Looking Forward To Trying a New Fall/Winter Regimen

Me & My Hair Dec 2011

Fall seems to be approaching really fast here in NYC this year, as August is nearly over and the weather has already cooled down. This Fall going into the winter season is going to be sooo different for me, now that I have a little more length to my hair! I was thinking I should try rollersetting every week to week in a half... and then doing twist outs when the hair no longer looks good as a rollerset. Idk... I just definitely want to be able to retain more length while wearing my hair out, and still keep a stretched look. I realized, I don't think I wore a wash n go once this summer because I'm sooo over the shrunken look. I was wearing a short haircut for like 6 years before I decided to go natural and grow out my hair, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it too.

Anyhoo... I realized in all these years (2) I still haven't created a solidified regimen for myself... but could I? I've had an inch of hair, virgin hair, bleached hair, dyed hair, curly weave, straight weave, extension braids, lol... Yes, I find it hard to keep up with myself! lol So now that I'm 2 years in, with a color that I love, doing my best to retain as much length as possible, I'm really going to try putting myself on a strict regimen and seeing if it makes a difference in my length retention this year.

Day 1 ~ Wash Day! Start with a hair and scalp oil treatment (either the same day or baggied the night before). According to how the hair feels I will either shampoo (Roux Porosity Control) and condition or just cowash and finger detangle my hair in 4 sections. My favorite condish for detangling is Hello Hydration. :)
Rollerset w/ end wraps & Sit under dryer, pincurl and sleep w/ Satin Scarf and bonnet. (Sitting under the dryer also makes me take time out for posting, reading or doing my nails)

Day 2 ~ Wear amazing hair... and if amazing hair fails, wear a banana clip or bun! Moisturize at night using Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango butter  and morocan oil on the ends before sleeping, re-pincurl and zzzzzz.

Days 4 - 7 ~ Hair will probably get larger or flatter... go with the flow and either continue to pincurl or 2 strand twist for twist outs using Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango butter and Shea Moisture's Coconut & Hibiscus Curl & Hold Smoothie, sealing my ends with Jamaican Black Castor Oil.

Back to wash day for a new hair week!

I really enjoy the outcome of rollersets and twist outs on my hair, which create beautiful textures I can always manipulate into other styles. One thing I did learn in the previous Fall and Winter seasons with all the cold weather accessories is to keep my hair in the back up! There will be no scarves and coats eating up my hair this year! I do need to do a little fall/winter accessory shopping so we'll see how that goes! lol

I plan to start this regimen as soon as I take out my extension braids and trim my hair!

 I plan to try trimming with the moon cycles for the next year as well, so I will be trimming on Friday August 31st with the full moon. I need a really good trim too... 1/4 inch, maybe like almost 1/2 inch to have all fresh ends. At the slow rate my hair grows I don't want to trim that much but after the pool and dry heat on the west coast, I think I definitely need it. Styling and detangling has been rough :/
(another reason I put these braids in... been trying to prolong this trim, lol)

Any of you ladies already thinking forward to your fall/winter regimen?

My Last Straightening Before Summer... (+OOTD)

 On May 3rd I got the itch to straighten my hair for the last time before the summer hits... I figured "Hey... Cinco de Mayo is coming up..plus I have the itch to see what my color looks like straightened." I had just gotten back from LA too, with their beautiful, even weather so I was still getting used to the fact that the weather was still $h!tty here in NYC! I thought I would leave for a week at the end of April and come back to sunny skies... it was actually colder when I got back -__-
Anyways, A roller set and flatiron later (notice: I can use bigger cap less rollers now!!!), I got invited to a friend's surprise birthday so I set out to join the fun. Without watching the weather. #nobueno
Though I was only going about 5 blocks from my house and it was only drizzling, my hair went from looking like this right after I finished it:

To looking like this by the time I got there, ending up in a little bun on the top of my head so I could look half decent just tipsy going home:

 I wore my hair in a little tightly wrapped bun to keep my ends moisturized for the next day, and went with my trusty 2 buns for Cinco de Mayo. I'm really a big advocate of only straightening once, so once my hair goes puffy on me, that's it for the bone straight look...
 I hope you enjoy my Cinco de Mayo look, I tried to play on the 2 buns and basically go for the cute Asian girl look, lol (I dig cute Harajuku Kawaii Asians!) Looks like I was feeling stripey for the start of May... I guess you could also say I did a little light protective styling, lol

 I will be posting a part 2 to this hair straightening post to show you  my straight hair length check for before summer! I don't plan to straighten again until its not humid anymore... so that'll probably be some time in late September, that should be a great comparison as long as I keep up with the hair care.

After I got tired of the buns, I returned to my regular 2-strand flat twist pattern to achieve a silky, stretched, twist out. Unfortunately my camera died before i could take a shot of how I fluffed and styled, but I promise there will be a lot more fluffing and styling to come =)

Don't judge me! I know y'all were all out there trying get your last straightening in before the summer too! Were you? lol 

**I used the same products for this style as I used in my Rollersetting and Flatironing Natural Hair Video.

Rollersetting and Flatironing Natural Hair

Hey All! Here's the video I mentioned I did for you all last week of me rollersetting and flatironing my hair, I hope you enjoy!

The Perfect Twist Out! New Year, New Regimen?

So on thursday before New Years I decided to rollerset my hair. I've attempted roller setting my natural hair before and it usually comes out good.... except for in my curlier textures where it just looks like smushed up, stretched out curls. This time I decided I was going to try using end wraps on the ends of my roller set to try and get them to come out straight. So using my Motions Foam Wrap only, because I wasn't sure if I was going to straighten my hair after, I roller set my hair using end wraps and sat under the dryer. About an hour later, this is what I was looking like...

 
My hair came out really soft and fluffy and the ends were bone straight! I loved that my hair was still so full but not overly huge and overwhelming. I decided to silk wrap it before going to sleep and instead of flatironing it, I wore a bun for 2 days (faking my hair into a ponytail and tucking it under). For the new year of course I didn't just want to wear my hair in some little mediocre bun, so with little time I decided to do my normal 6  two-strand flat twists using Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango butter and Shea Moisture's Coconut & Hibiscus Curl & Hold Smoothie, sealing my ends with Jamaican Black Castor Oil. The next morning I took off my bonnet, used jojoba oil to separate, and I've been doing the same thing every night since December 31st....
The crazy thing is, my scalp usually feels the need to be washed like every three days but since deep conditioning and rollersetting, both my hair and my scalp still feel clean, hasn't started itching really, and doesn't feel weighed down or greasy, just healthy and moisturized. I'm actually going to see if I can stretch this twist out for another week.

 For the first time since I've been natural I would say I feel like I've had perfect hair. I've been so in love with my twist outs since roller setting first and so has everyone else... Do I hear a new reggie for the new year? I'm always super busy but I definitely will be putting time aside to roller set and flat twist my hair as a regimen to see if it'll help me retain length and keep the split ends and single strand knots at bay. It was a lot of work to roller set my hair I'd say but I feel like it'll be totally worth it. I'm really close to shoulder length so I'm hoping to be close to collarbone length by summer.  

Oh, the twist out? 

 Tuesday's Twist Out

My hair today!

My hair today is actually the product of about 12 single 2 strand twists because I didn't feel like doing flat twists when retwisting. I would say I definitely like the outcome of the flat twists better as it gives me better definition and stretch, especially in the roots. My roots are a little froey today, but I still love it!

What do you think? Would you try rollersetting before your twist outs?