Short Relaxed Hair Journey | Relaxer Day Video | Growing Out A Pixie Cut | Lu Akin

Hi everyone welcome back to my channel. My name is lou akin and on this video i want to talk about my journey with my relaxed hair. I know i've benefited from watching other people's journeys and other people's wash days and other people's relaxer days. So i figured that i wanted to introduce this series by actually i'm talking a little bit about my journey and how i've gotten to the point where i am now so i am one day post, my relaxer. I got ta relax yesterday. You probably you'll see that towards the end of the video, but i wanted to share it, as my hair is actually out, so you guys can see, and we can also discuss it a little bit so in 2018 october, one month after getting married, i decided to Go ahead and cut my hair into a pixie cut as you'll see on the screen. I was so excited to have this cut. I was in a new phase of life and you know, as um the meme say like when a woman enters into a new phase or she's going through a crisis. She cuts her hair off. I wasn't going through a crisis, but i was like. Finally, this is my opportunity to actually cut my hair, the way that i wanted um. So i was going back and forth with how i wanted to cut my hair for years years. Until. Finally, i decided to just say like today is the day. So in october 2018 i cut my hair into a into a pixie cut, so from october 2018 to march 2020, i basically had a pixie cut, but in between i was kind of going back and forth about growing my hair and getting protective styles as well. So the two reasons as to why i eventually decided to grow up my pixie cut number one. Pixie cuts are expensive to maintain and while some people have been able to finesse the system for me personally, unless you're going to the salon every week or every two weeks, it's very hard for your pixie cut to look fresh as well as to always look presentable. So because i couldn't really at that time afford to go to the salon every two weeks to get my hair set styled. All of that i figured like okay, i'm realizing that in this phase of life right now, i can't afford this pixie cut. So i'm just going to go ahead and let it grow out. So that was my decision in march 2020. But from before that i was still trying to figure it out. Maybe i would get my hair styled once a month things like that, but it still wasn't up to the standards of how i wanted my hair to look and then the second thing is, i realized my hair always tended to look like maturingly um, like it just Made me look old, it's with certain cuts, and i realize your pixie cut. The way you actually have your hair cut is very important and, throughout my pixie cut journey i was going to different stylists, which is probably the mistake that i made so i couldn't find the cut that i actually liked. That was easier for me to maintain on my own that actually fit my face and also still made me look the way that i kind of envisioned myself looking with the pixie cut, so because of that those two reasons, and i couldn't really get it down. I was like okay, let me just go ahead and grow this hair out so because i was going back and forth about wanting to grow my hair out. There would be times where i would get braids. I could barely get braids. I would have my hair and braids for a long time. I would have a new a lot of new growth and then, as soon as i would take, my braids out my hair was in such an awkward phase or awkward length that i felt like all. I could do was go back to a pixie cut, so pixie cuts are like addicting because you have to decide to grow your hair out and then it goes like immediately like maybe two months after having a pixie cut without um, getting it refreshed or getting it Cut it's like you're already in this awkward phase. So if you're in that awkward phase and you're already feeling it it's like easier to go back to the pixie cut than to actually progress forward and actually grow your hair out, like i was looking for videos on how to grow this pixie cut style that i Could do to my hair? It was just a lot going on and then 2020 came and you guys already know what happened. March 2020 was my last last pixie cut as you can see on the screen, and that was when all of the salons at that point had shut down. So now, i'm given no choice but to grow. My hair out so march 2020 was my official last pixie cut. I didn't know it was gon na, be my last pixie cut, but because i was in the predicament where i couldn't go to a salon. I know that some hair stylists were still seeing people in their house, but because i was jumping around to different stylists during my whole two-year period of having a pixie cut. I didn't have a solid relationship with any one stylist where they would have invited me to have my hair done during that time. So i was really just out of luck so because of that i was like okay. I guess i'm throwing my hair out now, but it was so awkward like i felt like i could only get braids um and the reason why it was also awkward for me is that i don't i feel like i don't know how to wear wigs. Well, like a full like closure wig well in order for it to look how i want it to look in my head so because i was having that problem, i would try wigs. I would i would do this. I would watch all the videos, i would get all of the tools and i was like today's the day, i'm going to get it right and then every single time it just turned out looking crazy and i was like okay. This is just not working for me and i was actually saying it like. Someone needs to have like a class where you just teach people how to do their hair, and i know we have that with makeup classes, but with hair classes. It'S like. I need to learn how to