Thanksgiving Hair Growth Update

i have been wearing my beaded extensions since the end of August and its the end of November now. i decided i would remove the extensions and give my hair a breather so  can care for my scalp for a while with some deep scalp and hair treatment. My hair did grow a little. Ever since my last post i have discovered some new great products. here is what i am currently using:

Virgin Coconut Oil - Coconut oil aids in scalp dryness. it is high in vitamin E and fatty acids. Its also anti-fungal, anti-oxidizing and anti-bacterial. It helps with dry damaged or frizzy hair. Its even a great remedy for dandruff.

Nioxin Diamax: I apply (spray) some on my scalp everyday to help hair grow in thicker and to unclog and clogged hair follicles.

Massage Scalp: I also like to massage my scalp in the shower for at least 3-5 min after applying conditioner to stimulate it and help promote healthy scalp.

You might notice I am talking alot about the scalp in this post. Mostly because its super important to have a healthy scalp if you want to have and maintain long healthy thick hair. We tend to alot of times care and treat out hair and totally neglect out scalp then we wonder why there are no results. The scalp is like the root of a flower, You need to nourish it in order for it to grow healthy and strong.


Ok so here is a picture of how much my hair grew since my last post.. Let the journey go on.. I have a lot of hair growth to do =) Remember my goal is to have long, thick, healthy hair the reaches my waist.

Hair Cut

After removing my hair extensions my hair was super stringy and the ends were really damaged as you can see in the picture from my last post. I told her to give me a trim and even everything out so I can grow my hair out the right way. My hair feels alot better now that I got a trim and now I can grow it out the right way... I posted a picture so you guys can see the results and compare it from my last picture.. its a huge difference. 

My Journey to healthy hair starts now...

                   Yesterday, July 24 2012, I got my extensions finally removed and it was terrible. They were all knotted and the stylist really pulled and hurt my scalp. Not the best experience. I was in denial but I have to admit when you get permanent extensions your bound to get some type of damage so you might as well stick with clip ins, they are alot healthier for your hair. My hair feels super duper dry. If I had to compare it to something I would compare it to hay. So Today July 25th I dyed my hair for the last time because I wanted to get ride of the blonde underneath. Now My goal is to not touch my hair with any type of dye and just grow out all natural from hair and give it the healthy care it needs and deserves. My goal is to achieve healthier, thicker stronger, longer hair. Here is a picture of how fried my hair looked after I removed my extensions and dyed it. Its so sad. My hair is very uneven, breaking, weak and brittle, But its ok because this is all in the process of achieving my goal and its only going to get better from here. At this point it could be hard and frustrating but it will be all worth it in the end. 

PRODUCTS AND TIPS I WILL BE USING

Shampoo: When growing out healthy long locks it is important to use appropriate products to aid your hair in this process. I highly recommend using a Sulfate free shampoo.

Wen Tea Tree Cleansing Conditioner is the shampoo I like to use because It has great benefits for not only your hair health but your scalp heath as well. You can research it if you would like to learn more on this product. If you don't like Wen products then I also like using Ojon products. Yes, they are alittle expensive but well worth it. If you want to go a more affordable route then you can try tea tree shampoo from the drug store or this new shampoo called clear that is also made for the scalp. Main and Tail (the horse shampoo) is also a good one to use which I am sure you have heard of by now if you are searching on how to grow healthy hair. If not you can refer to my youtube video

Overview list of shampoos:

- Wen Tea Tree Cleansing Conditioner

- Ojon

- Main and Tail (horse shampoo)

- Clear Shampoo

(You can alternate between these)

Now on to conditioners. It all depends on what type of hair you have. I have damaged and stressed hair prone to breakage so I usually get the best conditioner I can find for that purpose. I find them at TJMax for a great price.

Now on to my latest obsession.... Coconut oil! I have been researching on all the amaizing benefits this oil brings and its crazy good! I have not tried it yet but I can not wait to do so. I read that its great to grow your hair and its also good to unclog your scalp folicles which in turn promotes hair growth. Its also great for dandruff. Its also good for your skin and you can cook with it.. But I am not doing this product justice you have got to research it for yourself and look up all the great benefits. I am super excited to try it. I will let you all know how it works out!!!

I also take vitimans. I take womens multi and vit C. But I have read about other vit that would be great in aiding with promoting hair growth. 

Im also using leave in hair conditioners. Some of my favorites are

- Redken Anti Snap

- Morocan oil (make sure its the brand name I tried others and its just not the same. 

- Chi Keratin Mist 

Welcome to my hair growth journey!

HAIR DISASTER

Lets start from the beginning. Back in my freshmen year in highschool I decided to bleach my hair to a blonde color. I have been blonde for 7 years since then.  My natural hair was thick, healthy, soft, and beautiful but the bleach has ruined it. My hair seems thinner, although I still have a lot of hair. My hair is totally damaged and has what I like to call chemical layers. So Nov of 2011 I decided to go from blonde to black hair and I loved it. I then had bond extensions put in and I loved it. After 6 months of sporting my dark hair I began to have this odd urge to go back blonde. It was the end of April and everyone was going lighter and I missed my lighter locks.   That was obviously a very bad idea. At this point my hair was starting to get a little healthier. So of course I ruined it and put in some highlights. I ended up hating them and so I went to a different salon and got my whole head bleached which took 8 hours to bleach twice and the results were that my hair turned a beyonce orange. (if you know what I mean) I absolutely hated it and I could not stand to look at it and plus now it was super duper damaged. If that wasn't horrible enough the hair dresser who bleached it gave me the worst razer hair cut everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I dont like choppy layers I like subtle scissor layers and guess what he gave me. Yep, a razer layer hair cut. So now not only the color was hideous but my hair cut was all wrong and I just spent a ton of $$ for something I didn't even like. In fact I hated it. My hair felt like hay. I might as well have gone to a farm and donated it to the horses lol. It was that bad. So after stressing out about this bad hair situation for about 2 weeks I decided that all this hair drama would be over once and for all. So I decided to dye my hair back to dark and just leave my hair alone and grow out my natural healthy hair color.  I am so sick of the bleached fried hair look. I just want my hair to look luscious, long and healthy. So the last time I dyed my hair was in the beginning of May 2012 and I decided to sport the 2 toned hair color look since I did just spend all the money on bleaching it I decided to keep it blonde under the dark for the summer. I also put in some bond extensions as well because I hated my hair cut and I couldn't stand looking at it. So thats basically where things kind of left off. Its now July and  my hair is still the same I have not touched it with any chemicals of any sort.


STARTING MY HAIR GROWTH

First thing is first, What is my goal? My goal is to grow my hair long and healthy up to my waste and get rid of all the fried bleached ends. I would like to try my best to accelerate this process in the most healthy way possible. Your hair usually grows about 6 inches year but I would like to try and double that. The more my hair grows the better.

I have researched all over the web on this hair topic and I have found a ton of helpful information as well as products that will help my achieve my goal of healthy long locks. And I am going to be sharing everything I have learned with you (the reader).

Why am I creating a blog on my hair journey? I am documenting my hair growth journey because I want to have a reference guide where I can monitor my results and hopefully this might help some of you that are also trying to do the same. 

I also have a youtube beauty channel just in case you are interested (you can also see how blonde my hair was in my previous videos:
fashionistabarbiexo
mizzpinkdiamonds

So in this blog I am going to be talking about what I use to achieve healthier longer hair and I am going to be showing you pictures and updates on my progress. So if you are interested in following my updates I will posting ever time there is an update here and I will also be talking about it on my youtube channel.