10 Months Post Relaxer! - I'm Back! :-)

Heya Girlies!

It's been ages yet again! Hugs to all of you that still follow me and check in now and then despite my LOOOOONG absence!

So much has happened over the past year - from marriage to pregnancy and now my baby bumpkin is here! She's such a lil blessing 

:-)

HAIRWISE: My poor hair has been through the ringer! I kid you not.
Seriously, as you already know, I was so nauseous I basically was vomiting up to the day before delivery - 

combing my hair was a lot of work - after 3 plaits I'd be tired or vomit

The smell of ALL, I kid you not, ALLLLL of my hair products made me nauseous - I never did find a conditioner that I could tolerate for more than 1 minute.

That being said - I'd wash my hair once a week to once every 2 weeks - CRINGE - and condition it for all of 1 minute, 

seal in the moisture with grapeseed oil, and air dry.

That was it.

Did I mention that any heat on my hair would make me vomit????

So you guessed it, 

not even a Hot Oil Treatment was done.

In short I went from Deep conditioning my hair AT LEAST once a week to NOT deep conditioning at all for basically 8 months!!!

ALSO

I have not Texlaxed for 10 months - Yup you read it right, I'M 10 MONTHS POST RELAXER
As soon as I found out I was pregnant I just knew I wasn't going to put any chemicals in my hair until baby bumpkin was safely delivered.
It was as simple as that, crazy huh? Will Power is Amazing!

SO, with all of this,
Does Rachie still have hair on her head??????? you ask lol

I am happy to report, that amazingly I still do.

(braid out)

It's definitely no where NEAR as healthy as it used to be, but I honestly feel grateful for retaining what I've managed to retain...

And I owe my Retention-Accomplishment to the following things/practices:

LOW MANIPULATION! - I basically had my hair in buns, plaits or twists for extended periods of time. not playing in it basically helped to reduce breakage

(box braids - they were a lot heavier than I thought they'd be, but they saved me big time!)

My hair is very fine and high porosity - and it was drier now that I wasn't deep conditioning, dry conditioning, hot oil treating or baggying anymore, so the reduction in manipulation greatly reduced the potential breakage I'd suffer.
Don't get me wrong I did have breakage (still do) but its definitely much less than it would have been if I was combing and brushing everyday.

LE SILK SCARF! - This thing saved my hair, no joke. Dry hair breaks. So imagine if you had your dry hair rubbing on your cotton pillow case all day - no bueno - you'd have breakage galore!

Having the silk scarf reduced breakage a lot,
I'm glad I knew to use it before I got preggers.

MINI CHOP! - I Chopped my hair to just below shoulder length just to make it easier to manage. I just didn't have it in me to deal with hair longer than shoulder length. and I honestly think that was a good call. HEALTH OVER LENGTH! :-)

ACCESSORISING! - I searched for a way to add a lil fun to the hair fixing-up process, and I found that while headbands were a mainstay, could add some flowers to add a lil whimsy!

I got these flowers at a Micheal's store while in Boston!

So yes girlies we have a lot to catch up on, and I have to start getting back on track to healthier hair, much needed TLC required!
I'll try my best to document the process as I go along, because I know I am not the only one in this struggle.

 I hope you guys are having a lovely Sunday,
BIG hugz
from me and my Baby Bumpkin!

Xoxo Rachie