Hey guys! Fall is slowly, but surely, making its way here and it’s time for me to get ready for my fall/winter hair regimen. For fall and winter, I am all about keeping my hair away from the elements and styling tools. Fall and winter is when I bust out my heavy oils (olive oil, castor oil) and butters (Elasta QP Olive Oil and Mango Butter, Shea butter mix). Wigs become my best friend and keeping my hair braided up is my usual style of choice. Lately, I’ve been staring into my beauty pantry and I have been thinking of things to add or subtract from my hair regimen. I like to do this every once in a while to try to curb my “product junkie” behavior, as well as to see what I really use on my hair on a frequent basis. Today, I will give you all an update on my hair, as well as tell you about the products I use on my hair during the fall and winter. Let’s jump right into it.

Hair Update
My hair hasn’t seen a relaxer since February 15, 2013. I’m really wanting to relax my hair, but I haven’t decided how I want to go about it. Back before I relaxed my hair, I had (unwillingly) stretched my hair to 11 months post. When my hair was relaxed on the 15th of February, I had more new growth than what I expected and I ended up under-processing a big amount of my hair. This wouldn’t be a problem usually…but here’s the issue. I have two lines of demarcation now that I am SCARED to get relaxer on. Here’s how my hair is set up right now:

New growth
Relaxed hair
Under-processed/unprocessed hair
Relaxed hair

I’ve been thinking that I could just coat the relaxed parts of my hair THOROUGHLY with thick butters, oils, petroleum jelly, and wrap it up in plastic to protect my already relaxed hair. Do you guys think that would work? It’s worth a shot, honestly. I want to make sure that my hair gets relaxed evenly (though I hate lifeless relaxed hair) until I can get a chance to slowly transition into texlaxing my hair. We’ll have to see how that goes. Pray for me ya’ll.

I am also in need of a hair cut. My ends are pretty much gone because they broke off, but I’ve been trimming those away. Thankfully, those ends are a part of the hair that wasn’t processed from my long stretch, so when I do relax my hair again, my ends will be nicer, though I will lose some length. Who cares? Healthy hair is better than long, damaged hair anyway. I have split ends that I need to trim off, but I don’t do that until I relax my hair, which will be sometime in October. I need to do full research on correcting my relaxer, as well as the new brand that I want to use to do my relaxer with. More on that on a later date.

I’ve come to the decision that I want to spend most of the colder months rocking wigs. I hate leaving my hair to fend for itself in the colder months so I’m keeping it away at all times. The only time I will let my hair free will be on wash/co-wash days. Speaking of co-wash days, I don’t know if I should co-wash more in the winter since my hair could get drier from central heating, constant wig wearing, and general wear and tear. I think I will since I plan on buying myself a salon quality hair dryer and my hair won’t be wet for long. I hate having wet hair in the colder months; it makes my skin crawl. I also want to get myself a steamer to really help my hair flourish since I’ll be covering my hair seven days a week.

Hair Regimen For Fall/Winter

1. Wash hair once a week with a moisturizing shampoo (Elasta QP Soy Oyl Shampoo)
2. Deep condition with either a moisturizing or protein based deep conditioner (Elasta QP Soy Oyl Deep Conditioner or Queen Helene Cholesterol Conditioner)
3. Co-wash once a week with conditioner of choice (will co-wash through braids)
4. LOC Method on towel dried hair (will mainly use Shea Butter Mix, Elasta QP Olive Oil & Mango Butter Moisturizer and Oil Mix)
5. Detangle hair
6. Braid up hair
7. Sit under hooded dryer to dry my hair to about 80%
8. Spray a small amount of water on my hair to keep the moisture in and throw on satin bonnet
9. Clarify once a month with a bentonite clay mask on my hair