Closure...and wash day frustrations

I think it truly is a great moment when one realizes that a certain chapter of your life can be officially closed. It's that moment of clarity, of starting to know exactly what you want and what you don't want. They say an old flame never truly dies. I say that "they" are wrong. This past weekend I experienced closure after spending time with someone from my past. It was both a revelation and a relief when I realized that the spark is gone, and to be honest, he wasn't even that big a part of my history, but if I didn't spend time with him again, I think I always would have wondered. It gave me peace regarding the other, bigger parts of my history. If I can achieve such comforting and final closure in this instance, then surely I can achieve it with another, and I pray that one day soon I'll be able to send him light and love and move on, closing the book on what today I still regard as a bit of nuclear meltdown. Regardless, I am happy knowing that I can achieve closure and have a much clearer view of myself and what I want and what I need. 

In other news, I am charging full steam ahead in the protective styling challenge. Today specifically I'm wearing my hair pinned up in a 50's inspired fashion, trying my best to have every end tucked away. I must say, since I have bangs, I need to find protective styles that also tuck away and protect the ends of my bangs as well, without me looking like a 15 year old girl. Also, I am going to attempt to manipulate my hair as little as possible during the extent of this challenge, as I'm still experiencing breakage and shedding to a degree that I am not comfortable with. Yesterday was wash day, and with the amount of hair I lost, even though I was being sooooooo very gentle, I wanted to scream. Quick recap of wash day:

• Pre-poo and deep conditioned simultaneously, using the ORS Masque. It's extremely thick and has practically NO slip, so as I applied it, I also sprayed my hair with my water and conditioner spritz mix. That helped me to distribute the masque more evenly and gave it much more slip, so detangling was much easier and I lost very little hair in this process. I covered my hair with a plastic cap and a cotton scarf to try and trap as much heat as possible and sat with it for about an hour.
• Shampooed with Protein Feed Moisturizing Shampoo, focusing on my roots and letting the runoff take care of the ends. 
• Conditioned with the Protein Feed Moisturizing Conditioner, detangling my hair, being as gentle as possible. Experienced more shedding than I'm comfortable with. Seriously contemplating incorporating more tea rinses into my regimen. 
• Rinsed and then applied my ORS Replenishing Conditioner. I swear, this is a true staple. I absolutely LOVE it. My hair always feels great when I use it, whether I condition with it for an hour or for ten minutes. Yesterday, I kept it on for ten minutes and my hair still felt amazing after rinsing it. I will ALWAYS have it in my hair care arsenal. 
• Put in my leave in's of Avon 3D Rescue and Bone Strait and proceeded to roller set. I had to spritz it continuously as my hair dried very quickly due to the heat we've been experiencing. I left my hair to air dry whilst in the rollers, which took less than three hours. After removing the rollers, I put in some Kair Serum and combed my hair into a pony, tucking the ends into the scrunchie and went out to do some errands. When I went to bed, I simply wrapped my hair with my satin scarf and bonnet, as it still felt moisturized enough and I thought additional moisturizing would superfluous.  

 Okay, maybe that recap wasn't that quick, lol. In any event, I am looking forward to finding new ways to protect my hair and to retain length. I'm 8 weeks post now and I want to see a clear improvement in retention by the time of my next touch up. I am kicking everything into high gear now. 2013 is a new year and nothing's gonna break my stride. 

Have a good week everyone!