What is Cathy Howse's method? I do wash and set my hair and blow dry my roots. I go to the domicans, I blow dry my roots because I hate how my roots look if they aren't. I do need to reduce the blow drying. I started to tell them medium heat. Any suggestions ?
Cathy Howse suggests using:
Shampoo 2X a week with a sulfate free poo
Two step conditioning: 1) protein conditioning with heat 2) moisture conditioning for at least 15 minutes.
Limiting heat use to no more than twice a month & blow drying on cool or medium.
Stretching relaxers (if you have one)
Here is a link to a thread for one of her challenges:
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=480318&highlight=cathy+howse
Lots of information there.
Honestly, if you are wearing your hair straight, unless you can figure out a way to reduce direct heat (flat iron, pressing) by using other methods such as rollersetting, you run the risk of not retaining your growth.
Can you learn to wear your hair in other ways? I've never resorted to braids (I don't like them on me) and gave up on weaves (wore for 8+ years and damaged my hair along the way). Some posters here find it easiest to hide their hair under a straight wig or weave for growth retention.
I didn't address it earlier but there is a difference as other posters pointed out between growth retention and accelerating your growth. I wouldn't recommend spending the time and money on growth aids without being fully committed to preserving your growth retention, if you understand what I am saying.