Girl where have you been?? Why are you not blogging?? Do you still have hair?? Are you still Natural???
First let me say, I will be natural for the rest of my natural life. With that out the way, hopefully I can answer all the other questions.
I have been dealing with a hair crisis. Ok maybe it was not really a crisis, it was a major set back that only felt like a crisis.
I noticed my hair not doing so great around December or January. We all know what denial feels like. I was in total denial of the damaging state my hair was in. My ends were knotting up and my hair seemed weaker.
So of course for the new year I had a plan to get my hair health back on track. Taking a step away from blogging and focusing why I was experiencing hair problems.
I decided to just leave my hair alone! For three months, I did not comb my hair. Trust me, I know how crazy that sounds but it is true. I was in search of the fastest way to see more length retention. I knew one way to achieve that was Low Manipulation. After contemplating what went wrong, I realized I was doing too much manipulation.
* Changing hair styles to much or often.
* Combing/Brushing more than normal.
* Trying out new hair styles
All these factors and more lead to heavy manipulation to my hair strands. The breakage I suffered was a direct result.
Now No manipulation would have lead to dread locs. I am not ready to embark on that journey just yet, So I found the next best thing to No manipulation was low manipulation. Very Low!
I formed a very simplistic hair care routine that I could live with.
With my daily morning showering, I saturated my hair with water while lightly finger de-tangling.
I applied a leave in conditioner while still in the shower, to soaking wet hair.
Once out the shower, I seal all of that good ole moisture in with an oil or butter then place my hair in a bun or low pony tail.
With a tooth brush and some Eco Styler gel, I smooth down my edges then tied on a silk scarf while I finish getting dressed.
I still washed my hair and deep conditioned weekly.
As boring as it may seem, my hair was well moisturize and unbothered. Just as natural afro textured hair in that state will do it grew out.
I was pleased with how the state of my hair turned around. Maybe a little too pleased.
Remember Dear Ole Friend. Well I missed my friend heat a little and decided to play with it. I was going to NC for the weekend and decided to blow out my hair.
My hair was straight, but it wasn't bone or silky straight.
You can still see some texture and my ends were a little puffy.
When I came back home, my hair reverted back with no problems. But then it happen. A natural's worst night mare, especially if you are a natural on a hair growth journey.
... I got bored!!!
I wanted to do something different. I decided on a nice hair cut. Here I am again, playing with heat. I wanted to cut my ends with extremely blunt straight lines. To achieve this, I straighten my hair again. This time, I went for a more silkier straight and achieved a nice silk press.
Oh so silky.
I was happy with the results of the press and the cut. It was my best work yet. I was very pleased and I received a lot of compliments
While my hair still had some length, I knew it was much shorter and once it reverted back it would seem really short. Nevertheless, I was still feeling my cut.
Then it was wash day. There was no look of shock on my face when I saw the heat damage to my ends. In fact I was thankful it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was.
I made the decision to transition out my heat damage, cutting off little at time as my hair grows out. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The next day I realized for me, the very best option was to cut it off now. I was already missing a few inches, what's a few more.
Major set back. I was clueless on what to do with my hair. I thought about putting weave in it, it was bad. I even thought about straighten it again and just "heat training" my hair. A more classy way of saying living with heat damage permanently. But it was so short, I knew it wouldn't look as short straight, obviously.
I had to get a grip! and a Grip I got!
I'm going back to the starting point, kicking out a Hair Care Boot Camp for myself. I'm inviting you to join me. My boot camp consist of 7 steps for High Moisturizing, Monthly Protein Treatments and Very low manipulation styling. A few months in boot camp, I am sure my hair will retain it's length back and then some.
First let me say, I will be natural for the rest of my natural life. With that out the way, hopefully I can answer all the other questions.
I have been dealing with a hair crisis. Ok maybe it was not really a crisis, it was a major set back that only felt like a crisis.
I noticed my hair not doing so great around December or January. We all know what denial feels like. I was in total denial of the damaging state my hair was in. My ends were knotting up and my hair seemed weaker.
So of course for the new year I had a plan to get my hair health back on track. Taking a step away from blogging and focusing why I was experiencing hair problems.
I decided to just leave my hair alone! For three months, I did not comb my hair. Trust me, I know how crazy that sounds but it is true. I was in search of the fastest way to see more length retention. I knew one way to achieve that was Low Manipulation. After contemplating what went wrong, I realized I was doing too much manipulation.
* Changing hair styles to much or often.
* Combing/Brushing more than normal.
* Trying out new hair styles
All these factors and more lead to heavy manipulation to my hair strands. The breakage I suffered was a direct result.
Now No manipulation would have lead to dread locs. I am not ready to embark on that journey just yet, So I found the next best thing to No manipulation was low manipulation. Very Low!
I formed a very simplistic hair care routine that I could live with.
With my daily morning showering, I saturated my hair with water while lightly finger de-tangling.
I applied a leave in conditioner while still in the shower, to soaking wet hair.
Once out the shower, I seal all of that good ole moisture in with an oil or butter then place my hair in a bun or low pony tail.
With a tooth brush and some Eco Styler gel, I smooth down my edges then tied on a silk scarf while I finish getting dressed.
I still washed my hair and deep conditioned weekly.
As boring as it may seem, my hair was well moisturize and unbothered. Just as natural afro textured hair in that state will do it grew out.
I was pleased with how the state of my hair turned around. Maybe a little too pleased.
Remember Dear Ole Friend. Well I missed my friend heat a little and decided to play with it. I was going to NC for the weekend and decided to blow out my hair.
You can still see some texture and my ends were a little puffy.
When I came back home, my hair reverted back with no problems. But then it happen. A natural's worst night mare, especially if you are a natural on a hair growth journey.
... I got bored!!!
I wanted to do something different. I decided on a nice hair cut. Here I am again, playing with heat. I wanted to cut my ends with extremely blunt straight lines. To achieve this, I straighten my hair again. This time, I went for a more silkier straight and achieved a nice silk press.
I was happy with the results of the press and the cut. It was my best work yet. I was very pleased and I received a lot of compliments
While my hair still had some length, I knew it was much shorter and once it reverted back it would seem really short. Nevertheless, I was still feeling my cut.
Then it was wash day. There was no look of shock on my face when I saw the heat damage to my ends. In fact I was thankful it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was.
A Week later and still silky straight.
I made the decision to transition out my heat damage, cutting off little at time as my hair grows out. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The next day I realized for me, the very best option was to cut it off now. I was already missing a few inches, what's a few more.
Major set back. I was clueless on what to do with my hair. I thought about putting weave in it, it was bad. I even thought about straighten it again and just "heat training" my hair. A more classy way of saying living with heat damage permanently. But it was so short, I knew it wouldn't look as short straight, obviously.
I had to get a grip! and a Grip I got!
I'm going back to the starting point, kicking out a Hair Care Boot Camp for myself. I'm inviting you to join me. My boot camp consist of 7 steps for High Moisturizing, Monthly Protein Treatments and Very low manipulation styling. A few months in boot camp, I am sure my hair will retain it's length back and then some.
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