Out of Whack

I'm in a weird place right now. My hair and my body in general are a little out of whack. I have been really stressed the past 5-6 months and I'm sure that's the root of everything. My aunt was sick and passed away, I was broke and trying to sell one of my houses, and I was in the process of moving out of state and trying to find a new job and get my b**ch-a$$ tenant out of my house. The fortunate thing is that a lot of my stress has gone away- I sold my house, my tenant moved out and I moved in, I'm closer to my family, and I got a great job offer. So now that I am so much less stressed, I've been trying to figure out what is going on with my body. I lost about 20 lbs in the past 6 months, which is good on one hand because I needed to lose some, but now I don't have any clothes that fit! I never thought I'd be this small again, so I got rid of my small clothes a while ago. My skin is in good shape, it's just my weight and my...

...HAIR (of course) that need dire help. My poor hair. Some days I think I should cut it to a teeny weeny afro and just start over. But I don't want to do that. Since I got my hair cut last week, my hair feels better and looks a little better, but I'm still not happy. I'm still experiencing a lot of breakage and shedding, but it's a lot less than it was. I still haven't found a good moisturizer, but I'm also thinking that since my hair is so damaged and a different texture than it was 6 months ago, I may have to wait for it to grow some more before it acts right and absorbs product like it used to. I also haven't found a good leave-in conditioner, but I'm going to try Giovanni Direct after my next co-wash.

Monday I pre-poo'd with a mixture of garlic juice (for shedding), castor oil and some cheap conditioner. I wasn't impressed. I co-washed with my Suave Tropical Coconut, did an Aphogee 2-minute treatment and dc'd with Nexxus Humectress. I did an apple cider rinse after mixing 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and 2 cups of warm water. The Aphogee definitely made my hair stronger, but the Humectress and acv didn't give me the results I wanted. When I rollerset my hair, it felt strong, but a little hard. I'm thinking I didn't rinse the acv out enough! My hair came out shiny, but not as silky as I wished. I am almost 6 weeks post relaxer, but I know my set could have come out better.

I just saw a strand of hair on my shirt and I did an elasticity test. My hair is getting better. And, it holds a curl soooo much better now!

Here are some of my take-aways/plans for the future:

• Pre-poo's are great- I just have to find the right stuff to use. I know that I can only use a little vatika oil. I would like to add the Elasta QP DPR-11, but I'm not sure if I should mix it with the oil, put it on before the oil or apply it after the oil.
• I'm giving the Nexxus Humectress a break for a while. When I use it on my dry hair, it turns it to mush. When I use it on wet hair, it just sits on my hair.
• I'm only going to DC with ORS Replenishing conditioner. The only reason I didn't use it this week is because I did the Aphogee treatment which already has protein. Then again, I think protein is good for my weak hair right now.
• I'm not wrapping my hair anymore except after I take my rollerset out. I'll be doing pincurls and cross-wraps from now on.
• I need to buy a smaller flat iron to get my roots. I am not good with the blow dryer, so I need to just stop trying.

This post may seem a little negative, but I'm trying to stay positive and appreciate the little bit of progress I've made over the past 3 months in my journey. I may not have found the right products yet, but at least I know what the wrong products are so far. And, I'm optimistic about getting it healthy again, so I will continue to think positively. I used to cry when my hair was messed up like this, but I'm not going to let myself go there again. Even though I'm not happy with my hair, I know there are women out there with worse problems and would kill to have my hair.