During the course of my healthy relaxed hair journey, I’ve learned a lot about taking care of my hair. I’ve learned about my hair type and what that means when it comes to picking products. I’ve learned how to create and maintain a hair regimen.
I’ve learned that hair needs to have a moisture and protein balance and how easily that balance can get out of whack. When our hair loses that balance it is either because of moisture overload where the hair has too much moisture or protein overload which is too much protein on the hair.
Incorporating natural oils into my relaxed hair routine has been beneficial. Over the years I’ve used several natural oils such as coconut oil, sunflower, grapeseed oil, olive oil, just to name a few. All of them have helped my hair in some way, either adding smoothness, shine, or sheen.
None of those oils though haven't just benefited my hair but also my scalp. The only one that has is Jamaican Black Castor Oil. It’s pretty much my go-to oil for my scalp. While I do sometimes use oil blends I buy in the store on my scalp, Jamaican Black Castor Oil is one of the few natural oils I’ll apply straight to my scalp as is on a regular basis.
So what is Jamaican Black Castor Oil? Well, it’s related to castor oil which is made from cold processing the beans or seeds of the castor plant. The difference between Jamaican Black Castor Oil (JBCO) and regular castor oil is how the oil is processed.
When it comes to home updates the kitchen and bathroom are the most expensive rooms in the house to update. A nice bathroom reno can cost anywhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 - $15,000. Thankfully if you find that you’re tired of the way your bathroom looks and it’s not in need of a total gut you can DIY it and give it a bit of a refresh or facelift without spending a lot of money.
I recently started the process of refreshing my master bathroom by adding, changing, and updating the finishes. So far I have done about $100 - $200 in updates by painting the walls, adding hardware to the cabinets, upgrading towel rods, and replacing my shower curtain rod, shower head, and bathroom accessories.
When you're on a healthy hair journey sometimes you run into situations or issues that you've never dealt with or experienced before. I've had a few of those over the last few years - serious hair breakage and protein overload. Now I'm adding a third situation to the list - under-processed hair.
I’m a sucker for a great sale on hair products. Especially when it’s a brand that has several products that I already use. TGIN had a sale at Ulta that was so good I not only stocked up on my usuals but I also bought a few other products to try out. One of those was the TGIN Miracle RepaiRx Protective Leave In Conditioner.
Why did I decide to give this leave-in conditioner a try? Two reasons, the first is that I already use and love the TGIN Green Tea Super Moist Leave In Conditioner. It was one of the key products that helped me get over protein overload.
The other reason was I just started using the RepaiRx hair mask and it Is sooooo A.Maz.Ing. My hypothesis was the leave-in conditioner had to be just as good right?
To put the TGIN Miracle RepaiRx Protective Leave In Conditioner I decided to have it battle out against the Green Tea leave-in so I could see if one was better for my hair than the other. See how the battle turned out in this video.
Have you ever been in the store or online about to purchase a hair product but hesitated because you weren’t sure if it contained protein or not?
I’ve been there, we’ve all been there. While protein isn’t bad for our hair too much can be so it makes sense to be cautious and try to limit the number of products in your relaxed hair regimen that has protein ingredients.
Hi there! October is here so we are officially in Q4, the home stretch of the year if you will. We're also in one of my favorite seasons. Fall! In fact, I've actually been able to experience some Fall weather (yay!).
I spent two weeks during September visiting family. I visited my sister in Tennessee and my parents in North Carolina. I drove (I will not fly during this pandemic unless absolutely necessary). We didn’t do a lot due to the current situation but I got to spend quality a lot of time with family, enjoy some pretty scenery and cooler weather.
It was a fun two weeks and I'll probably do it again soon. Because I was away from home for most of the month I didn't create as much content as I had planned to in September so I have a bit of catching up to do in October.
Some of the content I did create and share in September was about my relaxer touch-up. I felt that my hair took a turn after that and I shared about it in this video. I also realized that I needed a specific routine for my first hair wash post relaxer and came up with one.
Saving money is pretty much top of mind for everyone these days and I've found a few ways to keep a few extra dollars in my budget. One way is to refinance my house, I shared my reasons for refinancing and some tips for doing it in this post. I also shared a post with several things homeowners can do to save some additional money,
How was your September?
