Small steps in the right direction

It has been almost five months from my trim in December. Have I reached the goals that I planned to reach? Not quite. I am grazing BSL in the back and I am at APL in the front. I do recognize that my hair has grown. butnotasmuchasiwish. Ok, ok, I have to be grateful. I am trying to convince myself that the goal is healthy, strong hair...not Rapunzel-floor-length-hair over night.

In my quest for (longer), healthier, stronger hair. I have decided to follow the following regimen:

• Deep Condition Weekly (Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque)
• Hot Oil Treatment Weekly (Grape Seed Oil, Castor Oil, Olive Oil, Argan Oil, Alma Oil)
• Henna Monthly
• Braid-outs during the week
• Bunning at least twice a week
• Moisturizing with S-Curl (soul glo...lol) Nightly
• Sealing ends with Caster Oil, Grape Seed Oil, Argan Oil, and Vitamin E Oil mixture

I am hoping that this will help me to reach my goals. I will be receiving a trim in May. With that, I am crossing my finger to reach and surpass my BSL length goal by the end of August. I then want to get my hair buntly cut into a U-Shape and continue on WL by (insert date here).

Here are some styles that I have used within the past month...

Curly Fro Hawk on an old braid out using a banana clip

Braidout 

Bantu Knot-out on straightened hair

Straightened and spiral curled hair

Braidout fluffed out.

I plan on taking length shots this upcoming weekend to show the comparison lengths.

Tapping into my Creativity...

I've been playing around with some styles lately...

The infamous donut bun..

Bunning...

Braidout with yellow flexi-rods on ends

Second Day Braidout...much looser! :)

Two-strand Twists

Around the house up-do lol

My Healthy Hair Journey

It began back in 2006. My natural friend set a bug in my ear about how relaxers were unnecessary and how I would be able to achieve the same results if I "heat trained" my hair. She was already one year fully natural. Her hair looked beautiful for it to not have a relaxer. So I said to myself...I'll give it a try.

My transitioning hair in April of 2006

But I was very focused on "heat training" my hair. So bad that from the beginning of my natural hair journey in 2006 until the beginning of 2010...I was using a flat iron every day. I would "treat" my hair in the summers by doing wash and gos and wearing microbraids. During this four year time span I trimmed my hair regularly to get rid of the remnants of relaxed hair. But I noticed something...

In the summer when I gave my hair a break...my hair 3+ inches in these 3-4 months. I was amazed at my growth. But during the rest of the months when I was using a flat iron almost every day, I was not making any progress.

So I decided in the beginning of 2010 to remove excessive heat from my regimen in hopes of it increasing the health of my hair. I tried various styles...

This is where I realized that I needed to decrease heat. Granted my hair looks rather healthy here...but I wasn't satisfied with the constant shift between healthy and unhealthy hair as the seasons changed.

Senegalese twists

Twistout

Bun

Braidout

Slightly damp braidout

Even more focused on my healthy hair journey, I ended 2010 with a much needed trim. And this is where I am/was as of December 21, 2010:

Creating a Fail Proof Regimen

These are my starting pictures for January 2011. My goal by the end of the year is to make it to MBL. Currently straightened I am APL, approaching BSL. I started off fresh with a trim so that those split ends don't stand in the way of me crossing the finish line!

Here is the regimen that I hope to stick with from January 2011 - March 2011. 

Monthly:

Henna Gloss once a month 

S&D method (if necessary)

Weekly:

Clarify hair with Suave's Clarifier or Red Vinegar rinse

 Deep Condition for one hour or more once a week

Daily:

Braidout/Twistout 4-5 times a week

Protective Style (Bunning/Ponytail tucked under...) 2-3 times a week

Moisturize and seal daily 

 Cover hair with a hat when outside daily to protect from frigid weather

Drink eight 8oz. glasses of water and incorporate 5-7 fruits and veggies

I've been trying to figure out why my braid outs do not give me the same texture that they gave me when I discovered how to do them in the Summer of 2010.

A picture from my birthday party...I don't know how I managed to score this definition on the perfect day!

A picture I took before going out for a bowling party. This braid out is partially damp but lasted the night.

So for the past 5 months I have been working to recreate the combination of definition, hold, and shine that I obtained from these braid outs that I did over the summer. No luck. I mean, my braid outs aren't a complete epic fail, they have a lot of body...but I miss the definition and shine that I used to have. I've been testing different products and combinations to see if I'm missing something...then one day it hit me...

I was not doing two things in my current braid outs that I did in the past:

1) I was not sealing my ends. This would result in very huge dried out frizz ball looking ends (in my opinion).

2) I was doing individual braids, rather than "cornrows". For some reason, cornrows make my braid outs come out neater and more uniform, so to speak.

So through sealing my ends and using cornrows, rather than individual braids, I got these results instead:

This is not fluffed out, even fluffed out I'm sure this would have had a lot more definition and hold than my braid outs as of late. Results like these keep my hands away from the direction of the flat iron. 

Hehe :)