5 Month Post Update

I'm happy to say that I'm more than 5 months post-relaxer and my hair has recovered nicely from my recent protein overdose. It feels soft and moisturized and is no longer a frizzy nightmare!

 I will probably do a protein treatment again towards the middle of this month, but only if my hair feels prone to breakage. On another positive note, the conditioner and shampoo I purchased a few weeks back are working wonderfully. I was worried when I saw alcohol under the list of conditioner ingredients, but it turns out the specific alcohol, cetearyl has good properties for curly hair. I stumbled across this website, which apparently from the fan base is HUGE in the curly hair community: http://tightlycurly.com/Ingredients.aspx. This is what the Tight Curly Method founder, Teri says about cetearyl alcohol:

"Used as an emollient, emulsifier, conditioner, and thickener. Not the same as SD alcohol or ethanol. This is actually a mixture of Cetyl Alcohol and Stearyl Alcohol [Hunting (Conditioning) pg 142]. This is one of the ingredients I like to see near the top of a conditioner's ingredient list. When left in very curly hair it adds needed weight without being greasy."

I've always been a product junky, but would like to find my staple products (keep my money in my bank account, where it belongs). My new rules of thumbs are:

1. To use the products I have and buy new ones when those run out. I can always add essential oils to a shampoo or conditioner to increase its moisturizing properties.

2. Never have more than 2 of a product (shampoo, conditioner, protein treatment, etc.). I always like to try different things, however if I switch up products too much, I'll never know what works right for me. Not to mention, I'll stop invading my husband's "half" of the cabinet.

3. Experiment with items already in my home such as olive oil, which I added to my cheap conditioner last month and this worked wonders*!

Wonders meaning, my hair felt moisturized and detangling wasn't as horrible as usual, however it is still a task to detangle transitioning hair--- requires A LOT of patience!!

Proof of my product addiction:

Products from my drawer

Products from my medicine cabinet

I'm thankful everyday that I finally decided to stop relaxing my hair and transition! I only wished I had done so sooner. If anyone is reading this and contemplating going natural (big chop or transition), I would highly recommend it. It took me so long to realize how beautiful natural hair is, I feel bad that I've suppressed my curls, coils and kinks all of these years. 

I have also set a new heat goal for myself. In one of my entries I wrote that I flat iron my hair once every month. I don't want to incur damage when my hair is all natural, so I would like to reduce my use of heat. I've read horror stories about people experiencing irreversible damage to their curl pattern due to heat styling tools. My current goal is to flat iron my hair every other month (i.e. 6 times per year). I will use other styling methods such as protective styles and roller sets. When I do flat iron, I am going to try to let my hair air dry the day before and reduce the heat setting on my flat iron.

Tomorrow night, I'll try a homemade honey treatment that I've concocted and a new detangling method....will report results later!

Peace & Love