Potato Salad

When my mother used to put mayonnaise in my hair, my father would tease me and say my hair smelled like potato salad. I hadn't used mayonnaise in my hair in years, but I decided to try it this weekend. I've been feeling like I need more protein, and since I'm afraid to try strong protein treatments, I went with the old faithful mayo.

I planned to sleep with it on overnight as a pre-poo, but I didn't think I could stand the smell while I slept. That's the one bad thing I remember when I was a child- that nasty smell seeping through my scarf! Instead, I put it on Sunday morning before my weekly walk with my girlfriends in the park. I left it on for about 5 hours and then washed my hair. I felt like it took some work washing it all out, because after shampooing twice, my hair still felt heavy and oily. I shampooed once with KeraCare and twice with Creme of Nature. I deep conditioned with ORS Replenishing and rollerset my hair as usual. This morning, when I combed down my wrap, I noticed my hair felt thicker and looked shinier. My hair is usually pretty shiny, but it is really shiny today. The thickness and shine is even more surprising since I'm weaning my hair off the jet black rinse. I thought it would look dull and flat without fresh color, but not even close. I'll be doing the mayo pre-poo at least once a month from now on.

Product Review: Silicon Mix Conditioner

Okay, I told myself I wouldn't try any new products until I ran out of my existing ones, but I couldn't resist picking up the Silicon Mix. I've been reading how they changed the ingredients in my beloved ORS Replenishing, so I had to start looking for alternatives if it doesn't work for my hair anymore. I picked the Silicon Mix up last weekend at my local beauty supply store. Even though it's a Dominican product, I have seen it at a lot of the black beauty stores in my area.

Product Description
Hair treatment to restore the health, shine and the softness of dry, damaged and weak hair.

Directions:
Wash hair and towel dry. Apply with massages. Leave on from 2 to 3 minutes depending on the condition of the hair. Rinse.

Ingredients
Water, Mineral Oil, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Glycerine, Citric Acid, Cetrimonium Chloride, Dimethycone Copolyol, Cyclomethicone, Keratin, Ceramide, Diazolidinyl Urea (and) Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Fragrance

My Experience
I co-washed my hair yesterday and applied the Silicon Mix in 4 sections. I put a plastic cap on and sat under the dryer for 15 minutes. I then applied leave-in and roller set my hair, as usual.

My hair came out thick, light, bouncy and shiny. It felt thicker as I was setting it, so I knew that was a good sign. I was a little worried when I combed out the rollers because it didn't feel as moist as I had hoped. I applied some moisturizer and coconut oil before wrapping my hair. When I woke up, I was in love with my hair. It was definitely moist. I love how thick it looks and feels. I can't stop looking in the mirror! This conditioner does have strong perfume smell, but it doesn't bother me, surprisingly. I can still smell it even after using coconut oil, but it's pretty faint.

Until the ORS Replenishing doesn't work on my hair, I'm going to deep condition with ORS for my first wash of the week, and deep condition with Silicon Mix for my second.

Almost there...

I will soon be claiming shoulder length! My hair is hitting my shoulder, but I believe I will be completely there by the end of the month. I noticed how much my hair has grown when I washed it Friday. Unfortunately, I didn't wash it twice last week as I had planned because I had something going on every night after work. I am determined to wash tomorrow!

Washing Frequency

I've realized that I need to wash more than once a week. I used to wash twice a week, but since winter started, I've been washing only once a week. I've been lazy and afraid of the dry cold air, but my hair really thrives when I wash (or co-wash) more than once each week. I usually wash on Sundays, and by Thursday or Friday, my hair sheds and just doesn't look as good to me. I love how it looks when it's clean and freshly rollerset!

Since I'm going to try to keep my hair in a bun all of March, it shouldn't be too hard or time consuming to wash twice a week.

Both of these photos were in the past 2 weeks with freshly washed hair:

February 2009 Relaxer

My relaxer this past weekend went well. I know I could have gone another week, but I had a formal event to go to. My stylist used Affirm this time. I asked her about it, because she's been using Mizani on my hair for almost the past year. She said she just likes to switch up sometimes and she doesn't see that much of a difference between the two relaxers. I wanted to get get curls, but I punked out. I'm not a big fan of her styling technique, so I just stuck to my old faithful- wrap and bump the ends. She did a rollerset before I got in her chair on a woman's long hair, and I didn't like it. At all. I also got a trim. I didn't really need one, but I didn't get one after my last relaxer. I also like blunt and even ends, and I doubt they would have stayed that way another 8-9 weeks.


