First wash day of the Fall Semester: First ACV and Black Tea in a long while...

So I've done my hair a few times since the last time I posted, but because of the ridiculous humidity, and the start of college, I haven't been doing as much and it hasn't been staying straight by any definition of the word. I mean, I have enough natural hair to reach my chin at this point [pulled, not with shrinkage] and it's refusing to blend. I've done deep conditioning, my normal leave-in deep condition, tried wet and dry hair, done the LOC method, all of the above with Curlformers. I've tried blow drying the hair in the CF but it's just not getting dry in less than 12 hours, and I've even attempted to flat iron [I only did my bang. I didn't work at all so I figured I'd stop there.] and nothing is blending these textures. It's crazy, and my room mate has officially hit all the questions, good and bad, every natural haired gal gets. Before this I was pretty happy with my hair but now I'm a little freaked out by how people might view it. I was given a little support from some friends so it's not like I'm going to go back to relaxing, but still, unnerving.
It's Labor Day weekend so I decided to go home and do my hair, seeing if the whole being inside in an air conditioned place [we have no AC in the apt] would help, plus the fact that I accidentally left my black tea and apple cider vinegar at home. I brewed some black tea where the water had some apple cider vinegar, and left it to steep overnight.
Wash:
I prepoo'd with coconut oil for a little bit [hour or two? I just didn't feel like washing until really late last night], then I shampooed with ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair, mostly on my scalp because my curls hate shampoo. Then, I deep conditioned overnight with Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition 3-Minute Miracle. Last time I used this, I mixed it with a bunch of things and DCed with it for a few hours. It was amazing. This time, I didn't mix it, and it was merely OK. Anyway, the next morning [about 08:00. I have early class again this year, so I'm used to it -______-] I rinsed my hair out a bit, then sprayed on the ACV/Black tea mix, let it sit for a bit, then rinsed everything out before pouring the mix on my head and letting that sit for a bit. I rinsed it again, then proceeded to use my Hair One: Olive Oil [I still have some left, but I can't pump it out anymore. I unscrewed the top and dug it out with my finger.] as a leave in conditioner while detangling and applying Curlformers, finishing at 09:00.
Results:
At about 15:00, I took them out and my hair was actually dry, unlike the last few weeks where it took more than 12 hours. Furthermore, it is completely stretched and the natural hair is totally blended, which I wasn't getting before. It's also the softest it's been in the last few months, and even my mom noticed! I don't know if it's the AC, the ACV or the black tea, but at the least I'm going to keep up the latter when I return.
Extra:
Something new I learned a few days ago, is that my natural hair loves to be detangled wet, which my relaxed hair really couldn't stand. Hopefully I'll be able to lose less hair by dampening it.
Now, we'll see how long it takes before my hair reverts. Good day everyone, and have a happy healthy hair journey!
I cowashed a few days ago and my hair seemed to like it. The fact that this wash was pretty easy I think can be attributed to the cowash. I want to do them more often, but if my hair takes so long to dry, I won't be able to with my schedule. I really enjoy cowashing, though, so we'll see.
I still have four curlformers in my hair from sections I made too that I had to redo. When they're done, I plan on taking a picture! Honestly, though, it looks like all other ACV/BTR CFs I've ever done.

#10 Wash Day [dilution of shampoo test] and LOC today [Pic of LOC results]

[Broken laptop, btw guys]

I shampooed my hair Sunday, and I had some serious oily buildup so I shampooed even though it makes my hair fail. I actually diluted the ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair with my cowash conditioner VO5 Strawberries and Cream, then I cowashed [I really hate the feeling of shampooing, so now I cowash immediately after]. I followed it up with ApHogee 2 Minute since I haven't used protein in a while, rinsed that our when I finished showering, and applied Keracare Humecto. I don't wash out my DC anymore [as mentioned above] so I put my hair in Curlformers and went about my merry way. When I took my hair down, it was a lot softer and shinier than it had been, but it had crazy hold and I wasn't expecting that. I actually got really nice second day hair, for the first time in a while. I think it was the protein treatment.

Anyway, this morning I was told I needed to go out, so I decided to do a really quick LOC session where I would use Curlformers to get a nice, cute, quick [well, two hours waiting but only about 10 minutes of work] style. L: I used my normal spritz, O: an oil mix that actually contains every oil I own (I made it for doing HOT, but I haven't done any in a long while, so I'm trying to use it up], C: and I used a tiny dab of raw shea butter to seal. When I took my hair down it felt like a dream. It was extremely bouncy and moisturised, in fact, I was worried it was still wet for a minute, there. I haven't been able to stop touching it all day! Anyway, here is a picture.

I know you can't tell, but it looks and feels like I stepped out of a salon. I'm extremely happy with how this turned out and I'm going to try and figure out exactly what caused this sudden change. Anyway, stay sexy, my friends! :P

Egg review:

O_O. You guys. The egg stopped my breakage with a big red "Nope.jpg" sign.

I have had huge breakage problems all of my journey, even using loads of products that are supposed to help. They usually help some, but I'd never gotten down to the sort of breakage most of the people I follow talk about until now.
I broke four hairs this morning. Four. That's unheard of for me. Usually, that means I was running my fingers through my hair at some point in the day [usually the morning to clump or seperate curls], and four hairs broke off just from touching it. No. I parted my hair in two sections to flat twist it. I combed one half, lost two hairs, combed the other, lost two.
I probably should have tried the ApHogee Two Step, because it's an extremely hard protein, but I assumed that since I do normal protein treatments every few weeks, and/or the ORS Mayo monthly, it wouldn't help. This egg is exactly what I needed. I'll have to see how frequently / infrequently I need to do these treatments, because I've seriously not had such strong hair before without a good salon visit.
The weirdest thing is that it doesn't feel different. Normally, my hair feels different after a protein treatment, it feels stronger / fuller or something, but with the Nutiva coconut oil and other things I'd been using, I was already getting that feeling. That's another reason I thought protein wouldn't work, but other than that the only thing I did was accidentally leave a little of the black tea + apple cider vinegar in my conditioner, and it wasn't very much of that anyway. So, with all other options out of the way, it has to be the egg.
So, can egg protein penetrate hair strands? Well, I have hair that takes forever to absorb things but loses them quickly, we'll say high porosity, fine/medium [I'm beginning to think my hair is medium thickness because it doesn't do the things most thin hair can do] thickness, but densely growing, transitioning hair, and the egg protein got in. That is not to say that your hair will react the same, but maybe if it has the same qualities as mine it will.
Sealing Level Up!?
My hair is also much shinier, and it still looks very moisturized today even though it's been 24 hours since that drying fiasco. [My hair used to look insanely dry whenever I air dried. Then I started setting and it got a bit better, then I started  using CF and it got a lot better, but still the max I could get was 24 hour moisture locks.] That, however, could be do to the fact that I've realized how much my hair likes oils when it is wet and started to use oil and shea butter to seal instead of conditioner. So it's either the protein is holding onto the moisture, the fact that I've been cowashing only since a week and a half ago, or the water / oil / butter LOC keeping the moisture in. It's probably a combination, but either way it's awesome.

EGG! + Another cowash + bad hair day! [Pictures, for once!]

I finally decided to try using egg as a deep protein conditioner. I also decided to try DCing overnight again. It's been a long while since I've actually DCed, I usually just leave in the DC and everything works well, but I have noticed that if I do it for too many weeks in a row, it stops working, [around the second week?] so then I just DC instead, and restart the pattern. I knew I needed to DC because I was using a hard protein conditioner; and egg conditioning has been compared to using ApHogee's famed Two Step [instead of 2 minute], which is intense and requires immediate moisture or you will get breakage. So I did the egg, mixed with a tiny bit of raw honey, and left it on for about 45 minutes to an hour while watching TV.
Egg [With a bit of honey]:
Putting on the egg was a lot more difficult than getting it out. I now understand why people usually mix it, but I will not do that in the future because the egg is already so strong.  You know how uncooked egg likes to stick together? Well it was like that. There was no way I was getting more than like a teaspoon of egg at a time, and I tried using different grabbing methods /utensils. In the end, it just took a lot longer than a regular DC would have taken to put on, but it wasn't horrible or messy. It was pretty sticky on my hands, but that was in part due to the fact that I hadn't melted the raw honey. Then I washed it out.

