My HAIR on My Mind: The Plan for This Week

• Initially I had planned to put my hair into a protective style over the weekend (another set of crochet braids) but this didn’t happen. I went out with the BF on Saturday night and during the detangling process on Sunday afternoon I quickly realised that me standing in front of a mirror messing with my hair for 3-4hrs was really not going to happen, so I scratched the idea of the install and jumped into bed instead for a mid-afternoon snooze! Definitely the right decision...!

• My hair is still shedding, not as much as it was last weekend, but still quite a bit. The black tea rinse went surprisingly well. I made the black tea brew using water from my shower filter, which I boiled in the kettle. I noticed that the hardening effect wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past when I have used regular tap water, although that could have been down to the chelating shampoo I did beforehand. Also after leaving it to soak in for half an hour, my hair actually felt pretty soft. For me, applying the deep conditioner mix directly on top of the tea rinse was a much better way of doing it than the way I had done in the past. I will do these weekly until the shedding slows right down.

• My hair seems to be tangling in weird small ‘dreadoc-esque’ clumps. It tends to do this most frequently after long term protective styling but I have more this time. I probably didn’t detangle thoroughly enough after removing the crochet braids and I definitely didn’t detangle properly last week due to my shedding woes. I also think part of the problem is this darn texlaxing. It really makes detangling a chore and far more of an issue than it needs to be. Texlaxing: I really love the thickness but I really dislike the increase in tangles…….

• I have decided to relax my hair this week on either Thursday 5th or Friday 6th April. I will be 11 weeks post. I have quite a bit of new growth at the moment, pretty much the same amount that I would normally have at 14 weeks post. Doing the relaxer will make my wash days and bunning easier. It will also make regular cowashes and tea rinses less traumatic and as a result hopefully reduce the amount of shedding and breakage. I am really looking forward to it. I will be self-relaxing and will follow the same method that I used during my last relaxer.

• I still have too much texture in my hair!!! I am also pretty sure that my hair reverts more and more as the weeks pass after a relaxer. I think this could be down to the amount of protein I put on my hair during relaxer day and in the weeks/months following. I will look to correct this during my relaxer process this week with the relaxer run off during rinsing. I will also just use the relaxer straight out of the tub and not mix in any oil to see if I can get smoother results.

• Straight after the relaxer process I have decided to try out a clear rinse using Adore Semi Permanent Hair colour 10 (Crystal Clear). After the rave comments recently blogged by ECP I ran out and brought a bottle!

• I’m resting from applying MN. I did a phased withdrawal from it by increasing the number of days between applications from every day, to every other day to every 4 days to once a week. I will do MN again starting 2 weeks after my relaxer. A bottle of the mix lasts me a month, I currently have enough in the bottle for about a ¼ of an application but I won’t use this as I don’t want it to interfere with the relaxer.

• I’ll be protective styling this week until my relaxer by both wigging it and bunning it.

• I’ve been super consistent in taking my supplements. I’m so proud of myself. My water intake has been about a 1ltr a day (but was waaaaaaaay less over the weekend). The jogging lasted for 2 days, although I have done about 5 x 1hr walks with the BF and the dog so it’s not all bad news. I ate well all week with lots of vegetables, nuts and a raw carrot every other day.


Ciao 4 Now