I Didn't Comb My Hair This Week and I Still Looked Fab

How ya like me now?!  It all started on a Sunday night.  I had washed my hair, I was about 7 weeks post relaxer, and I was like, oh really, you want to act like that?  And my hair was like, umm yeah, what are you gonna do about it?  So I was like, well okay, I'm just going to twist you up in two buns and go to sleep and deal with you in the morning.  

What resulted were light, fluffy, puffy curly curls that looked super cute.  I wore a ton of different styles with it - of course I didn't take pictures every day, but this is one of the looks:

Yeah, I was feelin myself ;-)

Each night I would just put my hair up in two buns and the mornings would be a surprise.  It wasn't as cute as the week went on, but I just changed it up.  One day I wore it half up and the rest down.  One day it was a curly ponytail.  Either way, it got me through the week and I was in flexi-rods that weekend.  But who says stretching can't be cute??? 

Real Life Scenarios: Epilators - Pure Torture or your BFF?

So lets shift the discussion today from the hair that I love to the hair that I hate -- my body hair.  I've always hated my body hair.  Always.  And when I say hate, I don't mean dislike, I mean I actually hate my body hair.  For almost a couple decades now, I've spent countless time and money trying to get rid of it.  From shaving and plucking to laser hair removal, I've tried it all.  Today I'm going to talk about another option that many of you may not be familiar with -- epilators.

Epilating, to me, is a cross between waxing and shaving.  It's a handheld tool that you use like a shaver to pull/pluck the hairs in your body at the root.  So unlike shaving which just addresses the hair above the surface, it's like waxing which pulls the hair at the root, thus taking it a lot longer to grow back.  Now why might one torture themselves like this, it's quite simple, you HATE the hair on your body.  If I didn't have a deep hate for my body hair, I don't think I could stand the pain of using it.  I do have a few tips for making it less painful, however what is beauty without pain, LOL. 

2012 Comparison

I'll go ahead and admit it -- I've been pretty horrible with posting my comparison pictures and I'm probably not going to get any better at it.  It's just not really something I care about or am interested in capturing, however, I do take a moment from time to time and now I'd like to share.

I'd also like to introduce a new term to the hair care world - Tattoo Length Hair (TLH), LOL.  I don't know how scientific this is, but I tried to aline my pictures up at the tattoo line as my point of reference for how much change as occurred over the past 12 months.  Take a look:

I think now, I'm a lot thicker and fuller than a year ago, in addition to being longer.  I will also note that the hair on the 2011 picture looks flat ironed, while the 2012 picture is not.  So I'm at APL, but not a "full APL".  I am on my Jamaican Black Castor Oil challenge, so I expect big changes in the next 32 days before I relax again.

And since I had it, I wanted to throw in bonus long lost picture from July 2011.  It's a wet hair pic (which I now feel like is cheating),  but I wanted to throw it in anyway.  Maybe I'll do a wet hair comparison from then till now...?

July 2011 - Wet Hair

Cheers!

How Low Can You Go?

V-Day Flowers hand delivered by my Hubby

 It's February... the month of love, black history month, and now - the month I always get bangs, LOL.  This is year 2 of the v-day bang (no pun intended) and I'm loving it.  After desiring, wishing, and hoping that I had the balls to change my hair, I finally went through with it... over the course of a couple weeks.

Recipe for Success

I am happy to report that I successfully met my goal of waiting 8 weeks between relaxers!  And the main reason (and probably the only reason) I was able to achieve this goal is with the use of oils.  With the help of Amazon, I have assembled a team of oils that have provided moisture and balance for my hair.

Minus the Smooth-n-Hold Pudding, which I'll discuss later, I purchased online:

• Almond Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Jojoba Oil
• Cocoanut Oil
• Jamaican Black Castor Oil

Jealous of My Own Hair

I'm a couple weeks strong with deep conditioning twice a week and my hair is suddenly loving it!  I think I'll stick with Wednesday and Sunday deep condition days - with a switch ups in between.  I did my first switch up this past weekend. 

On Wednesday, I did a normal deep conditioner mix with EVOO, JBCO, and my conditioners.  On Friday, I finally repurchased Suave Humectant conditioner to use as my cheapie condish.  It cost around $2 and I'm now going to consider it my miracle in a bottle.  So on Saturday, I only did a co-wash, no oils or anything.  I air dried for a little over an hour and then I blow dried my hair because I had a few parties to attend.  After I blow dried my hair, it felt more soft and moisturized then it has been in weeks.  When I flat ironed my hair, it looks silky and shiny and felt amazing to the touch.  I loved it :)

Also, if you're keeping track - I'm going for 8 weeks before I relax my hair.  That puts me at about one week away.  The oil treatments have definitely made a difference and I will continue to use them as a part of my regimen. 

Meh....

I've had a very busy past 7 days or so with my hair.  It started off on a high note when I received my Jamaican Black Castor Oil (JBCO) about 2-3 days after I ordered it on Amazon.   JBCO and Castor Oil in general is said to be great for maintaining moisture in your hair, which can help with breakage.  Also, from what I've observed, castor oil also helps promote growth.  I'm not sure if it's because your messaging your scalp more or maybe just because you start taking better care of your scalp period... But I've seen some miracles with castor oil, so I impulsively replenished my stash.

Since I have quite a bit to work with now, I decided to go ahead and test it out.  I had already applied JBCO to my scalp with the remainder that I had left from the first time I purchased it, but this time I wanted to do a deep condition and use the JBCO to, first, do a hot oil treatment, and second, mix with my conditioner. 

Can we start over?

As I posted last night, I washed, deep conditioned, and then air dried my hair. Typically when I air dry I only use the scarf method which leaves my edges somewhat straight and the rest of my hair frizzy. I always sleep with my hair tied down, but it's really hard to tame my mane...

Help me please!

So I started looking at some posts on YouTube and decided to start over again. I remoisturized my hair by over saturating it with my leave in moisturizer (mostly Aloe Vera Juice) and then sealed with (believe it or not) the tiny remainder of my Jamaican Black Castor Oil. Speaking of JBCO, I placed an order for more last night on Amazon around 1 AM. I saw pics of results from a 2 month challenge and I am JEALOUS!!!  So I'm hoping for a maricle in a bottle - along with a little discipline of course. It actually shipped today, so maybe I'll have it by the end of the week? 

In the meantime, we'll count today as day one of my personal JBCO challenge.  Will you hate me in 2-3 months?  I sure hope so :-)