Hair Talk...

Hey guys,

I've had a very hair filled morning! I've literally spent maybe three hours surfing the hair web *hides face*. Why, you ask? Recently i've grown increasingly frustrated with my hair. The thickness, tangle prone-ness, dryness, single strand knotted-ness all of these -nesses came together to make one defeated feeling Rella. I was ready to call it quits, I felt like nothing I was doing was working and it just wasn't worth the time and effort. At my worst I was ready to cut it all off, the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I haven't found solutions to my hair problems yet and why cut it off when it's likely to grow back in the same crappy condition it's currently in.

Ok to be fair it's not that bad. Anyway this morning I woke up and was ready to make a plan to deal with all this hair ish so here are the problems.

• single strand knots
• splits ends, mid shaft splits, looks like a tree branch splits
• dryness
• detangling time/ tangle prone nature
• products...

The Plan

1. Single Strand Knots and Splits

Trim Trim Trim. Seriously I'm cutting my hair, not that sugar coated 'tip of each twist' business. I'm going through it all and chopping all the damage out thoroughly until all the knots and splits are gone. Section by section. I don't care how much hair it takes I want to be damage free. Next I'm going to monitor the condition of my hair over the next month to see if they return and why. Was it after combing? after a particular style? 

Speaking of combing, a while back, maybe last year I stopped using combs and solely finger detangled. I don't know what happened to make me go back... I think one day finger detangling stopped working on my ends so I went back to the comb. But in hindsight I think that had more to do with the state of my ends than the effectiveness of finger detangling. This time round my ends will be on point so I'm going to make a real effort and see if I can seriously cut down on comb usage.

2. Dryness

I am lazy. I won't lie. The idea of moisturising my hair, all of my hair, everyday is impossible. I just can't. Take a twist down, finger comb, spray with water, moisturise, seal and retwist everyday .0_o, Not gonna happen. But I am going to up my moisturising game, even if it's something as simple as running my hair under the shower mid-week. 

3. Detangling time/ tangle proneness

4 hours is just too long and without a comb it's probably going to take even longer. This month i'm going to experiment with different detangling methods/ combinations to see if there is anything better than my current routine. I already know that detangling my hair in the shower loaded with conditioner does not work for me. Like at all. The spray bottle prepoo detangling method aka my current routine is aiight but I think my next step is to try dry detangling. I mean, my hair just outright misbehaves when it gets wet so I'm thinking eliminate the water all together and maybe just maybe i'll stand a chance.

4. Products

When you're using a product do you ever wonder if it's actually working? It's obvious when something doesn't work because hair protests but what if your hair just shrugs it's shoulders all the freaking time. Is it because the product is average and not worth repurchasing or is it because shoulder shruging is about as excited as my hair can get? At my next wash I'm going to establish a baseline. After washing I'm just going to seal with castor oil and see how it dries. That way I know how my hair feels with no product so if my hair still feels like that after adding product; that product has some 'splaining to do! 

I'm going to leave it there, I'll definitely be back with updates, reviews and all that jazz. I'm really excited, I feel like I've been at a hair standstill for sometime now and it seems like things are finally going to start moving!

As usual I hope this finds you well!!

Rels x x

Video- Quick Twisted Style

So here's the video that I mentioned in this post.

Let me know what you think of the style...

Rels x

Yoghurt Pre-poo and other hair shenanigans...

Prepoo: Greek Style Yoghurt, Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner, Honey, EVOO, Castor Oil and Coconut Oil. 

Shampoo: Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Conditioner: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner

Moisturiser: Crown Pride Naturals Organic Hair Milk

Sealant: Castor Oil 

So this wash day was not as successful as the last one which was disappointing because I finally felt like I was making progress in my mission to make managing my hair easier.
This sess. I wanted to experiment and try a yoghurt prepoo. I don't really do protein treatments mainly because my hair doesn't seem to need it, but I thought to myself: "Rels, it's been a nearly a year since your last protein treatment, surely you must need one". So I did it. *sigh*

My hair had been in the flat twisted bun for about two weeks so I knew my ends were gonna fight me when it came to detangling, but I was optimistic. I felt prepared, surely my stubborn ends were no match for the thick creaminess of the yoghurt. How naive I was. I took a section of hair, applied the mix and reached for the comb expecting a win. My hair LAUGHED at me. Like i'm sure I heard my strands saying: "Is this chick serious?? she thought *snigger*, she actually thought yoghurt would help her BWUHAHAHAAA".

It took 4 hours to detangle my hair that night guys. 4 whole hours. I felt so disheartened, exhausted and just generally fed up. I was like "hair shouldn't be a struggle", it's just not worth it. Afterwards I donned a plastic cap and went to bed.

The next morning I was NOT looking forward to washing my hair, I had no idea what the yoghurt had done to it and didn't really want to find out, but there were no other options. When I took off the plastic cap I was pleasantly surprised. My hair felt soft. It was as if my strands felt my pain and were like "you know what chick, we'll give you this one". I jumped in the shower, shampooed my scalp, rinsed, and then applied conditioner down the length of each twist. (Oh did I mention my hair was in twists? No? Sorry.) I flash rinsed with cold water and then wrung out my hair.