It had always been my dream to be a homeowner. I remember as a child looking through real estate books we would pick up at the grocery store that would show which houses in the area were for sale and picking out the ones I liked.
My dream came true about a year and a half after I moved to Florida. I bought a new build house which was an interesting experience that you can read about here.
I’ve been a homeowner for a little over four years as of the writing of this post and I’ve been steadily paying off my mortgage. I would like to pay it off early so when I saw that mortgage rates had dropped drastically I thought about it and decided it would be in my best interest to refinance.
I’m one of those relaxed haired ladies who likes to wash her hair on a schedule. That’s basically because my hair and scalp kinda demand it. They provide me signals such as my hair feeling greasy or my scalp itching about 7 or 8 days after my last wash. The week after my last relaxer touch-up was no exception. My scalp started to itch about 6 days later. So I washed my hair.
I've made it through another relaxer stretch! This most recent stretch was 14 weeks long which was half on purpose and half not. I planned to go 13 weeks but the weekend of my appointment I had a family situation pop up and had to reschedule for the following weekend.
For this hair appointment, I planned to have a talk with my stylist about my hair for a few reasons
I wasn’t happy with my hair texture. My ends were always rough and frizzy and I couldn’t wear it down confidently.
I wanted to disguise the impact of the breakage I had last year by getting a layered cut. My stylist had put it off the last couple of visits.
All of this has made me so unhappy with my hair that I stopped wearing it down, even when I was around family.
Is it just me or does it feel like the days move really slowly and blend together but the year is moving by quickly? Some coworkers and I were talking about that because we can’t believe that we are now in the month of September.
August was an interesting month as in it was pretty similar to July. Some of the main differences were I allowed more me time and took it a bit easier. And I made some progress on my home office makeover.
If you'd like to see my highlights and faves for the month of August, keep reading. Some of the links below are affiliate links, so if you click on them and sign up or make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Who would have thought there would come a year when you would need dedicated desk spaces in your home? You would need a place to work from home on a daily basis and if you have kids they would need dedicated space for schooling.
This is the world we live in today. Oddly enough it’s also the world I grew up in. My siblings and I were homeschooled for several years and my mom worked from home part-time for my parent’s business. So we had several dedicated workspaces around the house. My mom had an office, we kids had desks in our rooms and we had our school area in a room of the house.
So it’s no surprise that in my house I have a specific room set aside as my office where I’ve been working from home. Unlike my parents I haven’t taken the time to make it look and feel like a real workspace, I’ve just cobbled together a few things to make it work. You may be in the same boat. Don’t worry though, I’ve put together a list of top budget-friendly desk picks as they are all under $250 and all have good reviews.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years as I’ve been on my healthy relaxed hair journey is that just because you have a bad experience with a couple of products from a hair brand doesn’t mean that will happen with all of the products. This was my experience with the brand Carol’s Daughter.
Earlier in my healthy relaxed hair journey, I tried a couple of Carol’s Daughter products and had some bad experiences with them and basically swore off of the brand. You can see more about those experiences in this video and this blog post if you’re interested.
It wasn’t until several years later that I decided to give any Carol’s Daughter product a look. That was because I was desperate. I had protein overload and was struggling to find a moisturizing deep conditioner or hair mask that had no protein ingredients.
Too Faced recently launched a new foundation as part of the Born This Way Line. It’s a matte foundation that is positioned for those of us with oily skin.
I had tried the original Born This Way Foundation and liked it but it didn’t gel with my oily skin. So I was excited about this new foundation launched and purchased the foundation the day it launched.
In these two videos, I give my first and second impressions of the Too Faced Born This Way Matte Foundation. You can see how it applied and how the foundation lasted throughout the day.
Summer is in full swing even though it looks a lot different than summers past. I hope that you've been able to enjoy it though. I know I have. I'm spending time in my yard enjoying the sunny weather, watching the Florida storms roll in and out (safely inside of course), watching reality TV, and doing some volunteer work with my church.
