Catch Up - Wash Day and Heat Passss!! -

Whooooooopppp! haaaaaa

Yes I used heat on my hair!! Its been such a long time I'm rusty. To think I used to use heat from my blowdryer every time I washed my hair, plus the straighteners..... and I'd touch up my hair with them when my hair got frizzy. Oh gosh not to mention the curling tongs too.
It's fair to say I used heat with no care or second thought.
Before starting my HHJ I didn't even bother about heat protectants, I just used what I new would make my hair straight and shiney, thankfully I used oil moisturisers alot and they actually have Heat protecting properties but I cringe to think of the times I just "dry" tonged or straightened my hair..... and not always when freshly washed either(shudder).
Now I'm on my HHJ I air dry and use no-heat techniques to stretch my hair and to curl it.

I wanted to ensure I gave my hair the best protection starting from the actual washing. I also wanted to get my hair smooth as possible so I wouldn't need to use too much time with my straightners.

I started off with a Oil Baste overnight. The next day I prepared to pre-poo and as I needed to go to the shops I decided to brush my hair up into a bun with the condish in. I learned from last time that putting honey and coconut milk in my pre-poo mix and going outside was not a good move - sticky icky - so I left them out.

I sprayed my hair with Paul Mitchell's Awapuhi Moisture Mist (love that stuff) I sprayed quite a bit on to make my hair very damp. I then slathered(is that a word?) Aldi's Carino Herbals Hydration Conditioner (this is the dead stamp of Herbal Essences Hello Hydration), And smoothed Raw Coconut Oil on top.
I LOVED the curly afro the pre-poo left me with, I actually contemplated going without a hair band but thought if it ever dried out I'd be left with a ball of fuzz on my head.... nah... haaaaaa.
My curls are really starting to come through now and I love it!!(how many times can I say love in a post??)
I brushed my hair up into a curly bun. It's amazing that I didn't use any gel but got a slick bun..... I'm very tempted to try the curly girl or tightly curly, or whatever method it is that uses condish to style your hair.


I went around the shops in our new area, Mello needed school shoes so we went out specifically for them. I wanted to buy a heat protectant as I cannot find my Tresame one. I didn't want to buy another Tresame because I know it's in a box but I really want to try a heat protectant that also keeps hair straight too. I looked at the different types - whoooaahhhh there's soooooo many choices, my head was whizzing lol. After reading and re-reading and reading again nearly every straightening product in the shop(superdrugs actually) Mello was more than bored and kay was about to pull an almighty strop so I picked up Frizz Ease 3 Day Straight Semi-Permanent Styling Spray For Curly Hair(John Freida) and left....and the rain just fell out of the sky like buckets!! OHMYGOSH!! I can't even begin to explain the downpour.

When I came home, my hair was wet but the condish wasn't running down like I thought it may have been.

I decided to use my travel size Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily Shampoo(smoothing) to see if it got my hair smooth from the get go. It promised to smooth, soften and not strip my hair and it did just that.

I did a tea rinse with Sage, Peppermint and rooibus teas.

Next it was time for a Deep Condish Treatment. True to form I chose to mix a few conditioners/masks together but opted for the ones that smooth and
silken my barnet. I mixed Kanechom Karite Butter Hair Moisturising Cream,
Avanti Silicon Mix Bambú Nutritive Hair Treatment, Capilo La Aplanadora Macadamia Oil New Hair Growth Maintenance Treatment(all time dream product), Organix/OGX Hydrating Macadamia Oil Intensive Moisture Mask(not Pictured)
I also added some Coconut Milk Powder as I had left it out of the pre-poo and I know it deffo softens my hair.

After doing chores and getting dinner sorted, I rinsed the condish mix out of my hair in the shower.
I decided to use my travel size Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily treatment conditioner to further smooth my hair out.
and the time it was time to do my ACV rinse there was on way I was going to do it in the shower so I stood outside the shower unit and put my head over the base and poured it over my head. That's how I'm gonna do it from now on and will also do my tea and coffee rinses like that too.
I wrapped my hair in a vest and left it to dry a little.