Left is side that had egg on it at the time, right is before I did those. As you can see, I do things in braids now, but as of this afternooon, I have clips! Finally! So that'll make everything a whole lot easier!
Cowashing [Since last week, I have decided to cowash twice a week, shampoo every other week]:
I used VO5 Moisture Milks Strawberries and Cream conditioner to cowash my hair, sense I've been doing a cowash only thing. My natural curls are getting more defined as the days without shampooing pass [I can only tell when they're wet  because my hair is always stretched, but yeah, definitely more defined], so I might actually keep this up longer than I was planning. I'm definitely skipping this weekend's wash.
Then I did a black tea and ACV rinse, which I definitely did not wash out all the way [accident] before applying Silk Elements Megasilk as an overnight DC.

Hair as I started to put the DC on it. Left has it, right does not.
Bad Hair Day?:
So...I get up, wash out the DC, add some Grape Seed Oil and some Raw Shea Butter and start to put in my Curlformers, and about 30 minutes after I finish my mom calls me saying, 'We have errands, so if you want to come you need to be ready in 3 minutes". Well, I love going out because I'm a huge nerd who does programming and never leaves the house [yay stereotypez]. But my hair is still very very wet.

• Blowdrying?: So I grabbed my mom's blowdrier [I've only ever blow dried my hair, in any way, about 5 times. Including this one and a few weeks ago when I tried the same thing] and started. But her blowdryer is old and doesn't have a 'cold shot' button, so I couldn't cool my hair down without waiting. I tried this, but just like last time my hair didn't get dry, though I did a much better job in those three minutes [plus the two she gave me] than any other time I've blowdried. Still, not doing that again. It was useless.
• Flat Twisting and eggs, result: Now I have even more love for my curlformers. Normally I do not style my hair when wet because I get huge breakage, but I figured the best way to keep my hair stretched was to flat twist, so I did. I'm still not good at flat twisting, I don't seem to have the strength to pull it taught, so I knew it wouldn't be very straight in the end, but no real choice. I made it look as cute as possible and we headed out. But I had to detangle wet hair to do this. I lost less than half the hair I usually lose, when my hair is dry and straight. [NOTE: I do not comb my hair on wash days. The Curlformer sets do a great job of getting rid of the vast majority of tangles in my hair.] So the egg worked amazingly! Even better than the treatments I've bought, which is good because the main reason I tried this is that I'm running out of them. My mom said the hair didn't look bad, just kind of puffy. We were both surprised by the huge shine the eggs gave me that I normally don't have unless my Curlformer sets have dried. So, bonus points there. Seriously though, my hair tangled up on itself like nobodies business and I was unhappy that I had to take out my CF. But it was worth it because I got to leave the house. Yay!

We went to the store where I almost bought this clip [middle]:

[I LOVE butterfly clips, but have 0 clips at all {too poor}, but it was metal and worth it because it wouldn't break like the last one :S. Then I realized it's probably not big enough for my hair either way.] I might still return and get it, it is one of the bigger hair claws that exist. Instead, I bought [for less than $5], 100 hair elastics [the clear ones that are larger, I have tiny black ones that I use to tie ponytails] and 12 large metal clips. So I finally have clips!

Got back home at 21:00~ish, put my hair in Curlformers, and I haven't taken them out yet.

Products Mentioned List: [new section! I didn't necessarily get them from the links, but it will always be the version in the picture.]
Raw Egg [Just...eggs from a store...nothing special at all]
Worked extremely well. I'll probably do this once a month. This is the best protein treatment I have ever used, including the ORS Hair Mayo I really like, so at least I have a very cheap replacement!

VO5 Moisture Milks Strawberries and Cream -- Got this from a food store that had a hair section. .72 cent there. Don't pay more than $1. This is amazing at cowashing. Firstly, you can use as much as you want because you don't need to worry about price [looking at you, salon brands] and it gives so much slip and smells so delicious. I'll keep buying this for cowashing, and it's one of the two 'made' products I'll keep buying.

Black Tea -- Can't find a link yet, no brand that I can remember. I'll try again and update. It was 100 bags for $1. I'll probably try Lipton next, though. It works well for shedding and making the smell of ACV slightly more tolerable. [I mix them.] It also gives shine and holds moisture a bit better [I've heard the caffeine makes protein stick longer, which makes moisture stick longer, so that...sort of makes sense?]
[+]
ACV, I actually got mine from GNC. Either way, never pay more than like 3 bucks for this. It smells horrendous, even worse than the ApHogee stuff people complain about. It's so bad that I will never buy it again. It's so useful, though, and cheap, but I've heard that Aloe Vera Juice works the same way [note: Aloe Vera Gel, does not. ACV is a ph balancer, and a clarifier, AVG is a good moisturizer, but ACJ actually has the proper ph levels--I'll need a new clarifyer, though]. Maybe if I ever start buying essential oils and can mask the smell, I'll try again.

Silk Elements Megasilk Moisture Treatment -- This goes on sale all the time. Only buy it if it's on sale. Mine cost like $7, I think. Can only be bought at Sally Beauty, I think. This is a good conditioner if you've got it on sale. It works really well, it smells nice, and it moisturizes better than lots of salon brands. I really like it, and if I didn't have Hair One to fall back on [and if it didn't cost MORE when it's not on sale O_o. I'd never seen the real price before today. $15? Cray] , I might even consider buying it again.

Grape Seed Oil -- about $7-8, but it's common and you can probably find cheaper and more expensive ones everywhere. I love grape seed oil because ceramides are awesome and because my hair loves using oil as a serum, especially coconut, jojoba, or grapeseed.

Raw Shea Butter: link coming soon. I love raw shea butter for hair and skin care. I use it in my lotion, and it's much better than other lotions to the point where I've tried to use other lotion and it's just depressing. Especially because theirs usually smells better :(. In hair, I use it as a sealant with light hold. My hair loves this stuff as a sealant.

Curlformers, bought from Sally Beauty Supply because it's slightly less if you're a member, and no shipping. I love these. We know this. I mean, for Cthulhu's sake: I don't have to comb my hair, it keeps it stretched for the entire week so I have no tangles to deal with on wash day, it's a great style, it's PERFECT for transitioning. I learned today how badly my hair needs to be stretched at all times, I'd taken it for granted because I didn't have that much ng before I got them, but they are almost necessary. I mean, I can think of how I could do this without them, but given that I've tried before, several times, to stretch more than 4 months [that was my average throughout my entire relaxed life, really], but it always got so bad. I have experienced none of those issues since buying these. Also, sexy hair, shine, so much bounce and movement...it's a dream. They're a dream. OK. They're not paying me. I wish they were. Honestly, I wish they were giving me those Extra Long and Extra Wide so I wouldn't have scraggly ends the first night >_>.

New items that aren't tested much:
100 Large Clear Hair Polybands: I don't do regular hair things [like the Goody Ouchless bands] anymore because the stuff inside is disgusting and my hair keeps making it come out [if they get stretched too much; almost all have], and the part that connects them breaks my hair [it's not metal, but it still snags. In the end, it's the same as just having metal for me]. I need to get silk ones, but I lose these too much. I have small black hair elastics, which cannot be used to hold even a fourth ponytail, so I use them to tie my ends, or hold tiny sections in place. They're great for that because they break way before doing anything bad to my hair, whereas normal bands just break my hair. I have about 500 of them, so literally I just pull my hair down / the elastic down and the elastic pops off without bothering me, then I trash it if it's broken. It's a much better system for me since they're cheap and easily replaceable, whereas the others are not. Plus, the material feels like it probably doesn't suck the moisture from my hair like regular bands. These stretch a lot more, so I'm enjoying them so far.