I haven't gone to the beach yet though, while I like the beach I'm not a huge beach person so the idea of going now and having to remember to social distance just sounds like too much work. Have you gone on a beach trip yet? If you have one planned be sure to check out my seven summer hair tips that help you keep your hair protected while getting some beach time in.
Having oily is like a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it helps keep my skin looking young and firm. On the other hand, after a few hours, I can start looking shiny and after a few more hours greasy. And don’t talk about makeup, it has slid off my face more times than I want to admit.
Over the years I tried to deal with my oily skin by drying it out, not wearing makeup, and using so many products that could have done more harm than good.
It wasn’t until I hit my 30s that I finally admitted to myself that I had oily skin and needed to find out the best way to care for it. So started to pay close attention to the products I was buying for skincare and makeup.
For those of us with dry hair, it can be hard to keep it feeling moisturized, especially our ends. I know I struggle with keeping my ends moisturized which impacts the way they look and feel. There is a little something I do a few times a week that has helped a lot.
That something is the baggy method.
Check out this video to see how I do the baggy method, what products I use, how often I do it, and my results.
Summer is in full swing and I have another box of empty relaxed hair products that I’ve been using as part of my relaxed hair regimen while quarantining at home. I’m also including a few skincare and makeup empties.
You can see what those products are and find out if I’d repurchase any of the products by watching the video below.
For as long as I can remember I’ve suffered from dry hair. Even when I was natural, which was prior to middle school, I’ve had hair that tends to be on the dry side. That being said over the years I’ve had times when I’ve been able to get the dryness under control. Sometimes by sheer luck, other times through trial and error.
Currently, I’m dealing with dry hair again which I’m pretty sure is a consequence of having protein overload for close to a year. How do I know I’m dealing with dry hair again? Here are some of the signs of dry hair that I’ve been experiencing
Frizz: Some sections of my hair get frizzier than others. Some of that could be due to humidity but when I first moved to Florida I wasn’t having this problem.
Split ends: Yep, I’ve been having split ends in certain areas. Some of this is due to dryness and some is due to the remnants of the protein overload damage.
Dullness: Sometimes my hair will look dull and not have any sheen to it.
No movement: When my hair is lacking moisture a key sign is it doesn’t move and tends to be kinda stiff and lackluster.
Coarse texture: Dry hair tends to not just feel rough but it looks it too. It’s kinda crazy how clearly I can see that in my hair especially when I’m moisturizing my hair. The hair that is moisturized looks so much smoother than the hair that isn’t.
I can’t believe that 2020 is officially half over. And what a first half of the year it’s been. I know for me and probably for several other people, it’s been a bit rough.
During the month of June, we saw more things open back up here in Florida so I’ve been venturing out more, if you can call it that, by actually going inside the grocery store, Ulta and Joanns. I still haven’t eaten at a restaurant and even if they were open wouldn’t set foot in a bar as it’s believed a lot of the increase in C-19 cases we’re seeing here is due to socializing at bars. Have you been venturing out more?
With everything happening in the world with the coronavirus and social unrest, I’ve been spending more time in the Bible by doing a morning devotional or two six days a week and virtually joining multiple church services on Sunday. It’s been good for my soul and my outlook on things.
In June I spent more time doing projects around the house. I’ve spent more time in my yard this past month than I think I had all year. The reason is I started cutting my own grass again. I fired the guy who was doing it as he pretty much wrecked my yard. So I bought a new lawnmower and I love it. You can find out why below.
Additionally, I basked in the many iterations of 90 Day Fiance that TLC has been bringing us. My Sunday and Monday nights are pretty much all about 90 Day Fiance. There’s 90 Day Fiance the Other Way, 90 Day Fiance Happily Ever After, two versions of 90 Day Fiance Pillow Talk just to name a few. If you haven’t been watching this show, you are really missing out.
I've become a fan of the Mielle hair brand so when they have one of their epic sales I'm all for it and buy up several of my staple products plus one or two products that I haven't tried out yet. The Mielle Moisture RX Hawaiian Ginger Moisturizing Overnight Conditioner was one of those products.
