Progress? Perhaps

It appears that my new mission has become a little bit of an obsession. It's only week 3 of my HHJ but I am thoroughly hooked, and more determined than ever. I can't enter a shop without making a turn in the hair aisle, even if I don't buy anything at that moment, to see what there is which could be to my advantage.

This past weekend I relaxed at 10 weeks post, and I'm pretty proud of that because I've never stretched consciously before. I'm going to attempt 12 weeks next, so technically speaking my next date for relaxing my hair will be the 4th of May 2012. I also did my best to not overlap and neutralize properly, as well as strengthen with protein using my Hair Mayonnaise, and afterwards deep conditioning with the moisturizing Anti-Breakage treatment.

So, my goal is to retain every millimeter of growth so that I gain at least 3cm in length all over my head by 4 May 2012. To accomplish this I'm going to do the following (advice seen on some wonderful blogs):

• ALWAYS prepoo before washing my hair, using either a rich moisturizing conditioner or coconut oil, and have the prepoo do it's job for at least 30 minutes. Over weekends, prepoo the night before and have the treatment work overnight.
• ALWAYS roller set when washing my hair, being gentle and remembering that the hair will break if I pull the rollers too tight.
• ALWAYS use the most moisturizing and gentle shampoo I can get my hands on. I am contemplating buying baby shampoo when my Pantene Silky Smooth is finished because it's so mild and contains very little sulphates.
• For every 3 washes, instead of my usual conditioner, which is quite rich, use a deep conditioning treatment or protein treatment, alternating, to ensure a good moisture/protein balance.
• I will only allow myself to use direct heat 4 times from now until the 4th of May, including my hair straightener and direct blowdrying. The hairdryer will only be used for drying the hair if time is an issue and then on the low/medium setting. If time is not an issue I will airdry my hair.
• I will find myself a silk or satin scarf with which to wrap my hair every night so as to protect it from friction against the pillow and to maintain a straight look without using heat.
• I will moisturize and seal as often as possible using coconut oil as it is light and absorbed into the hair shaft.
• I must minimize manipulation, in other words I shouldn't play with my hair through out the day, it's not conducive to retaining length.
• I will continue to trawl the hairblogs to pick up as many pointers as possible, while keeping track of my progress and keeping my hand on my head like I haven't done in years.

On another note, I miss my fiance. There's three weeks left of the training he's on before we'll see each other again, but there's still a big measure of uncertainty as to where he'll be placed after training. This is one of the reasons I'm throwing myself into this HHJ, so that I can focus on the tangible and on that which I can control. I just pray that the results mirror the effort. Till next time :-)