Conair Metal Hair Clips, pack of 12:
I dunno., Nothing special. They're medium sized, duckbill-y and metal. They're MUCH better than the various ways I've tried and I don't see them getting broken. I usually do 4 parts, so 12 means I can keep them in seperate groups and I'll have some if any get lost. Wewt wewt. They are extremely bendy, tthough.

Cowash Day!

Whoa. So my hair has been extremely dry the last few days, and my usual routines haven't even helped. As a result, I think it might be related to the flat ironing. I cowashed my hair using just Hair One Olive Oil.
I actually followed the directions for once [in a while. I usually don't need to because I DC differently now.] then rinsed it all out and added a lot more as a leave in [which is the same as my DC at this point.]

Few things of note happened:
I braided my hair instead of the usual way I separate it, which requires extra materials that I do not have [my hair breaks bands, claws and clips with ease]. The braids actually held! Twists usually don't, but the natural part of my hair at least never unraveled even under the rain of the shower head.
That worked extremely well and made me a happy camper. I will do it from now on!

Even with all of this my hair still felt a bit dry, so I applied a lot of coconut and grape seed oil. Then it softened up and I set it. It feels great now. I really wanted to try the heat thing, but now that I think about it, my hair has progressively been getting worse each week, and this was the worst it's been. Even though it's felt great the first day and a half, I've had to deal with dryness far beyond anything I've ever encountered. As a result of this I will no longer flat iron once a week.
Instead, I think I'll just cowash more often to keep moisture in my hair. I will cowash at least once a week, and wash once a week in addition to that. [Wash meaning with shampoo]. Instead of doing my lengthy moisturising and seal sessions, which now take the same amount of time as washing, I will just wash my hair that morning. I will have more moisture, and my sets will last longer. I remember that there was a time I cowashed twice a week for a few months and I remember my hair being healither, but I attributed it mostly to coconut oil. Coconut oil is great, but maybe the cowashing [well, I should say 'completely drenching the hair in water more often'] had a greater affect that I thought.
Anyway, here is my hair in a scarf. My hair wasn't completely dry, but I wanted to flatten the top anyway.

#9 Wash Day!

That number is SO off now. Whoops. Well, I've washed my hair at least once week. I started leaving in my DCs permanently instead of DCing, so I have to make sure to use shampoo at least once a week now instead of cowashing all the time. Last week, I cowashed because I was expecting to shampoo later, but I didn't. It actually worked pretty well, but I'm still a bit worried about doing that.

So, last night / this morning [weird sleep habits over break! Sorry] I washed my hair, air dried and flat ironed with a total of 4 products in my hair.
I shampooed with ApHogee for the first lather and Paul Mitchell Super Skinny for the second. Then I applied Hair One Olive Oil [I don't have much left anymore. So sad, but hey I have the Argan Oil version now, so that's cool.] and set my hair in Curlformers for about 3 hours. My hair was mostly dry when I took them out. I flat ironed the pieces that were puffy and dry, waiting for the pieces that were puffy and wet to dry before doing those [meaning I didn't do any pieces that were already very straight, because I've been very dizzy lately as a result of eating about one meal a day for the last bunch of weeks.]. I used Silk Element's heat protectant spray [NOT the Olive Oil version] It turned out OK. I mean, I like curls so this is actually kind of not my thing, but I'll probably just wet them and do another set tomorrow. Plus, my hair is so thin! :S
Once again, I am flat ironing ONLY to seal cuticles, at about 220 degrees. I've been so bored with the straightness though. I think I'll try various bunning styles. I did a sock bun a few days ago. It looked nice the first day and kind of meh following. I think the sock sucked the moisture from my hair. I need a real bun thing made of silk or something.

Boring picture. My phone's battery is dead I'll post one from the bathroom in a few hours!

That pony is so tiny. Weird to see my hair so flat and thin. O_o

Flat Ironing...can help retain length and moisture!?

Whoa, my readership seems to have jumped a bit in the time I wasn't posting. I wonder what that means O_o. Anyway, I've been really busy since there were finals and now it's summer break. I had a few things to do [I went to ACen, for one] but now it's very close to my birthday and I'm just relaxing.

So, I bought more Hair One, of the Argan Oil variety, since I said that's the only real hair product I'm going to buy more of, but Sally's gave me a free heat protectant, and I didn't have one before so I decided why not. So now I have Silk Elements' thing. I'll review it at the end of the month. I started attempting to flat iron once a week. Why!? You were doing so well, you might say. Which is weird, since you're talking to a computer screen. Cut that out.

Flat Ironing once a week, why?

Story:
Well...my hair had stayed at the same length for a few months now, even though I decided not to relax anymore. I know that yes, my relaxed hair is still fragile, but I've had growth where I've retained all length per month when I was flat ironing. I asked myself why, and decided to flat iron my hair for ACen [since I was going as Martha Jones. A character who wears her straight hair in a spiky ponytail, though my hair is longer and didn't spike as well >.>] When I did, I noticed that my hair was how it usually is when I [read: not my stylists] flat iron, it feels more mosturised, and smoother, but I still didn't see the most important thing. When ACen was over, I did a curlformer set with my usual homemade LOC [except the cream is actually Eco Styler Gel now, and it works *great* for a protein boost!]. When I took my hair out of the curlformers, it felt more mosturised than normal.  I realised what probably happened was that the heat makes my cuticles lay down for a much longer time than anything else.

Benefits of flat ironing [WHAT?]:
If I flat iron once a week at low [220-ish] heat, I can retain moisture better and longer because my cuticles stay sealed until my next wash, even after I have re-moisturised my hair to do a Curlformer set. While there are very few benefits for flat ironing, I do know that I've gained length while flat ironing far too many times a week, from back when I used to have heat junkie tendencies. I have been very afraid of it since then, but now I think it might help, because I also manipulate less when my hair is flat ironed, because I feel less of a desire to style it. So, all of this month I plan to flat iron once a week at low heat and see if my hair retains more length than normal. Though, in the future, I am planning on doing it once every other week at the most. Tl;dr low heat means better moisture retention and less manipulation throughout the week.

My regimen:
Well, I'm still trying to use up products that I got back when I was a product junkie. So, I've been unfortunately using things that don't work as well for my hair as my homemade products and / or Hair One, but here it goes.
Keep up the Protein: since I'm doing flat ironing again, I will do a protein DC probably about every other week [that seems to be the frequency my hair likes, as long as I use a protein leave in a few times a week].
Moisturize: as often as needed, even more than once a day if it comes to that.
DC once a week, or at least before every heat session. Do not ever flat iron without having done an intense moisture treatment beforehand. This is a general rule fore everyone.
Do a Set and Airdry: immediately after washing, set hair with no setting product and air dry in it. This way the hair will be stretched already and you don't use any more heat than necessary.
Flat Iron on low heat: Never above 300. I'll probably just stay at 220 in general, though. I'm not really trying to get it straight, the sets do that.
Optional--put hair back in set: This is the only way my hair will get completely straight. As mentioned before, flat ironing my hair doesn't tend to make it completely straight, the natural part is straight but still entirely too thick and noticeable. I'm usually okay with it, but I've found that putting my hair back in the curlformers right after the heat makes it get completely stretched.

Stay tuned for my latest wash day!