My relaxed hair tends to be on the dry side so I'm always interested in products that claim to add moisture or hydration to the hair.
I've used the Mielle Moisture RX Hawaiian Ginger Moisturizing Overnight Conditioner on my relaxed hair three separate times and I feel like I have enough info and experience with it to share a review.
For us millennials budgeting, saving money, and investing can all be confusing. It can also be overwhelming. Especially when it’s something that’s new to you and you don’t have a lot of experience with. I’ve been blessed that my parents were good with their finances and made it a point to pass that information down to their children. My parents taught me about budgeting by helping me create a budget for my weekly allowance. As part of that budget, my parents had me set aside some of my income for savings. My father also taught me the basics of investing by having me pick and monitor some real stocks for a few months.
Now, not everyone is blessed to have parents that are good with money and were able to pass along that knowledge to them. Thankfully we have this thing called the internet that we can use to find personal finance information and resources.
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I like taking care of my hair. In fact, I like washing my hair and don’t mind the drying process. What I’m not a fan of is styling my hair.
Confession, I did have a year or two where I was all about styling my hair. Either with steam rollers, braid outs, or doing different types of braided styles. Once I had my hair setback though I lost pretty much all interest in wearing hairstyles outside of buns and ponytails. Boring I know but easy considering my hair hasn’t been the most manageable over the last year or so.
Even though I don’t do a lot of styling when it comes to my hair I do appreciate a good hairstyling tutorial. Here are 6 that I found for no heat hairstyles for relaxed hair.
Over the last year, I’ve shared my experience with protein overload and the damage it’s done to my relaxed hair. I’m happy to say that since I discovered that I had protein overload and started taking steps to get past it, I’ve seen lots of improvement in my hair.
One of the things that I did was stop using so many hair products with protein ingredients. Almost every product I was using for my hair at that time had a protein ingredient but that wasn’t on purpose.
What I’ve discovered is that hair brands and manufacturers like to include protein in their hair products even if they don’t claim to be strengthening or anti-breakage but do claim to be moisturizing or hydrating. It’s kinda ridiculous if you ask me.
Since that discovery, I’ve been paying closer attention to whether or not a product has protein ingredients or not. If the product does have protein I pay attention to how far down the list of ingredients the protein is because the further down the list the less the concentration or amount.
Since it seems finding products without protein is something we all struggle with I’ve decided to put together a list of 7 protein-free hair conditioners out there for relaxed hair.
If you’ve taken up an interest in caring for your relaxed hair and starting what is called a healthy hair journey you may have started doing lots of Google searches, watched several YouTube videos, and joined some Facebook groups.
When I started my healthy relaxed hair journey I did all of the above. And even though I’ve been on my healthy hair journey for several years now I still do all of the above. Personally, I feel like there is still so much for me to learn and understand when it comes to my hair and I do that by seeing and reading about other people’s experiences.
During my last salon visit, my hairstylist told me that my hair felt dry, and using a moisturizing shampoo could help. That got to me thinking that some of you out there may be in the same boat. So I wanted to help and put together a list you can reference the next time you’re looking for a moisturizing shampoo.
May was a hard month, with so much going on in our world, country, and for me personally. Towards the end of May I kinda needed a break from everything and while I was ingesting some social content I wasn’t really sharing any.
There were a few bright spots for me during the month which I’m sharing in this post. Others have been seeing one of my friends in person again, volunteering with some people from my church to give out groceries to help families put food on their table, having a mother’s day video call with my family.
What were your bright spots during the month of May?
Before getting into my May highlights and favorites I wanted to send a big thank you to all of you who have been reading and watching my content over the last few months. It's been exciting to see more and more of you come on board and to interact with you.
The hair salon I go to has re-opened and my stylist started to take clients again. During the salon closures, I had an appointment on the books that I kept moving in an effort to make sure I didn’t have to wait several weeks to get in my stylist’s chair.
Getting a relaxer applied is a serious process because it’s a chemical that changes the structure of the hair strand and it can cause some serious damage if not applied properly.
Even when applied properly there can still be some damage or discomfort if our hair and scalp aren’t properly prepared for the process. When I first started getting relaxers the only advice I was given to prepare my hair for a relaxer touch-up was to not scratch my scalp the week prior.