actually do this for my own self, and i just was having that difficulty. So in june we are well into lockdown. Salons are still closed. I decided that i was going to give myself my own relaxer. I watched all relaxed day. Videos - and i was like okay - i know this - i got the routine down, i can do it and when i did it, it actually wasn't bad. I didn't have too too much new growth. It was from march to june um and i wasn't really at this time. Having like a official time where i wanted to stretch my relaxer, i was just kind of going with the flow, because this was all new to me. So in june i relaxed my hair myself. I actually did it okay, but because i was so so i was so conscious of like doing it for the first time i actually did not have my hair, my hair didn't relax as well for that for that period of time. So when you actually, when i wash my hair, i can see kind of like. If someone has a text wax, i can see the texture for that particular relaxer and i can see that it wasn't as relaxed. It wasn't as relaxed um at that portion, and that was because i was in a rush. I was scared when i wasn't in rush, but i was just afraid that i was gon na mess, my hair up, so i just washed it out like immediately so that happened and then i was able to get my hair more into buns. So i was rocking the buns and i did my fulani braids at one point and then finally, in july i was able to finesse in some way getting a sewing and the stylist that did my sewing. I have a relationship with her. She had done like a um, my one of my pixie cuts during that time period. So i said you think my hair is long enough and she's like girl. We going we gon na try and she definitely tried and it was. It was very like i've really enjoyed that that experience. The only thing is that my texture of my hair didn't match as well with um the actual extensions which caused it to not blend as well, but overall it was still like i loved having a sew-in. So i got my fulani braids when i was actually going on vacation, so i decided to get the fulani braids blondie braids were good, but something that i learned through the process. I actually went on vacation, so i was in the water a lot and then i was in the heat, so it caused a lot of like flaking in the part area. It was very itchy um and it just had a lot of tension. So i had a lot of bumps in that parting area and i was like oh, i can tell that this is not the best thing for my hair right now and it just didn't feel good and i felt like i was even scratching so much that i Was breaking the skin on my scalp? So even though i love my fulani braids, like that's one of my favorite styles, i was okay. Maybe i should hold off because the tension that it requires, because my hair is not long enough um or the braider - is just a really typewriter onto a different person and she type i now i remember she did them really really really tight than the other person That i usually go to - and i think that was also part of the problem. At one point i tried half wigs and the half wigs weren't bad um. I guess the other. The one thing for me is because i have a bigger forehead. If i do a half wig - and it's like higher at this point, it just kind of looks like the projection from the side. Just looked weird and i was like okay pathways, maybe i needed to get a more textured one, but the straight one um. I wasn't really feeling that either so i was like okay, i'm not feeling the half wigs. I tried to do these little mini perm rods to make it look like my hair was natural, but like an afro, because i don't even mind my hair being short like being having short hair is not a problem for me. It'S just figuring out how to style it, so that was okay, but it wasn't like. I still didn't do it as well as i could have in order to execute it. The way i wanted it to look, but still it was a style that i could do and being in that awkward phase in november i got another relaxer and at this point like i said, i didn't really have any rhyme or reason as to how long i Was stretching my hair for, but because my hair was getting a little bit longer, it still was like an awkward length in the back where i felt like it had like this tail. Whenever i would move my head um that i didn't like that. But i liked how i looked like i liked how it looked from the front um, but at this point my stylist was telling me like you know your hair is growing. I really encourage you to like try not to stretch your relaxers more than i think she said 16 weeks at that time. So i was doing like i was stretching until 16 weeks and she was like that's you don't want to go over that and i even think that that's too much so i was like okay, i'm hearing you so i started to be more regular with going um To a stylist or to my stylist, and at this point the only time where someone else did my relaxer was one time and then once when i did it myself in december of 2020, i decided to get a maven sewing and um the making stone. Wasn'T bad uh, the the quality of the stylus was good. Now the quality of the hair wasn't the best. However, this was the first time where i did have texture bundles, where i actually matched my texture a little bit more and whenever i get sew-ins. Whenever i have anything in my hair, i actually don't put a lot of heat in my hair. I just want it to match the texture, so that way, i can just put it in a put it in a ponytail and go because i work out so much. It was important for me to make sure that i didn't have like a texture that wouldn't matter. I would i would need to wash my hair and blow dry it and flat iron it like i'm, not that type of person like i really endeavor, to only put heat in my hair once a month, and i kind of stuck with that even with having the Sew-Ins in my head in february 2021 - that is when we closed on our house. So i didn't like the hair from the maven um program, but i did like having a sew-in. So i just used some old bundles and i went to get another selling in february and i was just that was just because it's easier for me. I don't have to worry about my hair um during that time period. So it worked out and i felt like i don't know - i felt good having my hair done for the closing of the home. I don't know that's just something that was important to me, so i i got. I decided on getting my hair done like a week. Um before and then i just kind of like got bundles that i already had at home and just made it work and it worked out and i really really enjoyed going to that stylist for the sewing and at this point i'm going everywhere for sewing. I still didn't have a stable person and the reason why is because the person that does my relaxers, which is the ashley i go to her all the time for my relaxers? She doesn't really do a lot of sewing um proceed or like sewing styling. So because of that, i have to always find someone else to do that type of style. I have to find someone else to do my braids as well. If i want braids - but ideally you know having someone to do all of all of your styles in one place that no, they actually know your hair and they care about the health of your hair. I think that's also very important as well. So at this point my hair is just growing: it's flourishing, i'm happy with it and then i go to get microlinks installed and i got the microlinks installed april of 2021. So that's this year, so i got a relaxer and i got micro links the same day. Now, micro links don't have that much tension, but i will say that i probably shouldn't have had the micro links done on the day that i actually got the relaxer, but my hair was like a slick y'all i mean i know i had pictures on the screen, But the way my hair looked, i mean that that install from this whole, like journey, was my favorite install like when i had the micro links in. I was moisturizing and stealing my hair. I had my wash routine. My microphones did not fall out with that. Stylus like that was the perfect install. It was a perfect length because i don't really care about, like my my legs being really long. I just really wanted to blend, and i mean everything was like flawless. I loved having that install so much. The hair would tangle a bit, and that would worry me because i wasn't nervous that the hair was going to tangle with my hair and therefore breaking my hair off. So because this is my first time getting micro links the whole time the market links are in my hair. I love having the micro links, but i'm low key, like thinking like my hair, is like destroyed under here like what's going on with my hair, i'm so nervous. I hope my hair is like better or it's not like something's not happening to it, underneath because when you have a sew-in, your hair is cornrowed away, but when you have micro links, your hair is out it's just there. It'S like in between the actual tracks so because i was so nervous i was like i could have. I think i went went two months having the microlinks in you can definitely go longer, but i was so nervous. I was like. I need to take them out. So i've got the micro links taken out, my hair was blow-dried and then that was the length i have a picture on the screen of how the length of my hair actually looked with the microphones taken down. So my hair was growing. I didn't damage my hair. Having the microwaves taken down the relaxer that i got before didn't damage my hair, but overall overall having that experience was like okay now i understand the process of microlinks a little bit better. I'M not nervous, and if i do ever want to sew in or i like extensions, i think i'm going to always opt for micro links, but what i've learned is like micro links but bring my own hair, because i know my texture of hair is different because A lot of people who get microwaves are natural and they're not relaxed, and i think the textures match them a little bit more um. So i think it's just knowing that my hair, i know in the texture of my hair, is also very important for me. So what i've decided is like i'm either going to do micro links or i'm getting u parts um. So i did order a u-part wig, because i think that would also be something that's easier for me to style, especially if i'm doing sew-ins they could just sew the u-part down and it'd be the same style. That'S what i'm deciding to do in regards to extension. Styling um moving forward from june. Until now i got micro links again i got lemonade braids. I was doing my buns. I was doing my ponytails like those were my styles um of choice, and i was just waiting for my hair to get to this point. So, technically from march - until now, i believe it's been march april may june july august september october, so it's been 19 months and your hair is supposed to grow, uh half an inch a month. So, let's see 19 times half an inch. I would have had 9.5 inches of growth supposedly so i definitely think i don't know if you look at it. Maybe i don't know, i think, that's 9.5 inches every time i get a relaxer with. Actually she does trim my hair. So my my ends stay blunt and i really like this style yesterday, because today i try to take the things out and it wasn't looking the best but um. I really like how blunt it makes like this style makes my hair look and my hair look, and i just really enjoy that, so i just asked her to wave it out um and that was different for me. Then i'm going to share with you guys my most recent relaxer routine video. It is relaxer day i was going to show my new growth, but