Frustrated For the First Time in a Long Time

For the first time in months, I was really frustrated with my hair today. So yesterday I got up and put my hair in two strand twists, and used small rubber bands to hold then ends together. I hated it. The rubber bands were irritating me like all get out, plus it was hard to do anything else with the twists with those damned rubber bands on the ends. This morning after doing my workout I decided I didn't like the twists, so I was going to take them down and flat twist my hair. So I took down the flat twists, they would have made a cute twist-out I suppose, but I decided I wanted to go on and flat twist while I had the motivation.

Well the flat twisting wasn't going well, and I was getting tired of having to re-do them. For some reason my flat twists always end up loosening. If I do them damp they loosen as they dry, if I do them dry they are just loose and somehow the hair refuses to stay parted so when I get to the end there are pieces that should be in the piece that I'm working with that were in the twist next to it. After about 20 minutes I only had one twist that I didn't feel like I'd have to re-do the other two I'd done I had taken out to re-twist. Suffice it to say I finally said "forget it". While my arms are better about working with the back of my head than they were a couple of months ago, they were starting to hurt, and I wasn't making any progress.

Mind you my hair was dry, and at this point it LOOKS really dry and nasty. So I spray some water on it and finger comb out the rest of what would have been a decent twist-out if I'd wanted to wear my hair like that and decided to just put it in a bun. While I was looking at my hair I was wishing it was all natural because I would have just left it as an afro/puff and been done with it. Remember, I dried it stretched. But alas, it's not all natural, so I couldn't just leave it out. So I decided to put it in a bun, which mind you was no easy feat with 8 months worth of natural hair. In the front it would not lay down, even with the clear EcoStyler Gel. Finally I just got it pulled back (the back is finally long enough where I can put it up further without having to worry about hair falling in the back, which is nice) and put some Coconut Oil (which I don't think really does anything for my hair, but I still have it, and I'm not going to waste it) and Castor Oil on the ends and then put on a plastic baggy and put on one of my fake buns and a hairband to hold the edges down.

Suffice it to say, this is the first time in a long time I've been really frustrated by my hair. Not enough to make me wish I had a perm, but enough to make doing it a chore instead of fun. I still don't think it looks that hot, but at this point I really don't care. Maybe I'll feel like doing something else with it tomorrow, but I think I'm going to just give myself a break and leave it in the bun for the rest of the week. I should have just left the stupid twists in.

Castor Oil Challenge + Comparison Shots + New Regimen

CASTOR OIL CHALLENGE

Okay, so I'm doing a Castor Oil Challenge from the CurlyNikki.com forums. I said I was going to do it from the 6th through April 6th, but I decided to wash my hair today instead, so I'm starting on the 5th I didn't get a good length shot when I was washing, so the pic I use for the challenge will have to be taken after my hair finishes drying. As I've stated before, I already use Castor Oil to Deep Condition (DC) along with my conditioner, about 3 week ago I started using it mixed with a little Jojoba Oil for my moisture sealing routine. The rules of the challenge are that I have to use the Castor Oil directly on my scalp (something I hadn't been doing). Here are the rules for the challenge if you want to join in. I also am trying to talk one of my Sorors who has complained about how slowly her hair grows and how thin it is, so I hope she'll be joining me even though she has relaxed hair (and I don't foresee myself being able to talk her into going natural, but I'm going to keep trying! LOL)

COMPARISON SHOTS

I just realized I haven't done a comparison shot since December, I haven't been very consistent, have I? Well, here's the picture from October 13, 2009:


Here's the pic from December 2, 2009:

and Here's the pic from Today February 5, 2010:


I haven't dyed my hair, the last pic the color is more vibrant because I took the pic in different light. My hair is naturally a reddish brown color, the only coloring I've ever done is my highlights (and although I'm going to miss them when they are gone, I doubt I'll get more once they grow out/are cut off)

So you can get a bit of an idea of how my hair has been progressing, the last month or so it seems to be growing really fast to me. But I will edit this post later with a length check for the Castor oil challenge, I'll compare that to this pic from Month 6:


Ah, it seems so long ago that I was so happy about finally seeing some curls, it's like once my hair realized I'm really going to let it live without perms it started growing like crazy. I can't wait to see what it does when I finally cut off all of the permed ends since a lot of people claim that their hair started growing even FASTER after they BC'd.

And while I am getting anxious, I'm still planning on waiting until May to cut my permed ends off, and I'm about 97% sure I'll be cutting it in May, I'm already getting tired of wasting perfectly good product on hair I'm getting rid of anyway. LOL


NEW REGIMEN

So my regimen has changed a little bit since I last posted about it. A couple of weeks ago I started doing a pre-poo (or I should say pre-wash since I don't really use shampoo anymore, I think I've used it twice since last October, and I know I haven't used it at all in 2010).

