Trimming my Natural Hair (Second Trim)

Tonight I decided that it was time for a much needed trim.

For months now I've been plagued with single strand knots and tangles at the ends of my hair, which I felt indicated that those ends needed to go. My last trim was in seven months ago in February, when I went to a barber shop. Since then I put off trimming my hair myself because I thought it would be waay too time consuming and complicated...

...but you know what? It wasn't.

Well, it wasn't complicated. But it did take me about an hour to thoroughly go through my hair section by section!

I previously had my hair in seven cornrows, so as I undid each one, I separated my hair into three to four sections, twisted each section, then cut off the end of the twists from where it was significantly thinner than the body of the twist.


I followed the technique from youtuber jemy1415. You can watch her video below for a visual of what I did.

My twists with fresh, blunt ends after the trim:

And here is a random picture of what my shrinkage looks like. This photo was actually taken on damp hair, before my trim:

I waited seven long months between my first and second trims. Lets see how long I'll last before the next one! 

Love,

~Hatter

Relaxer and Trim Update

Last Thursday 20th December I had my hair relaxed at about 6 and a half weeks post relaxer. 

Yes, that was a short time, even for me! I'm definitely not going on such a short stretch again. I hardly had new growth! 

As per usual, the hairdresser used Precise Relaxer in Mild. This time my scalp got burned on my left side since I was scratching it during the week *guilty face*.

Comparison between November 3rd and December 20th relaxers:

November relaxer (left) and December relaxer, after self-trim (right)

There is very little difference between the two pictures for these reasons:

1. This time I only waited 6 and a half weeks before relaxing. Consequently, I saw much less "length" than if I had waited my usual 8 weeks.
2. I trimmed my hair myself. Minor length gain + self trim = little retention. lol!

I'm actually not sure if I trimmed too much, because my ends were quite ragged. In my November relaxer I did not get a trim by the hairdresser and "dusting" my ends wasn't enough to remove the uneven ends. This relaxer, I tried to give myself a thorough self trim. That might be why it doesn't seem that I retained any growth over the past 6 weeks.

In this last post I described the methods I wanted to use to trim my hair. In reality, they didn't work so well! I started with Feye's Method then switched to sectioning my hair across my head, pulling the section upwards, (like I was rollersetting) and snipping off thin ends.

The amount of hair I trimmed off of my ends. 

Anywhoo, I'm happy to saw that I'm officially grazing Arm Pit Length! woot woot!

APL was my goal for 2012 and I'm glad that I'm almost there!

I won't officially claim full arm pit length until my next relaxer in the new year, but I'm happy that, despite the set backs and obstacles, I made significant length progress in the first year of my hair journey! 

I'm keeping an eye on my ends so make sure they don't get too ragged again. I hate major trims, so I'm thinking of dusting my ends every month or so to keep them in shape.

Soon I'll post a full review of my hair journey in 2012, my reflections and goals for next year.

How has your hair progressed this year? Have you made any new hair goals for 2013?

Love!

~Hatter

Preparations for trimming my hair...myself!

Today I had my hair relaxed at the salon at 6 and a half weeks post.

Yes I know what you must be thinking...what the heck's wrong with me?!

I only relaxed before 8 weeks post because I'm travelling home this week and next week is Christmas. I doubted whether I would be able to find a working hairdresser after this week. Anyway, after my relaxer I declined the offer of a trim as I am determined to trim my hair myself...properly this time! lol

On my hair journey I've already had one set back in length due to a "trim" by my previous hairdresser, and I switched in good faith to my sister's salon in refuge. Unfortunately, scissor-happiness seems to run in hair salons.

So I decided that I would trim my hair myself. I've tried to do this over the past few months but I really wasn't sure how to get all the uneven ends throughout my hair. Sectioning my hair in two ponytails and trimming the ends wasn't enough to cut off the ends of the shorter layers of my hair.

To help solve this problem I did done some research and found a couple of interesting videos that should help me to do a better self trim.

1. Search and Destroy Method. This involves twisting the hair to reveal shorter layers that "poke out" from the rest of the section of twisted hair. This will allow me to cut off the ends of shorter hairs throughout my head.

2. Feye's Method for a U shape cut. I actually learned about this method through Jeni's blog, justgrowalready.com as she uses it herself. Here is her original post and a video of how she trims her hair.

I won't be cutting off as much as the woman does in the video (hopefully) but I thought that this method should be great for shaping up my ends.

Honestly, I'm anxious about self-trimming because I don't want to accidentally cut off too much hair...At the same time I don't want to cut too little and remain with split ends again =(


Do you have any more advice on how to trim my own hair?


Happy Christmas (season)!
~Hatter

Relaxer Update

On Saturday 3rd November 2012 I had my hair relaxed at the salon at nine weeks post.

The hairdresser used Ultra Precise Relaxer in Mild formula, and again, my results were excellent.

Ultra Precise relaxer in mild strength.

This time the hairdresser didn't base my scalp (eek!) but, gloriously, my scalp hardly got burned by the relaxer (yay!) It's either due to the mild relaxer strength or the fact that my scalp hasn't been very sensitive lately. In fact, I haven't had a flare up of seborrhoeic dermatitis for over a month =)

I'm quite impressed by this relaxer. Compared to the Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Relaxer in normal strength, the Precise does not irritate my scalp nearly as much and it gets my hair much straighter. (Maybe this is because I can leave the Precise relaxer in my hair for a longer time? Either way I'm loving it!)

On to the results! Wait! Before you look, can you guess how much length I've retained? =D

~~~~~~~

              

September relaxer results.

My November relaxer results: I'm almost armpit length!!

I'm almost armpit length!! Woooot! APL is my goal for December and I might have one last touch up for the year in late December or I might stretch to early January. Either way it feels thrilling to get closer and closer to the first length goal of my hair journey :)

As I'm sure you can tell, I need a good trim! I tried to trim my hair and it was a failure but I'm determined not to let my hairdresser come near me with scissors. Hopefully doing a thorough dusting of my ends again within the next few weeks will even out their appearance.

    

Celebrations aside, I lost a lot of hair during the relaxer process! On my last wash before relaxer day, I literally just left my hair alone with all its tangles and knots. Consequently, on relaxer day, the dreadlocks that formed at my roots were broken down by the relaxer and combed out:

Hair I lost from matts and tangles being combed out after my relaxer.

My hair doesn't feel much thinner but I can definitely tell that I've had quite some breakage throughout my hair.

Anywhooos, I'm now two weeks post and I had a very good wash day today. I'm glad that, after the hair drama I experienced these past few weeks, my hair still looks modestly healthy.

I can't wait to regain the full health and thickness of my hair! Don't you hate feeling that just when you make progress something happens that puts you two steps back again?

I'm seriously doubting that I'll be stretching to nine weeks again in the near future. My last experience just took too much of a toll on my hair. 

Has anyone had a similar experience? How did you overcome your hair health setbacks?

Much love from

~Hatter