Twists and Puff - this week's low manipulation style

Imagine a day when there are no classes, no work, and no scheduled activities....

...Tuesday was such a day for me!

So what better excuse can there be to play in my hair and experiment with a low manipulation style?

I had deep conditioned my hair the night before, so in the morning I shampooed and towel-dried my hair. Starting out with the style was hard. I don't usually deviate from twist-outs or braid-outs, so planning a style I would keep for a week was tricky. 

I was clueless as to what look I wanted to achieve, but I knew that I would be doing some twists since that's the easiest style I can do.

After much fumbling and uncertainty, I ended up dividing my hair into five sections. 

• In the front, I made chunky twists and used bobby pins to create a kind of "pompadour".
• In my crown area, my hair felt very moisturized so I skipped adding any product and did not de-tangle. I simply left my hair to air-dry in a ponytail. (Think "wash and go")
• I also put chunky twists in the back section....well, maybe they were a bit too chunky since the twists still refuse to hang straight down!
• Lastly, I made a cornrow on each side of my head near my temples, and pinned the ends up towards the "puff" or ponytail. 

Yesterday I slightly altered the look since I took down the ponytail section, moisturized my hair and also put that section into chunky twists. This way, my entire head is in a low manipulation style and I don't have to worry about my crown area tangling during the week. 

I'm loving the ease of this style since I don't have to re-style daily. I'm also preferring doing short term low manipulation styles like this one instead of braids. I love braids but I can never keep them looking neat for more than two weeks! o.o I won't even start on how long it takes to install braids.

This style took me about two hours since I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I overtime, the time will shorten as I'll become more comfortable and skilled in doing a variety of hairstyles.

What's your "go-to" low manipulation style?

Love, 

~Hatter

The Hols are here!

Whew!

This week my exams finished so I'm finally free!

If I could sum up how I feel in one video...this would be it:

(And who doesn't love Tom Hiddleston?? :)

This semester has been extra busy for me and unfortunately I haven't blogged nearly as often as I should have.

My second year of university is now half-way finished...I can hardly believe how time is flying!

Since my mini-chop in August I've mostly been keeping my hair in braids. Trust me, this has saved me sooooo much time and energy. All I have to do in the morning is moisturize and seal and I'm out the door. When I get home later this month I plan to take out this current set of braids and maybe...cut off the rest of my straight ends. :)

I'm excited to see how much my roots have grown out since August. I'm still not a big fan of the teenie weenie afro on myself...so we'll see whether I decide to big chop or continue to transition. I'd love to accomplish a long term transition of 1-2 years like some bloggers, but I'm just too impatient!

Watching youtube videos has helped to keep me inspired while I couldn't play with my actual hair.
Here are some of my recent favourites:

As the year comes to an end I feel that I need to sit down and reflect on my highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses. I plan to do this especially for my university experience. Honestly, this semester has been my most challenging so far; emotionally, spiritually and mentally. So, I need to evaluate how I can prepare for next semester so I don't feel like I've been hit with a ton of bricks at the end!

Have you begun to reflect on the past year, or made any goals for the new year?

Oh, and I can't wait for Christmas!!

Lots of love,
~Hatter

Six months post relaxer

August 10th 2013 made me 6 months post relaxer!

That date also marked my mini chop, leaving me with 2-3 inches of relaxed ends attached to my new growth. So far, I can already tell that my natural hair texture is different from when I was a child, and I'm excited for my big chop when I'll finally be able to appreciate and critique every kink and coil.

Currently I am very inspired by this video uploaded by one of my hair crushes, Mae.

She is four years post big chop and I love love love her hair! Her video encourages me to be patient in my transition, as well as to put in the hard work necessary for cultivating healthy, gorgeous natural hair.




After enjoying my short haircut for about 2 weeks, my mother installed another set of braids. Honestly, I would like to maintain my hair myself but since university has started again and my mom is going back to St. Kitts, I know that my laziness and impatience would sabotage my hair-care efforts.




I plan to keep these braids in for 8 weeks, which should last me until the end of October.



How's your hair journey going?
Love!
~Hatter

The braids are out: 17 weeks post relaxer!

Today I finally finished taking out my waist length braids. It took me three days to undo them, mainly because I started with a little at a time and I wanted to work as carefully as possible. 

My patience has definitely paid off! Below is a photo of how much shed and broken hair I lost after having my hair in braids for 4 weeks.

I think this is a moderate amount of hair compared to the amount I have lost in the past when my hair was braided regularly as a child. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not experience heavy breakage. Most of the hair in my hand are shed hairs. While I wore my braids I deep conditioned twice, used my African Pride Braid Sheen Spray weekly and occasionally I sealed my hair with jojoba oil. Now, about three days after my last wash day in braids, my hair is soft and surprisingly manageable. Cheers to successful protective styling!

I used my jojoba oil to lubricate my braids while I took them out. I think the oil did a great job of loosening tangles as well as keeping my two hair textures soft and moisturized.

