OK so it's not actually an ode. I just wanted to write a post about the benefits of documenting my hair journey and encourage others to do so also. Now and again I will visit my blog and click through the posts as if I were a reader. I've come to realise how useful my documentation has been for me in my journey and have listed a few reasons why:

1. It keeps me motivated. Having to frequently update my blog means that my hair journey is always fresh in my mind. Even when I get discouraged, I know that I can write about it here instead of just giving up.

See also: 9 Ways to Keep Motivated During Your Hair Journey

2. It reminds me that I'm making progress. Since I can't physically feel my hair growing and I see it everyday, it can sometimes feel like my progress is slow. Being able to see photographs of my hair (both on my blog and in my personal photos), I can see the changes in thickness. As I've been taking photos of my new growth, I can also see the differences in how much new growth I'm getting. When putting my pictures in chronological order, I can see how my texture is changing as the relaxed hair gets cut off.

3. I can refresh myself on forgotten products and techniques. Sometimes we like a change so we switch up our routine or products. My blog allows me to scroll back through time and revisit things I'd forgotten about that worked for me. It also means I can collect information about what didn't work for my hair so I don't make the same mistakes.

I never thought I'd go natural - at least not any time soon. Time has flown by, and while I know I still have a long way to go, my blog has allowed me the realisation that I've come a long way in the last 9 months. If you don't already, I highly recommend you begin documenting your hair journey too!

So it's been a while since I've posted but there hasn't been much to report. I've continued to wash and deep condition my hair weekly. I still moisturise daily and am still struggling to stop flat ironing so frequently 

One thing I have noticed however, is my breakage has decreased. While I still do have broken areas in the middle of my head, I have found that the existing hair strands are hardly snapping off and most of the hairs that come out are shed hair. I can't say why or when this started happening but I am definitely not complaining!

When I'm detangling my wet hair, I still continue to be surprised at the hair I find in the comb. For some reason I still expect it to be straight as if it were relaxed. I now get little coils that I'm fascinated with (I'm always stretching the strand to see how long it actually is).

Each day I am coming more and more to terms with the fact that my hair is about 90% natural. I'm hoping to get my next hair cut around Christmas, and am eager to see how much relaxed hair gets cut off when I do.

Wet hair

I recently returned from my holiday in Morocco. The week started off with me caring about what my hair looked like, but after spending an hour straightening it only for the sea air to frizz it up again, I realised there is just more to life! I soon realised that my hair doesn't actually look that bad without being constantly bumped at the ends in the morning. I just brushed all my hair back, tied my scarf on at night and in the morning my hair still looked fine.

I'm hoping this mentality stays with me now that I'm back in London.  My hair thanked me while I was away and not using so much heat. It stayed soft and moisturised all week - although I'm sure the warm weather helped too. A lot of the time I wore my hair half up - half down, with the front in two french plaits:

How I wore my hair on holiday. This is the best picture I could find...

The journey continues. I can't wait to see if I'm going to make my goal by January or not!

On 23rd July I did a post about my problem area - the crown. The relaxed hair had broken off really bad leaving just a few inches of natural hair. It's been almost 8 weeks since that post and as promised, here is an update on my crown progress

14 Sept 2014. Almost 8 months post

My hair dresser has put shorter layers at the top of my head, meaning the longer hairs seen in the first picture have been cut away. This has enabled my crown section to look more even. It's not perfect but it's definitely an improvement!

(See my One Year Post Relaxer post for a final update on my crown)

I'm going on holiday in 5 days and so I wanted my hair to look fresh. The ends were feeling rough and generally my hair needed some sort of trim or re-shape.

So today I took myself to the hairdressers and got another hair cut. My stylist recommended I install some braids for a few months just to give my hair a break from the heat I've been using. I can't lie - the thought has crossed my mind, but I really don't feel like braids, wigs or weaves are for me personally. I'm doing this transition the unconventional (and perhaps the stupid) way!

My hair cuts just keep getting shorter and shorter. The shorter it is, the more heat I use and thus the more I have to get trims. What have I gotten myself in to?

She tidied up my hemline

As my hair is in need of some hydration, I'm getting serious and devising a plan to inject some much needed moisture back into my hair.

1. Use porosity control conditioner every week. This conditioner aims to equalise the hair's porosity. I believe my hair is porous, meaning moisture escapes from the hair strand as quickly as it enters, resulting in constantly dry hair (and I use too much heat). This conditioner helps the hair to hold on to the moisture that has been put into it.

2. Focus on moisture deep conditioning. While it's important I use protein due to my use of heat tools, right now my hair is moisture deprived. Thus, I will be doing moisturising deep conditioning treatments for the foreseeable future.

3. Blow drying on cool. I did a post about this here, but in short, the cool shot helps to close cuticles and keep moisture in. It also avoids unnecessary heat

4. When flat ironing, use a silicon based heat protectant serum as opposed to a water based one. I find the water based protectants don't protect as well, and leave hair feeling dry and crispy afterwards.

