Current Regimen for Awkward Stage (Eye, Ear and Jaw length)

Ok. I've been trying to do this post for the longest, but I never knew what to write because I felt like my regimen is so simple. But anyway, I'm going to give it a shot because it's only right to show your natural hair regimen!

So I have 3 regimens. The 1st one is for my hair in it's natural state, kinky-curly. the 2nd is for when I wear my hair straight and the 3rd is for when I wear box braids.

Regimen 1: Kinky Curly hair.

Twist-Out

when I have my hair in it's natural state, I normally wash it with Shea Moisture's Curl & Shine shampoo and condition it with Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle conditioner. I add some coconut/olive oil to it and steam for about 30 mins.

After I steam, I take my time and detangle my hair with a wide tooth comb. I do this before I rinse because my hair is filled with conditioner and it's much easier to comb through my hair that way. Plus I don't have to worry about detangling after I've rinse the conditioner out.  I rinse my hair in cool water and then I apply my leave-in/moisturizers/oils. I DON'T t-shirt dry my hair anymore and I NEVER towel dry (because that causes frizz). I just squeeze (scrunch) the water and then i apply Kinky Curly Knot Today leave-in then I spritz with Jane Carter's Revitalizing leave-in. Then I add Jane Carter's Nourish & Shine butter to seal every thing in.

For styling, I either do two strand twist for a twist-out or my famous french braids. For the french braids, I just part my hair into 2 sections. I detangle again to make sure no knots are hiding. I take more Jane Carter's N&S and add to my edges and the nape. then I take my small brush and slightly brush my edges. this way, it can lay flat when I braid because my edges have a way of coiling up on me! After brushing, I take my rat tail comb and comb the ends and then I start braiding. When it comes to two strand twisting, I just finger part my hair and add more Jane Carter's N&S to each part that I'm two strand twisting.

Regimen 2: Box Braids

Box Braids in my chunky bun!

Box Braids are my #1 protective style. I've been doing them for years! When I was in jr. high, I had thick healthy hair that was full collarbone length. That was because I would box braid my hair up for like 5/6 months (with occasional touch ups of redoing some braids). My hair was on point back then. It's until I got to high school that I started to notice that my hair started to change.... but i digress... I love box braids because your own hair needs a vacation too. I love the fact that I can braid my hair and doing have to worry about touch my hair in the morning. The most important part about box braids is that it GROWS MY HAIR! I get a lot of growth when I put those bad boys in! But I'm not silly. I make sure that I take care of my hair underneath.

I get my braids done by my mom. She doesn't braid my hair tight AT ALL. You can't get tight braids because that's going to break your hair. So I make sure my mom braids my hair just right. Not tight enough to give me a headache, but not loose enough for my braids to slip right off. I can't say exactly how many hours it takes me to get it done. It depends on what my mom is doing. To moisturize my hair, I oil my hair with my oil mix of Sweet Almond, Coconut and Rosemary. I make sure I heat it up by putting my bottle in hot water and letting it warm up.  I warm the oil because I feel like it's more effective that way plus I do scalp massages with this oil. After I oil my scalp, I spray my hair with African Royale Braid x Extensions hair spray. Throughout the week I use these 2 to moisturize my hair. Once I feel like my hair is gunky, cuz the braid spray can cause build up, I go ahead and wash my hair. I go to my mom's job to get it shampooed because the water pressure is stronger and I need to be at  a bowl to get shampoo it better. Plus I don't wash my whole braids (meaning the ends) I just wash my scalp and where my own hair ends. Since my braids reaches me at at my waist, I just part my hair in two and then I wash it in a shampoo. I use Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle shampoo and then it's conditioner. Then once it's dry, I just use my oil mix and then my braid spray.

When it's time to take them out, I take them out and lightly detangle my hair. I wet my hair and then use Shea Moisture's Purification Masque (the Black label). I steam for 30 minutes and then I proceed with shampooing/conditioning.

NOW. I do experience A LOT OF SHEDDING!!!! It looks like ALL my hair is falling out. It looks super scary. BUT It's completely normal because my hair was braided up. Just remember. You shed a lot of hairs on a daily basis, so the longer you keep your braids, the more shedding you'll experience. And you'll know if it's "Healthy Shedding" or "Harmful Breakage"  Healthy Shedding will have the little white bulb at one end of the strand while Harmful Breakage will be bits and pieces of strands without the bulb.

Regimen 3: Straightened Hair

Excuse the peanuts. but I love my straight hair here.

Although I don't straighten my hair often, I do have a mini regimen. I do the same this I would do in my natural state reggie but I would deep condition longer. Instead of steaming for 2 sessions, I would deep condition for 2 hours. Once I've detangled and rinse, I apply my heat protectant. I use the IC Fantasia's Heat Protectant serum (it's the red one) I used to use Tresseme's Heat Tamer spray but it made my hair feel a little hard. I want to start using Grapeseed Oil because I heard it's really good as a protectant. So once I've applied the heat protectant, I start blow drying. I don't do it on extra hot but I regular hot because my hair takes a while to dry. Once I'm finished, I  press my hair. I DON'T USE FLAT IRONS. I use the pressing combs because my hair is really coily, so it gets all the coils out and it lasts longer than if I were to flat iron.

I normally keep my hair straight for a week. I get bored my the 4th or 5th day. I just wrap my hair at night and use some oil, either coconut, jojoba or a little bit of castor, to seal in my wrap. I use a silk scarf to tie it down and in the morning I use a small wide tooth flat comb and take it down.



That's pretty much my regimen for my hair. It seems like a lot but it's not. I normally do Regimen 1 and 2 the most. Like I said in a pervious post, I'm only going to straighten my hair once a year and that's or my birthday. And the last time I straightened was In May.  So hopefully, when I gain some length, my regimens are still this simple. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.