My latest touch-up
I got a touch-up Friday evening. I had been hoping to try a new hairdresser but I was a little scared of thought of going to someone new. So my mom did my touch-up for me. I had waited 14 weeks since my last touch-up, not by choice. My aim this summer was to wait 8-10 weeks for my touch-ups.
At any rate, I went to a local beauty supply store and bought Elasta Qp no-lye relaxer kit in the Resistant strength. The kit includes Elasta QP's Recovery Oil Moisturizer and Intense Fortifying Hair Conditioner, in addition to the relaxer and the neutralizing shampoo. My mother applied it and it came out pretty well. There a a couple of areas that are less straight than others but that is not really a bad thing. My hair now hits the bottom of my shoulder blades. So I'm happy about that! Now I just need a trim, as I am apart of a healthy ends challenge.
I have challenged myself to achieve healthier ends in 6 months. For now, my focus is to keep my ends moisturized and lubricated. I also will minimize the heat I use on my ends. My ends frizz really easily and I like to wear my hair out so this will be quite a challenge.
I hope to have pictures up very soon. Please be patient with me.
At any rate, I went to a local beauty supply store and bought Elasta Qp no-lye relaxer kit in the Resistant strength. The kit includes Elasta QP's Recovery Oil Moisturizer and Intense Fortifying Hair Conditioner, in addition to the relaxer and the neutralizing shampoo. My mother applied it and it came out pretty well. There a a couple of areas that are less straight than others but that is not really a bad thing. My hair now hits the bottom of my shoulder blades. So I'm happy about that! Now I just need a trim, as I am apart of a healthy ends challenge.
I have challenged myself to achieve healthier ends in 6 months. For now, my focus is to keep my ends moisturized and lubricated. I also will minimize the heat I use on my ends. My ends frizz really easily and I like to wear my hair out so this will be quite a challenge.
I hope to have pictures up very soon. Please be patient with me.
4 Comments:
At 2:22 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi!
I have just discovered your blog and I am so glad! I used to be natural and it was not a problem to find advices, pics and testimonies of other natural women on the web. Now that I have relaxed my hair, I realized that there was not such a big community. Your page is very intersting and I think it can go futher. But it is so important to have pics, so that one can have an idea and compare with one's own hair.
I have been natural during 3 years. Before that, I relaxed during 3 years too. I am 22 and I have always been wearing braids when a child. My mother would do them to me. I went to Germany and had no one there to braid me. So I relaxed again...
In your posting you say that you remained 14 weeks without relaxing!!! That's crazy for me!!! It is so long! I relaxed my hair on july 9th, since 7 weeks and I feel like my hair is breaking because of the growings. Do you have the same feeling? How do you prevent it? and isn't it hard sometimes to style?
My relaxer was very mild. Actually, when I wash my hair, it becomes natural. Is it the same for you? Do you blow-dry and press after shampoing? Your hair seems so long for me! I have never reached that lenght so I think your advice could be very helpful to me.
Waiting for your answer,
Elodrey
At 7:03 PM,
caress said…
Hi Elodrey,
You are so right about pictures. I promise to post some as soon as I can get my hands on a disposable digital camera.
I don't find it hard to go longer periods of time between my relaxers because I straighten my new growth with a flatiron. My only problem comes from me having night sweats (don't know why I do). If I don't sweat too much my roots stay fairly straight. If they don't stay straight I make sure not to manipulate my roots with excessive combing or brushing. I can wear my hair in a bun or ponytail and use some gel or wax on my edges and my hair still looks presentable. Other people use all sorts of products (oils are one example) to keep their new growth soft in between touch-ups.
It sounds a bit like your hair is underprocessed. This isn't the worst thing in the world. Your hair could be overprocessed. Now, make no mistake about it, once you put a relaxer in your hair, it is no longer natural though it may look like it. I would talked with a licensed hairdresser about a corrective relaxer or to see what your styling options are. If you don't want a corrective relaxer I think you may just want to blowdry and straighten your hair or work with the texture you now have. Braids may be an option for you.
My hair does not look like my natural hair now that is is relaxed but it is not stick straight either. Some curl left in the hair is a good thing. It will leave your hair with some elasticity.
One question for you is, what hair type is your hair after the relaxer? If you are unfamiliar with the hair types please visit this webpage: http://naturallycurly2.com/curl411/types.php?PHPSESSID=16aa185b564076e6535d7dc33164b2af If you are left with just a little bit of curl, kinda like a type 3, I'd say just blowdry your hair straight and maybe add some curl with a curling iron or straighten it further with a flatiron. OR for a style using minimal heat, you may be able to rollerset your hair. I did a search for roller set advice. Here's the link for that search: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=roller+set+hair&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-pull-web-t&n=10&fl=0&x=wrt
At 10:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
Thanks for all these infos. You are very well documented! I hink I will relax my ends but not now. Mayb in 6 months or so... I prefer letting my hair in peace.
Here is an intresting website. This wo�an gives a lot of advice for relaxed hair. I think she is one of the most honest among all those websites I have found:
www.blackwomansguide.com
It seems like she wants to share with the others, not just sell her book. If you look at her tips, they are very helpful. Thansk to her, I decided to stop pressing and blow-drying. I let my hair dry a little bit, then, when it's 1/4 dry, I do 4 big flat twists with oil ora pomade. It depends. It's big and dense but at least healthy ;)
Wish you all good and hope you will send pics very soon.
Elodrey
At 10:56 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi,
I love your blog. There is not much bog info out there for relaxed sisters as natural sisters can always go to Nappturality or something like that. I have a Yahoo! group and a webpage if you would be interested in viewing them. My webpage URL is http://www.geocities.com/relaxedblax/index.html. The group url is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/relaxedblax
Good luck!
Post a Comment
<< Home