New Year - New Focus

Happy New Years to my followers and visitors of Hair's Tha Thing! I am so looking forward to gr8 and prosperous things in these years to come!

So I've been gone oh too long and I truly missed blogging.  Back in September the hubs and I were in a serious car accident.  I truly thank God for pulling us through. Being in and out of dr's offices, and therapy 3x's/week is a lot.... a whole lot, but like I said I am truly thankful  b/c it can always be worse.  Needless to say I have soooo NOT been focusing on hair, or anything hair related and my hair has suffered just a lil bit b/c of it.

Well that's why I haven't been around, just wanted to you know I didn't abandoned you or my blog!  It's now time to regain focus and to get back on track.

This year I will be focusing a WHOLE lot more with this battle I've been fighting w/alopecia.  It's been an ongoing, outright war between us for the past 2 years, but I'm competitive and it's a battle I'm determined to win.  My goal's this year will be the following:

1 - Growing out this patch once and for all.  Period. Point. Blank
2 - Getting the patch to shoulder length by the end of 2011.
3 - Overall thickness throughout my entire head
4 - More growth in the temple and nape area (filling in temples - faster growth - nape)

That's it for now, if I think of more I'll add to it as necessary.  Stay tuned!




 

Merry Christmas!

Yes I know I've been gone for a while, but I wanted to make sure I came to wish you all a wonderful, happy, prosperous, and loving Christmas holiday!

I shall return, alive and kickin, in the days to come....

Be Blessed

Ouidad Double Detangler

 Well great googamooga.....I've done it, not all the way, but I've done it.  I planned on conquering a 6 month stretch and although I am relaxing tomorrow at 5 1/2 months (24 weeks) post, I am still claiming my victory (even though it's 2 wks earlier than scheduled).

Suprisingly this has been a fairly easy stretch, much easier than I thought.  Thoughts of transitioning even occurred from time to time but I will say it's something I may do one day but it won't be anytime soon.  During this stretch I opted to not try anything new, techniques, products, nothing....but that all changed when I came across the Ouidad Double Detangler.  Let me just say this comb is heaven sent.  I detangled the mess out of my hair in preparation for tomorrow's re-touch w/little to no hair loss.  Like all things nothing is perfect and the only flaw is this comb does absolutely nothing for me prior to any new growth appearing.  However, once the kinks start coming in, they don't stand a chance against this thing.  I purchased this comb from Sephora some months ago for 24 bucks.  I didn't have to start using it until I was about 3 months post.  My suggestion to all the stretchers out there, run don't walk and buy this comb in a hurry!

Only Me

The good news ....on Oct 1 I officially made 5 months post.  This is a big HUGE deal for me.  I 've never gone past 3 months in my life. So far so good great.  I have not had one single bump in the road and it's been much easier than I thought, that is until Sunday afternoon.

Last week I got pretty lazy. I'd gone the whole week only washing once so I had to buck up.  I moped around the house pre-pooing and dc'ing and then it was time to shower out the condish. Well b/c I didn't feel like the whole process I thought to myself let me head to the sink this one time, it won't hurt....I've been lucky enough for my detangling to be a breeze so I'll just do it when it's semi-dry.  Big rather HUGE mistake.  I am still checking for matting and tangles and it is 2 days later.  I want to slap myself, I thought how could you be so stupid, I felt extremely guilty.

 Last night I had to grab my Bee Mine Luscious moisturizer and go to town, Hairveda just didn't seem like it could do the job.  I made sections in my hair and parted with my fingers and applied the Bee Mine to the new growth in the same fashion as you would a relaxer.  I followed this procedure throughout my entire head.  I than detangled and massaged any knots and matting out as best as I could with my fingers.  This stuff really softens and melts my new growth  It's funny b/c I have this love hate relationship w/the Lucscious Moisturizer but after this fiasco I have a new found respect for it.  Anyhoo, can you believe after 2 separate days of detangling and de-matting that I felt my hair and found another knot.  I am done, this is just too much. Sometime tonight I will repeat last night's process using my Bee Mine and detangling.

Moral of the story, 5 months post is not the time to get lazy, laxed or unmotivated.  Proper procedure in handling your hair is just as important as the products you use.  It can make or break you and your hair!  When stretching and that ng starts kicking, stick to what you know. We should all be open to new practices and ideas, it's how you learn, but I suggest you test and try to incorporate new practices and techniques during your early weeks post relaxer.  This way if something doesn't work out to well you don't end up doing more harm than good.  Remember, stretching is meant to help us gain healthier, thicker strands by using less chemicals over time.  So if you're gonna do damage with improper techniques what's the point?

