How My Relaxed Hair Was Styled For Grandson Dedication

My grandson was dedicated on Sunday October 28, 2012 in St. Thomas USVI.  He was born there July 23, 2012.  Of course your girl had to look 'fly' for the event, so I went to the hair dresser the day before and had my hair styled.  My hair needed relaxing (that's the reason for the waves at the side of my head) but I decided to let a few more weeks pass before doing a 'touch up'.  

 

Anyway I must say that my hairdresser did a great job.  Her price was quite reasonable and I paid a little more as a token of my appreciation.  I initially asked her to style the back of my hair in a donut but she did something different and I was extremely pleased. That is a 'hump' at the front - actually I got the idea when I went to a coffee shop in town and I saw a lady's hair styled like that.

I was originally thought of maybe getting a wig as wigs are in style now but don't know if that is really for me plus I sweat alot and know I might feel uncomfortable.  So I choose an up-do.  Styling my natural hair would not have lasted because, again, I sweat alot and my hair would have flopped.

 

Everyone at my work place, loved my hair style when they saw me the next day.  But you can bet by Wednesday I had taken down my hair.  My hairdresser put alot of hair styling lotion in my hair and I really do not like alot of these chemicals in my hair. In addition, she had to use a rubber band to hold my hair together - I don't like rubber bands in my hair either, they damage the hair. 

I will do these fancy styles with styling lotions, gels and rubber bands for a special occasions and after about two days, I will wash out my hair.  Not to mention, these chemicals damage the relaxed hair.

Hairstyle For PhotoShoot Session

These pictures were taken on May 2.  I washed my hair the night before and went to the hairdresser the next morning to have it styled.  My hairdresser would normally style my hair in a 'bob' hair style each time I have my hair relaxed.  I had to make specific request to have it styled differently. 

My hair was recently relaxed and I also put a rinse in my hair to hide the grey hairs.  I am getting alot now, but not the amount you would expect for a 50 year old!  But I notice in the second photo, it looks like I am balding a bit - maybe it is because I just had my hair blow dryed.

I have been using baking soda quite a few times in between my thorough hair washing days and it works great.  I would wet my hair, put a generous amount of baking soda in my hand and then massage the baking soda into my hair.  I will then rinse my hair.  Some people like to mix the baking soda with their conditioner before apply the mixture to their hair.

My initial intention was to have my son take some pictures of me with my camera for an article I wanted to submit for a local magazine.  When we sat down, that day (May 2, 2012), to have something to eat and set up to take the pictures, I realized that he had to have a camera (which he did not have) to take picture of me using my camera.

I was able to schedule an appointment (that same day - I could not afford to waste my well styled hair) with a local photographer to take the pictures for me.  I used one of the pictures on my About Me page of my photography website and one to change my profile picture on my facebook photography page.

I would like to aim to have the length of my hair reach to the middle of my back.  Think I can do it????

I Am Getting Back My Length!

Just showing off the progress of my relaxed hair.  I had it relaxed and a semi permanent dye applied, in Trinidad - June 2011.  I have been going to the beach regularly and have not been treating my hair very kindly even though I have been washing out the salt water.  

I notice that there have been alot of breakage when I comb my hair.  So I bought some Organic Olive Oil Shampoo, Conditioner and Hair Moisturizer (I love these products)  and I section my hair at night and apply the moisturizer paying attention to the ends.  Then I wrap each section into a Bantu Knot.  I am getting back my length and I want my hair to be healthy!

Relaxed Hair Color

It took me a while to decide what content I should write for these pictures and I finally got it! 

My daughter sent me these pictures, about two days ago, of her relaxed hair that she had recently applied some permanent color to.  It looks really great!  It gives her face a different look.  You have to be real careful when applying permanent color to your hair.  I remember my previous employer always wore a wig and I asked her the reason why and she explained that she went to have her relaxed and wanted a permanent hair color applied as well.

Apparently the hairdresser did not advise her that the permanent hair color could not be done the same day that the hair was relaxed.  So my ex-employer's hair was relaxed and colored the same day!  And what happen next was just crazy.  She said that she did not like the color so she had someone else apply another color to her hair - which was within a few days!  Absolutely crazy!  So you can guess what happened next!  Her hair began to fall out in chunks.  So she had to resort to wearing the wigs until her hair grew back.

