Hello, Hello, Wash N Go!

After looking at some of the beautiful heads on longhaircareforum.com's Wash n Go thread, I thought I'd work on perfecting this style especially for the lazy days of the summer. My hair becomes very temperamental in the summer and is very difficult to tame. Straight styles go poof. Braidouts and Twist outs turn into Frizz outs. And it's all due to the humidity. And it has been unseasonably humid so far this week.

So Wash n' Go's tend to be my go-to hair style. The previous summer's I've always gelled back the sides and put it into a banana clip or a pony tail. But I wanted to try different styles to incorporate this look.

Here are my styles from Tuesday and Wednesday:

Wash n Go

Wash n Go

Wash n Go with side Twist

Length Checks

I've been creating some fabulous (if I might say so myself) high buns lately that I wanted to share.

How to create this look: I start with freshly washed hair. After using my Kinky Curly Leave In Conditioner, I divide my hair into four parts. I add a little Kinky Curly Curling Custard along with my Shea Butter Mix and braid the hair. I then set the ends with flexi-rods. 

In the morning, I undo the braids (it doesn't matter if the hair is slightly damp). I use a hair band and pull it toward the top of my head (the same way that an afro puff is done). I then swirl the hair around and secure it with pins. 

I also use a little eco styler on the edges to slick them back and use a soft brush. Lastly, I tie a scarf around my head to hold down the edges for about 10 minutes and Voila!

I love this look. I can make it as big and dramatic as I wish to. And I can dress it up with earrings as well. 

Sooooo...randomly, I decided Friday Afternoon to have a...what I like to call: "heat treat". I've been avoiding heat as much as possible, and this is my second "heat treat" of the year. My next will not be until the fall. Along with my heat treat, I asked for a much anticipated trim.

It took a lot of going back and forth in my mind....should I do it? Should I not? Don't these ends look ragedy enough? DO IT! But if I don't, I'll have the length I love? But what does it matter if the ends look chewed up...???? I know...insane.

Here are the results (I'm in love!) BTW, I went to a Dominican Salon. They use entirely too much heat if you ask me, but I cannot pass the price. I convinced myself that it's OK to go to a DS, as long as it's not overdone!

A minor set back, but it's fine. I actually think that this is the longest my hair has been in the past 10 years, which is progress in itself. Next stop: BSL!

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: