Relaxer No.3

Okay I relaxed at almost 19 weeks post. I will never stretch this long again, I experienced shedding and breakage :(. The stretch was so long because I wanted to transition to natural but changed my mind. I'm afraid to say I did not self-relax I went to the same salon I went to for my corrective relaxer. I just couldn't face handling almost 5 months of new growth, my natural hair is 4A/4B, very coarse. I used my usual ORS no-lye relaxer. Next time I will self-relax, I have to face my fear sometime of self-relaxing otherwise I will be resigned to salons forever *sigh*. I really want to be a DIYer and  be free of stylists. The experience was okay apart from a few things:

1. The hair stylist blew out my hair using a blow dryer with a comb attachment prior to relaxing, I did not have heat protectant on and neither was any applied to my hair. How would this make it easier to differentiate between the new growth and relaxed ends?
2. I think I was overprocessed. The first hair stylist applied relaxer to my hair and then smoothed and left it to take. The second hair stylist smoothed again?
3. My scalp started to tingle (which I expected because my new growth has been itching me recently) I asked to have it washed out, it took 5 minutes for the stylist to do this
4. She didn't neutralize until I asked her to

I think that's enough reason to self-relax if I'm honest. It's funny a year ago I wouldn't have seen any problem with these hair practices but since joining Hairlista and embarking on a HHJ I know these practices are wrong. Anyway back to results:
I am not exactly pleased with these results, I am aiming for APL by the end of this year, even better would be by my 1st hairaniversary (September 2011). I'll show you some comparison pictures:

This was my last relaxer January 28th 2011, my hair reaches the third stripe but not the top of the vest.

My hair does reach the fourth stripe now, BUT still doesn't reach the top of my vest :(. This was taken today. I've still got about 3 inches I'd say till APL :/, that's 6 months, so there is still hope I could make it by the end of 2011.

More pics:

I relax bone straight, at least I can comb my hair, I haven't been able to comb it since April 2011!

My hair is still really thick, even though it has been relaxed. I am going to review my hair regimen although I don't feel I am doing anything wrong. It has grown from between neck and shoulder length. I really should take better length check pics, but at least I'm documenting my journey. Here's a flashback from September 2010 when I was basically neck length:

Hopefully I will have better results, next relaxer which is in 10 weeks time.