My first hair challenge (^L^)

Personal Goals/ Hair Challenge

Ever since starting my hair journey, even back in 2010 and even now, I have never joined a hair challenge which is not good of me. Challenges are there to boost us and get us motivated on the hair journey that we are on right? How about yourself?

So, I am going to start this year (even though it's February) doing a  simple hair challenge of my own.
Starting from February 1st only 4 weeks. To growth my hair for the 4 weeks, I will only use caster oil. Any of you, who are new to hair journey can join in as well as anyone who has not join a challenge before too.
I have heard and read so many good things about caster oil as well as, I have read and done the research on caster oil and would like to see the results too for myself.

Anyone who is always busy and does not have time for their hair should try this challenge with me, it should be exciting to see how we have all progressed.
At the moment, I have on protective styling which are Havana twists/Senegalese twists but; I will still be doing this challenge with my protective styling on.



Beautyofhairjourney © Copyright. The protective styling I've got at the moment



 

Guidelines:
1. Use caster oil, if unable to get a hold of caster oil using coconut oil will still be great.
2. For those of you like me who sometimes forget to do,
things put reminders on those phones twice a week to apply caster oil to your hair, give yourself at least a good 5 minutes and dedicated that time to applying the oil carefully in your hair.

Jamaican black caster oil I am using

Products I will be using:

JBCO (Jamaican black caster oil) oil












The best of luck to everyone! Let's see how we do.
 

The knowledge on texlax hair

Tips for Texlax hair:
For anyone such as myself going on a journey of texlaxing, this journey is not easy, just like for the relaxed and natural but we can do this. Our hair is the most fragile out of relaxed and natural since we are working with three different texture.


Hair learning:
If your fully natural, or fully relaxed you might not even experience this but for those who are texlaxing we will go through this process called the line of demarcation. If your new to this, please don't be scared, once you learn about your hair and what to do you will be fine trust me.

Here we go...

The line of demarcation if you typed this in google right now, you will probably see it is talking about it in geographical term, but that is not what I mean when I say the line of demarcation.
In hair terminology, it is when the natural hair/texlax hair strand of hair meets the relaxed hair ( the hair that is already chemically proceed). This part of the hair is the most fragile, think of it like a porcelain china tea pot.

The line of demarcartion

Anyone that will be stretching their hair or transitioning will go through this process and it is very important not to tugging the hair very much since it's fragile.

Ok, so now you know the line of demarcation how can I help it so it does not break off.






1. Finger detangle your hair as much as you can, don't and I repeat please don't start combing your hair with any comb straight away.

2. Use your wide tooth comb and start detangle your hair from the end of your hair strands to the root of your hair (to the top). Take your time in this, this is where patience comes in. To help with the detangle section your hair into 4 pieces or more if you need to and start with one section at a time.

3.  Do protective styling that helps to create the same texture for all the hair (twists, braids...)

4. Moisturing and sealing the hair, is very important to allow the hair to be hydrated ( especially in the winter season).



We have all been there before, where we feel so lazy to even style our hair or treat it good.
For those who get very busy or sometimes forgetful or even lazy, here is a great tip for remembering your hair. We all have phones now, even if it is a simple phone to a smartphone one. Place a reminder on your phone name it whatever you want to remind you to take care of you hair, I have this for even my pet fishes to feed them, we have them for appointments with friends so why not for your hair it is also very important.



Don't ignore it. They want some L.O.V.E too.

Hair progress lv1

Happy New Year! It's 2016.




Happy New Year 2016 © 2015 Happy New Year Greetings 2016

I felt that last year went by so quickly, maybe you felt that too or maybe not. Anyway, this year I want to try new things with my hair.  A new year, a new change.


Today I had "The Urge" , I just felt like cutting my hair today. What I mean is by cutting off the relaxed ends that I had from texlaxing my hair. I was cutting the line of demarcation where the relax meets the texlax part of the hair. I will talk about the line of demarcation very soon.



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As you can see, the amount of hair I cut off.