My new growth @ 17 weeks post relaxer.

For the present I'm wearing my hair in twists for the next few days. Next weekend I have a formal event to go to, so I plan to shampoo, deep condition and hopefully do a proper curly braid-out style to blend my two textures.

My new growth is extremely obvious now that I'm 17 weeks post relaxer. I'm so excited for it to grow out!


Love,
~Hatter

My waist-length braids

Last Sunday my mother finished installing my waist-length braids.

This is the first time I've worn braids in about two years, and I've never had braids so long. I was a bit uncomfortable swinging around all the hair on my head and they also felt quite heavy for the first few days, but I've since adjusted to the weight.

Whenever I saw women with waist-length, or longer, braids I always thought, "Why would anyone want to wear super long extensions??." I assumed that it must be a pain in the neck to take care of them.

Now, I see that they really aren't so annoying, and I love the elegant look I get from wearing the braids cascading around me.

The most annoying thing about them was figuring out how to seal the ends. My mom used 'Xpressions', 100% kanekalon hair, which was very light but tangled very easily when manipulated. I tried plaiting the braids to the very end, then dipped them in boiling hot water. So far, most of the ends have stayed but some are already unraveling.


Here is a tumblr page I found with a lot of inspiration for box braids: iloveboxbraids.tumblr.com


And here is a video of some styles I plan to wear if I'm not lazy.

Yesterday I quickly washed my braids, skipped deep conditioning and proceeded to use a braid spray, then sealed my hair with jojoba oil. Next weekend I'll show my hair some much needed tender loving care by doing a lengthy deep conditioning session.

Love,
~Hatter

Hair Update: 11 weeks post relaxer

Saturday 11th May made me exactly 11 weeks post relaxer.

This is a milestone on my hair journey seeing as I've gone so long without a relaxer and I still have a lot of hair on my head! *hoopla!*

For the past month or so I have not rollerset my hair. I'm reluctant to go back to rollersetting because it takes so much time and effort...Honestly, airdrying gives me satisfying results in half the time.

On another note, the ORS HAIRepair Nourishing Conditioner is really helping me to manage my two textures with less and less headache. Even 3-4 days after my wash day on Wednesday, my new growth was still soft and manageable!  The ORS Nourishing Conditioner is very effective in making my hair soft and slippery, and even though its a bit expensive, I will keep it as my new staple as I transition to natural hair.

**Note to self: I must be careful to rinse out all conditioners thoroughly from my hair! There were wash days when I was left with horribly sticky hair. Now I undo the braided sections that I wash my hair in while rinsing to avoid future trauma from hard, stiff hair and more breakage.

Last week I wore some jumbo twists which I then loosely flat twisted and pinned the ends up. Then on Sunday I untwisted them and wore a pinned up-do. On Monday I made two cornrows and pinned the ends around the sides of my head- sort of like a crown.

Today I washed and deep conditioned my hair. Detangling was painless and quick, thank God!

As you can see from the picture above, I have a mixture of natural hair textures- some strands have super tiny spirals while others have larger loops and waves. I even have some zig-zags (not pictured above) and strands that coil up on themselves. However, looking in the mirror at my hair, its difficult to find the exact line of demarcation, maybe because I have some texlaxed areas of hair that come between my fully natural hair and my bone straight relaxed hair. 

This week I also got some jojoba oil, lovingly purchased by my aunt (thank you aunty!) It hardly has any smell and has a relatively light consistency. I plan to use this to replace my ORS HAIRepair Vital Oils and to mix it in my shea butter once I get home.

I have at least one more week to go before I get my braids (extensions) installed. I'm happy that over the past weeks I've learned to manage my two textures better and have almost eliminated my previous stretching woes. I look forward to my natural hair growing longer and longer so I'll be closer and closer to the big chop!


How's your hair journey been going?

Love,
~Hatter

Wash day @ 7 weeks post relaxer

On Monday I washed my hair at 7 weeks, 3 days post relaxer.

What I did:

1. Sectioned my hair into 8-9 parts, spraying diluted moisturizer on my roots to soften them and help with the parting. Finger de-tangled, applied ORS Vital Oils and braided each section. 
2. Pre-pooed for about an hour under my heating cap. 
3. Shampooed with ORS Neutralizing Shampoo.
4. T-shirt dried my hair for about 2 minutes, then applied ORS HAIRepair Nourishing Conditioner, using 1 & 1/3 packs. Sat with heating cap for about 1 & 1/2 hours.
5. Rinsed my hair and T-shirt dried for about 5 minutes.
6. While hair was still damp, I sprayed diluted moisturizer on my hair, focusing on the roots. Applied Herbal Essences Split-End Protector and de-tangled. 
7. Blow-dried lightly, using tension by pulling down on my hair while blow-drying to stretch my roots.
8. Sealed with ORS Vital Oils.
9. Cross-wrapped my hair for bed and done!