Hair Breakage From Braids

Before I washed my hair 

Article by Kyla Vialva - My daughter.

Recently I styled my hair in a simple up-do, and of course my hair stylist used spritz and gel to hold the style. After about two weeks of wearing the style I washed it out. A handful of hair came out while I was combing my hair and I thought to myself that my hair was breaking. So I decided to give my hair a break from processing and daily heat from my curling iron by braiding it.

Tangled Hair

Yesterday, I decided to remove my braids after about 3 weeks. Boy did I regret it. I forgot to comb out my hair before I washed it, which resulted in huge tangles of hair in my head. I tried so many things to untangle my hair, without breaking it but I couldn’t. Sadly I had to, this time more hair came out than the first time. I don’t think I will be braiding my hair again anytime soon. Nevertheless, I steamed my hair with Dr. Miracles Tingling Deep Conditioning Treatment. Hopefully my hair will revive from this trauma!!  After I washed my hair and styled it

Twist Braids

Okay everyone, this is my latest update. It has been a while.  I had some braids put in my hair yesterday.  Something that I did not really wanted to do.  As you know I have been thinking alot about 'locking' my hair but I don't think I am quite ready yet.  And the last person that I spoke to, they said that it hurts, during maintenance, restyling etc and it is a bit expensive.  So I am still doing my research on the idea.

In the mean time I still have not touch up my hair.  While my hair was being braided, I am sure my new hair growth is about two inches!  This is not the braid that I wanted.  I wanted the twist, yes, but I wanted each twist to be fatter and the hair length shorter.  But my hairdresser told me that if she cut the hair, it would have unraveled out.  I was too tired to argue with her.

My husband took these pictures and they look great!  As I was setting up my camera to take some pictures, he came home and I asked him to take these pictures for me.  He did a great job.  Maybe this is finally something that we can do together and enjoy!

Felicia's Hair Style

I like this hair style alot.  I have a wedding to attend to in August of this year and it would be great to have my hair styled like this for the occasion.  The only problem is that I will be travelling on the Friday before the wedding which is on the Sunday and I know for sure, the style would not look fresh by the Sunday.  So having my hair styled before I travel is not an option.  Hmmmmm.....  What should I do?

Cut and Style Relaxed Hair

These are some pictures of a friend of mine.  I have known her for some time and she recently cut and styled her hair.  I was quite surprised.  But it looks great!!!  It gives her face a different look altogether.  One good thing about this hair style is that you can still pull it back into one if you are having a bad hair day.

Touch Up Time Again

I had my hair touch up, on Wednesday 7th April, with ORS relaxer (I bought the box about 4 months ago and I use the second bottle of relaxer that day).  When I went to work today (Saturday 19th April) I was complimented on how good my hair looks.  I am a bit disappointed that there is not much hair growth.  But I should not complain much because I had new growth but apparently there has been some hair breakage.  But looking at this picture I must agree my hair looks good!!!

My Niece New Relaxed Hair Cut

 

These are some pictures of my niece who recently has her hair cut and styled.  It looks absolutely lovely.  

I remember the days when I had my hair in this type of style.  The front of my hair was not that long though.  The problem with this style is that it is high maintenance.  There are some days when you may have a bad hair day and you CANNOT pull your hair back in a pony tail.  And to keep the style looking good, you will have to keep the hair at the back very low.  I never did like how my hair looked (at the back) when it started to grow back.

One advantage I could remember is when I set my hair, it would last for the entire week.

Old Self

I am back to my old self again.  This is how I styled my relaxed hair to go to work on Christmas Eve.  The only thing that I did different this time is that I did not put any leave in conditioner in my hair.  That may have been the problem.

Curls Controlled On Relaxed Hair

I co washed my hair last night and decided to roller set it.  I sprayed it with some leave in conditioner first.    This morning, I removed the curlers and as you can see my hair is all 'high' , puffy and out of control.  

