Stretch with Dabs Series- Week 9

Hiya,
How are you ladies doing? Hope all 's well!! As for me, am still on my epic 16 weeks relaxer stretch!!

As I said in my first post on the stretch series, over the next weeks, I will tell you how I managed my new growth that week, my regimen, products I used, what they did for my hair, the amount of hair I lost etc. I'm hoping that by chronicling this stretch I will help those who want to try stretching their relaxer treatments and it will be a reference point for me when next I'm on a stretch.

Week 9 went better than I expected actually, a little boring in the hair styling department but when you have thick new growth, sometimes you have to be boring and leave your hair alone in a bun! All the styling manipulation isn't worth it at the end of the day!

So on week 9 on Saturday, I simply washed my hair with Giovanni tea tree invigorating shampoo because my scalp was itching big time!

Must have been the few drops of rain that touched my hair, after shampooing I just slathered the silk elements olive oil deep conditioning treatment on my tips;

My scalp got a good massage with hair oils and I covered my hair allowing it to marinade for a while and rinsed off!

This set my new growth hair up for an easy week of stretching, hair was soft and manageable but I got tempted and I fell!! Lol

You see I hadn't used heat in ages and since I cut my hair I hadn't straightened it to see how my hair was faring, so out came my straightener, heat was at the 2nd lowest level, no smoke coming out, no frying noise when I used it( take note if you want to use a straightener without damaging your hair).

I simply moisturized and sealed my ends, added an extra coating of grapeseed oil to the tips of my hair for every section I straightened and used the straightener, passing it from root to tip at most twice, I tried to straighten my roots the best I could;


But these roots are pure African and making them straight would require more heat than is worth it...always ask yourself before you use or let a stylist use a steaming hot straightener, ironing thong, blow dryer or even before you decide to pick all your edges in micro braids, Ghana weaving,so that the style is neat- IS IT REALLY WORTH IT IN THE END? If the answer is No then please choose another safer route!

I didn't want to be done straightening my hair and see all the hair on the floor making it one of those so not worth it moments, so I was extremely gentle and decided to ignore parts of my hair that refused to get straight and at the end, this is the amount of hair I lost;

Compare it to last time when I used a straightener;



At the end, my hair looked slightly more presentable;
My colleague at work the next day even asked if I got a relaxer!!

By Wednesday, I decided to do an overnight hair treatment with coconut milk and hair trigger( actually planned this treat for the weekend but my pantry was lacking coconut milk, had to get some during the week).


This treat was MESSY!! I don't recommend just using these two because the mix was so watery, it was dripping everywhere and can you imagine I slept with it( a towel over my pillow) very uncomfi night I tell you! Next time I will mix just a little coconut milk with hair trigger and something thicker like mayonnaise or honey or a deep conditioner so the mix goes on thicker!

But ladies the next morning when I rinsed out my hair(couldn't wait) my hair felt DIVINE!! I was like woah! It felt and has stayed divine!( I havn't treated it till today * covers face* been too busy and also scared I will not be able to achieve this result again, but tonight I shall repeat the same exact treat with the thicker ingredient of choice to be revealed next week).

This treat made my hair strong but soft at the same time! I shed so little hair that it flew away before I could take a picture, still looking for it lol, just kidding!! I think what has also helped my hair remain in this soft/strong zone is this concoction I have been using on my hair everyday- Shea butter and pure glycerin In a tub mashed together with my fingers till its all blended and used on my hair especially my ends daily!


 Great stuff!!

So that's that for week 9, as you can tell I am figuring my hair out and trying my best to make this stretch worth it as I stated before, stretching will FORCE you to get to know your hair! If you are on a stretch or planning one, I hope this series helps inspire and motivate you to face it square on! Till week 10's update (this week), happy growing ladies, the NHCG 6inches of growth challenge is still on, hope you all are taking pictures of your hair progress! $100 worth of products plus goody bags up for grabs at the end of the challenge!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Xxx
Dabs