Over time I learned that while it's good advice, it fell a bit short. There are more things that should and can be done to get the best results from a relaxer touch-up.
As I write this post, I’ve been relaxer stretching for almost 16 weeks which is about 4 weeks longer than I typically stretch. Thankfully this stretch hasn’t been a difficult one for me. I’ve been able to get through it without having issues with lots of tangling or breakage.
This wasn’t something that I was able to do overnight. I’ve been relaxer stretching for several years now so I’ve gotten to understand my hair, what it needs and now my two textures interact. So I know that when I’m in the latter part of a relaxer stretch I have to make sure my hair regimen is focused on two key things
Moisture
Products I know my hair really likes
I have a great group of products that I’ve been using over the last few months that I have been really leaning on. And bonus, most of these products are moisture focused and protein-free.
I’m not one to wear a lot of makeup on a daily basis. My makeup look is pretty minimal. That’s a combination of not wanting to spend a lot of time in the morning putting on makeup and not wanting to wear that much on my oily skin.
So I guess it’s not a surprise that when my company told us to work from home due to the current situation I made my makeup look even more minimal.
I knew with all of the multiple video calls we do on a daily basis that I wouldn’t feel comfortable going bare skin but I didn’t feel like wearing a lot of makeup every day as well.
So I decided to pare down the makeup I wear to just 5 items - pressed powder, foundation, eye shadow, mascara, and setting spray. I’m able to quickly apply my makeup and have a made-up look while looking natural. I’ve gotten several compliments from my coworkers on how my skin looks and the fact that I’ve worn makeup every day.
Here’s my makeup routine now that I’m working from home and doing lots of video calls.
Over the last year, I’ve shared my experience with protein overload and the damage it’s done to my relaxed hair. I’m happy to say that since I discovered that I had protein overload and started taking steps to get past it, I’ve seen lots of improvement in my hair.
One of the things that I did was stop using so many hair products with protein ingredients. Almost every product I was using on my hair at that time had a protein ingredient but that wasn’t on purpose.
What I’ve discovered is that hair brands and manufacturers like to include protein in their hair products even if they don’t claim to be strengthening or anti-breakage but do claim to be moisturizing or hydrating. It’s kinda ridiculous if you ask me.
Since that discovery, I’ve been paying closer attention to whether or not a product has protein ingredients or not. If the product does have protein in it I pay attention to how far down the list of ingredients the protein is because the further down the list the less the concentration or amount.
Since it seems finding products without protein is something we all struggle with I’ve decided to put together a list of some of the best protein-free hair products out there for relaxed hair.
I’ve got 12 products on my list and they cover all of the main aspects of a hair regimen. Most of these are ones that I’ve tried and either liked or thought were decent. The others are ones that are popular in the relaxed hair Facebook groups I frequent.
(This post includes some affiliate links. Should you click an affiliate link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.)
Cleansers
TGIN Moisture Rich Sulfate Free Shampoo
This is a shampoo I sat on for a long time but finally purchased during a sale TGIN had. I haven’t stopped using it since. Not only does it not have protein, but it’s also sulfate-free and it creates the best lather. I love a shampoo that lathers. I don’t feel like my hair is getting clean if it doesn’t.
Don’t worry though, even though this shampoo creates a lot of lather, it’s not a drying shampoo. My hair always feels good and like it still has some moisture and hydration even if I cleanse with it twice.
This is a shampoo I’ve never used but it’s one that several relaxed hair influencers I follow have in their rotation including Hairlicious.
It claims to help detangle, soften, and add shine to hair. It also claims to strengthen “hair while optimizing the moisture balance of the hair and scalp.” I have to say, the strengthening part kinda made me a little wary but looking at the ingredient list I didn’t see any proteins listed.
I had to include a cleansing conditioner on the list since I do occasionally co-wash. And when I do, I use this cleansing conditioner from Keracare.
I’ve used a few cleansing conditioners over the years but this is by far one of my favorites. The reason is it does a good job of removing surface dirt and build-up from my hair while also bringing back some moisture. Oh, and it’s also protein-free.