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The next morning I bunned for the first time in a looong time. After doing my hair it felt very soft and manageable. I definitely attribute it to the ORS HAIRepair Nourishing Conditioner. It always make my new growth a breeze to de-tangle!

Unfortunately, the breakage is still occurring but I've almost accepted that as normal (sad isn't it??) so I ignored it and styled. I'll be dealing with this issue in a later post.

I planned to wear the bun for the whole day but...5 minutes after going outside it collapsed!
I didn't secure the ends well so when I charged into the wind...let's just say it was hair blowing left, right and centre =P After that I took out the bobby pins and just wore a simple ponytail.

Hair fails... they're inevitable!


Have a great weekend =)
~Hatter

Protective Styling Inspiration

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One of my hair resolutions for 2013 is to maintain thick healthy ends. One strategy to achieve this goal is through protective styling.

Keeping my ends up and away from my shoulders, clothes, or any surface that can rub against my hair and cause breakage is a must to keep my ends even and healthy. I also want to make sure that my ends do not get dried out by the air or sun.

In the past I wasn't too enthusiastic about protective styling because I thought it was...well, boring. Thankfully, Youtube has since changed my view!

Lilith moon is one of my top inspirations for cute, easy protective styles. Here are some of her looks that I hope to use in my regimen on a regular basis when I hit 6-7 weeks post relaxer:

Here are some other protective styling ideas:

I hope I'll be able to manipulate my hair easily enough to achieve these looks at 7-8 weeks post. 

I plan to use water, moisturizer and a lot of finger-combing to be as gentle as possible on my hair, since I'll be dealing with the thick, coarse texture of my new growth, and the more fragile, straight texture of my relaxed hair.

Do you know any more cute protective styles? Don't hesitate to share them! =)

Lurv,

~Hatter

2013 Hair Goals

2013 is here and its time to set some goals for the next 12 months ahead.

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Last year, my goals were to stretch my relaxers to no less than 8 weeks, and achieve Arm Pit Length by December. About 95% of the time I was able to stretch to 8 weeks, and I was grazing APL last month!

This year my overall goal is health: both for my body and hair.

My hair goals are:

1. Thicker Hair

When my hair was first relaxed, about 4 years ago, I had super thick, healthy hair. Now, years and countless relaxer services later, my hair is much thinner (but still healthy, thank God).
Thankfully, thin hair can be combated with....

Castor Oil

Yes, I'm going to try using castor oil at least 1x per week to thicken up my new growth so that *hopefully* I'll have thicker, fuller hair by the end of the year. To track my thickness I can compare pictures of my ponytail this month, to that in September, then in December to see is there was any significant progress.

     2.   Longer Hair:

Megan of ulovemegz.com She is my inspiration!

Bra Strap length maybe? It seems a looong way from APL. I hope that I can at least reach Below Shoulder Blade by the end of the year. In the picture below, the second blue line is about BSB and the third white line is BSL. I'm already excited about comparing this starting length picture with the one in December 2013!

I can achieve this goal through:

• Healthy Ends

Preventing split ends is a key to length retention. Strong, even ends are also more resistant to breakage and gives the hair a fuller, healthier appearance.

Protective styling is what jumps to mind when I think of preserving my ends. I've been very bored with buns so using youtube to find creative, easy protective styles is a must.

Dusting and trimming my hair when needed can also help. Now that I accomplished my first self trim I look forward to dusting my hair after every relaxer (or maybe every 6 weeks or so).

• Reducing breakage

Over last month or so I've noticed a number of both long and short broken strands in the bathroom sink after combing my hair. I'm a person who can get easily stressed over any noticeable hair loss, so this issue is of great importance to me. I can focus  on:

Proper protein/moisture balance by moisturizing, using the baggy method and perhaps deep conditioning more frequently. 

Drinking more water to hydrate from the inside-out. 

Buying seamless combs to reduce the stress on my hair. I was introduced to these through Jeni of justgrowalready.com. I plan to purchase some Hercules Sagemann combs from hotcombs.net. 

Those are all of my hair goals for now! I may add to this list later but for now I'm focusing on the two main goals of thickness and length.

I can't forget that Jesus is my inner strength and helper. I often fall short of my personal goals, so I shouldn't be wary of calling on His spirit to give me the strength, determination and perseverance I need to accomplish both my personal and hair-related goals.

Here is the link to posts by Nadege of relaxedhairhealth.blogspot.com that are great for motivation and tips for accomplishing goals. If you're like me and need an extra push, these posts should be of great help.


Good luck with your 2013 hair goals!

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

-Philippians 4:13

God bless.
~Hatter

Hatter Snap: Braidout Bun

Yesterday's braidout bun.

I slept with my hair in two braids, then in the morning I finger-combed my hair into a top bun. Even though I got really loose waves, I loved the volume I was able to achieve, especially as my hair was just relaxed on Saturday. =)

Protective styling to longer, stronger hair.

Have a happy day peeps.
~Hatter