1 Year Relaxed Hair Journey (Plus Tips!)

Hey guys, my name is azaria and welcome to my channel. This is a very exciting video today because i am celebrating my one year relaxed hair journey. Now. This video is very long overdue. I'M actually one year and a few weeks post, relax at this point, but you know better late than never and i'm actually extremely proud of myself for how far i've come, especially at my hair journey over the last year. So throughout this video, i'm just going to use pictures to show you guys just how far i've come on my journey so far with my relaxed hair. So i'm going to start off with the last picture that i ever took of my natural hair. Now the reason why i relaxed my hair is because i was just absolutely over natural hair and it got to a point where i was just literally just cutting my hair for weeks at a time just because i was just so unhappy with how my natural hair Was looking in the picture you can see, my hair is actually just like about here and i had cuts um, let's say close to five or six inches off of my hair within the span of about three to four weeks yeah i was just not having a Good relationship with my natural hair, it just wasn't looking right. My hair was always dry, always frizzy styles really lasted. I could not use heat and my natural hair literally. If i even thought about putting a flat iron to my natural hair, i would immediately get heat damage and what is the point of having natural hair? If you cannot do things with it that you enjoy doing so, it was an actually very stressful process. For me - and i just i was reaching my breaking point and i couldn't deal with it anymore, so i was looking for alternative options of what to do with my hair. Then i fell into the relaxed hair community on youtube and fell straight into the rabbit hole and the rest was history. Within the space of about two to three weeks, i would say i booked my appointment and got my first relaxer and we have not looked back since my first relaxer actually went very well. I did not get any burns, you all know. I always speak about my hairstylist philly. She is one of the best hairstylists i've ever been to. She knows so much about hair. She teaches me so much about hair. She really cares about the integrity of your hair and really takes her time and does what she has to do, and you come out good results every single time and she actually did a silk press on my natural hair a few months before - and i was just Like hey, i want to relax my hair she's like sure, let's get it done and yeah, so the process went really well. She did a virgin relaxer on me and most of my hair process really straight. I have some like obviously still have some textured areas. In my hair, but i actually don't mind it at all. It'S just kind of gives me more body to work with to be quite honest and makes my hair look fuller, so i don't mind it and from then on, i just became team relaxed hair. It became so much easier for me to work with my hair. It was less stress and i wasn't as drained dealing with my hair than i like. I was with my natural hair and even though there are some stresses with relaxed hair, it definitely was not as bad as compared to my natural hair. I would say that i definitely had some learning moments. I i kind of picked up a few things from a different from a few different relaxed hair youtubers and tried to incorporate it into my hair care routine and it actually like wasn't working as well for me, so i had to switch up a few things in My routine well over the course of this year and i just had to figure out what works for me and what doesn't, and i think, that's a key part to every hair journey figuring out. What works for you and what works for your hair, because your hair is completely different from the person that you are watching on the screen, so you need to sit with your hair. Listen to it! Pay attention see how it likes certain things and situations and go from there. I definitely enjoyed experimenting with different styles. My favorite favorite style to do still to this day is a braid out. I'M currently rocking a braid out at the moment and like it's just so easy and it always comes out looking good for me. It gives you this, like beaching body, wave kind of situation, it always looks good, it always looks neat and you can wear it to almost every occasion. It'S a great everyday style. It can be low, manipulative, depending on how you do it. I don't think it's so manipulative, because when i have a braid out, i'm literally re-braiding my hair every single night, but it works for me and it requires minimal effort which i enjoy. It is my staple go-to hairstyle and i love it another one obviously is buns. I wear my i feel like it's a 50 50.. So during the week my hair is either in a braid out state or when it's not it's in a bun and buns work, really well just to get my hair out of the way and yeah. It just gives you a little break and still keeps your hair intact and in a healthy state and buns are, i think everybody knows. Buns are kind of essential if you want to have a healthy hair journey yeah, but i also did an experiment with some heat. I purchased a flat iron from pennywise, just a basic, simple, conair ceramic flat iron, nothing professional or anything, but it gets the job done when i want to use heat on my hair, and i want a flat iron, my hair and i have i have no issues With it i like it, it works for me and yeah, so i experimented some time with some heat and i i realized that i like to do heat once a month like a flat iron once a month and that works for me. So my heat styles - i wear that for a week and i would sometimes do a little curl. Do it dead straight. I love when i flat tie my hair. I love to have my hair dead straight and then you add a little ponytail in the middle of the week when your hair starts to get old and it just looks good so yeah i've just been enjoying that