So I decided to wrap my hair and tie it for a few minutes to smooth out the curls a bit. After about 45 minutes, I removed my head tye, unwrapped my hair and combed it out.  

My curls were definitely more controlled. One of my co workers asked me what I did with it and I told her that I washed and set it.  Apparently she liked my changed look.

Pretty Daughter

I just found this picture of my daughter when she had just cut her relaxed hair.  She looks so pretty!!  After a few days she realized that she did not like her hair cut and put braids in her hair. She will be surprised to know that I have this picture.

Organics Olive Oil Conditioning Relaxer System

I touched up my hair today after 13 weeks. This is the first time I have stretched my relaxer hair this long.  Maybe next time I will go for 17 weeks. 

I purchased a box of Organics Olive Oil Conditioning Relaxer System for $14.99 which I thought was a bit expensive until I saw the contents. There are two containers of relaxer therefore I can get two touch ups with the purchase of one box!

There are also two packets of Organics Olive Oil Cream Moisturizer and two packets of Organics Conditioning Hair Mayonnaise in the kit. I always liked this relaxer but for sometime now my hairdresser did not have any in stock so I purchased my own today to have my hair touched up.

Before I left the salon, I had my hairdresser wrap my hair and when I got home I combed it out so to take this picture.  I normally put a rinse in my hair but I did not so this time.

Relaxed Hair Model Of The Day

When I first started this blog, this young lady was suppose to be one of my first set of models. As you will notice, I have not posted pictures of other models for a while, I am focusing on MY hair growth these days. 

Today was this model's mother birthday and we had a lot of fun. We had cake (which I made), fruit and lots of pictures. My friend, below, looked so lovely with her new hair style that I had to take some pictures. She is very photogenic like her mother. I could not decide which pictures to post because she look so lovely in all of them. Hope I did not over do it!

What Do You Think?

I have been doing quite a bit of research on Bantu Knots and decided to knot my hair and see what kind of results I would get. Well last Saturday I deep conditioned my hair with Coconut Oil, then I washed it out with my regular shampoo.

My first decision was to let my hair air dry and then I decided against so I roller set my hair. When it was dry, I removed the curlers and combed my hair into some Bantu Knots.

Putting my hair in Bantu Knots when my hair is wet, will result in my hair being too curly. I combed out my hair on Sunday morning and this is the result. What do you think?

I don't really like it but maybe I have to do it a few times for me to get accustomed to it. I really don't like to see my ends sticking out like that. My next experiment is to braid my hair (vertically) and see what the end results will be.

The last three pictures are of my lovely daughter. The first one of her is when she cut her hair in 2008. Soon after, she realized that she did not like it and had braids installed. The style looks great but it entails alot of maintenance. To get a good look, most mornings she would use her curling iron.

In addition to that, she was forced to take care of her hair because she was not able to comb it into ponytail or bun. Which she loves to do basically every day.

The last two pictures of her - she had her hair touch up about three days ago and it has grown very nicely.

Self Portraits Are Difficult

Taking self portraits is quite difficult. I spent almost about 45 minutes trying to get some good pictures of myself. I had to find the right position because some of the pictures had too much light. Then when I got that right, I was taking pictures of the top of my head, my breast, my television ....... 

I really wanted some from my right side of my face. But even though I am right handed it was very difficult to hold the camera in the perfect position. The better ones that I took were from my left side. I went to the hairdresser on Sunday 2nd August and I had a touch up done, applied a burgundy semi permanent hair color and had the ends of my hair trimmed. 

I love how my relaxed hair feels when I just return from the hairdresser, it is light and bouncy. Makes me feel even more beautiful!! Since I started my journey to grow my hair in 2004, I stopped using a hair brush. Yesterday I noticed my hairdresser using a hair brush (the one with the balls at the end) and while she was brushing my 

hair it left like a scalp massage. So I decided to purchase one. So you should see me brushing my hair last night. It felt really good. 

