Dry Brittle Hair :(

My hair has felt so dry and brittle lately, and I think that it has been breaking.  I think that the elasticity in my hair has gone completely and i really don't like the way that it has been feeling.  Now i did not wash my hair for 2 weeks as I put a rinse in it and I wanted to preserve the colour for as long as possible.  I figured that stretching between washes was the best way to achieve this.  This was not a good idea, my scalp was super duper dry and my hair was not thriving.  i will revert back to weekly washing for sure!

So I researched on the internet how to repair dry and brittle hair and figured that an oil deep condition would be the best thing.  I mixed up some HE Hello Hydration with copious amounts of avocado oil and saturated my hair with it - it was so much that it was dripping - maybe too much but hey ho!

I then twisted it up into four twists, pinned it up on top of my head and put a plastic cap on.  I left it on my head for about 3 hours whilst doing chores around the house, and also used my heat cap for 30 mins.  I washed it out in the shower and then used the CON Sulphate free shampoo (Love it!), did a t shirt dry, roller set my hair (which only took me 1 hr 15 mins this time) and sat under the dryer for about 1 hour (my hair needed more time, but I could not take the heat!).  My hair feels so much better, I will be doing more of these oil treatments throughout this Autumn/winter season.  I have been moisturising with my Shea Butter mix and it has really been thriving.

Deep condition | Co-Wash | Black Tea Rinse

I neglected to wash my hair on Saturday because I had a cold (well i still do, but need to wash my hair), so today (25.09.12) is the day.  I mixed HE Hello Hydration, ORS Replenishing Conditioner, and a £1 conditioner together with argan oil and avocado oil to make my deep condition mixture.  Now, there is NO science to my method, I just figure that a combination of conditioners and oils will do the trick i.e: promote soft manageable hair and I run with it!

 

I used my fingers to separate my hair into 4 sections and then proceeded to apply the mixture to my hair using the relaxer method.

I never seem to mix enough - or I use too much, either way, I am always struggling to make it last (I couldn't be bothered to mix some more).  I made sure to add the mix to the roots and ends especially, and then massaged it throughout the strands, applying more as required.  Below you can see it with one section completed and then the whole back section completed. 

  

  

Once my whole head was done I put my hair into a bun and clipped it up.  I then added the plastic cap and finally put on the heat wrap.  The heat wrap is placed into the microwave for about 2 minutes until the gel packs reach a desired temperature (be sure not to over heat the packs or they could burst!).  This pack stays hot for about 20 mins and then needs re-heating.  I re-heated it for about 1 minute and put it back on my head for another 20 minutes.

   

4 tea bags and hot water, brewed for 2-3 hours

In the past, I have used the black tea as my final step in my wash day process, but I find that this is too drying, so this time I rinsed the conditioner with the black tea - re-covered with a plastic cap, waited 20 minutes and then co-washed with HE Hello Hydration, my hair still needed cleaning so I did one shampoo with KeraCare Moisturising Shampoo.  I then let the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle sit on my hair for about 5 minutes.

Side view following wash - no product

Whilst in the shower I was constantly finger de-tangling, and made sure to rinse out all products in one direction (with gravity and the flow of water) I did not bunch my hair up at all.  I think this helps to keep my hair smooth and reduces tangles.  As usual, the final rinse was a cold water rinse.  I am not sure if this does any good to my hair, but don't think it does any bad either.

I t-shirt dried my hair for about 1 hour, added my leave ins (Aphogee Keratin Reconstructurizer, At One leave in conditioner then added some EVCO, de-tangled with my fingers only and air dried with the scarf method.  I just brushed down the edges to make sure my hair laid down flat.  It is now dark, so I will come back tomorrow with a picture of how it air-dried.  Well I came back tonight with it 95% dry.  It's just the roots that need to get dry and we are done.  At this point I have not combed through my hair once.

   

But on the plus side, my edges laid down really well thanks to the scarf method.  I am going to oil my scalp and then just put in a loose bun for bed, then I will M&S tomorrow.   My hair is also in need of a trim too.  Well... that's all folks!

Blessings
Naddy x

My first Video - wash day

Hey everyone, I have finally bitten the bullet and gone through the arduous process of recording and editing a video.  This one shows me applying deep conditioner, drying and moisturising my hair.  No heat was used as this is my typical routine for a wash day.  The video is agreeably a little choppy, but I will do better next time.  My hair is 8 weeks post relaxer and I am planning to go 12-16 weeks before I re-touch my new growth.

I was inspired by sistawithrealhair, on youtube to experiment.  On one half of my hari, I applied the conditioner to wet hair and on the other half I applied it to dry hair.  Once rinsed out, my hair felt just a little smoother on the 'dry hair' side, however on airdrying, my hair felt bushier and more wild on the 'dry hair' side, so the jury is still out on that one

Hope you enjoy

Blessings
Naddy x

Heatless Length Check and Wash day!

My hair length t-shirt arrived! I got it from the shop at justgrowalready.com, I really wanted the green one, but that didn't come in the size I wanted :(  It says 'my hair is my hobby' and that is such a true statement for me.  I also got one for my sis who is natural, her's says 'loving my kinks, coils and curls' and is in red.  She is really pleased with it. My other sister want's one now, but I told her she has to be on a 'hair journey' otherwise it's a no-no.  We'll see whether she's committed!

I washed my hair today too.  This time I decided to omit the PPO to see if that was contributing to my itchy head.  So far - no itching, but I'll see how it goes throughout the week.  To start I mixed up ORS hair mayonnaise and EVOO, put that on my hair and put on a plastic cap, left it on for 30 mins whilst I fumbled around the house.



I washed it out and conditioned with HE Hello Hydration, then did the t-shirt drying method.  This pic on the right is with my hair dripping wet immediately after coming out of the shower.  I let it air-dry all day in a pony tail as I had to run some errands.  When I came home I put on my length check t-shirt to see what line my hair dries out at.  Sorry I didn't think to put on the length check t-shirt when my hair was wet, so this is not a very good comparison.




As you can see in both pics both dripping wet and bone dry, I suffer with very frizzy hair, I don't know what to do to lay down my cuticles.  I did do a black tea rinse last week, maybe I should make that part of my regime and see how that works out.

Till next time...

Blessings
Naddy x