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

The Forgotten Conditioners

Dusty, forgotten and shunned...

...When I returned home I was confronted with the miserable sight of instant conditioners I had bought when I first started my hair journey...Conditioners that I soon forgot and have now come back to haunt me.

Okay, to be fair, I did like the Vo5 Moisture Milks, and that's probably why I have two bottles. Because it's cheap I decided to leave it at home when I went to university. I'll give that same reason of cost for why I abandoned the Garnier Fructis Fortifying Cream Conditioner, but the Herbal Essences Hello Hydration just wasn't very impressive. 

Finally, I only used the Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut conditioner once on my relaxed hair and I hated it.

However, I'm willing to give it another chance...in fact, I plan to use up all of these conditioners.

Using them up might be a bit difficult since my hair is in braids, but I think that once I take my braids out, I'll mix each conditioner individually with hair oils and use them as pre-poo treatments.

I hope I remember to use them when the time comes!

How do you use up old products?

~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

The battle for natural hair- it has begun!

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This Saturday will make me 13 weeks post relaxer. So far my difficulties have been with breakage, detangling and keeping my hair detangled. However, today I experienced another difficulty which shocked me more than expected- opposition to me going natural by my family.

Specifically, it was my brother who, in response to my mom when she mentioned my decision, blurted out that "natural hair doesn't look good."

*cue death stare*

Honestly, I was annoyed; more so at the ignorance of the statement than at the fact that it came from my own brother. However, I had to remind myself that people's opinions and preferences are very different, partly due to their experiences in life. Although natural hair has gained steady momentum in the past years, relaxed hair is still the mainstream in many societies including those here in the Caribbean.

So I really shouldn't be upset with my brother...he, like many of us, was socialized to prefer and desire silky, straight hair. I, myself, wasn't too fond of natural hair before I went on my hair journey. And the poor women walking around with neglected, half-done natural hair certainly doesn't give any support for women who want to wear their natural hair. Of course there are plenty of women who also sport relaxed hair that's far from healthy, but as long as it appears to pursue to Eurocentric ideal, it's okay, right?

My mother has also expressed concern over me going natural, mostly because she remembers how difficult it was to take care of my hair as a child, and she fears that I'm not ready to care for it on my own. I do understand her fears, and this week she had me swayed in the direction of  getting a relaxer and cutting off any damaged hair.

Also, today I was with my mom when she got her hair relaxed at the salon. The hairdresser (who used to relax my hair) looked at my hair and commented that it wasn't looking too hot. Ermm...duhh!
I do have 13 weeks of new growth poppin' out of my scalp! Farrr from tactful madame...

Anyway, today my conviction was sealed by both my brother and former hairdresser. How dare anyone tell me that the hair that God gave me doesn't look good? It's not a subject I will get self-righteous about, but it irks me when people look down on me and underestimate my abilities, thinking that the silly little child is not handling herself or her hair well at all.

It's hair. I'm going to be 18 and I am ready to make my own decisions. And at the end of the day, it's hair! I could be strung out on drugs or preggers with 3 baby daddies but all I want is to go natural!

(okay, that was a bit dramatic...)

I'm fed up of the relaxer process and I hate other people doing my hair. The people in my life who don't approve of my decision to go natural will just have to get over it, because God makes no mistakes, and I'm not on this earth to satisfy anyone's aesthetic pleasures.

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Goodnight!

~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