Nope, you’re not seeing double. This rinse-out conditioner is from the same line as the deep conditioner I just mentioned. Since I liked the deep conditioner so much I decided to try the rinse-out conditioner and it’s also good.
I’ve used it as a pre-poo by mixing it with some natural oils and also just as a regular rinse-out conditioner before I deep condition.
Keracare products are like the holy grail when it comes to relaxed hair, I had no idea how popular this brand was. I’ve just discovered that and so I haven’t started using some of the more popular products like this conditioner.
It claims to help “correct and prevent moisture loss due to exposure to chemicals and thermal styling appliances.” It also claims to be pH balanced and great for dry, brittle hair.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly deep conditioner that works quickly, then I’d recommend the Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Moist Deep Conditioner. It does a good job of adding moisture to the hair and you only need to leave it on for 3 minutes. So it’s perfect for those times you don’t have or want to spend a lot of time washing your hair.
I’ve been using their leave-in conditioner for a little while now and it really helped to save my hair when I was battling protein overload. In fact, I think my hair would have gotten a lot worse if I hadn’t been using this.
The TGIN Green Tea Super Moist Leave In Conditioner is not too thick and not too thin so it’s perfect for daily moisturizing or every now and again pick-me ups.
I go back and forth with this moisturizer so it’s not one that I use consistently, but it has helped give my hair some moisture in a pinch. It’s a liquid so it can be good for those with thick hair like me or fine hair.
In the relaxed hair community, this is a must-have for when you’re deep in a relaxer stretch because it helps to soften new growth but it also works on relaxed hair.
As I was working to overcome the damage my hair had suffered I stopped using natural oils to seal in my moisturizer. I instead started to use this serum from It’s a 10. I’d read some really good things about it and it claimed to help control frizz and fight humidity which my damaged hair was constantly battling with.
I stopped using it for a while but have brought it back to see how it performs as a serum for my roller sets. So far, so good.
I bought this serum from TGIN kinda on a whim. TGIN was having a sale and my hairstylist had just told me that I should be using argan oil on my hair. When I bought this I didn’t realize that it had more than argan oil and that argan oil wasn’t even the first ingredient, but since I started using it I’m in love!
I’ve been using the TGIN Argan Replenishing and Hair Body Serum as a sealant when I moisturize and it makes my hair feel soft and smooth without leaving any type of film or grease.
There are many Instagram schedulers out there for bloggers and influencers to use. Some of them are not so good, and some of them are pretty good, but I’ve found one that is really awesome! And that is the Tailwind Instagram Scheduler.
It’s not a secret that I’ve used Tailwind for several years to schedule my Pinterest pins and love it. So when Tailwind first launched its Instagram scheduler I knew it was going to be good. And it didn’t disappoint.
When the Tailwind for Instagram scheduler first came out it had great features that just made the whole process of creating and scheduling an Instagram post easier.
A hashtag finder that is color-coded to show which hashtags were most popular.
A schedule generator so you didn’t have to guess the best time to post
After that Smart.bio was launched which is an advanced and customizable link in bio tool for Instagram (and is free by the way)
I’ve heard some people say that March and April have felt like the longest year. Personally, I think April felt like the longest day. I’ve been working remotely for about 7 weeks now so I’ve been spending so much time in one area that most days tend to blend together.
April was supposed to be my relaxer touch-up month. Since the salons are closed here in Florida I’m not able to get my hair down. I started to find myself complaining about it but soon realized that stretching my relaxer longer could help my hair improve more than it has over the last three months.
Gotta look at the positive. Such as I’ve been able to spend more time outside, talking to family and friends, and catching up on my YouTube subscriptions.
Have you been able to find some positive in all of this as well? Hopefully, I can bring you a little positivity by sharing my April highlights and favorites.
I'm a part of several relaxed hair Facebook groups and it's interesting to see what products other women are using in their hair regimens. It's also interesting to see how many believe that what determines whether a hair product is good or not is how much it costs. While that number isn't the majority it does seem to be a good portion of the minority.