#8 Wash Day! Paul Mitchell Super Skinny and Keracare

So Monday night I used WAY too much Eco Styler Olive Oil on a headband curl set and my hair was hard and icky. I decided to wash my hair later that night.
When I started washing my hair, it was straight because of the Curlformers, but I'm used to my hair reverting immediately. It didn't! O~O. I think it's because there was such a thick coating of Eco, and I was almost worried for a bit, but eventually all of it reverted completely.
I washed with ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair, then applied Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Daily Treatment and Black Tea. I took my shower, which probably rinsed a lot of it out. I didn't purposefully rinse, though. When I got out, I dabbed my hair clean with a shirt, then applied Keracare Humecto, and EcoStyler. I let it air dry overnight in Curlformers; however, my top left quadrant didn't dry properly, but I had to take them out for class. So that part of my hair is a bit poofy. Otherwise, the EcoStyler seems to be working: my curls haven't fallen at all yet--even with the hat, and my hair is SO moisturized I don't even understand. It looks [finally!] like all those wonderful ladies I follow on YouTube. It's so wonderful. I have a very badly lit photo [the camera is facing it, so there's always weird glare and lighting oddities] here, and I will post a better one after I've allowed my hair to get back in those Curlformers so it's all the same texture overall.

#7 Wash Day - Is It OK to not wash out your DC? First time using ECO Styler gel as well!

Thursday night, I washed my hair because I had some buildup and really wanted to do a black tea rinse. I made the tea, then created a mix using this: Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition, aloe vera gel, honey, and grapeseed oil. The texture was incredibly weird, but I was only going to leave it in for an hour.
I shampooed with ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair, applied the black tea from a spray bottle, then used the conditioner. I was going to leave it in for a few hours, but it was really late at this point so I just put my hair in Curlformers then went to bed. When I woke up my hair was so many kinds of amazing I decided not to wash it. It felt like I had been to the salon. It felt like when I flat iron except even a bit better.  I had tons of moisture and slip, but my hair didn't seem to have any extra product in it. I decided to flat iron my bangs and put them into a Curlformer again just to see the difference, but I got tired and only did two small spots.
The only difference between the flat iron and the other part was that the flat ironed hair couldn't hold the curl at all, even set overnight.
My hair is just amazing. It's now Monday and I have moisturized once, and even then I didn't *really* need to, I just wanted to use my two new products: I got an actual case of Curlformers [so now I have more than double--44] and Eco Styler Olive Oil gel.
Last night, I moisturized my hair with my normal liquid moisturizer, then added a bit of coconut oil, lastly the ESOO. I used the ESOO as the sealant because it's pretty thick and I think sealing before the ESOO might have poor results. Then, I applied the Curlformers.
It was perfect, I got to use sections of exactly the thickness I wanted, and had exactly enough Curlformers to do my entire head. Now if only I could figure out how to separate the wands after I'm done. Sigh. I think I just don't have the upper body strength.
I slept [mildly comfortably] with them in my hair and took them out in the morning. They don't feel much different than normal. They're a bit shinier. I was able to still flatten out the crown of my hair with a scarf, so I actually don't know how well the gel is going to hold. I used exactly how much was in the top the first time I opened it, so it might not have been much.
Mini-review of Eco Styler OO [I'll do a bigger one in the future, but I don't like doing real reviews the first few times I use a product] I really enjoyed applying the gel, because I could feel my new growth straightening out as I applied it, even without any force. It was great! I hope that I can get second or third day Curlformer hair, but I don't know. It doesn't feel hard or anything...We'll see when I update tomorrow!
So, hair day rating? 10:
I have healthy shine, my hair looks and feels moisturized and has slip, the style is wonderful and I can run my fingers through my newgrowth because having so many curlformers smoothed [not necessarily straightened in all sections] the ng. WONDERFUL!

My hair yesterday [no pics from today yet]

Hair Rambles: Shampoo'd and applied coconut oil...then LOC in the morning.

So I actually ended up with somehow sticky hair last night. To combat that, I shampoo'd, but I didn't DC my scalp has not been happy with me. Instead, I cowashed with Hair One and ApHogee's 2 minute, which I did leave on for a bit, but no more than 10 minutes. My scalp was just really really angry that day, probably from whatever made it sticky. I basically just applied a TON of coconut oil [Nutiva, my new one] to my hair and put it in curlformers. It was really soft this morning, but not quite moisturized enough, so I LOC'd this evening. I couldn't just allow my hair to be shampooed with no real moisture, after all.
I did it differently this time: I think the crazy new things I put in my L were too much, so I decided to minimize everything, now I know that I can successfully keep my hair mostly moisturized with only coconut oil, but it doesn't stay that way long enough so I've been LOCing. In this case, I decided to keep up the LOC, but only use a max of three ingredients per step. That sounds like a lot if you think of them as being separate  but remember, I make my own products so the normal like 15 ingredients per bottle is what I'm talking about. Now, I made my L out of only water, aloe vera gel, and grape seed oil. In that order, with 95% being water, two and a half pumps of aloe vera gel, and a quick squeeze of my grape seed oil bottle [mostly because I don't use this as much as I think I should. Ceramides are good, after all]. Then, my oil was only coconut oil. That's actually normal. Lastly, my C, which is usually [my homemade hair and skin lotion: raw shea butter, tea tree oil, grape seed oil, aloe vera gel, jojoba oil, and a little water] was only shea butter.
So today's LOC method: L:Water/Aloe vera gel/Grapeseed oil O:Coconut C:Shea butter
I sprayed it until slightly damp, then applied probably too much coconut oil [it was melting faster than expected, but my hair eats coconut oil like...well....water!], then applied definitely too much shea butter; I kept accidentally picking it up wrong because I couldn't use my normal disbursement method. Then, I put it in curlformers and let it dry for like an hour. When I took it down it felt great, and that was 4 hours ago. It feels even better now,  almost like it did that day I was having my best hair day ever, actually, if a little too shea-y. I went outside, though, and my hair was solid [moisturized, but frozen]! Too much shea, definitely, but hey, the curls stayed well, and whenever I went back inside it quickly calmed down and was bouncy in a few minutes, so I should be okay by tomorrow.
In the end: less is definitely better, my hair doesn't need a whole bottle's ingredients to be moisturized. It only needs five total! But yeah, I need a better way to dole out shea butter. I think I'm going to make my sections twice as big for now, at least, and clean out my other shea thingy.

When I put the curlformers in, I twisted the roots because I care more about straight roots than curls, and not twisting the roots was not giving me straight roots. Right now, my hair is smooth all over like I just have very thick straight hair. Before, it was clear that I was forcing curly hair to go straight, and that wasn't as good.

What I learned today: Only need a few things in LOC. Twist roots to get straight hair all over. My hair doesn't need to be DC'd after shampooing, but it does need intense moisture LOCs to pop back from it.

Update: Hair is still moisturized more than 24 hours later! Simplistic LOC FTW!

Hot oil treatment and DC

I used coconut oil, grapeseed oil and jojoba oil. I kept it on with a shower cap for an hour and a half, then I cowashed with VO5. I applied Keracare Humecto overnight and now I'm airdrying after applying a little bit of grapeseed oil. I had virtually no hair come out when I combed to put in the curlformers. The entire time, my hair felt extremely soft and full, and when I applied the Keracare Humecto, it felt amazing. I think I'm going to make sure I always have an adequate amount of oil on my hair, it seems like it'll help with combing at least.
Well, right now, my hair is definitely holding onto the moisture, but I'm not sure how long it will last, so that's a huge thing. It doesn't feel as good as last time, though.

Well, my hair felt a bit over conditioned this morning, but as of now it feels great. I did use a little bit of Biosilk Silk Therapy, just to remember what affect it has on dry hair. Right now, honestly, it just smells good. I'm sure it should be used on damp / wet hair anyway. I haven't applied much to leave in [though, I used a tiny bit of my new jar of Nutiva coconut oil; it's a lot thicker than the Trader Joe's one, hmmm] and the Biosilk. I think it's holding moisture pretty well otherwise.

