When I started my relaxed hair journey I was trying lots of hair care products, different shampoos, conditioners, stylers, oils...well you get the idea. I soon found that I was having a hard time storing them in my bathroom cabinet. I had products stacked up on top of each other and the bottles were constantly falling down. And when they would fall down it was like a domino effect where several others would fall down as well.
I found I was spending a lot of time trying to find the product I wanted and setting products right side up. I needed to find a better way to store all of these hair products so I could keep my sanity.
And one day it hit me. I could solve my problem by finding a container to put them all in.
It's finally here. A little overdue (this seems to be a trend for me), but I've completed and uploaded my April relaxed hair health update.
My life has been busy lately what with a visit from my mom so she could check out my new apartment and work getting really busy. So I didn't have as much time to spend taking care of my hair during the last month. If you're curious to see how my hair did this past month, c
heck out my video below or on my YouTube Channel.
Tea tree oil is made from the leaves of the Tea Tree which is a plant native to Australia and has been around for years, centuries even. The name came from a British explorer who saw the leaves from the tree being brewed by Australians for tea. He did the same and gave it to his sailors to treat scurvy.
Tea tree is known for its antiseptic and antifungal abilities. In fact, I remember my mom using it to treat burns and scrapes I'd get as a kid. This is one of the reasons it's a good
essential oil to incorporate into a regimen for relaxed hair.
I'm deep into another relaxer stretch, almost three months. 11 weeks if you'd like to be exact. Thankfully my hair seems to be playing nice, though I have to admit there are some mornings I don't know what to do with it and have fleeting (not really serious) thoughts of cutting it all off.
I really don't want to be fighting with my hair so as my new growth is getting longer, my wash days are getting simpler. That being said I wanted to mix things up a little bit and decided to introduce my hair to new a protein product.
Basil oil is not just a good seasoning for your food but is also good for your hair whether relaxed or natural. This tropical
essential oil originated from tropical Asia and the Pacific Islands. It is pale greenish-yellow in color and extracted by steam distillation from the herb Ocimum basilicum.
During my wash day at 10 weeks post, I discovered something that several other relaxed and natural ladies already know. Overnight deep conditioning is awesome!!! Yep, this wash day at 10 weeks post I did an overnight deep condition on my relaxed hair.
I had tried deep conditioning overnight once in the past and it didn't go well. I think that was because I wore a plastic cap which caused my scalp to tingle so badly that I ended up washing my hair in the middle of the night. After that, I vowed I wouldn't do an overnight deep condition ever again.
Well, that vow didn't last, because I did try it again.
So what are essential oils?
While they are called oils, they aren't really oils because they lack a key characteristic that oils have - fatty acids. Essential oils are instead highly concentrated plant constituents that are made by steam or water distillation of various parts of plants such as the seeds, leaves, stems, roots, and bark.
Additionally, essential oils have a small molecular size which makes them highly concentrated and easily absorbed which can quickly cause irritation on the skin and scalp. As a result, it's best to dilute essential oils with a carrier oil, such as a
penetrating or
non-penetrating oil, before using them on your hair.
I could not wait for this wash day to come.
The couple of days leading up to it were not fun. I hadn't done a good job stretching my new growth the previous week, I hadn't been good at moisturizing throughout the week and I hadn't done a mid-week co-wash. So by the end of the week, my hair was tangled, dry and felt dirty. Not all was lost though. I pulled out my go-to products and got to work.
There are so many natural oils out there. Many of them I'd never heard of.
Others come from vegetation that I never dreamed could be made into oil. The apricot is one of those. I'm not a fan of apricots. In fact, I don't like the taste of them at all. That may be why.
Though I don't claim to be a fan of the apricot, I was pretty intrigued by the oil produced from it and how it could be beneficial for relaxed hair.
Apricot oil is considered a non-penetrating oil. It's pale yellow in color and made by cold pressing apricot kernels or seeds. The best type of apricot oil is 100% natural, cold-pressed and non-processed. This light oil is rich in fatty acids, Vitamins A, C, and E making it good for dry, natural, and relaxed hair.
For my second Hair Health Update this I decided to do a video. I thought it might be fun for us to be looking at each other. I also thought it might be a quicker way for me to share this update. Boy was I wrong.
Because this update is delayed you're not only getting an update for one month but two months. The months of February and March.