Natural Hair Care Challenge: 1 Month Update!

One month down with the natural challenge! Here's just my review over the first month!
In one of my last posts I talked about the coconut oil and honey hair mask that I had tried out. Now, I really did enjoy the smell and the smoothness of the mask while my hair was in it and right after I rinsed it out, BUT I do not think I washed all of the mixture out... Therefore my hair became very greasy and started to smell horrid. Not to get absolutely vulgar, but it smelled like vomit. Now, it could have been from the mix or it could have been the smell of my natural scalp oils fighting for what they are normally used to (shampoo and conditioner), which I had not used for about 4-5 days. Conclusion: not gonna try that hair mask again, or if I do, wash my hair very very thoroughly.

On the 8th day of this journey, I could not stand my hair anymore. I was washing my hair with just water either once a day or once every two days, but still that putrid smell would not go away and the texture was so greasy that it almost reached my ends of my hair from my scalp. Disgusting, right? So I gave in and washed my hair with shampoo, Aussie deep conditioning on the ends, and finished with a conditioner.
When my hair dried and I tried to style it and such the next day, my scalp was very itching and dry. So much so that it looked like I had dandruff. By this point, I want to rip all my hair out. It was not doing anything I wanted or expected it to do!

So from then on, I knew I had to just keep going! I continued with just washing my hair with hot water once a day or every two days. My hair would still get kind of greasy fast, so I would just rinse it with the hot water. On the 19th day of the journey, I went to a water park for the day with my boyfriend and his family. Chlorine is NOT fun for hair follicles. I feel like its just getting them drunk...in the water your hair feels kind of soft and nice and then when it dries..its just dehydrated and bloated. Therefore, after all that fun in the sun, I washed my hair with the shampoo, deep conditioning treatment, and conditioner. My scalp, yet again, felt dry, flaky, and quite itchy.

Now for the rest of the month, I did not use shampoo or conditioner! Yay! :) I did however use the Aussie Deep Conditioning treatment and the Ion Effective Hair Care treatment on my ends in the shower. I would then proceed to comb my hair through with a wide-toothed comb, and rinse with very hot water.

Sally's Beauty Supply: approx. $12

Sally's Beauty Supply: approx $2-4 (can get in package of 2)

After my shower, I would put in the Aussie Split End Protector on my ends, which is a MIRACLE worker, I swear! I would then spray a leave in conditioner all throughout my hair, and run a wide toothed comb through my hair, adding dangler if needed.

Every two days or so when my hair would start to feel greasy, I would spray my hair with a dry shampoo. Now I had never used a dry shampoo before so I purchased Salon Graphics and started using that. I liked it, but then got a hold of the Suave and just loved it! The smell is amazing and so is the work it does!

At the end of the month this is what my hair looked like! I had gotten about 2 inches cut off at the start of the month, and I'm convinced that the 2 inches plus some more grew back in just a month! I did use heat on my hair, not as much as usual, but every time used a protection spray. In the pictures my hair is straightened, but it definitely looks and feels so much healthier than it did! 

Thank you so much for reading and leave any questions or comments!:)

I will update on the second month and be posting a lot more blogs and hopefully YouTube videos soon!

<3 abbeygail