I've noticed 2 things about my hair that I had sort of noticed but not thought much about before:
My hair feels / looks better / moves better when I compact it. When it's wrapped, or put in Curlformers, it just feels better. I'm not quite sure exactly what that means.
My hair feels a lot better when it's warmer, and harder when it's cold [not necessarily winter and summer]. I think this is because some of the products I use freeze at pretty high temperatures, so it's possible that could affect the hardness of my hair.

Hair Rambles: This and next month

No heat: Success
I did this very easily. I do have to say I wouldn't have been able to do it without the curlformers, but with them, it was a serious breeze. I just set my hair after every wash. So basically, roller setting/wrap setting beats heat. If you already did this, you probably knew that already.
Cowash whenever necessary: Success
I did this! Every time I needed to wash or condition, I did. It's because I didn't use heat that I was able to just do whatever whenever I wanted, and it was great. I'm going to use a lot less heat in the future, and I plan on washing whenever necessary as well; however, I did cowash a lot this month, and not all of it was necessary.
Learn what hair feelings mean: Fail :(
This didn't work out too well. I had a lot of hair feelings, from good to bad, but because it took so long to correct them [and because I tried so many new things], I had a hard time.
Protein once a week: Success, but uneccesary.
I did this, but I realised it wasn't necessary. Same for the shampooing.
Finish one product: Failed
Yeah, I used a lot of products but didn't finish any of them. I'm working on it.

Next Month:
Do a hot oil treatment: I've heard lots about these and I want to try. Even if I don't get olive oil, I have plenty of coconut oil and will try that. I want to finally see the benefit of that.
Skip one week of shampooing [no more than three times next month]: Because shampooing didn't work to well for me and caused a lot of breakage, I'm going to see what happens if I shampoo less.
Comb every other day [unless an event is happening]: This is going to be the most difficult for me, but I do want to start combing less, especially now that my hair doesn't really get tangled. This doesn't include finger detangling, which I will probably utilize on the off days to make sure my hair doesn't get too tangled. I'm also going to try to headband curl more than half the days of the week, just to save time and energy over curlformers. I've been doing them for two days now and I love how simple it is considering the result, I need to see how long I can keep it up before I need to use curlformers to stretch my roots again.
DC overnight every weekend: I know I'm going to DC every weekend, but for some reason I just decide not to DC overnight even though I always get the best results from that. I'm going to DC overnight every weekend, and hopefully decimate [or more] needing to DC during the week.

#6?-Wash Day: No shampoo, 09:00→17:40 DC

Yup, for people who don't know; I'm a huge fan of military time.
Anyway, I washed my hair today. I cowashed with V05 Strawberries and Cream Moisture Milks. My hair felt just as bad as has it has these few weeks, not fun. Then, I applied Hair One Olive Oil, because it has been known to DC even when some of my other things couldn't. If this doesn't work, I'll bust out my Keracare for serious DC action. I did this at 9:00, then went to classes and everything with the DC on my head, like a crazy person [after my first class, I t-shirt dried some of the excess water out, then reapplied my Hair One, with a little bit of aloe vera gel], and then went to a club meeting [Anime club] and when I got back at 17:30ish, I washed out the conditioner, and t-shirt dried for 30 minutes before applying Coconut oil, Grape seed oil, and sealing with the Frizz Ease I've mentioned. I'd forgotten how great it was at sealing, so I figured I'd try.
I was able to keep my hair detangled for the whole thing in most sections. The lower right was the most difficult [it's the least texlaxed section.] and I didn't get it detangled until I was applying leave - ins. I think my hair just didn't have enough moisture, somehow. In the end, the piece of hair I accidentally left out feels GREAT and is dry, so hopefully using the Hair One worked as expected.

On a side note: my hair has been breaking more [one of my good friends, Kevin, who has natural hair, says it probably is the shampooing, so I'm really going to try not doing it for a while. Maybe I'll wait another week after this one...]; however, in terms of staying detangled and being easy to style, having movement and shine, and overall behaving like hair that has been well maintained, it's great. It's just so dry that I don't understand how everything else is working.

Basically, if my hair is dryish and I have already done the LOC method, I'll simply apply some coconut oil to keep it mosturized, instead of waiting. I've heard the secret to healthy hair is making sure it never actually gets dry, so I'm going to try to keep infusing it with moisture. Plus, my best hair days came from doing DCs even when my hair still felt great.

Lastly: I have an Aloe plant! It's fun. I'm probably not going to use it for hair stuff, but who knows :D
Have healthy hair everyone.

Update: Alrighty, my hair dried last night and felt amazing! It was great, and every time I wash my hair [while I still have it left] I'm going to use Frizz Ease to seal in the moisture. This morning I moisturized and sealed (LOC with raw shea butter as the C, L and O are my normal mix and coconut oil),  [I decided to start doing this in the morning since my curls are gone by the next morning if I do it at night]. My hair feels nice: thick and very full with moisture! I do think I used a bit too much shea butter. I just really wanted to seal, but in the future I'm going to use less than that, because my hands have a slight shine when I touch my hair.

UPUPDATE:
I might actually keep buying Hair One. I said the grape seed oil would work, but HO works even when I can't get anything else to, as evident in this past two weeks. Right now, my hair has the most movement it has ever had, and feels so full of delicious moisture that I don't think anything else can come close to it. It's literally my healthiest hair day ever, and it's wonderful even if it doesn't look perfect [the curls are mostly gone from this morning, otherwise it would literally be my best hair day ever in my life. O_o] Sigh. I tried to get off the product wagon, but a backup HO Olive/Avocado might be in order. At least I can use this as shampoo instead of buying a real one: combined with clay / ACV, it should be strong enough that I don't need a real shampoo. Otherwise, I would need to buy shampoo [I don't think ACV quite works on its own for me... and I haven't actually tried my clay yet, though it does work wonders on my face.]

#4-5 Wash Day: Hair Breakage sucks.

You skipped so many posts this week, why?
School and summer break. Loads of plans :P

I've washed my hair twice since my last post, but it's been breaking a bit more and it's definitely extremely dry [but only when wet...:S It feels great when it's dry...]. It's *completely* failing the stretch test. It's not good at all. I've DC'd twice and it's not working out too well. I've tried protein and moisture. I'm going to DC overnight next. I think it's all the recent shampooing. I've been shampooing more often because I've been using products with cones more often [to get rid of them], and they build up, but I think I'm being paranoid. I have no real reason to believe there is any build up, so I'm going to stop using shampoo for at least the next week. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, both times I did a black tea rinse, the second time, I actually steeped the tea with hot water [I don't have much access to hot water here, so...] and it was much darker. Honestly, I don't think it was all that necessary. My hair did the whole 'feel dry when wet' thing a few people have mentioned,  but it was already feeling kind of iffy. Either way, I'm going to go back to overnight steeping instead of hot steeping.

Whatd'ya use?:
I clarified with Ion the first time, ApHogee shampoo the second time, Silk Elements Megasilk to DC the first time, ORS Replenishing the second. The first time, I applied my normal, home made leave ins. The second time, I used coconut oil, then followed it with the ORS Moisturizing Hair Lotion [in the bottle] as my cream. [I don't usually do the L of the LOC if my hair has just been washed. I just count water as my L.] Afterward, the second time I did an ACV rinse [left it on for the length of my shower].

My hair feels great when it dries, but it feels strange when wet before I've done anything to it [even before shampooing!]. and I'm skipping a week of black tea because of that. I think I can do it every other week anyway. The additional breakage is my biggest issue. It's might related to the fact that I have had the black tea under the conditioner: it might be preventing the conditioner from absorbing, combined with the stripping of shampooing more than once a week, not a good combo. So....yup, my plans are → Black Tea rinse goes with ACV rinse, and will be the last step before LOC&airdrying. Shampoo once a week again, but give hair a break from it this week.