Sunshine Award

Thanks to our friend over at Diary of a Hair Obsession for nominating us for a Sunshine Award! (isn't that special!).  This award is a great compliment as it's a token of appreciation from  fellow bloggers for your positivity and creativity in inspiring others.  The best thing is I have to spread the love to some of the other great bloggers out there.

So here are the rules:

1. Place the logo within your post 

2. Share the love and link back to the blogger who nominated you. 

3.  Nominate 10 bloggers for the Award (you can go up to 12)

4. Comment on the nominees blog to let them know they've been nominated
5. Link the blog of your nominees in your post

So without further ado, here are my nominees:

1. Fine Hair Sistas

2. Honey Brown Sugar

3. Just Grow Already!

4. Coarse Hair Long Hair

5. Hair Gurl

6. The Anti Hair Slave

7. ZanAndRob

8. Keep It Simple Sista (KISS)

9. Hairlicious Inc

10.Protecting Your Crown and Glory

EdgeStick Giveaway

Let the good times roll......  Our friends over at EdgeStick are giving away up to $500 to an EdgeStick user. If you're interested, and I'm sure you are, see below for details:

These are the rules:http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Foriginaledgestick.com%2FVideoRules.html&h=4f792.

The Edgestick (Special Offer Included)

 Some months ago I was introduced to a "variation" of the EdgeStick by a  friend.  Neither of us were familiar with this product so we plugged it in, I showed her how I thought it should work using it on my edges and that was the end of that.  At that time, with that particular variation, I was not impressed.  Fast forward some months and I accidentally came across a "better-looking" EdgeStick.  One with a digital temperature gauge reaching 400 degrees (unlike the version I tried w/a numerical dial indicating 1-5).  "This" EdgeStick was receiving rave reviews, had my attention and I was sold! Being a long term stretcher I thought this would be the perfect heat tool to control my number one issue when stretching...my edges.  My edges get disrespectful, unruly, and down right rude. I figured with the EdgeStick in my corner I could possibly up the stretching ante.  So my mom surprised me and ordered it for me as a gift last month and when it arrived I couldn't wait to try it.  I was about 2 wks shy from being 3 months post at the time and trust me I needed something serious!

Well something serious did I get!!!  Woo-hoo, I'm on a roll! It's like this was the missing piece to the "everything I need for my hair puzzle!!!" My description of the EdgeStick is a combination of a flat iron and a hot comb.  It's the middle ground if you will.  The ceramic barrel in the center is encased in a double comb. The comb aspect works something like a rat tail comb, w/o the the snagging and pulling, really working out the coil/kink and of course the heat is laying those strands down leaving your hair straight and silky!!!  I was very satisfied, even with my first attempt.  Now what really has me going is that I just finished up my mom's hair and she is 9 months post. After blow-drying her hair, I used the edgestick to straighten her ENTIRE HEAD!!!!!  (Hair's tha thing with that, my mom has 4a FINE hair, it's not coarse at all, much different from my 4a/b coarse, densely packed strands.  I attempted to pull it all the way through my hair and that was a big NO NO).  Anyhoo, what I love about this heat tool is I had it on 390 degrees for both my mom and myself and the double-comb feels like nothing more than a warm rag rubbing across your scalp.  It was actually quite soothing. My primary interest in purchasing was to utilize it for the coarse, short hairs that are growing back in my alopecia patch. They are too short to flat iron and the hot comb burns the scalp.  The EdgeStick was perfect!!!  I was able to pull it through that area w/o any burning or flinching on my part.  It felt like nothing more than  me combing my hair with a slightly warm comb.  I was actually shocked to have a bush in that spot b/c I haven't been able to straighten it! You can only imagine the smile on my face to see that spot is finally growing in. I even took this with me on vacay.  In the process of doing my mom's hair she couldn't believe that the EdgeStick was touching her scalp b/c she felt minimal heat. My mom was so impressed with the results of her hair she said she is ordering one immediately! And the greatness doesn't stop there folks, our friends over at EdgeStick are kindly extending a 20% discount to Hair's Tha Thing's readers for a limited time!!! Simply click on the link below to purchase at the 20% off discounted rate (the deductions are already reflected in the price shown via the attached link).  The best part is you can choose from either the Consumer (200°F - 400°F, available in white) or the Professional (200°F - 450°F, available in black):


http://originaledgestick.com/orders-HairsThaThing.html


Enjoy!