So about a while ago I did a post on my Hair Routine
HERE, fast forward almost two years later and all the knowledge I spouted in that post has pretty much gone up in smoke.
Somehow, through divine grace I managed to grow my air to about 12 inches or thereabouts and at its peak it looked like I was going to make it past APL (arm-pit length) to BL (bra length), then I did something phenomenally stupid.........I coloured my hair and it all went to hell in a hand dryer.
I'd wanted streaked hair for the longest time, back in uni I had bleached blonde hair with red highlights and I missed it (sounds gruesome but trust me it was gorge, I pretty much kickstarted a coloured hair trend in my school). Since I left school and became an indentured slave it became harder to wild out with my hair but I always longed for the dyed tresses of my misspent youth. One day I decided to take the plunge and get honey blonde highlights, all the better to show off my new, thick, long hair I thought.
Boy, was I wrong.
At the natural hair salon I went to *cough cough Gentle Touch*, they swore up and down on a stack of relaxers that if they highlighted my hair for me it'd be perfectly fine, I'd get protein treatments once a week there, moisturize daily yada yada yada......and my hair wouldn't break at all and like an absolute mug I believed them. Got the highlights and my hair was gorgeous for about a month or two then started to break scarily, I'd followed all their instructions to the letter so I didn't get what was happening. I now thought lemme put my hair in braids, they're protective styles abi.....omo, that one turned out to be from frying pan to fire, the day I took off my braids after wearing them for just two weeks I pretty much cried myself to sleep.
My hair had fallen out in clumps, it was a nightmare. Since then I've pretty much being in a tussle with the hair gods to get my hair back to normal and I'd been failing spectacularly. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago I saw a post on Bella Naija talking about the top ten hair blogs in Nigeria and in the comment section one very irate reader had commented angrily abut the fact that a blogger called
Naija Hair Can Grow was not included. Randomly I decided to visit the blog and saw it was one of those where the blogger, Dabs, documented her hair growth, talked about products etc, but the difference was that this blogger had her very own salon right here in Lagos.
First of all this is her hair
Second of all, she wasn't just spouting this wisdom from behind a Youtube page she was there in the flesh dispensing advice and her hair was RELAXED. You didn't even have to tell me twice, my phone was out and my fingers were tapping away at the keys, dialing Dabs faster than you could say Tressemme.
I made an appointment (she doesn't do walk-ins, services are only by appointment) and turned up this Saturday to start the process. Would have gone earlier but her salon is on Awolowo road and the fuel scarcity of the past week turned that area into a war zone, and after a particularly harrowing experience where I spent an hour an a half trying to get from Bourdillon to Falomo, I didn't even want to go near Awolowo road.
First off, her salon is super cute. I'm a girly girl whose favorite color is pink (no shame here) and her place was done up in candy coloured pinks, greens and pastels, and had scented candles everywhere and a shea butter mixing station and cute furniture and it just looked like an explosion in a Kate Spade factory.
My hair was 13 weeks post relaxer that day, and this is what it looked like before I relaxed.
You can see that the hair is super uneven, and just all over the place. This was achieved by a combination of hair dye, braids and overzealous salon attendants who just "wan trim your hair small".
Her relaxer technique was pretty new to me, probably not to hardcore hair enthusiasts. She did this thing where she put oils or I think it was a conditioning hair cream on my already relaxed ends while prepping my hair.
I know enough to relax only my new growth and its usually a battle between myself and salon attendants to make sure the relaxer doesn't touch the rest of the hair shaft, so it made complete sense to coat it so even if did the relaxer did slip (which it was definitely bound to do), it wouldn't harm the hair.
Even after putting on the relaxer she still put conditioner on my ends because as she said, while washing, the relaxer will run down the new growth to the rest of the hair so the conditioner would help mask it.
This is what my hair looks like after washing and this is where I really understood how damaged it was.
You can see right at the ends, the hair is all thinned out, apparently thats where the coloured hair starts breaking off and its going to keep breaking until all the color is gone *facepalm* and to think I did this with my own hands, *sigh*
I had it blow dried and drenched in oils, but not completely because she said she needed the moisture from almost dry hair since I wanted it straightened.
And this is it after been blow dried and straightened.
Now I'm perfectly aware there isn't one "fix" for all hair types and the products Dabs used might not necessarily work for me. The difference here is that this is the first time I'm seeing someone who was able to grow her natural, Nigerian hair actually offer real physical help and tangible advice. I'm very lazy when it comes to things like self help skin care, hair care etc. So having someone there who can tell me do this, do that without having to work it out on my own suits me. Plus the proof is in the pudding, her hair is great!
Since we worked out that my biggest problem was breakage, she recommended these products to me
Jamaican Black Castor oil for my edges
Tresemme Leave-in Split End Conditioning Treatment for the hair itself, apparently repairs the shaft from within or something like that and;
Now Solutions Grapeseed Oil to seal the moisture in.
Consistency and routine is obviously the most important factor here and that is my biggest problem, I get lazy and don't follow through but I'm determined to turn that around.
So here's to healthy, long hair very soon or I'll throw a tantrum.
Love and light xx
Dabs salon is called the Savvy & Chic Beauty Hub on 34a Awolowo Road (opp Fidelity Bank) Ikoyi. By appointment only, call 08090613325. All product listed above are stocked there.