Basically what I do is I take Herbal Essence's Hello Hydration (HH) and detangle my previous style (which was almost always something curly that needed to be detangled before I even dared to wash). After I detangle (usually finger combing), I twist up the back and put a clip on it. It's not like a two strand twist, it's just taking the hair and twisting it around and using a duck clip to pin it up. I then put my satin bonnet on over that to trap in more heat and leave it on for 30 minutes to an hour before washing.

For co-washing I either use my V05 Strawberries and Cream Conditioner or Aussie Moist, I haven't used the HH for a co-wash since I've started using it as a pre-poo, and wash/rinse with warm/cool/cold water. I always do the actual co-washing twice (as in scrub, rinse, repeat)

After that my routine has stayed pretty much the same. So all I really did was add that additional pre-wash step. I think my hair likes it. Other than that I've been subbing Castor Oil for the Coconut Oil. A lot of people rave about Coconut Oil, but I don't think it was really doing much for me. Maybe because I didn't have EVCO, I just had Coconut Oil. Next time I get some, I'll get the Extra Virgin kind and see if it does anything for me.

Right now I have my hair banded to stretch out my new growth, I'll probably put in some medium sized twists again (I've been crazy about twists since I got that ORS Twist n Lock Gel, that stuff is amazing!). If I actually have to leave the house, I can always just take them out and rock a twist-out, or leave them in a put them in a kinda bun.

One last thing before I end this (long) entry. Here's a shot of my head where you can kinda see what the growth is doing in the back (where my hair is SUPER thick, today it was a little tender, but I think that was because I've been scratching):


And no I'm not naked, I have on a cami. LOL

BTW, you can click on any of the pictures on my blog to see much bigger versions.

Wow, 8 Months

I just realized that I completely missed my 8 month anniversary! I don't really have anything new going on. I put my hair in twists about 2 weeks ago, they are nice and low-maintenance, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do them again and leave them in for two weeks, the back is itching like CRAZY. Looks like the key to my scalp health is washing once a week. I don't mind though, I actually like washing my hair now, so it's not that much of an inconvenience, and even if I do want to do two strand twists all over it only took about 4 hours, I don't mind doing that for something that I'll only have in for a week.

Also this time I did them kinda bigger in the back, and smaller in the front, I think next time I'll do them smaller all over.

All I used on my twists was Organic Root Stimulator Twist 'n' Lock gel. That stuff is the truth, it even held my scraggly permed ends together in the twists for the most part (more in the front than the back).

Speaking of the scraggly permed ends, the closer it gets to my one year-perm free anniversary, the more I think I'm going to go 'head and BC in May instead of just letting my hair grow out. I'm convinced it will grow even faster once it's all natural. Plus I don't want to keep wasting perfectly good products on permed hair. LOL

Here are a couple of pics of my twists right after I did them:



I'm not going to post what they look like now. LOL.

I didn't get really creative while doing my twists as far as additional styling. I did put them all in one giant flat twists from time to time in the back, and I liked the way they looked. I don't feel like it's long enough to do all of the cute stuff I saw people doing in their Fotki's. BTW, to the right is a pic of one of my twists towards the middle of my head up close, notice how nice and fat the natural parts are as compared to the permed parts? That's another reason why I want to go on and just cut it off in May. that pic is not of my hair stretched, I wanted to capture the difference between the textures accurately.

Oh, and in other news, I'm trying to convince my two best friends to go Natural, I think I'm wearing one of them down. LOL, I make sure to mention it everytime I talk to them (usually about once a week, neither of them live in my city).

That's all I have to say for now, I'm going to get some other stuff done before President Obama's State of the Union Address (although, I don't think I'm going to hear anything I haven't heard before).

I Had An Interesting Thought Today

The more I see my natural hair coming through, the more beautiful I feel. I was doing my moisture sealing routine and putting my hair in big twists to dry and I just kept smiling at myself in the mirror, I was just soooo happy with what I was doing and thinking how funny it is that I started transitioning after I hadn't had a perm for a while (mostly due to money) and decided I'd rather just let my perm grow out. It wasn't some deep spiritual journey for me. I was tired of chemical burns, I was tired of my hair looking thin when I KNOW it's thick (I hate being able to see through my hair). The back right section of my hair breaks off when I'm stressed, so it's practically all natural already in that little spot. LOL.

But I was getting ready to wash out my Castor-Oil/Conditioner after letting it sit on my head for about two hours when I got the urge to cut off a piece of the back of my hair to see my curls unrestricted. Now, year or even a few months ago I would have never contemplated cutting anything off of my own head. So I went and grabbed a pair of scissors and cut a piece off. I was smiling like an idiot afterwards. LOL, you would have thought I did the BC. I just kept saying to myself "So that's about how long my hair would be if I cut it now" it will be interesting to track the progress of that piece of hair as I finish my transition. But now it's pretty much decided that my hair will definitely be cut in May.

