December F A V O R I A T E S ! and small update

1. Lustrasilk Mango Butter
At first I did not like this stuff. But that was before I realized that I needed to use a product a few times before I rated it from 1-10. I use this stuff briefly after I rinse out my Aphogee 2 minute reconstructor and I also mix it into my DC's. It makes my hair super soft and I now know the hype about it. The next time I go to the store I'll get 2 tubs of it to make sure I don't run out.

2. Silk Elements Megasilk Olive Moisturizing Treatment
My mom bought this and called it 'A no-name brand deep conditioner with olive oil in it' on a car ride home. Little did I know she actually got something really good. I mix this into my DC. I use this and my hair is always soft afterwards. Since I ran out of the intense conditioning mayonnaise this will be a great replacement. (Maybe better)
 
I know for a fact that by the end of January I will be shoulder length. I can't wait for it. My hair has grown a lot and it's only the beginning. Besides that I love how soft my hair is lately. As far as the bunning challenge goes I'm not sure if I like it or not. It may be protecting my ends, but I really don't like the way I look with a bun. I won't have to do this for much longer anyways thank God. When I do reach full SL I'll experiment with better looking buns and hopefully I'll get into protective styles more but I'm not making any promises.

My Winter Break Self-Challenge! and Protective Styles VS Low Manipulation Styles

Today is the first day of winter break for my school so I decided to do a small challenge with myself to better protect my hair. The challenge is very simple: always wear a protective style. My styles of choice are buns and having my hair wrapped. (I know wrapping my hair isn't a 'style', but that is how it will be when I am at home. The ends are still protected)

Protective styles are important because they protect your ends. Because the ends of your hair are the oldest, they want to break off. If you continue to have your ends break off then you will never see any added length. Protective styles do not make your hair grow, they just prevent breakage. They also help because your ends are protected from the elements. (Wind, Snow, Rain, Sun, Ect.) Some protective styles include:
Weaves (not glue-in)
cornrows
buns
chignons
wigs
french braids
up-dos
bantu knots (while still knotted-not a bantu knot OUT)

Low Manipulation styles are styles that use no direct heat.(blow dryer, flat iron, curling iron). These are good because since heat is obviously bad for your hair, they use no heat. They also are good because you do not have to comb your hair or at least not as often. These include
braid outs
bantu knot outs
roller sets
pin curls
flexi rods

Some people would argue that because my hair is 'only neck length' that I do not need to wear protective styles because my ends are not brushing against my clothing like people with shoulder length hair and beyond. Well I think it is still important because
1. My hair does brush against my clothing. (a tiny bit, but it still counts)
2. my hair still needs to be protected from the elements

CHALLENGE RULES:
UNTIL JANUARY 3RD 2011, I WILL WEAR MY HAIR IN SOME FORM OF A PROTECTIVE STYLE NO MATTER WHERE I AM.

*This may not be a 'challange' to some people, but I always wear my hair down so for me this will be something challenging.
*Today is a wash day

super late hair update pic...oops. :)

11/08/10

So i took this picture on 12/9/10. it doesn't look like much growth from the last picture I took but when I brush it to the front it looks a lot longer than it did before. I think some of it had to do with the relaxer getting rid of my shrinkage. I believe I will definitely be full shoulder length by February 2011. I went to the salon to get my relaxer but this time I don't know what kind of relaxer she used. All I know is that it was in a white bottle with pink writing. I really liked the relaxer because it didn't burn and it made my NG lay down extra flat.

Friday I washed my hair:
Pre-pooed for 30 minutes with Pantene curly hair series DC. I really liked it.
Aphogee shampoo- 1 wash
Aphogee 2 min recon. (i used it as a regular rinse-out conditioner and didn't leave it in for two minutes or put on a plastic cap)
lustrasilk shea butter and mango- 2-3 minutes
Then I DC'd for about 2 hours:
lustrasilk mango butter
Silk elements mega silk olive oil moisturizing treatment (NEW)
SE intense conditioning mayo
fantasia frizz buster
Eucalyptus oil
coconut oil
When I DC I put saran wrap around my hair then put on a plastic cap. Then I sit under the dryer for the last 20 minutes.

The newest thing that i have bought for my hair is One n Only argan oil. I've been wanting to try argan/morrocan oil on my hair since omgitsvictoriaXD (youtube) said she used it on her hair and liked it. I used it last night as a sealant and liked it, but i want to try it more before I give a full review on it.

HJ- update

So I finally made an appointment to get my hair done next Tuesday. My plan to get a relaxer every 8 weeks has failed because instead of eight, now I have accidentally stretched for almost 10 and by the time i get my relaxer it'll almost be 12. So I proved that I can actually stretch longer than 8 weeks, but I just don't want to because, well.. IDK. Its just my choice not to. And because I thought I was going to get a relaxer 2 weeks ago, I haven't been washing my hair because I didn't want to be scratching and rubbing my hair too much while washing it. I did that the last time i washed my hair and it burned like crazy. It could've been the type of relaxer (Silk Elements) or that i washed my hair or a mixture of the both.

Because my hair doesn't have a lot of NG, i feel like i failed a little bit. I thought I would have a lot of NG but i really dont, less than a 1/2 inch. If you saw my last length pictures, you would've noticed that my hair didn't grow that much. :( That's kind of sad. I don't want to start co-washing because I'm not great at doing heat less styles. My bantu knot outs have been getting worse and worse. And when I do a bantu knot out I always do it on flat ironed hair. And when I air dry over night, i do plaits then take them out in the morning. My hair doesn't look good at all after that. The curls aren't defined and my hair gets super frizzy. Next time I air dry over night I will M&S then use my frizz buster.

Aphogee:
I still like aphogee. One time I used it it made my hair hard. The time after that I pre-pooed, then I washed with Aphogee shampoo and conditioned with Aphogee 2 minute and Silk Elements moisturizing conditioner. After that I DC'd for a couple of hours. (the first time I DC'd for more than 1 hour! turned out great!) After I rinsed my hair felt super soft. I went to sleep woke up and my hair felt hard again! -_- So I DC'd AGAIN and my hair has felt soft ever since. So that means one of two things:
-I need to DC for a supppperrrr long time once
-or use Aphogee shampoo and a moisturizing conditioner, or Moisturizing shampoo and aphogee 2 min (i think i said that in a past post..)
Or it could just mean that I should only use it every now and then. I'm not sure.


Pre Poo:
As I mentioned before I tried to do a pre-poo. To keep it short it went terrible. I used
honey
olive oil
jojoba oil
and Herbal Essences Hello Hydration conditioner.
I think it was the hello hydration. Next time I'm going to be using Pantene Curly Hair Series Deep Moisturizing Treatment. I decided to get this because I really liked the Shampoo and Conditioner. Also I figured black hair is naturally curly and because this is extra moisturizing.



Jojoba Oil:
I got jojoba oil because my hair really liked Pantene relaxed and natural daily moisturizer which had jojoba oil in it. (i stopped using it b/c it had mineral oil in it). When I used this to seal it didn't do anything but sit on my hair.

Wave Nouveau Finishing Lotion:
Hate it. It just sits on my hair and weighs it down. Never again. I added Jojoba oil into to hopefully water it down and also as an attempt to get rid of the oil. LOL. but now I've decided to just put it in the bathroom and hope that my mom and sister will use it. I hope it works well for their hair.