Thursday, August 30, 2012

Longest stretch yet - 14 weeks

Good morning everybody. It's been a minute since I did a decent HHJ update, so here goes.

Last week Friday, on the 24th of August, I finally got around to relaxing my hair at 14 weeks post, which has been my longest stretch yet, and in all honesty, I must admit that I doubt that I would stretch for that long again, unless I can truly learn how to baby and pamper my new growth, because I in this stretch I experienced breakage around the demarcation line and I was NOT happy about it. The breakage was not extreme and I still maintained my retention rate of about 2-3cm during the stretch, but one of my goals is to have breakage and shedding to an absolute minimum, so during the next 12 weeks or so I am going to focus on that. 

Now, to rewind a little to Friday, I must say that I think that I have my PERFECT relaxing kit, which is the ORS Olive Oil Relaxer kit for GIRLS. As you know from my previous posts I have always been more partial to the formulations for the young ones, but for the longest time I've grabbed the Dark & Lovely Beautiful Beginnings box. I am now officially changing over. The ORS kit is simply awesome. The relaxer itself, after mixing it with the activator is a smoother consistency and smells MUCH more pleasant. the kit includes not only a jelly for basing one's scalp, but also a wheatgerm oil based protectant for previously relaxed hair to assist in preventing over processing. It includes nicer, better fitting latex gloves as well as a shower cap to assist with the deep conditioning step. All in all, a great product, and bang for your buck. 

Okay, now to get to the actual relaxing:

  • Based my scalp with the provided jelly and covered previously relaxed hair with the provided oil (which smells nice as well)
  • Applied the relaxer with the help of a friend. Application and smoothing time was between 12-15 minutes, I'm not entirely sure. Scalp did not burn at all, but 30 seconds prior to rinsing I felt my nape starting to tingle just a little. 
  • Rinsed as thoroughly as I could before first shampoo with ORS Creamy Aloe Moisturizing Shampoo. 
  • Shampooed and rinsed with the neutralizing shampoo twice and then did a mid protein step with ORS Hair Mayonnaise for about five minutes, after which I shampooed and rinsed with the neutralizing shampoo another 4 or 5 times. My legs were WAY shaky and wobbly from being bent over the bath tub when  finally finished rinsing. 
  • Applied the DC provided in the kit, put on the shower cap and then just chilled for about 20 minutes whilst I had a cup of coffee with my friend. 
  • Rinsed the DC (hair felt so soft and smelled so heavenly!) and then applied a little Bone Strait as leave in and proceeded to roller set. During the roller set I realized exactly how much my hair has grown because I used ONLY big orange rollers, which are maybe 1 and half inches in diameter, which I have not been able to do before now, EVER. 
  • Had my hair airdry in the rollers for about half an hour and then dried it further with a blow drier. After removing the rollers, my friend straightened it with her GHD iron using few quick passes and then I was good to go. 
My hair felt way smooth, moisturized and had SO much movement. I went out clubbing afterwards and got SO many compliments. I seriously trust that I will not use another product again for my touch ups again. Sorry for the lack of pics, will ask another friend that we do a little photo shoot soon with decent pics taken by a killer CANON camera. 

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