and enjoying the journey so far throughout this year. I'Ve been really working on getting my routines done so my wash day, routine's very, very important to me. I wash my hair once a week religiously. I only miss when i'm being extremely lazy, but i wash my hair once a week and wash day to me is very sacred. I take my time i put on my music. I do my deep condition - and it's just a time for me to just kind of relax a bit. I guess i guess it's a bit. Relaxing relax, just focus and get something done for myself and i really really enjoy that time. I'Ve been experimenting with different wash days and two so far that i have down. Pack is protein wash days moisturizing wash days, which is the key things that you need and my wash days. Yes, i'm very proud of myself for getting those done and being consistent with them. Sticking to my routine. I do a protein wash day, one week out of the month and the other three weeks. I do a moisturizing wash day, so that's been working for me. I'Ve been seeing the growth i've been seeing my length coming through and, like i'm just extremely proud of myself, i didn't think that deciding to relax my hair will get me here, but it did and i'm very very happy and proud of myself for that. Another thing that i've been very proud of myself for is doing my research and finding products that work. For me, a lot of people will tell you a lot of things and what to use in your hair. But you really really need to sit down and first analyze your budget, because if you, if people are recommending high-end products that you can't afford, that does not make any sense. Because you can't afford it, and sometimes high-end products are not necessary to achieve your goals. And your hair goals, so just do your own research and try products within your price range and try to look for products with good ingredients, with good reviews that you think may work for you and if it doesn't don't be afraid to try something else, because i've Definitely had a few products that i've had to go and go back to the drawing board and try to figure some things out, but i'm blessed to say that the things that i did try ended up working out really well for me. So i'm very grateful for that. Looking back at my growth progress pictures, it's crazy because seeing my hair every day, i don't see the growth actually um small line, that's a small line, because the stage that i am at now, i am obviously seeing my growth on my length, but it took me To reach hair to see how much my hair has grown but before, while i was doing my wash days, sticking to my moisturizing and sealing and just doing my hair on an everyday basis, i really wasn't seeing it that much but basically i went from. I guess i would say, like shoulder length slightly below shoulder length, hair to bra strap length within a year and yeah. I'M satisfied with that. I am happy with my growth and how my hair looks and there's definitely room for improvement. I'M not perfect when it comes to my hair. There are some things that i need to. You know get done and maybe improve one of them being my trims. I don't think that i'm trimming my hair enough - and it has seen like in my ends, they're a little bit uneven and there's some areas that are shorter than some longer than some that i need to fix up. But all of that goes with the journey and it will, it will come and we have to face it as it comes, and this is something that i am going to address soon. So, yes, i'm very happy with my length. I'M happy that i'm finally seeing the length of my hair - this is something i was trying to do when my hair was natural and i was not succeeding at all. I feel, like my hair, stayed the same length for three years straight and yeah, so i'm actually very happy that being on my relaxed hair journey, i'm seeing my length and i'm seeing my progress and i'm proud of myself and i'm happy to say that yeah guys. So that, basically, is my general one-year update of being relaxed. My final advice to you: if you want to relax your hair or if you are interested in relaxing your hair, is to one find out your. Why what is causing you to feel like you need this drastic change in your hair care, routine, your regimen, your state, all that find out your. Why and once you find out your why two do as much research as possible. There are a few relaxed hair channels on youtube. That really helped me really motivated me and really encouraged me to take this step, and i don't regret it. They are all knowledgeable women and they have healthy relaxed hair and it's proven that you can't have healthy relaxed hair and they are just killing the game. So do as much research as you can educate yourself and don't be afraid to maybe make a change that may actually work out for you in the long run. And finally, my advice to you, if you are thinking about going relax, is to have patience, relaxed hair. Isn'T really that much different from having natural hair? You still have to take care of your hair. You can't just relax your hair and leave it, but it is important to have patience and to stick with your routine and be consistent. I say this and i think all of my relaxing updates patience, my dear child patience, patience is key to a lot of things in life and i struggle with it. But having patience with my hair has definitely gotten me through the last year, and it has definitely helped me to see results, and that brings me to the end of this video if you made it this far. Thank you so much for watching and being a part of my journey and my reflection, and i hope that, if you're on a journey as well that you are seeing the results that you're hoping for and that's yeah and that you may prosper and do well. Thank you for watching my video. If you haven't already, please make sure to give me a thumbs up. It helps me out a lot and subscribe to my channel. If you haven't already - and i will see you guys in my next one - bye