My First Length Check….

You guys!!! It has indeed been a long time since I talked to you last. Let me start out saying I have not been forgotten you. I just didn’t feel that I had much to talk about. Since July, I have been wearing my hair out and mainly doing twist outs along with co-washes and deep conditioning weekly. And I have finally made it to eleven months post relaxer!!!! Isn’t that crazy to think about? I have already decided my big chop date and I look forward to the end of this transition. However, I am scared about the loss of length…..Which led me to do a length check yesterday. Before yesterday, I had not blow-dried and flat ironed my hair in over ten months. Let that sink in for a moment. Yes, ten months. That is a long time!!! So I was naturally curious to see how my hair would respond to the heat and how healthy it would look. The first two pics are in the spring of 2013, and the others are from yesterday. I’ll let you be the judge…..

My conclusions:

My hair is a lot healthier, fuller, more even, and softer than it has ever been. I obviously did not iron it bone straight and my iron was on its lowest setting-365˚. On most of my hair, I only did one pass through as well. I was really afraid of damage.  But the difference is startling. Seeing how resilient and strong my hair responded to the heat (mainly without damage) just assured me that going natural was the best thing I could have done for my hair. It will be a while before I do this again, particularly because I want to have some progress made between checks and that takes time. But the next time I do a length check, I will be completely natural!!! 

Perm Rods and a Straw Set...

So since the end of July, I have been wearing my hair out to give it a break from braids and try a new method of washing. I co-washed every Tuesday and Friday, using Naptural85 method of using coconut oil to detangle and condition to wash, sealing with a leave in and argan oil. My hair has been much easier to detangle but I don't think I saw much growth this month as it was a little more manipulation than I've done the whole time I've been transitioning. So I'm going back to my old regimen and will probably stick to that. Well, washing that often forced me to find some styles I could do that would be fairly easy to recreate but wouldn't use heat. Last week I experimented with two new styles....perm rods and straw sets. Here's how they looked (first 3 pics are the perm rods):

I don't know if I'll be attempting them again but at least I can say I have haha.

Happy Hair!

Twist Out Success!!

You guys!!! I’m so excited! My transitioning hair exceeded my expectations in a style! Anyone who has experience with transitioning hair (firsthand or witnessing) knows that being able to blend the two textures is seriously a work of art (not really, but pretty close). That being the case, that’s part of why I haven’t been too fond of wearing my transitioning hair free (with no braids). Well, I’ve been testing out a theory (no spoiler there) and needless to say, on freshly washed and conditioned hair, I decided to put in some twists and coiled my relaxed ends with some foam rollers (that’s all I had). They dried pretty quickly and I pinned them to my head the next day. I realized that I should've put some creamy product in when I originally put the twists in so two nights from wash day, I spritzed the twists with Aloe Vera juice, applied a  little bit of coconut shea pudding, lightly oiled with coconut oil, and rolled them into bantu knots to sleep on. Sunday morning before church, I took the knots and twists down and was pleasantly surprised by what my hair did!!

July Box Braids and Braid Out...

My July Box Braids....These took me about a day and a half to put in. They stopped at boob length and as you can see, the parts were a little smaller than last time. I think I liked these the best.

After I took these down( I got three and a half weeks with these), I wore my hair in a braid out...without detangling (becuase I was lazy). Not the greatest idea because wash day was horrific but at least I looked cute right before lol.

So yeah. I have another blog coming up about my new theory... Stay tuned!

Happy Styling!

Eight Month Wash Day!

Oh my goodness! You guys, I washed my hair yesterday and finally detangled it…It took me three hours to detangle my hair. I think the main reason for that is because I had worn a braid out after having braids for 3 ½ weeks, so all of the shed hair was kind of clumped in the unseparated hair. Also I used my fingers for 97% of the process. But nonetheless, after detangling, my hair felt a whole better and I got so excited. I can see so much progress now!!! My natural hair is about an inch and a half to two inches (with the shrinkage!) so stretched I get almost three inches!!!! That is amazing!!!! This is 8 months into a transition, with ugly relaxed ends in the way, and I had no idea what I was doing! As I detangling sections yesterday, I was so stoked seeing the very clear and defined curls with no product but conditioner drooping past my ears and that was without me stretching it! I seriously considered doing a length check because I would love to know how long my hair is now all over, but then I thought maybe I could do that at the year mark in November because then it would be even more shocking and astounding to see the difference. I know my hair is healthier, thicker, more manageable (at least the natural part is), more interesting, and fuller than it has been in the past 7 years. That is crazy to see the difference between pictures of my hair from last Christmas and my hair now. I can’t wait to see how much more progress I can get in the next four months.

 

Something else I’ve been thinking about is…. Should I big chop in November or try to go longer? I know everybody does what’s best for them and even if you think you’re ready to chop, it’ll still be an adjustment period because your hair will be different. I’m just debating with myself if I would be truly ready to embrace the loss of length for the small adjustment period while remembering I would be stoked to not have to deal with relaxed ends ever again. The lazy side of me is  convinced that heck chopping now would make my life easier, at least for styling and manipulating. But the proud side of me is saying that my hair would be too short for me to feel completely comfortable with it hitting right above my chin or shorter. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. What are your thoughts on the subject of big chop? When did you do yours?

 

 

 

Eight Months!!!

July Braids….

Hey friends!!! Wow, I have been busy lately, but I figured y’all might want an update on how my hair is doing. I had large braids in May during vacation but had an epiphany a little late. The larger the part and the larger the braid, the quicker the installation but also the quicker it becomes frizzy. I do not like frizz, and I try to do my best to maintain it since it does come. But those braids, being the biggest ones I had ever done, got so frizzy within two and a half weeks. I could not stand it, so I took them out. I let my hair rest for about two weeks and quickly realized why I had managed to keep installing braids haha. My transitioning hair is not fun to deal with at all, so at the end of June, I put my braids in. They are smaller than I’ve been wearing, but the smaller part and smaller braid allows me to stretch the wear time out longer. Even at two and a half weeks (washing once every week and a half), I feel like maybe I can make it until August? I definitely hope so.

 I am currently in Month 8!!!! Eight months without a perm or big chop! I feel like doing a little jig! It has been a long and tiring road. My original goal was to transition for a year before big chopping, and I’m still leaning toward that date. But it really depends on how much growth my hair has retained by then. I’m just glad to have remained resilient for eight months. I’ve also minimized the amount of heat I place on my hair. I haven’t blow dried or flat iron my hair in over six months, and for me that’s a really big deal. At one point, I was doing both every three to five days.

 Anyway, I plan on keeping the routine of braids for a month, rest for two weeks, and then repeat with plenty of moisture and sealing. I’ll check in soon.

Happy Braiding!!!

Journey Beginnings....

Hey friends!

So the other day I realized that you guys don't know what led to me starting a healthy hair journey. They say that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Well, I want to share some pictures with y'all of my hair before my transition. I'll let you be the judge.

All of these pictures were taken from March 2012 to April 2014, and a few months later I decided to start my transition to natural hair. The pictures show only parts of the damage; I often hid as much damage as possible.

 

 Happy Growing!