Goals for the New Year

I stopped setting goals for my hair journey and pretty much have been keeping it simple. But there are two main things that I want to accomplish. Keep reading to find what's going on.

1. Try to use up at least half my product stash by the end of July and buying no new products during that time.

Yes I know what you are going to say and you are absolutely right. I have done product no buy stints before. Some I got through and others were a complete fail. But my stash of products is still out of control. I seriously need to cut it down and reign in my product junkiness. I love trying out new products but the lesson I need to learn is that I do not have to try every product that catches my interests. They will still be there when it's the right time for me to buy them. I have a wide range of products for each category: shampoos, conditioners, deep conditioners, leave ins and stylers. So I have to dig extremely deep to keep from getting anything else. I can and will do it.

2. To make it to two years post relaxers. No big chopping.

My desire to cut my relaxed ends off changes with just about every wash day. I am still not too comfortable with the length of my natural hair. I know that I would not be happy if I big chop. But I want to stick to making it to 2 years post, maybe even 3 if my hair continues to cooperate. I want to be about APL or longer with my hair stretched whenever I decide to big chop. I'm really not in much of a hurry.

Do you have any new goals for you hair journey?

Regimen for My Color Treated Hair and Preparing for Color

When it comes to my regimen not much is going to change once my hair is colored. I will continue to wash my hair on a weekly basis and deep condition under my steamer with every wash. If my hair starts to feel dry during the week, I won't hesitate to cowash. Color makes our hair dry so keeping the hair moisturized is an essential part of successfully having healthy color treated hair. During our hair journeys we tend to focus mainly on moisture, moisture, moisture. At the same time, you cannot slack on using protein either. My plan is to alternate using moisture based deep conditioners and protein based deep conditioners.

These are the protein conditioners that I will use. My favorite is the Hydratherma Naturals. I am not into doing hard protein treatements like the Aphogee Two Step Treatement. I prefer mild protein treatments. Treatments that don't make the hair hard but still gives it a boost of strength. That is enough for me. Once I have finally finished with these conditioners, Hydratherma Naturals will be my staple protein treatment.

Basically my regimen will look like this:
Fridays or Saturdays

Overnight Prepoo w/ an oil (whenever I feel like it)
Shampoo
Rinse Out Conditioner
Deep Condition
Apply Leave-ins
Air-Dry in twists

Wednesday:
Cowash if my hair is feeling dry

This regimen is nice and simple. My regimen is not very complicated. I have learned that for my hair less is more. I will continue to stick to the basics with my hair. It has aided me well during my journey. 

Since I booked my appointment to get my hair highlighted, I have been searching You Tube to find out how to prepare my hair for color. I came across SimplyBiancaalexa's video on Caring For Colored Treated Hair. Something she said stuck out to me. She said that her stylist told her that it is best to color freshly washed hair. So the day before her hair was colored she clarified. I decided that I would ask my stylist during my last appointment on Sunday what I needed to do. Buuuut I completely forgot during our discussion. So I texted her today and asked her was there anything I needed to do to my hair before my appointment next month i.e. clarify. Usually by the end of the week my hair is screaming to be cleaned because it has a good amount of product build up on it. I don't want that to hinder the color taking well to my hair. She basically cosigned on what I heard on the video. She told me to shampoo and detangle 48 hours before the color and to try to keep the hair detangled and in four sections to ensure better manageability before application. That is exactly what I am going to do. So that Wednesday before my appointment I will clarify my hair and keep it in twists until my appointment. Realizing that detangling with conditioner in my hair is beneficial for me came just in time.

Here is what that wash day is going to look like:
Clarify: Hydratherma Naturals Herbal/Amino Clarifying Shampoo
Condition: Hairitage Hydration Sticky Honey Hash Conditioner
Deep Condition (steamer)/Detangle: Hydratherma Naturals Moisture Boosting Deep Conditioning Treatment
Leave-In: Silk Hydration by L. Jones Leave-In Conditioner (This is a light spray on leave-in. I don't want to use something heavy that will coat my hair too much)

That's it ladies! 

Color Talk and Some Random Chit Chat

If you have been following my blog for awhile then you already know that back in March of 2013 I colored my hair at the salon using the Shea Moisture Color System in Bright Auburn and I loved it. When it came time for me to touch up the color my cousin who was doing my hair for me at the time was very hesitant about doing it. So I left it alone. When I decided to start frequenting the Huetifull Salon earlier this year, I revisited the idea again. On my second visit I asked my stylist what she thought about me coloring my hair. She said it would be best wait until I had cut a lot more of the relaxed ends off. I was about 8 or 9 months post relaxer then. I definitely had more relaxed ends. Again, I stuck a pin in that idea and just continued taking care of my hair. So fast forward to the last few months, I have really been itching to get my hair colored. Now it's time to scratch the itch. Lol Corny. I know. I asked my stylist about coloring my hair. She is the same stylist I asked earlier in the year. She said that I would be able to get it colored as long as I didn't go to bright. That won't be a problem because I want to stay in the reddish brown/auburn family. Now you know that made my day. After my appointment I went straight home and booked my appointment for Jan. 19. Ladies, I am really excited about coloring my hair. Although, I still have some color left in my hair, it's damn 2 years old. Lol I am ready to add a little flair to my hair. (I promise I wasn't trying to rhyme there.)
So to show how serious and excited I am about this, I have 2 folders worth of pictures I have saved from instagram to help me pick a color. One of the two folders are of the top six pics. They are all different shades of the same color. Lol Here are the pictures so you all can see what I am going for.

I'll be getting my hair done on Sunday and will show my stylist this picture. The color service I booked was for Partial Highlights and I booked my regular hydration treatment as well. I will be doing a post on my regimen for my soon to be colored treated, mostly natural and partially still relaxed hair. Lol Also look out for a post on the results next month.

