By now you can tell that hair is a major topic for me. As I mentioned in one of my posts, I started my healthy hair journey on the 15th of Feb 2012. It has been a great learning process which is still in progress with a few set backs here and there.
I had a short bob from 2010 to July 2011 when I began to grow it out. I found it expensive to maintain and I just wanted to grow me some long locks of healthy hair. My hair grew a little but it was NOT healthy!!!
However, it was not until February 2012 when I was desperately searching for solutions on the internet, that I came across my favorite hair blog Grow African Hair Long. My jaw dropped when I read inspiration stories of the two lovely Kenyan sisters who started the blog, Joanne and Evelyn as well as other subscribers. I saw pictures of how long their hair had grown from the normal stagnant shoulder length hair that most of us are used to. So anyway, with all the information and product shopping I was ready to start the journey. All I can say is that its not as easy at it may seem. Needs a lot of determination. Lacked that a couple of times, other times it was just laziness but all in all it can be done.
So, this is Feb 15th 2012, wash day, air dried unhealthy hair:
April 2012, wash day, air dried:
August 2012, roller set results:
Little by little I started to restore health to my hair. I started seeing change about three weeks after I started.
My daily routine was moisturizing and sealing. I must say that I have since reduced this routine to about thrice weekly but I plan to resume this good practice. I use Organics Kids Shea Butter moisturizer. It is a great water based moisturizer. For sealing, I used coconut oil which is my favorite natural oil up until now. It gets absorbed into the hair shaft.....will do a post on it soon.
I used castor oil about 3 times weekly on my scalp to thicken my thin hair. My weekly routine is a wash with Oliive oil shampoo which is sulphate free therefore does not dry out your hair. Its quite cheap too :-)
Right after I would Deep Condition my hair with a deep moisturizing treatment < I have used several so far>
Monthly I would do a protein treatment with Motions CPR Protein reconstrutor
That was my magic regimen for healthy hair. Plus I did a long relaxer stretch from Feb to September 2012. That was hard!! Now I am 5 months post relaxer but I have decided to fully transition from relaxed to natural.
During my hair journey I definitely gained more health than length which is not a bad thing. Now that the health is restored, I am so determined to get the length. My short term goal, Armpit length and long term ........drum roll.......Waist length!!! long shot?? We'll see :-)
So finally this my before and after comparison. Feb 2012 and today, a year later. Excuse me for the bone straight look, It's been flat ironed :-)
Thank you for reading. Wish me luck.
xoxo,
Pat.
Hi Patricia, we just recently found out that the Oliive Shampoo actualy contains sulphates. You can try out the cream of nature Argan Oil shampoo it is sulphate Free. I believe you can get it at Super cosmetics.
ReplyDeleteYour hair has definitely made a Lot of Progress. Keep it up!
Waist length had better watch out for you! Hhj!
ReplyDeleteHi ladies. I also recently discovered the same thing!!! I will look for argan oil sulfate free shampoo. So hard to find sulfate free shampoos though. The argan oil shampoo I think I have spotted it only once on the shelves in super cosmetics. Then I had not realized that Oliive shampoo actually had sulfate. Thank you for making that observation will make sure I post about this error. However I am glad my hair has still made progress :-)
ReplyDeleteI am so optimistic and ready to head all the way to waist length! Hhj to y'all and I owe you ladies most of my inspiration. Kudos for GAHL!! I spread the word all the time. Tc xoxo.