My hair has different lengths, so when it is growing it does not all have the same lengths. So, to let you know my hair length currently. I used a measuring tape and measured it in cm.

The front strand of my hair is : 20 cm

The middle strand of my hair is :
 23 cm

The back of my hair is : 19 cm


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As you can see from the image to the left my hair currently. This is after I did my chop you could say.

Although, since I did this by myself I realise not all of the relaxed ends came off, but I believe the majority did. I'm happy I did this.

 

Hair products (^2^)

Here is another list of products that I've used and still do still do use.

Curls unleased sulphate free shampoo
I have been using the sulphate free shampoo and stocking up each time, it is about to finish. For me it feels really good, you don't have to use to much as well at a time when shampooing your hair. It is not those shampoos, that really strips all  the natural oils in your hair and moisture. It's sulphate free. It does not cause your hair to be dry and I think it smells lovely.

US                       UK           Europe
$11.72               £4.27            €5.70


All the prices above, are from the amazon sites although if you find any locally then that is better. As for me, I pay much more than the UK price shown, but next time I know where to buy it for cheaper.


Aubrey organic honeysuckle rose conditioner


Product may or may not look different when purchasing it

This conditioner is an all natural one, which I really love. When I was all out from my old one, I just decided to purchase a new one and came across this one online. When I got it, I was very happy that it was 325ml which is a lot. This conditioner does have a strong smell, but I don't mind it at all. Unfortunately, I was not able to get it in any beauty hair shops.



US                       UK               Europe
$8.42                  £11.89            €12.49

 

 

This conditioner can be purchase in American Walmart shops, please note prices may vary. For the UK you can order online, or if you can find a huge hair and beauty shop that sell many products.  Do try having a look there, if possible before hitting that button for those orders online.

 

 

 ORS olive oil hair masque
 

Product may or may not look different when purchasing

 Now this product when I first purchase it, what I read was for colour treated hair but I have not dyed my hair before to be using it. However, I saw 'ulovemegz' a youtuber who I really like watching using it. This product to me helps with softening my new growth,(mixing it with some oils) and I like to leave it in for 30 minutes or more if I'm not busy.   


 

US                  UK               Europe
$11.67            £6.50               €28.80

The price for US is in Walmart. The Europe price I found this price from amazon.fr which, is very expensive, so make sure that you check your local shops for it, as I know that it can be much cheaper than the price shown above.

Hope this helps you in knowing whether this product,  is one for you to purchase. Let me know if you try any of these products and how it is for you.
 

 

Hair Advice

What a busy month I've had, it's hard to believe September has ended already. Anyway let me tell you about some healthy hair advice for hair growth; this is applicable to anyone whether your Asian, African, Latino or any other ethnicity.

Heat



Hair tools

If your use hair straigteners, redresseurs, flat iron some like to call it. Stop using these hair equipment's so often this also includes blow drying your hair; once in a while try and let your hair air dry rather than use the heat of the blow drying. If your not able to do that, try your best in using the lowest setting on the blow drying ( for instance a cool setting).  I have learned from my experience when I first started my hair journey, I  believe when you reduce or even stop using so much heat to your hair it will help with the health of hair. A little bit of chemistry is that our hair made of keratin (tough protein), now when we add heat to our hair particularly with steam and pull it, it created the bonds (hydrogen bonds) to become weak since they are stretched and then broken. So, just imagine if your doing that all the time constantly breaking those bonds in your hair. This is what causes people to notice, that their hair is perhaps shorter, dry, brittle which can lead to hair breakage (caused by excessive heat to hair).

Some of you, right might thinking absolutely no, you need heat to make your hair look beautiful. But let me tell, you using heat constantly on your hair does not help it one bit. Try this tip and see how it goes for you.  Remember: There are many hairstyles out there that does not require you to use heat.


Oils

Oils are essential for anyone wanting to grow out their hair longer, for some they may need much more oils than other. Some of you might be asking why should I use oil for my hair. 