I put the hair that was remaining in a little twist just to see what it would look like (mind you my hair was wet) and it was just the cutest little thing ever! ~lol~ and the end curled instead of breaking apart. Of course I took a picture:
Doing that only made me want to cut the rest of my hair off. But I must resist the temptation. . . on second thought maybe I won't make it a year after all. . . LOL

The more I see of my natural hair, the more I love it. Another thought I had as I was smiling at myself in the mirror was that if I ever have a daughter, she's not getting a perm until she's able to pay for it herself. I might not even press her hair after every washing like my mom did me. She's going to learn to love the hair she was blessed with and see it for what it is, absolutely beautiful.

Oh, and this song has been stuck in my head all day:


The part that gets me is "Good hair means curls and waves, bad hair means you look like a slave." So true. I have a Soror I'm trying to convince to go natural, but she won't do it because she thinks she'll look like Kunta Kente. I think I'm wearing her down though, I mention it every time I talk to her. :o)

New Style: Flat Twists & Bantu-Knot Out

So I decided to try a new style simply because I'm tired of the old styles. LOL, so this time I decided to do flat twists going from ear to ear instead of to the back, and a bantu-knot out in the back. I may try this style again sometime with a twist n curl in the back. I think I should have done the knots smaller in the back because they didn't come out like I thought they would doing them big. For this style I used EcoStyler's Clear Gel for the flat twists, and I used a little Aloe Vera Gel on the bantu-knots.

This style is relatively easy, just part across (the parting straight is the hardest part for me, my arms were getting tired so I still don't think I got them COMPLETELY straight ~lol~ but they'll do. Then flat twist. The one in the front is going from left to right and the one on the back is going from right to left. After I did the flat twists I put rubber bands at the base and then continued flat twisting a bit behind my ear so the ends would be with the rest of the bantu-knot out. Then I tied down the front using a satin scarf so the twists would lay a bit flatter, and I slept in a satin bonnet.

This morning I took out the knots and fluffed. If I didn't like where the curls fell, I used a bobby pin to put it where I wanted it. Overall, I like the style and will probably do it again.

Meh: Flat Twist 'n' Curl Results

Well, I'm not impressed by the results of my flat twistout, I think next time I will definitely split the one in the middle in two (that way I can get a tighter twist). Overall, I don't think it's bad per se, I just don't think it's "awesome". One thing that certainly IS awesome is the shine and how healthy it looks and feels. So I'm not giving up, I'll just have to do them smaller next time. Look at how nice the ones on the right look, I want that all over my head. Since they aren't TIGHT curls, I'd imagine I'd need to re-twist every night to maintain the style, but I'll just sleep in a bonnet tonight and see how to comes out.

Happy New Year!

I'm a day late, but it's officially 2010. New Years are never a big deal to me, it's just another day. But hey, I guess any reason to get drunk and party and not have to go to work the next day will do. LOL. Anywhoo, I'm trying a flat twist 'n' curl, inspired by CurlyNikki from CurlyNikki.com. I actually put the twists in on Friday, the 31st of December, but I haven't taken them out yet because all I've really been doing since then was laying around the house reading books. This is the first time I did the flat twists all over my head. I can't do them while my hair is wet because my natural hair makes it puff up and loosen as it dries, which annoys me to no end. So this time my hair was about 80-90% dry when I put them in. But they were still pretty slippery thanks to my sealing (I swear, I LOOOOOOVE that step, and I'm glad I discovered it, I don't think my hair has ever been this consistently moisturized).

This week when I sealed in the moisture, I forgot to melt my coconut oil, and I didn't feel like melting it in my hands everytime, so instead I did a mixture of Jojoba and Castor Oils for my Oil step. And let me tell you, my hair is the shiniest I've ever seen it.

After I finished putting the flat twists in, I rolled the ends with my satin covered rollers (I think it may be about time to get some more). Overall, I did 5 twists, next time I may do 6 because I'm not a fan of the one I had in the middle.

I took out the one you see there-------> this morning just to see what the curl looked like, and it looked awesome! I should have taken a picture. . . but I just re-twisted it (hopefully I didn't mess it up by doing that ~lol~) and put my satin scarf back on. I figure the best way for me to keep my fingers out of my hair is to leave it in these twists and leave on my scarf (I touch my hair waaaay too much). I promise when I take them down I'll post a pic, I have a feeling it may be my best twist-out yet! I still haven't managed to do a twist-out I love yet.

Oh, and I think I said I was going to do the winter-bun challenge, I did it for two weeks but I don't know that I'm going to be able to do it until April. For one thing, as you can see I'm not good enough with flat twisting to do flat-twists back into the bun, and I haven't even started trying to teach myself to braid my own hair yet. Second, I got bored with them even though I have the two bun pieces. I think I will do them periodically because it's a pretty good way to keep my hands out of my hair, but I don't want to pull my hair into too many ponytails and mess up my edges or cause breakage.