The Get Yo Hair Together Hair Challenge, Start the New Year with Great Hair Challenge

[ForeverFearlessMama]

I've been natural all my life. The only type of extension that I've had was a bun that became a ponytail 2 days later, 7 years ago.
The last time my hair was straightened was 4 years ago. I blow dried last about 6 months ago. My hair is in an awful state right now,
as you will see from the pictures I will provide. I simply cannot endure this any longer. It is so powerful how your hair can make
you feel a midst all the chaos life throws at us (the same can be said about a wee one). My hair makes me feel depressed right now,
I just didn't know what to do. Now I am going to challenge myself to nurture my hair back to health, to a state that gives me one
more excuse to smile everyday. I also plan to venture into uncharted territories, I'll also be braiding my hair to manenificent length.
Before I do this though I will be doing a couple things to ensure that braids go on healthy hair, more damage is far from my
intention right now. I stumbled across Coily Queen, I'll be doing a greatly modified version of her regimen. I'm on a very very
tight budget, and half the things she uses I won't be able to, but she was my inspiration.

The first challenge I will do, is her 30 day correction for overly porous hair, with tap water, minus the pH balance strips,
I would, but I just do not have the luxury or time no hooded dryer either. The good old Jamaican sun will suffice.
This is something I want to start the day after tomorrow.

30 day correction for overly porous hair:
Products needed: PH balance strips, non sulfate PH balanced shampoo,
organic apple cider vinegar, a deep moisturizing conditioner, plastic caps,
hooded dryer, bottled or filtered water and a leave in conditioner.
Steps to take:
Shampoo your hair twice a week with a non sulfate shampoo. Be sure the shampoo has a PH b/n 5.5 and 6.0.
(purchase PH balance strips to test all of your products this is the only way to know for sure)

1. After you shampoo and deep conditioned your hair.Always rinse your shampoo out with warm water,
this ensures the cuticle is opened to receive the moisturizing benefits of your deep conditioner.
Once you rinse out your deep conditioner you then need to do a ACV rinse.
Apple Cider Vinegar rinse recipe:
1/4 cup of ACV
2 cups of filtered or bottled water

Your steps in 30 days: Easy, inexpensive and simple to follow!
Day 1: Shampoo, DC follow with ACV rinse
Day 4: Shampoo, DC rinse out DC with cold, cold water. Skip ACV rinse part
Day 7: Shampoo, DC, follow with ACV rinse
Day 10: Shampoo, DC rinse out with cold, cold water, Skip ACV rinse part
Day 13: Shampoo, DC follow with ACV rinse
Day 16: Shampoo, DC rinse out with cold, cold water, Skip ACV rinse part
Day 19: Shampoo, DC follow with ACV rinse
Day 21: Shampoo, DC rinse out with cold, cold water, Skip ACV rinse part
Day 24: Shampoo, DC follow with ACV rinse
Day 27: Shampoo, DC rinse out with cold, cold water, Skip ACV rinse part
Day 30: Shampoo, DC follow with ACV rinse

I will update tomorrow, with the products I will be using for the month.
I think this may be my getting ready for the New Year Challenge,
a New Year, a New, moisturized and rejuvenated me.

I will also post some pictures tomorrow, give a hair profile with the products that I'll be using
and hair styles I'll be doing for the month. Thinking of doing some inversion as well :P.

Feel free to join me, on this adventure, or just share your thoughts

[ForeverFearlessMama]

SO I bought the products or a version thereof and started the challenge last night. I realized I didn't know my hair,
I'm back on the road to discovering and understanding my hair. I took some pictures which I'll upload soon.

OMG!!!!!!! do I love Creme of Nature Argan Oil Moisture and Shine Shampoo, I adore it. I ended up washing twice,
which I don't think i needed to do, it was clean from the first wash, but it have been a month of not washing my
hair so I thought and thought wrong lol, and i didn't use a lot which was good, a little went a long way for both of my
washes.

Organics by Africa's Best Hair Mayonnaise felt weird in my hair when I applied it, i bagged my hair for about 7 mins.
My hair did feel softer after the rinse. I'm really not sure about this product. I will give it some more trials though
and see how it goes.

Lastly the Starfruit Cider Rinse, this was alright don't think i washed it out well enough, but once again we'll see.

Yes you read right starfruit cider, I was low on cash and this was available right across the road. I will be
getting apple cider vinegar soon, however I will be testing out this starfruit cider for a while longer, maybe
alternating them once I have the apple cider.

I used some coconut oil and glycerin to oil my scalp and seal in moisture.

My hair feels a bit dryish right now. so I will be putting in some leave in (water, some creme of nature shampoo and coconut oil mix)

auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

photos will be posted soon

[ForeverFearlessMama]

I guess this is what happens when you don't take pictures off your camera quickly enough, any who....
I did my second wash two days ago, been busy and I have a wash due this evening.

I didn't want to overly strip my hair when shampooing, I had already massaged my
scalp with some coconut oil and rubbed some in my hair, but I still mixed a little conditioner
in with the shampoo, that's the creme of nature conditioner with the argan oil shampoo.
The deep treatment felt a lot better this time, but then I did wrap my hair with a plastic
bag and old shirt, and kept it in for the whole afternoon. I washed my hair around 2 and
I didn't rinse it out until about 10pm

I really need a moisturizing creme hopefully I can get one this week. I stopped doing the
inversion method 5 days in, my boyfriend was being a real big head at that moment, I was
distracted and ended up discontinuing. That'll have to wait till next month again, I'm not sure
if I've gained any length, we'll see over the next few months, I'm not super focused about
measuring at the moment, I just want to take better care of my hair.

auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

photos will eventually get here, I'll show you some of my hair a year ago lol,
until i can show some current ones

[Amalia]

Thank you for sharing your journey with us! How is this regimen supposed to help my highly porous hair? My hair is naturally porous but in addition to that it is damaged and so the porosity increased a lot.

[ForeverFearlessMama]

This is supposed to help balance the hair and scalp pH as well as help close cuticles so in your case your highly porous hair won't lose moisture as soon as it get it.

[Amalia]

Can I use citric acid in place of acv? And how are your results so far?

[TheLioness0727]

Hi Ladies!
You can't possibly expect the same results (in this case "Coily Queen") if you don't have her exact hair type (and use the exact same products as she does). All hair is different and reacts differently.

For YOUR best results, figure out your hair type/hair porosity, then educate yourself.

There are TONS of products out there and you will have to do a lot of trials to figure out what works best for YOU.

As far as the ACV goes, it should be organic. I'm certainly no authority on the subject, but I wouldn't think citric acid is a good substitute for apple cider vinegar.

ALL natural hair requires MOISTURE, MOISTURE and MORE MOISTURE. Again, depending on your hair type & porosity, this will determine the best moisturizer for your hair.

My last bit of advice, if you find a product that you like, you may want to use the entire product line (e.g., Shampoo/Conditioner/Moisturizer) since they are formulated to work together.

Good luck and healthy hair!

[ForeverFearlessMama]

Sometimes a part of educating yourself is experimenting, what may have worked for someone else just might work for you, if it doesn't, well then you know what doesn't work, you can try it another way or you move on to try something else entirely. It's all a journey some people get there quicker than others, point is to enjoy yourself on the way there, mistakes and all

[ForeverFearlessMama]

So lol, this was a failure.... I've got the pictures now, but I think I'll track my journey in the blogish section lol. I want to try some new stuff. I'll post the pictures there.

Natural hair is the darndest thing when your budget is boa constrictor tight