it has officially been 12 weeks since um or post relaxer. I was going to measure it. I did all of that. Just to say, i want to measure my new growth, so my hair has come a long way. It has you can't really measure. I wish i had like a stand-up ruler, but you can't do that. Anyways. I see i can measure about an inch of growth and i think that's important, because 12 weeks is what three months your hair grows, half an inch a month supposedly um. So the expected growth is about uh an inch and a half between relaxers. For me, my hair is very, very rough right now to the point of it's just a lot. So anyways we're about to go to ashley actually has been doing my hair. Since i was natural when i was in college um, she cares about healthy hair, which is important for me and she does the relaxes, where you're not overlapping the relaxer on the previously relaxed hair, which is also important. So yeah, let's go get this hair. I do go to the salon to get my relaxes and there's a couple of reasons why, when you watch a lot of people's relaxing routines, they usually have someone there with them, like a buddy of some sort, a mom to help them. I don't have that because i just live with me. It'S just me and my husband at home, and i don't you know we're not doing that so because of that. I i just figured like it's better for me to actually go to someone uh to actually do my relaxer and also to do my trim, because i don't have that assistance at home. And i honestly like it. The only thing that i that i don't like about the process is, if you watch a lot of relaxing routines, um, adding that protein right after like sitting and doing your protein, that's not something that i'm always able to do, because i'm also getting it done at A salon so usually what i do is that one week after my relaxer or after my style actually go in and add that protein treatment, so olaplex number three or the plex defense, one of those actual um serums or products in order to rebuild the protein. In my hair that i've lost due to the relaxer um, but one thing that i did we did discuss me and my stylist was. I have been stretching my hair for 12 weeks consistently, so i've gone 12 weeks to get a relaxer once it hits like. Maybe eight weeks, i noticed that my hair is very it's just not manageable, because it's so thick at the root and i don't actually have thick hair. So let me not say thick, it's very kinky, so that way it's very hard to comb through and as soon as i'm combing through my hair, i'm losing a lot of hair due to shedding. I can't really manage my hair all i can do and because it's also at an awkward length, all i can do is put it in a in a ponytail or like put it down or put something on top of it like. I can't really manage it and even when she was doing it yesterday, she's like yeah. This feels like it's it's too long like because what happens is the hair that you have like? You have the natural natural new girls and then you have relaxed hair at the end. What she says is that when you have that relaxed hair at the end - and you have like that point - where it's relaxed hair at the end and on the left, you have your new growth. The new growth hair is stronger than your relaxed hair. If you stretch for a really long period of time and maybe you're manipulating your hair even in the slightest, so i wasn't really like, manipulating my hair, but even if i'm trying to put it into a bun or i'm combing through it, i'm moisturizing and sealing. And i'm snapping my hair, what happens it? What happens it can snap at that point and when it snaps at that point, that's what causes a lot of breakage because you're stretching for too long. So i'm going to try moving forward to do eight weeks. An eight week stretch versus a 12 week stretch, so i already have my next appointment booked and it's just really. The reason why the logic behind stretching is wanting to make sure that you have enough space. Um so that when you're laying down the actual relaxer, it's not overlapping with the hair, that's already relaxed, and sometimes, if you relax sooner than eight weeks or even be sooner than six weeks, you don't have enough new growth, where it's causing a lot of damage to That point, and then that causes your hair to break so we've done 12 weeks, we've done 16 weeks. I'Ve done way longer. I'Ve done like five months at some point and i think the happy medium that we're seeing in order for my hair to continue to grow out would be around that eight weeks because throughout my hair, if you actually look um, i do have some shorter pieces, which We feel like is indicative that my hair is snapping at that point. So, in order to kind of reduce the amount of manipulation, we're gon na try the eight week mark and see how that goes, and also, if i feel like, i don't have enough new growth. I can always reschedule the appointment, but that is my current journey, and that is what i'm doing, and i hope that this video helps you. If you're growing out a pixie cut, don't worry i can relate. I know there's not a lot of styles that you can do. You are going to be an awkward face for a long time, i'm still in awkward phase. My hair still looks awkward to me, sometimes most of the time um. So i will say, like you know, just stay, encouraged. Take your vitamins drink your water! Stick on your stay on your routines, even if your hair is short, but if you have the goal of growing your hair out just stick with the routines, because in the long run it will pay off. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you are interested in following my relaxed hair journey, please do subscribe and if you have any questions, feel free to leave them down in the comments. I don't care.