Relaxer # 1

Well, I couldn't hold off any longer so I decided to relax my hair on Tuesday 5th April.

I'm still not so sure wheter it was such a good idea..... I had originally planned to relax my hair with the help of my mum applying the relaxer to the back of my head as was the case when I last relaxed on 5th January 2011.

Unfortunately my mum was not available to come to mine on the date that I needed to relax my hair and I wasn't feeling travelling to her house after work and then carting all of my hair stuff there with the possibility of leaving something essential behind. I know that at my house I have EVERYTHING I COULD EVER NEED when it comes to 'doing my hair' so I decided to go it alone and relax my hair by myself. I've done it loads of times before so I assumed all would be okay. Well, lets put it this way, after I had finished I thought I had made a BIG MISTAKE for the following reasons!!!

1. I have never self relaxed using Affirm Fiber Guard.
2. I have never self relaxed with 3 months of regrowth.
3. I have never self relaxed with roots that have previously been blow dried.

Anyway.....

I went along my merry way and proceeded with my relaxer process which I will document fully in another post at a later date. I based my scalp, mixed two batches of relaxer (so I would not run out like I did last time!) mixing 2tbsp of olive oil into both relxer pots.

I was hoping for texlaxed results however by the time I had finshed applying the relaxer fully making sure not to miss any areas of newgrowth and smoothed what I thought was lightly, 25mins had passed. I figured that this was okay as I think this was around the same amount of time that I relaxed for last time with my mum (I can't be sure though as I did not have this blog when I relaxed in January).

When I washed out the relaxer this is when I noticed the problem. The roots of my hair had been relaxed bone straight!! I was not a happy bunny!!! Not only was I trying to texlax but I started to realise that I could more than likely end up with a myriad of textures in my hair from bone straight roots to tex laxed mid section of about 2-3 inches finishing off with bone straight ends from my salon relaxer days! This would only be further complicated when the new growth gets in on the act six weeks later and I have yet another texture to contend with.

I decided not to blow dry or flat iron my hair in a bid to see what kind of texture I had ended up with. Luckily after a few days and a wash day on 9th April it seems like the problem isn't anywhere near as bad as I'd initially thought. It appears that in the most part my new growth has been texlaxed (actually to a better texture than my last two attempts) and the only parts that I can class as bone straight are the very front of my hair and the area around my temples (oh, and the ends of course!). To be honest I am happy with that. The area on my temples tends to revert quickly so I have to baby this area more than the others usually so with them being straighter I can certainly live with that. The front of my hair is never any bother so I can deal with any texture that wants to be. I'm hoping that I won't be eating my words in 5 weeks time with broken shabby looking hair but I suppose only time will tell....!

What I do know is that come June 14th when I plan to relax at 10 weeks post, I will be booking my mums hands and eyes in advance and letting her do the back of my head once more. My plan of action will be:

1.  Ask Mummy Dearest to apply relaxer to the back of my head.
2.  Continue to use two tubs of Affirm relaxer.
3.  Only leave on for 15 mins.
4.  Minimal smoothing after application.
5.  No blowdrying the week beforehand, even though it makes for easier application....

I've learnt my lesson. I do not want to suffer any setbacks, especially avoidable ones caused by my own impatience!!!

Ciao 4 Now