From my BC till now...

So I've decided share a few pics with you from my Big Chop until now.  I've made many mistakes along the way as I've literally had to learn how to care for my hair in it's natural state.  That means many a day there was tons of hair on the shower floor and in my sink!  However, I've since learned the importance of MOISTURE and how to retain it.  I've also learned how to detangle my hair without literally ripping it out of my head which, yes sadly, I was doing.  Patience, I've also learned, is KEY in this journey to regrowing a healthy head of thick natural hair.  I think I've made some strides but I also have quite a long ways to go.  Enjoy...

These pics are from the very first day of my Big Chop back in January 2011.  You will notice I look very much like a skinned cat.  I was both shocked, scared but a bit excited to embark on my new journey.  No, I did not go out in public looking like this, I covered it with a custom made wig.  Notice the grooves of missing hair from over-processing with chemicals then pulling my hair tightly in weave tracks!  It's amazing the damage wasn't any worse.



My hair is starting to come in now and my first attempt at twists in February.  I was pretty excited since I could clearly see the growth of my hair since January.

Whenever I left the house I would wear a cute head scarf to match my outfit but not actually show what was happening under there.

Here we are a few months later in May.  I now became emboldened and decided to rock my TWA for all the world to see.  My brave face actually covered my fear of being rejected quite well.  The back and sides have recovered and filled in quite nicely so there were no longer any obvious bald spots.

My hair shrinks so much it blows my mind.  The pic on the left is my freshly co-washed hair, the pic on the left is the same day with my TWA fully dried.  It looks soooo much smaller in it's dried state.

My first attempt at accessorizing my TWA, I loved it...hubby didn't. 



So to date the top and sides of my hair are the longest with the very back taking it's sweet ole time growing in.  I'm learning to be patient with my stunted hair growth and look for health instead of length.  Healthy hair grows!!!!  I'm also trying my best to rid myself of two issues: Product Junkyitis and Texture-Envy.  One day I'll be a bigger person but today, I'm just learning to love me and my God-given tresses.



Henna Gloss

So...last Friday I decided to try my hand at Henna again but this time I decided to try what others have coined a "henna gloss".  A Henna Gloss or Conditioning Henna is simply a 50/50 mix of henna and conditioner which results in a deep, deep conditioning for the hair.  As full strength henna can be a bit drying to some, myself included, I thought maybe this would be a great alternative as henna has really great benefits for strengthening the hair. 

Prior to making this decision to henna again, I did my research and found lots of recipes for online to accomplish this task.  The recipe I chose was from Curly Nikki, as she has the most detailed information I've found so far on the use of henna for natural hair.  I, of course, tweaked it a bit in an effort to achieve the most moisturizing benefits I possibly could.  So here's my recipe:

Henna Gloss (Conditioning Henna)
50g BAQ Henna (I use this small amount because I only have about 2 inches of hair on a pretty small head)
1/2 cup cooled black tea (I used 3 tea bags)
1/2 cup Hello Hydration conditioner
2 tbs Sweet Almond & Avocado Oil mixture
1 tbs Oyin Handmade Whipped Pudding
1 tbs Honey

I mixed the henna and tea and let sit for about 16 hours, I usually don't let it sit this long but I went to work then came home and trained for 1 hour as I will be running in a 5K in November (woot! woot!).  After my training session, I added the conditioner, oils, honey and whipped pudding just prior to adding the henna to my freshly co-washed hair.  After I added the conditioner et al. I immediately noticed a drastic change in the texture of the henna from the consistency of mashed potatoes to a smooth, velvety chocolate-like texture.  I wrapped my hair in Saran Wrap and sat around chilling with my hubby for 3.5 hours after which I finally washed it out.

Now the first thing I noticed during the rinse and before I added any conditioner was my hair felt really, really soft.  I didn't get too excited about this though since if I have water in my hair, it feels pretty soft.  I moved on to co-washing the henna out of my hair using Giovanni moisturizing conditioner.  I co-washed about 4 times to ensure the henna was thoroughly removed from my hair, then moved on to deep-conditioning with My Honey Child's Olive You deep conditioner for 30 minutes with heat.

The results...super-soft hair that STAYED soft.  Since Friday I have not experienced breakage of any with very little hair lost during detangling and combing.  This morning (Sunday) during my morning co-wash, I did notice my hair felt and looked significantly thicker so I'm hoping the henna treatments will work to strengthen my hair and enable me to reduce shedding and breakage to allow my hair to reach it's maximum health and growth potential.  Since this henna gloss seemed to be much kinder to my strands, I think I'll add this to my monthly regimen; I'm all for anything that will add strength to my hair and not damage it in the process.

So what about you?  Have you henna'ed? 

What I've learned thus far

Wow!  Okay it's been well over a month since my last blog entry, to say the summer season has been busy would be the understatement of the century.  Between my job, my family, my friends, my church and just trying to squeeze some type of summeresque activities in, I've been a bit inundated. 

Alot has happened since my last entry.  My hair is growing oh...so...slooooowwwwwlyyyy it makes me want to scream.  However, my sister keeps me sane and well-balanced (this is has been her role literally ALL of my life) and keeps reminding me "a watched pot never boils".  Whatever man, I'm ready to rock some headbands and twistouts and funky afros and flat twists and...well you get the picture.  My hair is still uneven, no I refuse to even it out as you can't tell it's uneven unless I point it out.  However, now it is THICK which I like and I remember from my days as a child.  My hair has always been thick (to the point of breaking combs) but since I abused it constantly by overprocessing, under nourishing, tugging and weaveing it to literally an inch of it's life, my strands became stringy and lifeless.  The fact that is is thickening nicely leads me to believe it's becoming more healthy which brings me to the first thing I've learned:

• The Importance of Detangling!