I am a member of Blog Catalog and I recently met another member that recently started her journey of growing her hair natural. She has a home deep condition that she uses and I plan to start using it. I will let you know how that goes. When I first started my hair growth journey, my hair had grown to about my shoulder blades but as I was not trimming the ends, it was long and short . So in 2007, I decided to eventually get my hair well cut. Now after having it trimmed on Sunday, I would not be trimming again until maybe next year about this same time.

My Personal Hair Care Tips

Proper Hair Ethics:

 

Do not share hair combs and brushes. Lets say (for example) you borrow a friend’s comb or hair brush and that person has dandruff, you are guarantee to get dandruff as well. 

When having a touch up done on your relaxed hair, do not apply a permanent color to your hair the same day. It damages the hair. Most hairdressers advise that the permanent color be applied about two weeks after the touch up is done. A semi permanent dye, however, can be applied the same day as the touch up. It is a color as well as a hair treatment. 

A good home hair treatment is to apply blended rosemary herb to the hair. Go under your hair dryer for about 20 minutes and then wash your hair as regular. I do not particularly like hair dryers so I place a shower cap over my hair for one hour. During this time I would do my regular house chores. If you don’t have time for a home hair treatment, make a visit to your hairdresser. 

I love Olive Oil hair products. There is an Olive oil moisturizer (it is in a spray form) that my son introduced me to when he wore his hair long and mostly had it plait in pretty corn row styles (which his sister did for him occasionally). It is absolutely great! I would sometimes spray my relaxed hair after I have washed it or after roller setting. 

Also if my hair is a bit dry, I would apply a little spray. Try to avoid using blow dryers and curling irons regularly, it damages and breaks the hair. Try and make an extra effort to tie your hair before going to sleep at night. Leaving the hair open out, may cause a bit of breakage. 

Personally, if I leave my hair open out and go to sleep, sometime during the night I may find my husband arm on my hair and in my attempt to remove my hair it breaks. This absolutely aggravates me. The only time I will blow dry my hair is when I go to the hair dresser and I am not in the mood to go under the hair dryer, I will let them blow dry my hair. 

On a regular basis, while I'm having my pedicure done, I would go under the hair dryer. Try and avoid pulling back your hair in a ponytail or bun everyday, it recedes the hairline after a while. Come on ladies, we as black women have beautiful hair, lets take care of hair and let the world see our beautiful hair.

Neutrogena Hair Products

Today I went in the store to purchase some hair conditioner (I presently use Herbal Essence) and decided to see if I could get a product for my relaxed hair as I notice that it is breaking alot. I also remembered that one of the ladies in the YouTube videos talked using Neutrogena products in her hair. So I decided to purchase this product - Neutrogena Triple Moisture Leave In Cream. 

I am a major fan of Neutrogena products. Some years aback, I had an acne problem and I was introduced to Neutrogena and never turned back. I still used the acne facial wash. I am surprised I never thought about using this product in my hair. I just know that I would see great results. 

It is moisturizer and should be applied specifically to the ends of the hair. I would give a feed back about this product. I would also be trying other Neutrogena hair products. The thing about here in the BVI, there would be a certain time I would get a product that I like and a next time when I go back to the store, they are out of stock. 

My only alternative is to make a trip to St. Thomas USVI and purchase my items there. My other alternative is to purchase online but sometimes the delivery fees are quite high (more than the items sometimes). I had a few opportunities to get some pictures of some models this week but I was so busy I had to just let them go about their business. Today, however, I had a little free time and this young lady came into the store. 

At first I thought that she in some extensions installed into her hair but it looked real. I boldly asked her and she responded positively. She works at Delta Petroleum Gas Station and she is from Jamaica.

Gorgeous Relaxed Hair!

I am privileged to be able to include these pictures of my dear friend. We have known each for more than 25 years. She is a lovely woman. About 10 years ago when I met her after not seeing her for a long time, she was wearing her hair long and it looked absolutely gorgeous. A few years after that she started putting highlights and apparently she got hooked. 

She is a native of Trinidad presently residing in Canada. I remember in 1983 (somewhere around there) she cut her hair very short (what my husband would call a 'man head', now look at her now! Ironically when we met about 10 years ago after not seeing each other for a while, I was wearing a 'man head' as well. Thanks my friend!!