Side note: Man these Curlformers really get at my roots. I have 20 of them, and when I use them, my texlaxed and ng hair gets smooth enough to run my fingers through it, what!? Never thought that could happen. So...yeah...I've had no reason at all to want to use heat. I've even thought 'I could flat iron my hair, I haven't done it this month' and then 'Why? What would be the point of flat ironing? Why would I need to do that? Uniformity? Smoothness? Shine? Movement?' I have all of that already!' Wonderful.

At any rate, I've stopped the 3 Comb method for the most part. I don't seem to need it so much with the curlformers, but I do it on whatever sections need it [usually one or two out of the twenty]. Overall, my hair is still much much healthier than last year, it's just...more breakage than it had been when I was really doing well the last few months. Protip: if you don't have a way to set your hair, I'd recommend the 3 Comb Smooth method, otherwise, you probably don't need to start it.

Wash #3: Black Tea II and Before + After

I really needed to shampoo a bit better than I did last time, so I did this time. I might need to clarify, honestly. Anyway, I did the same as the black tea one from before, but I used ORS Replenishing Conditioner. I actually put the black tea in a spray bottle. It went a lot better!
I DC'd for about an hour, detangled with the conditioner in my hair [this is pretty new for me. I wasn't sectioning, so my hair would just get tangled again, so I didn't understand why people did it this way until recently.] then rinsed it and put it in curlformers. It took a very long time to dry and is still a bit wet at the root over 8 hours later. Meh. Anyway, a pic before the black tea:

This is what my curls look like when they're not separated. It's got much more shine than last month, when I was still having some issues. Here is the result on separated curls after my second black tea rinse. Here is a pic from after the black tea:

Result: black tea is awesome! I only applied coconut oil and grape seed oil while the hair was wet. I'm really trying to figure out if I need to clarify, so that's why I only used those two. If my hair is still oily tomorrow, I'm clarifying.

Black tea: So, I used two to four [smallish] bags of incredibly cheap [about $1 for 100] black tea in a cup and a half of water. I put the water into a spray bottle and left it on for thirty minutes, then applied ORS Replenishing conditioner over that because I felt like I need a bit of protein. I know black tea makes other people's hair hard, but really protein has never made my hair hard, and black tea is the same. It just stays moisturized longer. I think it's because I've always followed it with something moisturizing, or perhaps my hair just needs all of the protein in the world.  I set it, and this is the result. My hair is only this shiny when it's flat ironed and I think the colour has improved.

Benefits of black tea: makes hair stronger, promotes growth and drastically reduces shedding. Adds a lot of shine and darkens hair.

BTW: These are two different forts!

John Frieda Frizz-East Extra Strength Formula Review

This serum is one of the three total serums I have used at the time of this posting. It claims to reduce frizz...obviously.

Short and sweet:
Bad: it in no way reduces frizz.  Good: it does work as a top grade sealant. Stars as frizz stopper: 0. Not even a half. Stars for sealing: 4.5/5
Overall: I don't know what to give it. I mean...it doesn't do what it says, but it's awesome at something else? Just refer back to previous scores.
Comment: it loses a half for being more oily than any other serum I've used, but even though it made me deal with an oily issue that I almost never have, it works so well as a sealant that it would be a staple if I wasn't going all home-made.
Thing I'd replace it with: Shea Butter

Long and succulent:
A sealant is a product you apply at the very end of your hair moisturizing, to keep in all the moisture in your hair. It always goes at the very end because it seals everything else you put into your hair. If you apply a liquid, oil and cream in the LOC method, it's the C / last step. If you just moisturize and seal, it's the last step, if you apply several different products to do a bunch of individual things, it's the last step, and if you mix a bunch of things together, you should probably not mix this and just apply it as the last step. Pattern!

If I use this after a wash, I don't even have to use a moisturizer or an oil. My hair just holds onto that moisture.

 >> Very few products make my hair stay oily. Most oil does not, in fact. Usually, even if my hair is oily, it's perfectly fine the next morning. With this product, my hair has gotten so bad that it stuck together. I didn't even recognize the issue until I remembered someone else mentioning that oily hair clumps even when dry. I'm not used to dealing with oily hair because my hair always needs more moisture [I've put several tablespoons of coconut oil on my hair, on two occasions, and my hair just ate it. It was completely dry the next morning.] >> so make sure that you remember for serums that less is more, especially in this case. I would start with the smallest amount you can and work your way up.
Grain of salt: No product has ever made my hair not get frizzy, aside from the salon products that probably need to work in conjunction with heat [and I've pretty much sworn off heat, even indirect heat is a bad idea to me].

Shea Butter: Raw Shea Butter gives me a lot of shine, and seals better than anything else I've used. It also doesn't get oily. While it doesn't give me as much slip as this, I have plenty of other things to give me slip, and it's the last step anyway.

Have Healthy Hair~

Hair Rambles: How DIY can change your hair colours:

My hair is about four different colours [they all blend in if light isn't being shined on them, so whatever]
Dark brown [basically black when you shine a light on it]: This is the shade my hair grows out of my head.
Light brown [very dark, much lighter in the light, though]: This is the colour of my hair that I've used honey on a few times, and during the summer sun. It's fine, I don't really want brown hair, though.
VERY light brown [lighter than the previous, and almost blonde in the light]: This is clearly a different colour from my hair, especially in direct light, and caused by my ex-stylists' bad hair practices. I don't like it. Too light.
Red‽ [very dark, darker than the previous two, red in light]: Well, all the previous hair turned into this when I started making my own products...
Black Tea rinse: it makes my hair a little darker and gives it some shine. I like the fact that it makes my hair colour [in light] look more natural. The relaxer burned hair was kinda fake looking on my head, tbh.
Protip: most people can't tell these things, because the light has to be directly on my head, and that doesn't happen to often. I haven't ever really shown anyone, mostly because it's not that big of a deal, just a little annoying to know what kind of damage things can cause.
Why did my hair change to reddish?:
The things I use that people have said might cause this: honey/ACV/Aloe vera. I've read about people who mix these products, or use them layered, and had their hair turn red. It made no sense to me, but...well...now...heh. I think it's the combination because of things I've red: ACV can turn some people's hair red. Honey lightens hair. Now, I've heard that the more pure the aloe vera is [that is, straight from the leave], the more cases where people have had their hair or skin turn slightly red. Mine isn't 100% AVG, but in combination with something else people say can do it [ACV] and something that lightens hair [honey] plus the relaxer burns, it made my hair go from dark dark brown, to a more red, slightly lighter brown. That, plus the black tea, means slightly darker brown. It's cool though, because I can tell what my hair is going  to look like when I use henna [I'm doing it for the conditioning, not the colour], so I won't be too alarmed. I like it better than the lighter-brown colour I was getting before. That made me feel like my hair was fading, while this feels more like I have naturally dark red hair, with some highlighting. When I use henna, it should stop other things from being able to lighten my hair as much, so I'll look even more like this. As a teenager, I always wanted red hair, now I just want dark hair [well, I also really want a job in the future :P].
How things change.