Well, I'm here to let you know that a good regimen for relaxed hair doesn't have to break the bank. You can find several good products to use on your hair that don't cost a lot.
During my healthy relaxed hair journey, I've tried several low-cost hair care products. And my hair has liked and responded well to several of them (and for the products my hair didn't like I don't think it had anything to do with the price, my hair isn't that selective).
I've decided to go back through my product reviews on my blog and YouTube channel and my current stash to see what low-cost products I would recommend using in a relaxed hair regimen. Here are my top 6.
Earlier this year I set a couple of goals for my hair. One of the goals was to get my hair back to its healthiest state. I knew achieving that goal would take a bit of time and work. When I set that goal though I never imagined that I would have some extra time to spend on it.
I’m writing this while the whole world is topsy-turvy because of the current situation. My state is currently under a stay-at-home order so I’ve been filling my days with working my full-time job, yard work, exercising, Bible study, creating social and blog content, and spending extra time on my hair.
Since I’ve had more time to spend on my hair every day I’ve been taking advantage of that by doing things like
Moisturizing and sealing my hair every day (I have skipped a few days when my hair felt like it didn’t need the extra moisture)
Washing and deep conditioning my hair weekly
I’m happy to say I’ve seen a noticeable improvement in my hair. I plan to spend more time on my hair than normal to help my hair continue to improve. This is important because I will be stretching my relaxer longer than I have in a while because salons are closed.
Well...March 2020 is gonna be one for the history books.
So much has changed in our world and is beyond normal that I'm not even sure where to begin with this blog post.
Many bloggers I follow have shared that they really struggled this month with whether or not to share their normal type of content because everything is now so topsy-turvy.
I have to admit I struggled with that a bit as well but I ended up sharing more content this month than I normally do. Part of that was to keep myself busy in my extra free time, but I also wanted to give you something not related to the coronavirus to read and watch.
Below are my March highlights and faves which is a collection of some of my content from the past month and some things that I've been loving and hope you will also enjoy.
How is your hair doing? Has this pandemic changed your hair plans? Are you now looking at a longer relaxer stretch than originally planned?
If you are looking at a longer relaxer stretch you may be considering either
Getting a box relaxer from the store and relaxing your hair yourself (not something I would recommend but to each their own
Continuing to stretch until your stylist re-opens their salon however long that may be.
Personally, I would opt for number 2 which is what I will be doing if I’m not able to go to the salon for my normal 12 weeks touch-up.
While I currently go 12 weeks between my relaxer touch-ups I’ve gone longer in the past, as long as 18 weeks. I have a post about that which you can read about here.
When I bought my house I was so excited to be able to have a dedicated room for a home office. It was going to be my space for blogging, creating content, and a place for me to do work at home for my full-time job.
Sadly that excitement didn’t translate into decorating. I have done pretty much nothing to set up my home office. I don’t even have a real desk in it yet! (sigh)
Now that I’ve been working from home every day now I’m kinda regretting that and have been looking for ways to add some style and personality to my home office space.
As I’ve been browsing from some office decor essentials, a few items on Amazon have caught my eye and I thought I would share them with you for some home office decor inspiration.
When it comes to the relaxed hair and healthy hair communities there are a lot of terms and words that are tossed out and used but aren’t always explained.
I’ve talked about a few of them before either on my blog or YouTube channel including the one this blog post is all about - co-washing.
I talked about co-washing before in a blog post from a few years ago where I shared how to get started with it. I have to admit that the blog post was lacking in some information and I was still new to co-washing so there was a lot I hadn’t experienced yet.
Now that I’ve been co-washing off and on for a few years I decided to write a brand new post to share my current experience and take on co-washing relaxed hair.
Before I started my healthy relaxed hair journey I cared very little about the type of products I bought and used. I would just buy whatever was cheapest. While I've learned that cheaper isn't always better, getting good hair products doesn't need to cost a bucket load of money.
From my experiences and through the experiences of others, I've put together a list of 10 hair products that all cost $10 or less before tax and I would recommend them to my relaxed hair sisters. These are hair products that can be used in the three key areas of a hair regimen - cleansing, conditioning, and styling.
