Regimen Building

This post is designed for me to contain my PJism. I have so many hair products that I do not know what to do. I decided that if I focused on a regimen, I can see what products works for me and which ones do not. This will take some time as I have to get use to certain products that my hair loves in order to compare it to other products- hence the purpose of a hair journey anyway!

Here are a few questions to consider when building a good hair regimen (I am not sure where I got these questions from-if you know, please leave a comment so that I can reference them. Special thanks though).

1. How often do you wash your hair?
I have been washing my hair between one to three times a week- Sometimes I'll use shampoo and conditioner and other times I'll just co-wash my hair.

2. How often do you deep condition?
I know I should deep condition with every wash- but I don't. On the weekends, I'll deep condition by pre-pooing overnight using conditioner and oils. During the week, I'll deep condition without heat for at least 15 minutes. I am working on DCing with heat twice a month. [Last DC was yesterday and the time before that was Nov. 11th so I completed by 2 DC's this month].

3. How often do you do protein treatments?
When I was relaxed, I did regular protein treatments which was at least every two weeks, before relaxing, and after relaxing. Now that I am natural I, I have done a protein treatment because I am trying to maintain moisture in my hair...guess I should really do one soon.

4. How often to you clarify?
This is an easy question. Once a month- I clarify at the beginning of each month to give my hair a fresh start.

5. How do you style your hair to retain the most length?
Since being natural, I have not styled my hair to retain length because my hair is too short. While relaxed, I use to do updo's and buns to keep my hair off of my shoulders. With my TWA, my next style to help me retain length will be box braids or kinky twists.

6. How often do you trim your hair?
I use to have a fear of scissors and rarely trimmed my hair. My big chop was October 7, 2012. I do not think I will trim my hair until April 2013 which will be when I am six months natural. My hair will remain textured/kinky and not flat ironed when trimmed, since I do not plan on wearing my hair straight.

7. How often do you do a hot oil treatment?
I do not do hot oil treatments. Shame on me I know. I will try to incorporate hot oil treatments into my regimen.

8. How often do you rotate your shampoos and conditioners?
As a product junkie, I rotate my shampoos and conditioners all of the time because I want to try this one or that one. This is not good because as I mentioned above, I do not know what products my hair likes or does not like. I cannot tell when my hair does not like something, because I do not know when it likes something. I plan on rotating my shampoo and conditioners every other week (for conditioners) and every other shampoo/ month (for shampoo- depending on when I shampoo).

Now that I have reviewed and answered these questions, I am one step closure in building my hair regimen. I plan on using other products such as moisturizers and styling products on a monthly basis to see how my hair reacts to them- of course that is once I have at least three inches of hair to braid, twist, and style.

Answering these questions will help me to continue to track down or journal my hair journey so that I'll know what worked well, what did not work at all, and what products work well together.

HHJ

~Danie~

Air Drying

I am on a summer 2012 challenge on one of the hair care sites I am a member of, and part of the challenge is to do weekly washes, so I have been washing my hair on a weekly basis.

Today, because I had a paper to work on, and my sister's hair to do, I decided to air dry my hair. I did my same wash routine from last week using Organix Coconut Milk shampoo and conditioner, and then I did a protein treatment with Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Recontructor for about 7 minutes. After that was washed out, I t-shirt dried my hair then I detangled with my wide tooth shower comb and sprayed the Aphogee Keratin & Green Tea Reconstructurizer, and applied my leave in conditioner, pulled my hair back, and placed my satin scarf over my edges.

After an hour and a half of air drying, I applied some Coconut Oil to my hair.
After three hours of air drying, the roots of my hair and the back/middle section of my head is still damp.
After air drying for 5 hours, my hair is about 95% dry.

Before going to bed I will pull my hair into a loose ponytail or bun and sleep with my bonet on.

How long does it take you to air dry?

Holiday Hair

It is Christmas Eve and I am just getting over food poisoning- so I do not have as much energy as I am use to, but my hair was so dirty that I needed it to be washed, and the family is gathering in Jersey for Christmas- with that comes an annual Family Show Case which my three siblings and I are set to perform a short dance routine, so I know I wanted my hair to be decent enough for the performance- I also want to show off my hair length!!!

Step 1: Get this hair washed!
I use to have my boyfriend wash my hair weekly, but as a graduate student with finals, papers, and reading to do, I fell back to having my hair washed every two weeks. Today I used Suave Humectant Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner.

 Then I applied my ORS Hair Mayonnaise. I needed a heavy protein treatment as I had not had one in almost two months.

The Hair Mayo was left on my hair with a plastic shower cap for one hour

The Hair Mayo was then washed out of my hair and I then sprayed my hair with my Aphogee Keratin and Green Tea  Recontructurizer.

Then I added my homemade leave in conditioner (Kimmaytube's from Youtube's version with different products). And I allowed my hair to air dry for about two hours which is somewhere between 60-75%. I then applied my heat protectant, parted my hair into four sections and blow dried my hair.

After that, I used the same four sections of my hair and flat ironed my hair with my Chi flat iron. And  finally wrapped my hair up and used three rollers to add body to my hair, threw on my scarf and bonnet and went to sleep!.

Below is the look I had for xmas