Wash Day #2: Tea rinses and Whoa, red hair‽

This went perfectly, which is good because I'm really sick and wouldn't been up to doing much correcting.
I did a black tea rinse, and I steeped the tea overnight, which is why I felt obligated to wash my hair today even though I'm sick. I shampooed, because my hair was seriously coated by that John Frieda Extra-Strength Frizz-Ease, to the point where it was sticking together. I've never had that happen before with any product. I think part of the problem was that I do my hair in sections of 12 [because I have twelve Curlformers, :P] so I accidentally used too much even though I tried to only use a small part of a pump for each section. Anyway, that's going into the review [whenever I write it] because my other products don't do that even if I have 12 sections.
So, I parted my hair into four sections like I always do when I'm washing it, then I did each step on the hair [one after the other, so Shampoo/tea/switch/repeat not shampoo/switch/repeat/tea/switch/repeat]
Shampoo: ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair. I love this stuff, I've started following it with PM SS DS, but I didn't today. Wanted to get out ASAP, plus, I just shampooed earlier this week.
Black Tea Rinse: I dipped my hair into the bowl, then put some in my shower-cup-thing [it's really just a plastic cup, but I only use it for hair stuff] and rinsed it down the section to get at my scalp. Black tea stains everything, so I made sure that all excess was rinsed immediately.
Then, I got out and waited 20 minutes, before putting on my DC--Silk Elements [something]. Not the one with Olive Oil in it. I've used it a few times. It isn't bad, but it's not great either. I would buy it again if I was buying products, but not if Hair One or Keracare Humecto were on sale. So, there's the list. I topped it with Grape seed oil.

Time to rinse: [Sink instead of shower. Already put on clean clothes.]
Uh...holy crap, why did I stop putting grape seed oil in conditioners? My hair was so smooth and all the tangles had melted before I even started de-tangling; even the new growth and the texlaxed hair. My hair was smooth and silky, like I used Hair One. Right. Grape seed oil goes in everything, once again, I never should have stopped. O_o.
It felt stronger, I had a little less shedding [it's more noticeable after the first rinse is what I've heard], and even my nape feels deliciously nourished. Grape seed oil is officially the base for my home made DCs, when I run out of these products. Anyway, the hair felt as moisture as it usually does with the Silk Elements: more than some of my other DCs, but less than Keracare / Hair One. Next I'm going to try the ApHogee moisturiser, I bought it a long time ago and it did NOTHING. We'll see if adding grape seed oil will really bring out the sexy! I need to get rid of that conditioner. It probably works better right after the 2-step, but I don't own that. :S
I split each section into 3 and put in curlformers, I would take a pic, but I look...very sick.
They all went in extremely easily, and I only lost a few hairs, most of which to shedding and not breakage. I'll update this post when it's done drying, if I feel up to posting. Hopefully, I'll get better and not worse in that time!
Healthy hair and body, everyone!

ETA: It's 15:20 and my hair still isn't dry, I took one Curlformer down and it's wet where the rubber meets the hair, unsurprisingly. Anyway, I have a ton of shine and my hair appears slightly darker and dare I say more...red[‽] than usual. Actually, I think my hair might already be turning red: I heard that a combination of the products I use have turned other people's hair slightly red and mine looks reddish in the light [where it used to be a light brown from relaxer burns. This is why I'm not going to another stylist again.] I know it's from the relaxer  because I didn't use honey when I first noticed it. I was looking at the bald spot I had [two relaxers ago] from their mistreatment, and I realized the broken hairs around it were VERY light. Then, I held my ends up to my crown and they're much lighter than the rest of my hair, but in weird streaks. It's probably from the fact that they love to overlap relaxers. It's not noticeable outside of having light shown on it, so I didn't care, but it made me wary about using honey because I like my dark hair shade. In the end, honey is far too awesome to quit just because of lighter hair! Plus, I got tea.

Hair Rambles: Stretch Test for Hair Elasticity

For a long time, I've been wondering about how to properly check elasticity. I've heard you take a strand and wet it, then stretch it. If it stretches to a number that seems to differ by blog, (30%, 50%) and snaps back, holding the curl, it has a good elasticity. If it breaks instead, it has none and your hair doesn't have enough moisture, if it stretches and stretches until breaking, or plops without retaining its original state, you have too much moisture and not bough protein.
Why did I mention moisture and protein? Because they affect hair elasticity. The more moisturized your hair is, the stretchier, and the more protein, the more it holds its shape. You need to balance the two to maximize elasticity. This does not mean 50/50. Everyone's hair is different.
Before now, I had checked but I still didn't understand, now that I have texlaxed hair, I tried again.
Before:
I took a strand and stretched. It stretched and snapped back, curling into a ball. Didn't help. I mean, I didn't have anything else to go by, is it good? Average? Bad?
How I figured it out:
Then I streched only the relaxed section; I grabbed it, made it straight, and then began stretching. It stretched and snapped back. Then just the texlaxed/ng; pulled it straight and started stretching. It didn't stretch at all.
This isn't how it's normally done, but it makes more sense to my mind. Anyway, I now know that my texlaxed hair needs much more moisture than my relaxed hair. I knew that, but now I have proof. This is my way, find yours. As a hugely intellectual individual (culturally speaking) I know that everyone learns differently. Being able to see two distinctly different responses gave me insight on elasticity. If you don't have two textures, try doing it fresh after a protein dc, and fresh after a moisture dc, the difference should help!
I wrote this for everyone else who is confused by elasticity, I hope it's more enlightening and can help you understand your results.
Healthy hair, everyone!

Hair Rambles: Wash day! [No DC]

I didn't wash this weekend because I'd just used the Curlformers, but my scalp was having dandruff problems, so when the curls were gone today, I decided to shampoo. I was originally going to clarify, but decided that since I didn't have the time to DC, I wouldn't clarify.
I washed with ApHogee Shampoo for Damaged Hair for the first lather, and PM SS Shampoo for the second lather. Then, I used Hair One Olive Oil for the remainder of the wash, which was pretty much a steam treatment. I did all of this, of course, in four sections. I did it in clips, but I've heard braids are better, and my clips are breaking. When I got out, I put in coconut oil and then used John Frieda Anti-Frizz Extra Strength Serum as a sealant instead of Shea butter [still trying to get rid of products]. I think it was actually better, because it gave me a lot more slip, and I don't have frizz...yet. I de-tangled, then put in the Curlformers for the next few hours until it dried [took about 3 and a half hours]. Once again, they went in easily. I'm hoping they last longer because I did a wet set. Anyway, when it dried I took them out and had a lot of moisture still in my hair. I don't know if it's because I shampooed more thoroughly than usual [two lathers instead of one, and I made sure to really get my scalp clean], or the JF, but my hair feels awesome. I've been told dry hair should feel and behave like wet / damp hair, and that's how you know it's moisturized. I think I've gotten a step closer to that, finally. If it is the JF, I'm going to buy more PM SSS whenever I can buy more. That's probably bad--buying a different product because it worked--but PM SSS works better, and on dry hair [JF does not work on my dry hair] and my hair dries faster, plus, I had amazing slip and that made the Curlformers go in quickly.
Next time I wash, [probably this weekend], I'm going to use ORS Replenishing Conditioner [speaking of which, I went into the shop and the packaging is different and says formerly known as Organic Root Stimulator. That's odd. I wonder if they changed any formulas? It's making me wonder about buying their relaxer. Relaxers were the last thing I wanted to keep buying, since I'll be making all my own products in the future...hmm.]
Have a healthy hair day!

Hair Rambles: Learning and Curlformers

I washed my hair Thursday night [been really stressed out and washing my hair / taking hot showers relaxes me]. I cowashed with VO5 Moisture Milks Strawberries and Cream, then steamed [the shower here gets extremely hot, so much that the shower was full of steam in about 20 seconds.] with PM SS DT and Hair One Olive Oil lightly covering my hair. Then, I mosturised / sealed with aloe vera [from the fridge, so cold! It probably sealed my cuticles, so that's good.] coconut and grapeseed oil mixed, and then shea butter. I'm airdrying in twists. I didn't detangle / comb my hair.
I noticed something: when my hair has the correct amount of protein, it noticeably clumps together when wet, and gets less puffy when I comb it out. It stays straight, but clumps into these great, easy to manage pieces. I had forgotten that, but I have offically made the connection!

