine
I sleep on a pillow wrapped up in a satin material (or I cover my hair in a satin-scarf). If I feel lazy, I just put my hair up in a bun and go to bed. If not, I re-braid my hair or add flexi rods to the ends of my braids/twists if I never took them down. At times, I will use some of the Curling Gel Soufflé on my edges and wherever my hair was parted and that's pretty much it. My night routine is very minimal. Ain't nobody got time to be going through a long process when they're tired.


And that pretty much sums up my hair routine. It's pretty simples, I guess. I try to keep manipulating my hair to a minimum and I try to avoid using combs more than twice during a week (if not just once).

My routine might change slightly in the next few weeks to months. All that would be different would be that I'll invest in a blow dryer and be using it on the cool setting after washing my hair on weekdays especially because I'll be doing that after working out in the morning and as a student at uni (who lives about 30mins, using the tube, away from school), I need my hair to be easily sorted out and stretched before I need to start heading out to school.

This routine has been working pretty well for me as my hair has been breaking less and I've been having less shed hair. Also, my hair looks much better and as most of you know, my hair got really damaged from my last protective style.

Journey to a lil past APL

Picture Courtesy of ACurlyGirlAllTheDaysOfMyLife

Heyo!

So, first things first! Some people say, "don't count your transitioning days in how long you've been natural!" So, what does that make me? Two years natural? Dunno!

I transitioned for about 12 months. During that time, I got heat damage which I transitioned out of during those 12 months that I transitioned out of a relaxer. Two years? Is that right? So, I've been natural for 2-3 years? Okay!

So, anyways, y'all know my story! But I'll say it anyway:

SKIPPING THE BEGINNING OFCOURSE (the whole story about having a relaxer for most of my life, not being born with a hair manual, yada yada).

Okay! So, being natural wasn't the easiest thing and I guess I put my hair before other things in my life which was a terrible decision, of course, but my hair benefitted from it, I guess (though it would still have benefitted even if it wasn't the main physical thing in my life).  It took a while for me to decide what products I actually needed and how to work with them and it took a while for me to learn to work with my hair well and embrace the annoying things of being curly like shrinkage (the #1 annoying thing. The #2 is having your hair get stuck in things you walk past).

So, y'all know my goal had been BSL by the end of last year and unfortunately, I didn't get that. That was a bit of a downer. However, I've been on this protective styling journey that has helped in retaining quite a lot of length! You see, I'm a first-year college student (sixth form) and my mum thought it would be a lil stressful trying to take care of and style my hair while trying to get used to a new environment, teaching system, a bigger amount of workload and all so she had me decide to protective style. So, I was like, "okay, I'll get crochet braids done" and she installed them for me (I had mini twists in prior to that, but they were WAY too frizzy I had to take them down). I had my crochet braids in for about 4 months before I took them down, rocked my hair for about a week or two and then went back to them for about 3 months, took them down again, rocked my hair for a couple of weeks then put them back in. The second time I took them down, I had a lil past APL length hair! Oh me, oh my!

Okay! So, anyways, for 63 days, I did the Insanity Workout. Now, y'all might be like, "sixty-three??" Yup! the Insanity workout is advertised as a 60 days workout, but honey, it ain't! Count the days on the workout calendar! Stuff is 63 days long! They lied to me!! I finished this workout last month which means that I started it in March? I think? Can't remember? Too lazy to calculate? I believe the working out helped stimulate blood circulation in my scalp which in turn helped stimulate growth because I had quite a lot of new growth under my crochet braids before I took them down and noticed all that length. I have been off working out for a while now. I mean, I did Zumba once a week after Insanity, but I had a bad knee during the last week or so of Insanity and it got worse then about 3 weeks ago, my joints in my shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees (both) and ankles started hurting, I had to go for physiotherapy (been to it for about 4 weeks now) and I've had to see a doctor twice now so I've been off all workouts for a while now! I am going to pick up another workout that I'll do everyday a week after all this pain stops 'cause honey, it hurts to move.

Anyways, so that helped with my hair growth. Another thing that helped was that I started drinking more water which is really good. It's like watering grass. Water's gon' help those grass blades grow! Your hair's gon' grow if you water it and if you keep the soil (which is your scalp) hydrated! 

I also started eating WAY healthier! Although my guilty pleasure was popcorn and now it's ice cream. I'm not really a fan of ice cream (the only one I kinda actually like is Strawberry Cornetto), but if you live in Somerset or near Somerset, you would know that that place is HOT! Oh my gosh! It's like Nigeria all over again! (minus the perpetual smell of outside, the brown and grey skies (not blue!), the constant fighting, shouting, honking of horns, et cetera) I was sweating every night! You can't blame me for reaching out for some ice cream! I actually left where I live over there, walked for how many minutes, just to buy one Cornetto! Anyways, I felt sick afterwards. My punishment. With the popcorn, I ate it at night, which was bad, but that was just because that was when I had time to watch my series (Arrow, Vampire Diaries, The Originals and 24 (shout out to my fellow fans!)). Besides those guilty pleasures, I'm a healthy eater. I mean, I eat "grass" (a friend of mine calls my green, leafy salads, "grass"), I drink green juices (I have a bottle of it right beside me), I eat a bowl of fruits and/or veggies every night, when I make pasta, there's veggies in it, I cook clean (I avoid processed foods). When I eat what the school makes, I'm not sure what's in the food, but the food's not really unhealthy, I have one liquid meal a day (soups for lunch), I don't eat actual/cooked food after 5pm! And I have tried cutting off the popcorn, I actually deprived myself of it for a while (IT WAS TORTURE!! 'Cause I had a bag that stared me in the face whenever I opened up the cupboard to get some food ingredients). My popcorn was Metcalfe's Skinny Topcorn which doesn't have that many calories, doesn't have all that flavouring, preservatives and nasty stuff added into other popcorns. I did indulge in some toffee popcorns, but they make me feel sick, make my teeth feel weird and my fingers sticky and I hate sticky and dirty fingers (I've helped a friend teach a clay club for about 2 weeks now and I was like, "uugh! my fingers are dirty!" when the clay messed it up. I'm girly when it comes to dirt!). Anyways, the healthy eating benefitted my hair as it is stronger, shinier and longer (I eat loads of protein (eggs) for breakfast, which helps).

What else?

When I take down my crochet braids, I have my hair out on some days, especially when leaving my house, and then, I prefer to rock a bantu-knot out. If I'm staying indoors, psh! Ain't nobody got time to detangle, style or simply just manipulate my hair (no touching!)! I just leave it up in a satin scarf, how I slept. That helps retain length :)

Anything else?

Aah! My fingers don't get into my hair (new growth under my crochet braids), and if I have a bobby pin in, it stays in (as long as it's not in a position it can get tangled in my hair in while sleeping) and if I have my satin headband/hair ribbon in, it stays in because the more I put it in and take it out, the more my hair weakens. I mean, it's like bending and straightening out a piece of metal or plastic or something. It's gon' weaken and break!

Oh! oh! I drink green tea daily too! Had about 10 cups in one day to my best and closest guy friend's utter disgust. :) I drink it just 'cause I love it and well, in return of that love, it boosts my metabolism, which I read recently, could stimulate hair growth and it stimulates my hair follicles according to some university's research.

There's already quite a bit of new growth under these new crochet braids which I've had in for about a month or a little over that now. This could be as a result of the new green tea addiction and also because I cleanse my scalp with apple cider vinegar instead of washing it often with a sulfate free shampoo then conditioning. This prevents abrasion which can lead to breakage.

Anyways, this is longer than I planned for it to be so I'm going to stop here!

Gotta study!

~Sammy