5. Use castor oil to seal. For me, castor oil is the best oil by far for sealing in moisture and helping my dry scalp. I still use Olive Oil Moisturiser Lotion as my moisturiser.

In my previous post, I mentioned I've been really bad with my use of heat. I had become lazy with my wash days and started blow drying before I straightened. That's a double dose of heat sure to frazzle my hair. I then had the cheek to wonder why my hair was so dull looking,  breaking, and why my ends were frizzy and scalp was dry.

I know for me that blowdrying quickly depletes every drop of moisture that I'd just tried to replenish through deep conditioning. Not even my leave-ins and heat protectants made a difference.

I previously talked about blow drying on cool instead. The cool air is a good way to close cuticles, encouraging smooth and shiny hair, but it also helps to get my hair straighter. While it's manipulation, it's not damaging in terms of heat. I love the way it makes my hair feel and will using this method from now on. It's been two days since I deep conditioned and dried my hair on the cool setting. My hair is still moisturised, soft, sleek and shiny.

I have officially banned myself from heat-drying my hair!

Since my hair has taken a beating recently, I'm going to focus on replenishing its moisture levels. I recently revisited castor oil as a sealant and have realised that contrary to my previous thoughts,  I actually really like it! I guess I was just using way too much oil before which resulted in stringy hair. I used a tiny drop and that was sufficient in making my hair feel great.

Au revior!

Many reach a point on their hair journey when they get bored and fed up of their transition. For me, that point is at 7 months post.

I've started slacking on the way I handle my hair. I've been blowdrying and straightening and am experiencing the harsh effects of too much heat. I believe I've experienced more breakage around the middle of my head, and have some heat damage to the relaxed ends.

As my hair was already clean, I did a deep condition on dry hair with Kamechon conditioner (I didn't shampoo it afterwards). When I rinsed it out, my hair felt much more moisturised and soft. I chose my 'assisted air dry method' which is blow drying on cool, and applied my leave-in and shea butter before tying my hair into four small ponytails.

So far, my hair still feels moisturised and soft, which is great. I will definitely be going back to air drying or at least blow drying on cool.

My thoughts right now:

• I don't really care about my relaxed ends anymore because I know they'll be getting cut off
• I think I was a bit ambitious with my goal of 100% natural by Jan 2015. It's probably more like May 2015 - but I'll address that when it comes
• I feel like my hair is too short and would like to grow it out a bit longer while I transition 
• I've realised my hair grows at different rates in different parts of my head. 

7 months post relaxer

When I decided my last relaxer was my last, my thought process was pretty black and white. I stopped relaxing my hair because I didn't want to relax it anymore. It was that simple - or so I thought. As I get deeper into my transition I've realised I've not just embarked on a physical hair journey, but a mental and emotional one too. I'm beginning to realise that there are several reasons as to why I decided to transition, most of which I wasn't even aware of at the time of my decision. In this post I will share with you the 5 reasons I've so far identified for choosing to go natural.



1. I want to achieve longer, thicker, healthier hair. This was probably my most obvious reason. I had noticed that throughout the six years of relaxing my hair, it slowly got shorter and thinner without ever being cut. Breakage was a daily thing, so much that it became normal. I've seen many Youtubers achieve lovely hair while being relaxed, but I knew my hair was far too fine and just couldn't take all the chemicals.

2. I hated the fact I was relying on a relaxer. Before I relaxed my hair, I remember people telling me 'once you relax, you can't go back'. I became scared of the idea of hitting X age and still relying on the relaxer. Furthermore, I was uncomfortable with the fact I felt anxious to reach 12 weeks post just so that I could get a touch up.

3. Less chemicals. All I know is that I had the option to use less chemicals on my hair and I took it. I know there are chemicals everywhere - all I have to do is look on the back of my favourite conditioner bottle and there is a plethora of unpronounceable ingredients. However, I knew that the relaxer chemicals must be pretty strong if they're going to permanently alter the texture of my hair.

4. I wanted to embrace all of me. I wanted to be reacquainted with the natural texture that I was born with. Knowing that in a few more months I will be able to wear my hair natural gives me a massive boost of confidence. I enjoyed having relaxed hair for those years, but I became unhappy with it. I know I've still got a way to go, but it's weird how liberating it feels knowing those last inches will soon be cut off!

5. Lastly, my natural hair is more versatile. Braids wouldn't stay in my relaxed hair if I bribed them. My relaxed hair is bone straight, limp and lifeless. Heat-styled curls and waves looked silly because there was no life in my hair. With natural hair, I can wear the straightened styles as well as the curly styles. Twist-outs looked beautiful on my hair when I was younger.

Below is a really inspiring short documentary by the British-Nigerian film-maker, Zina Saro-Wiwa. She bravely shaved her head for her video and was confronted with some surprising self-realisations.

(I'm not crazy, I'm just excited)

The shortest layers of my hair are at the nape, which means that is where the most natural hair is. I washed my hair today and was excited to see how much natural hair I had at the back. It was really soft and it gives me a good idea of what the rest of my hair could be like. Just wanted to share my excitement!

Wet hair

Parted slightly higher - my two textures blend well