At this point it was like 8:45, I had a class at 10 and no idea what to do with my hair, the twists that I washed in were way too big to style in any way and I hadn't even moisturised yet but I was like one step at a time. I took a twist, untwisted, moisturised and sealed the hair with castor oil, and then split it in two and twisted again. I did that all over my hair and by 9:50 I was done. Still had no clue what to do with it though, but during the process I had put the front half of my hair in a loose bun to make accessing the back easier. When it came to styling I realised what I had done and was like hmm, this is kinda cute- which is strange because I never have my hair all the way back, I don't normally like the way it looks on me, but for some reason this time it worked. I did the same with the back half, pinned a few misbehaving sections and by 10 I was done.

Sure I was late to class but I didn't care. I had conquered. I felt like a champion. It didn't matter that I am yet to solve my ssk, mid shaft splits problem because that morning I styled my hair in under 5 minutes. I had the biggest smile on my face as I was walking to class.

Smell that guys? That is victory.

I'll post the vid for the style next.
Hope this finds you well,
Rels x

Flat Twisted Bun, How I love thee

This bun changed my life and refreshed a stagnating hair relationship. I don't even know where the idea came from for this, it was a complete eureka moment- light bulb and all.

My hair has been long enough to bun for a while now, and I love the look of buns but two things have stopped me from wearing them. 

1) because my hair is so dense, putting it in a normal ponytail results in a unbunnable stubby piece of hair. 

2) In the event that said stub is bunnable and a bun is created (either by twisting the stub and pinning the end or not taking the whole length of hair through the hair band) my ends run wild and i'm left with a SSK breeding ground. *sigh*

The bun started to become a fantasy, a myth something completely unattainable, then I had a revelation. "Why don't I flat twist the ends?" The idea became a reality and my life has never been the same since lol. 

So here's how I did it, I started on freshly washed dry hair and sectioned off the front for flat twisting. Once those were done I put the middle of my hair in a ponytail then brought the back of my hair up to the ponytail and made a new ponytail. Next it was time to see if my theory would work. I split the ponytail in half and then flat twisted each half. So let's take the left half for an example- While I flat twisted I drew the hair from the centre-y part of the ponytail (but still in the left section) and pulled it to the edge, so that way the flat twist leaned to the left. I did the same on the right and then pinned the ends round the bun. 

I can't believe it worked! I loved it, everything about it, finally I had a bun, a chunky, protective bun!! This is definitely going to become one of my go to protective styles.

As always, I hope this finds you well!

Rels x

Wash day!

I had a really good wash day(s) this week. I was surprised at how smoothly it all went because my hair was in a terrible state after a run in with a blow dryer. Never again smh.
Post traumatic blow dry encounter my hair had been in 4 flat twists (2 going across my head at the front with a side part, and two going back) for about 2 weeks. The style was actually really cute, I'll do a post on it the next time I do it again but my poor hair was in a tangled tangled state.
I had been putting off washing my hair but it was time to face the music so here's what I did.

Prepoo: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner, Honey, EVOO and Coconut Oil. 

Shampoo: Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo

Conditioner: Crown Pride Naturals Avocado Detangling Conditioner

Moisturiser: Crown Pride Naturals Organic Hair Milk

my hair + the mix

The Method: I took a medium sized section of hair, briefly finger detangled and then spritzed with water. Then I smoothed the mix onto my hair; i'd apply the mix to the middle of the hair and then work it down to my ends and then I'd take a bit more, put it on the roots and then work it down to the ends again, then i'd go back and squeeze the section from roots to ends.

Next I finger detangled again and then went through the hair with my large wide toothed comb and then once more with my small wide toothed comb.

Finally I twisted the section and moved on.

By the time I finished my whole head it was late so I donned a plastic bag and called it a night. 

drying my hair- I actually
liked this bun...

The next morning I rinsed out the prepoo, shampooed my scalp and conditioned with the twists still in. When I got out the shower I wrung out my hair- literally lol- and then blotted with a t-shirt. I added some moisturiser, a bit of coconut oil and left my hair to dry in a bun.

My thoughts: Now I don't know whether it was the new condish or the honey or both but detangling my hair was so much easier. I couldn't believe it, I was fully expecting to have to cut yonks of my hair because of how tangled it was but the session went so smoothly!! 

Next i'm going to work on getting my hair to dry feeling moisturised as opposed to dry. So instead of adding my moisturiser straight after washing, next time i'll add it when my hair is like 80-90% dry and see if that makes a difference...

I guess that's it for now!

Just to let you know

I'm going to be posting more regularly as of...well- now.
And i'm thinking I might start posting some videos as well!
I have tons to tell you about
Like the castor oil challenge!
And my two week affair with some mini twists I did in January.
My blow out FAIL.
My favourite 10 minute protective style.
and much more!!

I should have a new post up at some point this week. If I don't I just might slap myself =/
So yeah, watch this space :)

x