WOW! It has been so long

Hi friends! It has been so long since I posted that I don't know where to begin. I hope you all have had a fabulous summer and are ready for the quickly approaching fall (I can't believe how quickly the summer passed).

Although I haven't been blogging, I have been taking pictures of new hair products and other "stuff" that I want to share. I will post these random items and share my thoughts when I have a chance.

Just a quick hair update - I have been really busy with personal things, hence the long blog hiatus, and quite honestly this is going to continue through the end of the year. With that, I have been keeping it extremely simple with my hair. After my last relaxer, I enjoyed my hair for about 2 days and then it was  chaos. As most of you know, I exercise daily in the morning, so once I sweat my hair is done. As a result, I wore my hair in random creative, big styles (like the twist and curl in my profile pic) for about one month before I returned to braids and my wig. I have been wigging since and plan to do so until my relaxer on 9/9 @ 11 weeks.

Here is my most recent wig - I got her in June. I like the way she looks, but she sheds A TON and I don't like that at all.

I have been experimenting quite a bit with how to care for my hair...ok, not that much, but it feels like it since I've been changing things up. To start, since I sweat daily and my hair is already super dry, I actually started rinsing my hair in the shower daily. Since my hair is braided, I just let the water run over my braids, if I feel like it I'll add a little conditioner and let it sit while I do my thang, and then I'll rinse at the end (I guess you can say I co-wash). I wrap my head in a t-shirt to soak up the excess water while I get dressed and by the time I'm finished, my hair is just damp. At that point I'll seal with my oil mixture because I'm basically using the water in my hair as a moisturizer (not sure if that makes sense to you guys). I've been doing this for about 2 weeks and I could definitely tell the difference in my last wash day - it was waaay easier to manage my hair! 

I decided to give this method a try because I haven't had much success finding a moisturizer that I like and that actually works, and I've read about a lot of naturals using good ol' water to moisturize their hair! Again, for my new readers, I was natural up until my texturizer 1 year ago, but my hair is still very similar to how it was when it was natural.

Ok - this update turned out waaay longer than planned, so I'm going to wrap it up and plan to come back soon!

I'm Going to Give it Another Try

I'm really into trying new things to help establish a solid regimen for my hair. As you may have started to notice (my attempt at the Greenhouse Effect and homemade protein treatment), I'm the type of person who will try anything once that's within reason. If it won't hurt/harm/endanger/be plain stupid, etc., I'll give it a go.

I have definitely noticed that many ladies with great length are avid co-washers. I have attempted co-washing twice so far and can't say that I love it. I feel like my hair is left with a coating on it and I'm just not sure that my hair is benefitting from it. Not to mention that after I've co-washed, I'm not sure how to style my hair? I certainly don't feel like or have time to do a twist n curl and I can't really rock a bun or wear it wet because of the thickness and length (I look like a 16 year old, or adult trying to keep it young - not cute).

So to all of you co-washers - what do you do with your hair after you co-wash? This especially goes out to those who co-wash several times per week!

No It's Not!

So since my initial post earlier today, I decided that my hair is not moisturized and needs prompt attention. I was already planning to wash my hair this weekend, so I decided to try to co-wash tomorrow morning with the logic that if it turns out horribly, I only have to get through 1 day before it's time to wash and style. I slapped about 50 lbs of oil on my hair (EVCO, JBCO, EVOO, and anything else containing E, V, and O in the acronym...lol), placed a plastic cap on and added my Turbie Twist towel. I will leave this on until I shower and co-wash in the morning. I guess I'm doing a pre-poo, but not completely sure. I just wanted my hair to get immediate moisture the best way it could.

I have co-washed once before when I had my hair cornrowed, but I'm not really sure that it did anything. I became inspired to co-wash after reading some old blog posts from Traycee on KISS. Traycee is an inspiration for thousands of women, myself included, and I browse her blog every so often to get different ideas about how to care for my hair. Did you know that Traycee went from touching BSL to full WL in ~9 months? Crazy right! When I first started my journey, I literally read her blog from start to finish. Well today I decided to take note of the fact that she is an avid co-washer because it helps keep your hair very moisturized, which in turn leads to better length retention. So I decided to give it a try and see how my hair responds. What do I have to lose, right? I'll keep you guys posted!