Examples of the different types of oils

Using oils help improve your scalp health, since many oils are rich in vitamins, minerals as well as other nutrients. Oils can help also fight infections and fungus which can promote hair growth. There are so many more benefits to oils in general, each oil slightly different to the benefits than other, so if this interests you to give it a go. Why not try some of these oils listed below:
- Coconut oil (one of my favourites)
-Olive oil
-Jojoba Oil
-Avocado oil
-Caster oil
-Argan oil

One thing I like about oils is it is chemical free; and there are many more oil out there, you can try. 

 

You can find any one these oil where you live, whether it is in hair/beauty shops, or even in local markets. Search for them, before going online to buy it if you can't find it.

Let me know if you use any of these oils and which one is your favourite.

Tips for transitioning to texlax

As you may know I have texlax hair, but my hair is not fully texlax because I still have relaxed ends at the bottom which I have not cut off yet. When I will be cutting off the relaxed ends, I don't know myself, but when am good and ready I will do it.

So, any of you out there that are wanting to go texlax or are currently texlax keep on reading for helpful tips for this transition.

This is showing transitioning hair from relaxed through to texlaxed and even natural. 

Texlax step by step transition tips:
1. Section your hair by braiding: When going to shampoo, condition or even doing a protein treatment please make sure that you section your hair just like you would when preparing your hair for a relaxer. Section it using a wide tooth comb, to create each section part (create 4 sections or more depending on your hair).
I didn't know that it was important to section my hair and so my hair was always in a mess when shampooing or conditioning.

2. Never leave your hair completely dry after shampoo, or conditioning before combing it I learned it the hard way and had a lot of breakage and tangles in my hair which was very difficult to manage. When you hair is still wet, is when you should be combing each section that was braided gently detangling. Use your finger first to detangle and whenever there is some knots in the hair.


3. Moisturiser - When going texlax you need a good moisturiser that will help you with your texlax hair journey. As the process of becoming texlax your hair would require more moisture than it needed before when rexlax.

4. Stretching - When transitioning your also stretching your hair from the last time you put in a relaxer. It is important to try and get your hair soft and manageable as possible, you can do by using intensive conditioning treatment (deep conditioning) or leave in conditioner in your hair. For the intensive conditioning process it helps more if you leave in for at least 1 hour or more if you can as this helps with the next step which is styling your hair.  


5. Hair styles- as your transitioning it is important to keep in mind that you now will have a mixture of textures. So, as your texture will become more curly it is a great way to start wearing curly protective styling such as bantu knots and many more.

My last advice for those who are starting their journey to texlax (new to this hair journey of texlax), is to transition/stretch for 4 months then place a relaxer only on the new growth area. The reason for this is that it will help make the journey easier than leaving all the new growth for 6 months or 1 year. From experience, it makes it much easier since you will only be dealing with two textures, until the new growth comes again and you will be dealing with three textures. Check out texlaxing hair on my blog.

Let me know what tips you are doing that is helping you in your texlax hair journey?

Travel size: Hair product

It's summer time!


Some of us maybe travelling on holiday whether it is a short or long stay keep reading on for some important hair products to bring along with you.

When travelling whether for a few days or weeks, it is very important not to neglect your hair. We want our hair to be looking gorgeous and still healthy on the holiday. Not taking care of your hair properly will only cause set-back to hair length goal, breakage, lack of moisture and your hair just looking lifeless.


I will be travelling and my hair is out from braids (box braids).
Here is a few small travel size hair products, I am bringing along with me on my holiday trip that is under 100ml that I can take with me.
Shampoo(ORS curls unleased -sulphate free) , conditioner( Aussie miracle shine), hair oil (mix of avacado oil and olive oil) and hair moisturising cream (Elasta QP mango butter moisturiser)

The hair product I packed for my holiday.

I will also be bringing my wide tooth comb, hair pins and doing protective styling.


I have texlax my hair, over a week ago and this is how it looks like. It's very curly
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Enjoy your summer!