Saturday, I exchanged my curlformers [extra long and wide] for long and extra wide [even though my hair is a little to long] so I de-tangled my hair and it was more difficult than I would have liked. In the future, I will at least detangle with a wide tooth comb. I did the three comb method and put the curlformers in, then took them out this morning.
Firstly:
They went in so easily, even though I have the same amout [I bought one more pack, so I had 12 extra long and wide, and now 12 extra wide and long], and there was only one section that got caught, and I redid it easily and with no suffering or lost hair. It was so much easier, that now I can say with utmost  confidence, if your hair gets tangled, it's because your piece is too big and you either need more curlformers, or bigger curlformers depending on the style you want. I still want more than twelve of these, maybe another pack or two, but it's more of a style option and less of a 'this will pull out my hair if I don't do something' option! Anyway, it looked awesome, but the top was a bit puffy so I put a scarf on it until work. I haven't had work yet, but here are pictures. The light is accenting my tired!face.

I'm going out with friends tonight, so hopefully it'll hold up to Chicago winter! Talk to you all soon and hope you have  a nice weekend!

Hair Rambles: Hair goals for next month

So I was reading my favorite hair blogger's website: www.justgrowalready.com [because we're both transitioning to texlaxed, even though she is much farther in her journey. Also, her hair looks absolutely perfect to me, you should look at her blog :D
She posted about how she successfully did all her hair goals for the month, and so I've decided to actually write mine down. I usually succeed, because my goals are pretty basic and simple, but I really want to have something written. That's also why I started documenting everything I do to my hair on this blog: so I will know what works and what doesn't.
My goals:
No heat: not even the 'once a month' heat I usually do--this is to prevent me from forgoing washes to keep straight hair. [I *can* moisturize my hair when it's flat ironed, though. It seems like most people can't??? It works perfectly fine for me, even with a liquid moisturizer, and my hair stays straight AND detangled.]
Cowash hair whenever necessary: Be that once a week, twice a week, or every other day. If my hair doesn't feel mositurised, I will cowash.
Learn what hair feelings mean: I want to learn exactly what every texture, every feeling of softness, fullness, etc feels from my hair. If my hair feels particularly poofy, what does that mean? etc etc. I want to be able to correct every problem as it happens so I don't have to worry.
Protein once a week: Unless it does any serious damage, I want to up my protein. I had a pretty good hair journey in the beginning where I used mostly ApHogee products, I thought it was because of the PH, but since I make my own products now, I know that's not necessarily it. So now, I'm upping the protien as much as possible. Eventually, I'm going to buy coconut milk and that will also be part of a home made treatment [right now, I use ORS Hair Mayo and / or ApHogee Keratin 2 minute Reconstructor].
Finish up one product: I'm trying to get rid of them, so I'm going to try and completely use at least one of these way-too-many products, at *least* so I can use the container for something else.
If I get black tea, I want to do a black tea rinse once a week, AND a honey prepoo once a week. I've been using less honey for two reasons: I'm almost out of what I bought 7 or so months ago, and because it lightens hair and I can tell. If I do the black tea, it should darken it, and I want that. Plus, I want to do henna treatments once a month or so in the future, and I'll want my hair to be extremely dark so I'll only have a slightly red glow [cassia doesn't last as long, and indigo is a separate treatment, I don't want to do two. I won't mind the red--I love black and red [fav colours!], I just want to minimize it]
Alright, there it is~ now, since I'm documenting everything I do, I just moisturized and sealed, so here is what I did since it was slightly different. My hair was still very soft and had movement, but it didn't feel moisturizer [I only used coconut oil on the wet hair, BAD decision because it's more of a moisturizer than a sealant, at least for me.] , so I did the LOC method.

Liquid: My water/aloe vera/ApHogee pro-vitamin leave in [that's in proportional order. I added the protein because my hair hasn't been holding on to moisture, and that's usually the reason].
Oil: Coconut! I'm thinking of mixing coconut and grape seed oils if this doesn't work.
Cream: raw shea butter. I was doing a mix of whipped shea and so much other stuff, but even that didn't work. This is the second most creamy thing I own. If it doesn't work, this method probably just isn't for my hair!
I've heard of people doing LCO, but the shea wouldn't let my oil get through. No way.

~~Healthy hair everyone!

Wash Day #1

Wash day: I'm protein DCing with ORS hair mayo for an hour and a half. I'm running out and I'm definitely going to miss this product! I use it once a month, but I think I used it at the end of last month, so this is a bit soon, but I'd rather listen to my hair than follow a schedule, yeah?  After this, I'm going to wash with ApHogee shampoo for damaged hair, then use the [useless for me, even though the name looks good, it clearly has ] Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition conditioner for half my shower, then an ACV rinse for the other half. After that, I'm going to DC overnight with Silk Elements MegaSilk, with a little jojoba, aloe vera and grapeseed oil mixed in. When I get up, I'll wash it out with ACV, then apply my leave ins and set with curlformers. I'm also going to wash in sections and detangle my hair twice [when I applied protein-otherwise my hair gets matted and knotted], and then when I'm rinsing out the conditioner, or maybe when I use ACV. I get tons of slip from ACV so that makes the most sense. 

***

So I washed out the ORS HM after just one hour, I know, but I'm always paranoid about protein. Anyway, washing detangled-already hair in four sections went AWESOMELY! I cannot believe how amazing my hair was. I also lost a lot less hair in the shower, partially because of protein and partially because it was so soft and detangled that I didn't feel like overly-manipulating it. I love my hair wet so much that I've decided not to do curlformers so that I can wash it again in two days. I'm so horrible, but the urge keeps coming back and if I keep doing these high-manipulation styles, I'll lose too much hair. 

Wash: First, previously detangled was awesome. Second, four sections prevented anything from ever getting tangled. Because it already felt great, I didn't squeeze too much or pull too hard or anything. Third, ORS HM *always* makes my hair feel great when I'm washing it out. It's so wonderful I never want to wash it out. I didn't completely rinse, then I applied the shampoo onto the scalp and ran it down as it rinsed. The GF TN went as well as expected--it was soft and smelled good, but it didn't seem to do anything. It rinsed *really* easily and took all the residue with it. I used ACV immediately afterward, in each of the sections, but I got insanely dizzy and quickly poured the rest on the still-parted sections, then rinsed it and got out. I think some of it is still in my hair as I DC overnight, but it shouldn't be too bad--it'll just improve my PH level. I'm not going to reapply when I rinse out, because even though it gives me slip, my hair feels grainy when I wash it out. I'm probably doing something wrong / not diluting it enough.

I've decided to never completely wash out my [moisture] conditioner again; my hair loves it when I leave things in, so I'm just going to rinse until it feels like I won't have build up and no movement, but I'll stop before my hair feels stripped. I'm probably going to apply coconut and grape seed oil on the hair when it's 80% dry or so, but probably not anything else to avoid weighing the hair down.

***
I rinsed my hair out at 8:something this morning, slowly in sections, then used a very small amount of PM SS daily shampoo to get out any of the large amount of residue because I knew I was going to use PM SS conditioner. I did, and I detangled with it in, then *lightly* hit it with water. Then, I separated the four sections into three each and applied my Curlformers. If I had too big of a section of hair, I put it in a headband close to the scalp and put the curlformer around the rest. I think they might pull out my hair a bit, though, so I probably won't do this every wash day unless necessary. I put a little coconut oil to seal / moisturise for each section. I have three hours and about 20 minutes for my hair to dry before class. I *will* take the curlformers out before class, no matter what.

Pic of my hair with culrformers:

I finished drying at about 14:00, but I had to take the rollers out at 13:30, so parts of my hair weren't dry and frizzed. It was really soft for about three hours, and really smooth for a few more hours than that, and it's been quite shiny the entire time. I think I didn't seal the moisture in correctly, which is a real shame after all that conditioning. :( I thought something like this would happen, so I didn't do anything heat related so that I can co-wash and do whatever I think is necessary. I'm doing health over style every day until I get this down! I shall rock many a bun!