One thing I will caveat is while these products can be found in most places for $10 or less on some sites they may be listed for a few dollars more in other places.
I know I’m a little late to the game as several people posted their tips for working from home earlier this week. I considered doing the same but I wanted to get a few more days under my belt before sharing.
Working from home isn’t something that’s new to me because for a period of time, I was doing some freelance work and I worked from home a few hours a week.
Also, with my current job, I’m able to work from home if I need to have some work done on the house, or need to get away to get some work done.
The difference between those times and this current situation is that all of my co-workers and clients are also working from home. So there’s no one in the office and we’re all in different locations. This has made not only the workday but meetings really interesting.
As a little girl, there were a couple of things I would dream about having. One was a canopy bed. I thought they were pretty and it would be fun to sleep in one every night. The other was a makeup vanity. I would see women on TV getting ready for bed or putting on their makeup in the morning at one and I thought it would be wonderful.
As I grew up I outgrew the canopy bed dream but not the makeup vanity. When I moved into my house a few years ago I realized my master bedroom was made to have a makeup vanity. It was big enough to accommodate one and has a lot of natural light.
Well, guess what?! I finally got one. It’s not a traditional makeup vanity. It’s actually a desk that I purchased to use as one but it works perfectly.
In this post, I’m going to share where I got the desk, how I use it and what I have in it.
As part of my quest to grow my blog, I've been doing more reading and learning from other bloggers who have found success to see what I can implement to grow my blog.
Most of the advice I’ve read makes total sense and I wonder why I didn’t think of doing it myself. But there are a few things that get a response from me of “that seems strange.”
Some of those strange things I decided to not do. Others I did, such as this. I started upgrading my older blog posts.
Month 2 of 2020 is now in the books. This was a leap year so we got an extra 24 hours this year. I wish I could say I took advantage of the extra day and had a very productive month. But I can't.
My leap day was probably more productive than the rest of the month. My leap day consisted of attending a small group Bible study with some people from my church, running some errands, and taking a nap.
I'm still recovering from not feeling well during much of the month of February. This was due to my allergies kicking in full force. I’m on the mend and am looking forward to accomplishing in March the things I didn’t get to in February.
Before we get too far into the month of March I wanted to share my highlights and favs from February.
It’s no secret that I blow dry my hair. Over the last few years, my hair grew to not like being air-dried so I’ve relied more on blowing it dry each wash day.
I’ve learned that if I’m going to use that much heat on my hair I need to make sure I’m doing everything I can to give my hair as much protection as possible.
Using heat on my relaxed hair isn’t something new. In fact, before I started my healthy relaxed hair journey I used to blow dry and flat iron my hair. I still cringe when I think about that. Thankfully my hair didn’t suffer any major heat damage then and I definitely want to make sure it doesn’t now. That’s why I use a heat protectant on my hair.
This feels way overdue. It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog post about my hair regimen. Probably because I haven’t really had a solid one for the last couple of years.
You read right, over the last few years I’ve been flying without a set hair regimen. I’m not sure why considering for the first three years of my healthy relaxed hair journey I was very big about having and following my hair regimen.
I guess I got lazy which can happen. I think the fact that I also got a lot of free hair products to try in 2018 made it harder to really follow a structured regimen.
The products that I used were all from the hair brand Mielle Organics. I usually try one hair product at a time and use it with other hair products that my hair responds well to. Because all of these products were from the same brand I decided to use them all together and see how my hair responded.
Do you ever go to the hair care aisle in Ulta or Target trying to find a new product to use on your relaxed hair and immediately feel overwhelmed? I know I’ve been there.
Thankfully I’ve found a few hair care brands that have some awesome product lines for all types of hair. The brands I’ve found and have become a fan of are TGIN, Carol’s Daughter, and Mielle.
It was recently that time of the year again. Time for a salon visit to get a relaxer touch-up. This time around I was back to my normal relaxer stretch timeframe of 12 weeks after going a few weeks less my last couple of stretches.
Hi I'm Leah, the creator of A Relaxed Gal blog providing hair, beauty, and lifestyle inspiration and tips for women who want a simple way to look great, feel great, and live great.