Okay so my current regimen is to co-wash everyday, then apply Kinky Curly Knot Today, followed by Oyin Handmade Whipped Pudding and/or Oyin Handmade Honey Dew, then seal with my homemade oil concoction.  Now this had been working for me for about 3 months or so.  My hair was soft and moisturized all day.  However, somewhere towards the end of June, I realized it was becoming more difficult getting a comb through my TWA resulting in lots of hairs in the comb or on the sink.  Naturally I thought this was due to my prior abusive behavior and my hair was still recovering but I did think to myself, "goodness, when will the breakage stop already!"  Then one night I had a "EUREKA!" moment while browsing one of the many natural haircare sites and reading about the proper care of natural hair AND the importance of detangling.  "Could it be?" I thought to myself.  So I tried it the very next morning and wouldn't you know I had enough hair on my head that I actually needed to DETANGLE my strands?!  Yay!!  So, I inserted another step in my daily regimen...detangling while cowashing and I can tell the difference.  I now experience a significant reduction in breakage AND now when I comb my hair I hear a whole lot less of that telltale "snap, crackle, pop".  Whoo hoo!  Go me!  Hopefully with the introduction of detangling with the results of less breakage will actually allow me to finally see some evidence of hair growth other than the thickening of my strands.  I am ready for length baby!!

• Henna can be drying

Sooo as you can tell from my last update, I am bored with my hair right now and my extremely limited styling options with my 2 inch TWA.  So I came up with the rather brilliant idea of changing my hair color, of course I didn't want to do anything that would be too harsh for my fragile hair so the typical color-from-a-box was NOT an option for me.  So I thought BAQ henna would be a wonderful alternative that could actually be pretty beneficial to my hair.  I'm sure it would have been beneficial if I didn't go overboard with it...it was extremely drying to my hair and it didn't help that I did 2 back-to-back treatments.  The end result?  Lovely color (that everyone else could see but me) but dry, brittle hair that lead to.....breakage.  I did deep condition each time I did it but it took it's toll on my precious strands.  I will possibly try henna again as I love the idea of it's hair-strengthening qualities but since I'm in serious length-retention mode, I'll be staying away for a while until I can figure out why it dried my hair out so much.

• I am NOT my hair

So I tend to go overboard a bit when I get really interested or excited about something.  Since my natural-hair journey began I've been doing quite a bit of research on all things "natural-hair".  I've learned about moisture, sealing, co-washing, detangling, essential oils, etc, etc, etc and in my excitement to learn about my hair in it's God-given state I have come to realize I expected EVERYONE to be as excited as I am.  Now my natural sisters and I have been gabbing quite a bit about what works, what doesn't, what to stay away from and what we plan to try next and they truly share my joy.  However, there are others in the world who don't necessarily share my level of enthusiasm.  Namely, my darling husband.
My hubby is a good guy, a patient guy, a supportive of my dreams and endeavors kind of guy.  However, he is still just that...a GUY.  He could care less about my oils, my products, my angst-ridden rants about hair length (or lack thereof) and truthfully, he really isn't gung-ho about my decision to become natural.  He loves me so he supports me but he's a "longhairdownyourbacktoyourbutt" kind of guy.  He also is trying to catch up with me regarding the love of all things "natural-hair" and sometimes he's a bit slow catching my enthusiastic fever.  We recently had quite a fight because he didn't like a flower I tried to rock in my hair and I internalized that to mean he didn't like my hair, which meant he didn't like the REAL me, which meant he didn't know me, which meant he couldn't appreciate my efforts and struggles, which surely meant he couldn't possible LOVE me!  Yes, I had a crazy woman moment and I'm not proud of it but I am learning from it.  I'm working on not being quite so sensitive to every remark/question/comment from my beau regarding my, or other women's hair.  He's actually been very involved in the process by trying to educate himself about natural hair, the different styles and the process of caring for natural hair.  I have since reminded myself I embarked on this journey for ME in order to regain the health of my hair, not for the approval of others.  Not everyone loves or appreciates my decision and that is fine by me, what's important is I'm learning to embrace my natural hair and am now quite comfortable with my decision and loving (mostly) every minute of it.

• How to care for my daughter's natural hair

My lil diva was born with a head full of thick, jet black hair.  Caring for her hair had always been a daunting task; a task I was formerly ill-equipped to deal with.  Since I've been educating myself on the proper way to care for natural hair, my lil diva has certainly reaped the benefits.  Her thick, curly, mid-back length (when stretched) strands are no longer dry, crunchy and tangled but rather soft, moist, tangle-free and oh-so easy to manage.  I've learned how to properly wash and detangle her hair to avoid breakage and how to use protective styling to protect her ends and encourage healthy growth and length retention.  Since my journey began, she has certainly been a happier camper during our weekly wash and style sessions and I am excited to see her hair transform under my care. 

So since this journey began back in January, I've learned a lot and I know I've really only just scratched the surface.  I can't wait for my hair to also show progress as I continually learn how to care for it and to avoid the pitfalls that occur due to lack of patience or knowledge.