Back to Hair! Blog Update

Wow its been six months since my last blog post!

Eeek!

I admit my motivation for blogging did wane quite a bit and I regret the time I spent away from the blogsphere. To be honest, I've settled into the routine of my hair and its not as exciting as when I first big chopped.

So I realize that I need to remind myself why I blog. Well, keeping a hair blog is useful for recording both the struggles and accomplishments with my hair so that over time I can reflect on how much my hair has changed. I can record what products and techniques I find useful or not so useful, and of course there's the opportunity that the information I record here will help someone else, who like me, craves all knowledge of how to care for 4c hair.

So now that that's clarified, on to the tasks at hand. Next week I start classes in my third and final year of university. Of course, I'm excited and nervous about the new semester, especially about my time management skills. o.o

It's a fight, but I really want to devote attention to both my studies and my blog.

Starting with my blog (sorry studies, you have to wait) I plan to update the blog design soon and spam upload more posts as we enter the month of September.

I'm now 1 year 6 months post relaxer!

Relaxed hair to transitioning hair to fully natural hair. Kinky, coily, "nappy", whatever you call it, I love my hair!

If you had to sum up the last 6 months of your hair journey, how would you describe it?

Much love,
~Hatter

Natural

Two days before Christmas I tried to do the big chop.

I say "tried to" because no matter how much hair I cut it seemed like I always had some elusive relaxed ends hanging on to my natural hair.

Now, exactly three weeks later (after much snipping every wash day) I can say that I am au natural. Its a bit hard to believe that three weeks have already passed! My hair has given me minimal trouble and no fuss.

Eleven months post relaxer and loving it!

My natural hair!

My natural hair is much more easy to manage than I expected it would be. Since my hair is short it takes me only an hour (!) to style and even less time to wash and condition.On wash days I start by sectioning my hair into braids then deep conditioning, shampooing, rinsing, drying and styling. I've been playing around with flat twists and I still have a lot of practice to do before I'm comfortable with flat-twisting.

Before manipulating my hair I always start by spraying it with water to soften my strands and then moisturizing or adding conditioner or oil before I use a comb. By doing this I haven't experienced any significant breakage. Patience is also key in managing 4c hair.

I am so grateful for the women on youtube who share how they take care of 4c hair. Without them I definitely would not have been as equipped to transition to natural hair. Here are some videos that I've gotten styling tips from:

I may be getting my hair braided again today because tomorrow I go back to Trinidad and thus back to university life. I really want to continue taking care of my hair as it is, but I know braids would save me a lot of styling time that I could use on my studies.


Lots of love,
~Hatter

HatterSnap: New growth @ 8 weeks post relaxer

Although I lump myself into the "4c" natural hair category, I do have several slightly different textures of new growth. In my crown area especially, I have tighter coils alongside looser waves. My nape and hairline have the loosest textures that I call "fluff"- there is no distinguishable curl pattern, just waves, zig-zages or c shaped bends.

8 weeks post relaxer new growth!

 



New growth: loose waves that I call "fluff"

My roots have been so tame lately that I'm surprised that I'm this far into a stretch. Since I've been keeping them moisturized and conditioned my hair has been less "poofy" and my roots blend better than normal with my relaxed hair.

I plan to relax my hair next Saturday at *gasp* 9 weeks post relaxer!



Have a great day!
~Hatter

2013 Hair Goals

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

source

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