In the meantime I had put the same condish mix I had on my hair into eldest son's hair as he wants to wear his hair out of plaits for a while. I rinsed it out, detangled and blowdried it for him. Wowww!! His hair has grown and is great!! I can't believe how it's gotten so nice after I have been looking after it for growth rather than just for keeping it neat.

Omy!! I was Ti-y-ered after all that - but the thought of having my hair straight gave a second wind. I sprayed the Frizz Ease 3 Day Straight Semi-Permanent Styling Spray on my hair and blowdried it. I was gonna use cool air to minimise heat on my hair but the instructions said overwise and kept emphasising that it was activated by heat so I went along with them and prayed I wouldn't get heat damage.
The Spray made my hair feel weird, like a little coated and hard.
I really liked the way my hair looked though, all fluffy and roots stretched out.
I then started the task of Straightening.... Out came the GHD's and the anxiety.... I have become soooooo cautious with using heat on my hair.
It's been soooo long since I straightened that I couldn't even remember which serum I liked the best!! I took out my Hask Straight Solution, Chi Keratin Silk Infusion and Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum and decided to use each on a section and see which one I liked better.
I used the chase method (where you place the comb/brush in front of straighteners) I bought the flat iron chase comb agggeessss ago and  decided to give it a try.
borrowed pic:

I just couldn't get to terms with it so swapped for my denman. 
I used the Hask serum but it was a bit sticky and then left my hair feeling odd so used the Chi but that was too light. So I mixed the two and carried on, halfway through I tried the comb again and for some reason, it just clicked and it worked great so I continued with that. I then tried the Paul Mitchell serum and remembered why I fell in love with it..... Yummo!! So with a combination of the Hask and PM I finished up:

Fluffy and Straight.

I was more than pleased with the growth!! whoooaaaa I was sooooo amazed, I couldn't see it before as clearly due to shrinkage and curling. really made my efforts seem worthwhile lol.
I can now claim shoulder length whoooopppp in fact i'm just past double whoooopppp the front of my hair always grows asthough it's cut in a style that is layerd so that part isn't at my shoulders but it has grown too.

I wrapped my hair with a little coconut oil so it would lay nicely for church and went to sleep - it was crazy o'clock. The next day this is how it looked:

straigggght!!

The front is reverting something chronic but hey ho, I'll take it. Getting ready was a breeze as I didn't have to detangle. It will be odd having straight hair again and the dodging of rain returns.

September and October Faves

I completely forgot to post my September and October Faves Videos. True to form I did ramble a little... ok a lot lol. So much so that I had to split Septembers into two lololol

Sept. Part One





Sept. Part Two:




October Faves:

Afro Growth and length check

It's been a while since I did a proper look at my hair growth progress. It's quite difficult to get a good gage at the growth because of shrinkage and I have to be honest and say It doesn't actually feel like my hair's growing at times but I know for sure it's getting thicker and as I have some relaxed ends still I can look at the two different textures and I realise my hair really has grown.

I find taking photo's help to have a visual comparison and also it's a documentation of my HHJ.
Here's some afro pics:

July 2014

September 2014

October 2014

I remember taking the wacky July pic I was amazed that I actually had an afro, that was the first time it started to get proper puffy lol.


Here's some length check pics too:

May 2014

July 2014

October 2014

Whooooopppppp!! The hard{but fun}work is paying off. I'm soooooo chuffed as I have been staring at other peoples' hair growth pictures left right and centre and now I can get the same whoooopppp feeling about my own.

I am deffo keeping up the with the hair regime{n} but I think I'll get my GHD's out....
........Heat Passsss lol.

Catch Up - Wash Day Changes

When I realised our new house didn't have a bath tub, the last thing on my mind was washing my hair. I was lamenting the lovely soaks, using our handmade bath bombs and melts.... putting numerous boys (my own obviously) at a time in the tub and cutting wash time down to just one go.... hand washing large amount of clothes in one go in the tub if needs be. I've just always had a bath, as a child at my mummy's home - bath, grandma's home - bath, Mum had that rubber contraption that would make the bath taps run to a shower head. In our old house we had a shower head on the bath tub. I would long to have a "power shower" and whenever we went away that would be the perk I'd love.

