Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Product Junkie but Not By Definition
I think everybody knows just how up and down the transitioning journey can be, especially for a product junkie. Someone said that a product junkie is someone who has found what works for their hair and still goes out and buys everything new that comes out; I disagree. Part of the reason I'm a product junkie to begin with is because I am constantly searching for what works for me and it's all about trial and error. Also if you read my first blog entry you know that I have found products I like and then they were either discontinued or they were not available in my area; with that being said, another reason for my obsession with trying new things is having the security of a back up plan if a product is discontinued or no longer within my reach or budget. For pictures of my journey from 2008 until the present please check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HeCBeGDlug&feature=plcp
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Back Story Hair Woes
The "Product Junkie" or curious person tries almost everything and sometimes anything. I am transitioning from relaxed to natural simply because I do not have enough new growth or courage to do the bc "big chop" right now; but I can't wait until that day comes. Now don't think that I'm a product junkie do to transitioning. I was a product junkie long before I decided to "go natural". When I was growing up my mom pressed my hair... so did my grandmother and my aunts and I hated it! I loved the end results but I hated the fear of being burned, actually being burned and getting popped on the shoulder with a greasy comb for jumping too soon and causing a burn. Eventually my mother decided that she would use perms aka relaxers on my hair, She started with Dark & Lovely. I loved that new perm/relaxer feel... loved it! She kept it lookin' right too. Eventually she started using PCJ relaxers until she discovered the famous Just For Me perm... smh.
When I was old enough to put my own relaxers on my hair I chose the Pink Touch relaxer and I loved it, however I didn't know how to keep my hair looking good and I thought new growth or any sign of a kink was a horrible thing and had to be delt with immediately. Thus began the "over processing", the endless cycle of too many relaxers too soon. Ever two to three weeks there was a perm on my hair and my mom said nothing. Of course after years of this treatment my hair was nothing but split ends and rough roots. Eventually the relaxers stopped taking and I was wasting my time so I started experimenting. I became a Product Junkie. I tried S Curls... it was good at first, but my hair was nothing like the people on the box. I tried a texturizer... I had no idea that it had lye in it. I even tried a blow out kit in Job Corp, I liked it so much I stuck with it for a year or two and I used wave grease as gel.
I went back to relaxers a few years later and tried tracks, braided extentions, the infamous gel packed ponytail with the weave ponytail bobby pinned on as an extension. When all of this got old I just gave up. One summer I went to live with my baby sister and she introduced me to Flat Irons, and not just any flat iron but the good one Corioroliss (spell check that). She taught me to bee hive wrap it at night, wrap that with a satin scarf and so on. This was the era of the "straight chick" and black women everywhere were excited to say that their hair shook, swayed and blew in the wind effortlessly. I was one of the many. She taught me the do's and don't's of the "straight chick" hair regimine. Do use oil sheen spray on the scalp when flat ironing, Don't use hair grease, Do wrap it every single night no matter what, etc. I loved this look, my hair grew like a weed.
I tried to maintain that on my own and at first it was amazing! But I moved out and didn't have those expensive flat irons so I started experimenting again. I looked hard to find the Olive Oil relaxer by Organic Root Stimulator the relaxer I'd come to love. I couldn't find it in Cedar Rapids, IA for a long time. This was the relaxer that grew my hair and didn't cause breakage, the relaxer with a deep conditioning pack right in the box, the good shampoo, etc. So I went 6 months without a relaxer and I put so many different things in my hair that I forgot what worked and what didn't. Finally I got the relaxer I wanted, still I experimented. I found that optimum care made a micro oil anti frizz serum that worked wonders... stuck with that but still experimented with different oil sheen sprays.
Fast forward to the present, I have stuck with that rexlaxer and anti frizz serum but experimented with shampoo and conditioner. I tried motions sheen, conditioner, and shampoo. Loved the oil sheen spray grew my hair quickly but gave me uncontrollable dandruff no matter what I did. My sister was the one who suggested motions conditioner and shampoo much like the beehive wrap and all of these were a perfect example of her being the goose and me being the gander. Wrapping my hair in a beehive resulted in it only wanting to lay one way on my head, also which ever side was wrapped against the grain was the side that got sore at the temple and broke off, so I quit doing that. I still wrapped it with a satin scarf but it was brushed to the back and put in a hair clip instead of in a beehive. The shampoo was okay but the conditioner felt as if it had too much silicon in it.
This is my back story and now that you're all caught up you can follow my journey of transitioning.
When I was old enough to put my own relaxers on my hair I chose the Pink Touch relaxer and I loved it, however I didn't know how to keep my hair looking good and I thought new growth or any sign of a kink was a horrible thing and had to be delt with immediately. Thus began the "over processing", the endless cycle of too many relaxers too soon. Ever two to three weeks there was a perm on my hair and my mom said nothing. Of course after years of this treatment my hair was nothing but split ends and rough roots. Eventually the relaxers stopped taking and I was wasting my time so I started experimenting. I became a Product Junkie. I tried S Curls... it was good at first, but my hair was nothing like the people on the box. I tried a texturizer... I had no idea that it had lye in it. I even tried a blow out kit in Job Corp, I liked it so much I stuck with it for a year or two and I used wave grease as gel.
I went back to relaxers a few years later and tried tracks, braided extentions, the infamous gel packed ponytail with the weave ponytail bobby pinned on as an extension. When all of this got old I just gave up. One summer I went to live with my baby sister and she introduced me to Flat Irons, and not just any flat iron but the good one Corioroliss (spell check that). She taught me to bee hive wrap it at night, wrap that with a satin scarf and so on. This was the era of the "straight chick" and black women everywhere were excited to say that their hair shook, swayed and blew in the wind effortlessly. I was one of the many. She taught me the do's and don't's of the "straight chick" hair regimine. Do use oil sheen spray on the scalp when flat ironing, Don't use hair grease, Do wrap it every single night no matter what, etc. I loved this look, my hair grew like a weed.
I tried to maintain that on my own and at first it was amazing! But I moved out and didn't have those expensive flat irons so I started experimenting again. I looked hard to find the Olive Oil relaxer by Organic Root Stimulator the relaxer I'd come to love. I couldn't find it in Cedar Rapids, IA for a long time. This was the relaxer that grew my hair and didn't cause breakage, the relaxer with a deep conditioning pack right in the box, the good shampoo, etc. So I went 6 months without a relaxer and I put so many different things in my hair that I forgot what worked and what didn't. Finally I got the relaxer I wanted, still I experimented. I found that optimum care made a micro oil anti frizz serum that worked wonders... stuck with that but still experimented with different oil sheen sprays.
Fast forward to the present, I have stuck with that rexlaxer and anti frizz serum but experimented with shampoo and conditioner. I tried motions sheen, conditioner, and shampoo. Loved the oil sheen spray grew my hair quickly but gave me uncontrollable dandruff no matter what I did. My sister was the one who suggested motions conditioner and shampoo much like the beehive wrap and all of these were a perfect example of her being the goose and me being the gander. Wrapping my hair in a beehive resulted in it only wanting to lay one way on my head, also which ever side was wrapped against the grain was the side that got sore at the temple and broke off, so I quit doing that. I still wrapped it with a satin scarf but it was brushed to the back and put in a hair clip instead of in a beehive. The shampoo was okay but the conditioner felt as if it had too much silicon in it.
This is my back story and now that you're all caught up you can follow my journey of transitioning.
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