Randoms:

I have a new found love of washing my hair. I never thought I would say that. Whether it's a good wash day or not so good, I enjoy it. Lol

I am very much so looking forward to the new Science of Transitioning book by Audrey Davis-Sivasothy. I haven't even finished the Science of Black Hair book yet but I will be purchasing this as soon as it is released.

Since my hair will be color treated I will give the Shea Moisture Manuka Honey and Mafura Oil Shampoo another try. Maybe it'll perform better and I don't want to waste my money. I want to use products that are moisturizing and color safe. I believe the majority my products do just that.

So that no buy I was suppose to be on a couple months back. Yeah....that was an epic fail. I am sure you all have noticed some products you haven't seen me mention regularly. My product junkiness was in full swing. It's definitely time to cut off the product spending. We'll see how long I can go without purchasing a new product. My only leeway is to repurchase products that I run out of and plan on using regularly. 

If my wash days end like my last one did I can see myself continuing this stretch past August. We'll see. 

Update on the 30 Day Water Challenge. My water intake really didn't change. I drank the same amount of water that I normally do. I drink a decent amount of water,  it 

just didn't increase like I wanted to. 

I think this post is long enough. I hope you enjoyed a post that was something other than a wash day chronicles post. Lol

Wash Day Chronicles: 68 Wks Post

Hello ladies! I have been on vacay for the past the week. I went on a cruise to Belize and Cozumel and I had a wonderful time. But now it's back to reality. I went to Huetiful to get my hair done the day before I left and as soon as I got off the plane in Florida my hair frizzed up and became kind of big. I'm not use to that happening. lol Now that I am back home it's time to wash my hair. I will be going back to Huetiful to get my hair done for Christmas and I also made an appointment to get my hair colored in January, I am super excited about that. I am ready to spice my hair up. Let's get into today's wash day.

My frizzy hair

{1} Last night I applied coconut oil to my hair and the Shea Moisture Manuka Honey and Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Complex to my scalp. Put on plastic cap and let it sit for hours.
{2} After rinsing out the oil, I shampooed with Shi-Naturals Lemonade shampoo to get all of the oil out of my hair. It did just that. Love this shampoo.
{3} I tried a new rinse out conditioner for this wash day, Soultanicles Curl Supreme Conditioning Supreme. It's an ok conditioner. My hair was very moisturized but it doesn't detangle my hair very well. Nothing I will repurchase in the future.

Sidenote: Because I didn't detangle my hair very well before washing so I had some tangles to the point that I was considering cutting my hair because detangling in the shower wasn't working. Keep reading to find out how I salvaged this wash day.

{4} Once the conditioner was rinsed out, I t-shirt dried for about ten minutes and started trying to detangle my hair. I decided to do something that I have never considered doing before. I applied my Hydratherma Naturals Amino Plus Protein Deep Conditioning Treatment to my hair in small to medium sections and detangled with the conditioner in my hair and twisted each section. That was the absolute best decision ever. I was able to comb through my hair and get the tangles out. This conditioner saved my hair. It is officially a favorite of mine. Detangling with conditioner in my hair is now a permanent part of my regimen.
{5} After sitting under the steamer for about 25 minutes, I let my hair cool off for a few minutes then went on to rinse out the deep conditioner. I have said it before and I will say it again this conditioner rinses out so easily.
{6} I kept most the twists in my hair when I rinsed out the conditioner. This kept my hair detangled. I started out using Hairitage Hydration's Soft Coconut Marshmallow leave-in and sealed with my Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage serum. Once I was out of SCM Leave-in, I used Soutanicles Knot Sauce Coil Detangler. That stuff is pretty good. Now my hair is in twists and I will run the blow dryer over it with the concentration nozzle on it to help take some of the moisture out since I need to be leaving soon.

I can definitely say that was a good wash day. I discovered a new technique that my hair likes and I find a new product that I could possible see continuing to use.

Wash Day Chronicles {11.29.14} 66 Wks post

{1} This wash day I wanted to use a moisturizing shampoo instead of the using the Lemonade Shampoo I have been using. The lemonade shampoo is my clarifying shampoo that I love to use because it gives me the deep clean that I want but doesn't leave my hair feeling super stripped and dry. This week I did think my hair needed that deep of a clean so after hearing some good things about Shea Moisture's Manuka Honey and Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Shampoo, I went and purchased a bottle. If I didn't throw away my Target receipt it would be back at Target and not taking up space in my room. This shampoo is more like a conditioner than a shampoo. I felt like it created more build up than it did cleaning my hair. I went ahead and continued to use it and give it a far shot. Not a good idea. A couple of days later, I was wondering why my hair had trouble staying moisturized. I believe this was a problem. I really wanted to like this shampoo but I just couldn't do it.

not my picture

{2} After rinsing out the shampoo, I applied Haiveda's Moist Condition 24/7. The jury's still out about this one because my hair wasn't properly cleansed for me to say if I like it or not. I put on plastic cap and let it sit in my hair while finished showering.

{3} Next, I deep conditioned under my steamer with Hydratherma Naturals Amino Plus Protein Deep Conditioning Treatment. This is definitely a staple, It's sinks into my hair beautifully. It makes my hair stronger but not stiff. I also let it sit on my hair for an additional hour or so.

{4} I applied my leave-ins (Alikay Naturals Lemongrass Leave-in and Kurl Pop). Twisted my hair and let it air dry.

This was just ok wash day for me. I got my hair done today at the shop so it was properly cleansed. lol

***Note: Look out for my next post where I will talk about coloring my hair again in the new year. I caught the color bug again***