Flat Ironed Hair

Hey guys, it's been a while, I know.
I've been really into fitness and hair styling + fitness = reversion. As a result, I haven't really done much because it's been like 'Well, I'm just going to sweat it out in a few hours and I could use this time to actually work out.'
Before my most recent thing, I wanted to say that I tried to start using cones to see if  I could reap the benefits a few people have received. Nope. I clarified and went back to my routine.

Now, my hair's happiness has been suffering because I tried washing it then using ridiculous amounts of gel to get it to stay. Spoiler alert: that doesn't work. The hair near my crown reverted and the rest of it was stiff and hard. I ended up bunning it forever until last night when I finally realized I couldn't keep it like this. [I'm sure my friends were unamused as well...]
Last night, I cowashed my hair with VO5 then deep conditioned with ORS Hair Mayo [I know, I know, but I hadn't made any gelatin and I was literally just getting out of the shower and didn't have much of a choice. :( I ran out / have VERY little left anyway, so it won't happen again.] I left that in for a few hours while working out to get a DEEP protein treatment, and then I rinsed it, semi-dried my hair under a turbie twist, then finally applied coconut milk which I left in overnight under a shower cap.
I woke up the next morning and my hair was only mildly wet, as I'd hoped. I set it with Curlformers while applying my oil mix, and went to one of my awesome jobs where no one would see me, MUAHAHAHA.
After work [only two hours], I got back, made a ton of pastries [none of which came out well] and then took out the now dry set. I flat ironed on about 270°.
Out of the set, my hair was already much better looking than it had previously been. Almost every piece was very smooth, it was moisturized...I could have just left it like that if I weren't trying to test this out.
Anyway, here are the results:

My hair is still the same it's always been, right below the bottom of my bra. It's about 3/4 natural, or more...

Bunning!

I was in a play the last two weekends, and yet did not do anything to my hair because I just didn't have the time, unfortunately. Luckily, it just needed to be in a bun [I was Mrs. Trent in Murder's In The Heir, a murder mystery where the killer is chosen by the audience.]

Nurse Withers on the left, Mrs. Trent on the right.

It was a sock bun, so less big than I'm used to, as seen here:

Here is a closeup of that sock bun from two different showings:

 Incidentally, in the days before the play I had time to do my hair every day, so it looked like this for a few hours before going back to being a bun:

Fun stuff, right? Anyway, my hair doesn't actually appear to have gained any length, and I'm thinking it's because my old and relaxed hair is super weak, because I have sections with no straight hair left, but the natural hair is the right length [so it's not actually breaking, but I will trim it just in case during my BC at the end of the year.]

This is how long my natural hair was in the beginning of January:

 Middle of February:

It's at my chin now, actually, so I guess the castor oil is working.

I know I haven't taken any texture shots, but it's because I don't like how thin and wispy my relaxed hair is compared to my huge, bouncy, shrunken coily 4b hair.  I adore my texture; even my mom was like 'What did you do to your hair to make it look like that‽' when I showed it to her. It had clarifying shampoo on it, and this Ion Clarifying Shampoo defines my hair something fierce. I was cleaning my bang to see if I needed to shampoo. I don't ^_^.

Anyway, stay tuned for a post about Bentonite [Calcuim] Clay and the Denman brush, if you please. Either way, have a healthy hair journey!