Monthly Archives: December 2011

Straight Hair – Take 2

“I’ve been gone for a minute, now I’m back at the jump-off!”

I decided to take another shot at straightening my hair. I’ve been contemplating it all week, then today I discovered CristiGold in her video on CurlyNikki’s site and I was ready for the challenge. I swear she’s my hair twin!

Last time I straightened it, I blow dried it, then used a curling iron to straighten it. I was overly nervous about burning my hair, so I didn’t straighten it that much.

This time, I read this post that Curly Nikki did for Essence and decided to try this method.

I washed my hair last night, deep conditioned, and braided it into 4 sections, then went to sleep. This afternoon after it completely dried, I unbraided and straightened one section at a time using the Instyler (forgot I had it). I used a lot of heat protector straightening serum as well. I always used this on my relaxed hair, so I still have it.

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I couldn’t straighten it and just leave my ends looking as raggedy as they looked, so I did trim them just a little. If my hair was longer, I would have trimmed about an inch off, which is what it really needs.

I bumped the ends with a curling iron. My hair got really straight and smooth. I wrapped my hair and to smooth the ends after I wrapped it, you wouldn’t believe what I used… wait for it… wait for it… EcoStyler Gel mixed with hair protector straightening serum! I quickly put my scarf on my head after that. Let’s see how that works out.

Without further ado, here’s my straightened hair. It’s so uneven, so it looks layered. I can’t wait to even it out… after it grows a lot more.

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Look at how much shrinkage I have! Craziness! This was before the mini trim. Do you see those raggedy ends?!?!

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Not bad! Not bad! I just wonder if it would stay straight if I wore it out. Any tips to prevent frizz and prevent it from reverting?

XOXO,
Rece

Trimming

I remember when my hair was long and trimming wasn’t an issue because I had length to spare. I would trim my hair regularly to keep it healthy and full. I was able to trim any area of my hair myself because it was long enough for me to bring it to the front and see it. That also made is easy to assess whether I needed a trim or not.

Now… not so much! When I straightened my hair last week, I toyed with the idea of trimming it since it was semi-straight. I examined my ends (the parts I could see) and determined that a trim wouldn’t be such a bad idea. After seeing how uneven one side of my hair was, I was really tempted to just even it out. After careful examination, I decided against trimming it because it might not have gone well. I need to come up with a strategy before I take on a project like this! There’s just too much room for error. I don’t even know if I should be trimming it wet/dry, curly/straight, etc.

I knew my relaxed hair so well. I can’t wait until the day I know my natural hair just as well. I must admit, it’s taking a bit longer than I expected.

XOXO,
Rece