My hair came out okay, it just felt a little stiff. I think it's from the ORS hair lotion (which I hate)she put on my hair before she wrapped it. I don't ever remember her doing that before, so next time I'll ask her not to use it. I've had a busy week, so I haven't been able to wash my hair. I'm definitely washing it tonight. I really like how she relaxes my hair, but I don't like how she styles it. She's great with short hair, but not so good with medium and long length heads. The funny thing is that she has long hair (although it's always in a ponytail when I see her) and her daughter's hair is past her waist. Maybe she's just another stylist who thinks that her products work on all heads. Sigh. I'm just going to keep going to her while my hair is growing out. I really don't have the time, courage or patience to try someone new and I only go to her for relaxers, so it's not that serious.

The last 2 times I've gone to her she encouraged me to get a color, but I can do that myself with the same $4 bottle of Adore she uses and save the $15 she charges. I don't think I really needed a color anyway, since I just put some in 2 weeks ago. I decided that I don't want black hair for the summer, so I'm going to start weaning my hair off the black some time next month, and start using some shade of brown.

I'm also going to try to wear protective buns for at least a whole month. Now that my hair is touching the top of my shoulders, I want to protect my ends from the dry cotton and wool sweaters and jackets I wear every day.

Relaxer Time

I'm getting a relaxer this weekend- I'll be at 8 weeks. Since I started my healthy hair journey a little over a year ago, I have been getting relaxers every 8 weeks. This is huge, considering since I got my first perm at age 14, I have never gone past 6. There were even times when I would get a relaxer every 4 weeks. My hair has thanked me for waiting longer by growing thick and healthy. I never want to stretch too long because I don't like all the shedding, but after this time, I'm going to try to go 9 weeks for the next year.

If I didn't have a formal event to go to this weekend, I would wait another week to get a relaxer. I'm really loving my thick hair right now. Surprisingly, my roots aren't too bad. I can see new growth, but the natural curl pattern is looser than usual, so it's very manageable. I like big hair anyway. Even my edges aren't as "nappy" like they usually are this long after a relaxer. I think the co-washes have a lot to do with it- I'm only using shampoo every other week now. I'm getting better at rollersetting, which is helping too.

A year ago, my hair was a little longer than it is now, but it was in the worse condition it had ever been in. My strands were thin and weak, my ends were over processed, and my hair wasn't really absorbing any products. I had just about made shoulder length last March, but what good was it if my hair didn't look good and couldn't hold a style? I am so glad that I got a lot of my hair cut off and turned it into a healthy head of hair. Even my bad hair days aren't so bad now. I actually get more compliments when I put my hair up in a clip!

Re-visiting the Wrap

It's no secret that I have a love/hate relationship with wrapping my hair. I always complain that wrapping doesn't work for me because the side I end the wrap (the crazy side) is always jacked up. The ends are frizzy and it sticks out on that side. But I do love how the other side comes out- my ends are smooth and my hair is bouncy and has great movement. Well, since I got my last relaxer almost 5 weeks ago, all I've been doing is wrapping my hair- all the way around- and it's been coming out great! I've been getting tons of compliments and people keep asking me where I get my hair done. I think the biggest factor my success is the fact that my hair is so much healthier than it has been in years, so my ends aren't frizzy at all. Also, my hair is longer, so it's heavier. I'm not quite at shoulder length yet (hopefully within the next month or 2!), but having some length does help it fall better. Some other things that have helped are:

changing the direction of my wrap after each wash every week. It's winter, so it's cold and dry and I'm not as motivated to wash my hair as often, so I've been washing it once a week. One week I wrap to the left every day, the next week I wrap to the right. I think it's also helping to prevent breakage and weak edges. After about 5 days, I'm not feeling the wrap as much, but if I put some rollers in it for an hour or so, I get the body back.

moisturizing and brushing the crazy side. My linesister always yells at me to "just put some oil on it and brush it." It definitely works! I just brush the crazy side 3-4 times to

using light products. All I have been using is KeraCare Creme Hairdress every day and applying grapeseed oil on the ends- both moisturize my hair well without weighing it down. Having body and bounce is important to me.

wrapping tightly after rollersetting. This was my "ah ha" moment. My stylist wraps my hair wonderfully and doesn't understand why I keep telling her that I can't wrap my hair or the wrap doesn't work for me. About a month ago after I took the rollers out, my boyfriend helped me with the saran wrap and he did it extra tight. When I combed my hair out after sitting under the dryer for 15 minutes, my hair looked amazing, and I was 7 weeks post relaxer! I don't wrap my hair that tight every night, but I do wrap it as tight as I can after rollersetting. My hair falls a lot better and my roots are so much less puffy.

I'm not sure I'll be able to wrap much after 5-6 weeks post relaxer because my roots will be puffy, but I'm going to try!