Sooooooo walking into our bathroom and seeing a shower unit was bittersweet. I love showers but would have liked there to be a bath also. The room is too small to have both and I don't even know how we could get a bath tub in there if we tried to do a renovation so I just sucked it up and got right back to grateful, thankful praise that we have a new place lol.

After the dust had settled and my plaits drove me into an itchy, longing for water on my scalp type of mood I remembered that I would have to rethink my whole wash day routine.

I now understand the tubers and bloggers frustration of getting in and out of the shower over and over again to wash and rinse and wash and rinse and..... you get the idea.

It's not that bad to be honest but it's just annoying if you don't actually want to get your whole body wet. Plus I don't really like shampoo and condish all on my skin.... but I'm weird so yea...

I then had the whole coffee mix rinse to contend with, I put the mix into a spray bottle and sprayed my hair in the shower without the water on..... brown tiles is not a good look.... nor is the brown liquid on the shower base..... hmmmmmm.

All that did not prepare me for my last rinse and ACV rinse!! yea, I do a cool rinse.... when I say cool I mean as cold as I can physically take it without screaming down the house!!! erm.... in the shower??? I tried it..... I didn't like it and had to hang my head forward while putting warm water on my shivering body... the two temperatures did not feel good, no sah.....

The great thing is my hair and scalp felt fantastic and the itchy plait feeling was gone.

I'm gonna have to tweak this whole wash day malarky cos I'm not feeling that cold ACV rinse no way.

Catch Up - Bye Bye Plaits, Hello Puff.

Whoah!!! where did all the time go? I've been caught up in a packing-cleaning-moving-unpacking-cleaning frenzy.
Its been hectic as we have all our "normal" stuff to do at the same time. Blogging unfortunately has taken a waaayyy back seat.

In the midst of the mayhem I had to take the plaits out, I could not take the itchy, tight and sore feeling any longer. I was more than a little apprehensive about the state my hair would be but had a good feeling that all would be well.

I notice that there's no pictures of me wearing the plaits so will post one now, please excuse messy background as we were knee deep in sorting and packing and my tired self lol:

 Taking the plaits out went much smoother than I anticipated although I wasn't as bothered about taking them out as I would have been had they been all box braids instead of just the perimeter. The  crochet braids/plaits were a dream to remove - just cut them just above the knots and pull the knot and "bobs your uncle" (did I just say that?) they're out. Then you just have to take the cameroe/canerow/cornrow out. If I get over the mammoth plaiting saga I may well do it again. I do actually miss the plaits and deffo miss the *get up and go* styling.

Here's the plaits cut from above the knots, you can see that there's none of the fuzziness you get when your own hair is plaited with the extension hair, that's another thing I love  about crochet braids, they look smooth untill they're removed.

When I removed the plaits I was sooooo happy to feel my own hair and of course to scratch my scalp unhindered lololol

I was excited to wash my hair as it's been ages and I was wondering how washing my own hair in the shower would be.

I'll do a seperate wash day post but wanted to post the picture of my puff. I am sooooo happy that my hair grew quite a bit during the looooong protective style phase. My hair is much thicker as well as longer. I'm very tempted to get my GHD's to it. I planned to straighten it in August for my one year transitioning but it being summer I didn'tt want to fight the humidity plus knew I'd be swimming. Then I wanted to let it get over the chlorine, sun and sand abuse so put it off to October thinking I'd do it for our wedding anniversary.... Theeeeeennnn we were moving and now.... I don't know what box my GHD's are in haaaaaaaa.
I'll look out for them while we unpack each room we work on.

sooooooo ramble over here's my new improved bun/puff ...... hmmmm the pictures are not that great (what's new ahem) buttt I want to journal the puff soooooo yea, I'll edit them.

Excuse the  dark circles and, I am wearing clothes under cardie,lol

excuse the makeshift blur, my face was weird.