My Hair Now

I think I told you that I had in some protective styles via extensions for awhile. My last look was rope twists and sadly in the process of taking them out, realized I had lost alot of hair at the hairline because the person who put them in did them too tight. I usually insist whoever is putting in extensions not do them tight but this time around was different. I was distracted by the tornado of having a new baby and being a first time mom and, sadly but appropriately, my hair came second to him. I remember the day I had them re-done. I felt the tightness but baby was fussing in my arms and I just wanted to be done so I could tend to him and I thought, "I'll just put some oil on my scalp, it should be fine."
Well learn from my experience Naturalistas, if your scalp feels uncomfortable because of a style you are trying to do, don't push it. Especially at your hairline, the hair is extra sensitive to breakage. For me its lessons learnt and now the biggest downer is knowing the hair at the front hairline, once it grows back in, will not be the same length as the rest of my hair, which was a major goal for me.
Anyway, I applied some of my scalp oils once I took the extensions out. I then detangled in the shower with my co-wash shampoo, then shampooed, then deep conditioned using a mix of my Phyto conditioner and my homemade brahmi-ginseng conditioner. I had alot of growth but as usual, the shrinkage, particularly at the sides and back where my curls are tightest, was out of this world. I spent alot of time detangling and mainly because I had the extensions in so long. I clipped my ends and twisted my hair. Here is the result of the twistouts:

 

Meet Your New Blog Host

My natural (and real) sister Lisa will be hosting this site with me. She brings a wealth of information abut her experience with going and staying natural and will even post videos of her different styles. She went natural a few months after I did and has a beautiful thick head of hair to show for it. Here is a pic of her afro.

Welcome, Lisa!

I'm Back!

Hello Fellow Curlies!
I know it has been forever and I bet you thought I'd given up on the blog but I have had a very very busy almost-year. I am now a new mom and so my time has been almost nonexistent.
Also, my hair was in protective styles for much of the past year. I started with kinky twist extensions and then rope twists because I knew with a new baby I would not have time to deal with my hair. I took out the rope twists last week after four months in (yes my hair was a tangled mess) and am now rocking my first twistouts after a very long time.
 I was very happy to see my hair again and excited to resume my blogging on my hair journey. Its now a full-blown afro (goodbye twa!) so I can now play with different styles. Will I have the time to do all that? We will see. Whether I am able to find time to create a cute style or not, I will of course continue to take care of my 'fro in hopes it will get even bigger and fluffier and healthier. So continue on  this journey with me!
Although I have not had time to blog, I have been keeping a photo journal of my hair growth on fotki.com. Here is the link where you can check out pictures to see my hair growth transition: www.fotki.com/demena24

On a side note: Since my blogging time is limited due to the demands of being a new mom, my sis who became a Natural a few months after I did, will be sharing the hosting duties on this blog. Expect posts from her about various topics. Together hopefully we can continue to keep you inspired and excited about your own hair journey!

Twistout Success

This week, I got the nice, fat, soft twistouts I've been aiming for since I began trying to do them about a month ago. Pictures of the twists and twistout can be found in my fotki album in the '8-9 months natural' folder. I will provide a link below.
The change in my approach that made my twistouts go from frizzy and thin, to defined and fluffy, is twisting the hair after stretching it and while it's dry.
Here is what I did:
I washed my hair over the weekend with Dudu-Osun shampoo and applied deep conditioner. I detangled in the shower as usual and once I got out, wrapped a tee around my hair to absorb some of the water.
I then applied my shea butter/coconut oil/palm kernel oil mix to hair, sectioned and braided each section. The sections were small only because my hair is still very short.
The next day, once the hair was dry. I removed the braids, gently detangled with a wide-toothed comb and two-strand-twisted small sections of hair, applying Qhemet Biologics Amla and Olive Heavy Cream to each section before twisting and more to the ends as I approached them while twisting.
The results were fat, moist twists, which I didn't know I could achieve since my hair is not thick in general. I kept the twists in for two days and after undoing the twists, applied Qhemet Biologics Olive and Honey Cream which is lighter than the Heavy Cream.
I think my twists were failing before because I was twisting directly after a wash and because I have so much shrinkage in the sides and back, I needed to stretch the hair first and twist while dry.
Next time, I'm going to make my twists smaller and neater so when I rock the twistout, it will look even better.
My hangups are that it is so time-consuming! I have to figure out how to get them done in a shorter amount of time without my twists getting sloppier and bigger, which is what happened because I got tired and annoyed about how long it was taking. I hear that it takes less time as you become better at it so I hope that is true for me. Also, I feel apprehensive about having to detangle my hair while dry. I have always stuck to detangling only when wet but find that before I twist, I have to comb through the hair. If nothing else, I need a detangling cream or product that will do the job water does when I detangle wet.
Alll in all, I'm relieved to know I can actually do successful twists. I was getting anxious that I'd never figure it out. And it has made my less frustrated with my hair because I've found a new style besides the shrunken 'fro which I am fast outgrowing. I just want some more length so I can show off my twists more. Here is the link to my fotki where I've been keeping track of my journey in pictures:
http://public.fotki.com/demena24/8-9-months-natural/

Tattoo Love

I plan on getting a tattoo behind my ear or around my nape. But I want to wait until my hair grows out to, or past shoulder-length so it'll be kind of like a 'is-it-really-there?', peek-a-boo kind of thing. Like, if my hair is down you won't see it but if its up, you will. I know what I want to get. I haven't had it drawn out yet and it'll be kind of tricky but unless I find out I'm allergic to tattoo ink, it's going to happen.
Speaking of tats, I love this:

...maybe more on her than on me though. :)

Why Am I Doing This Again?

I've been really doubting my hair journey these past weeks. I lost sight of why I was doing it and with other things going on in my life, I haven't had the energy to extend to taking care of my hair like I was when I first cut it....and I felt guilty about that. Which just added to my mixed feelings about why I am doing this. I haven't been getting much positive feedback about my hair. Added to that, I have no real-life positive examples of natural hair.

 I'm doing something new here I guess - expecting the world to still think I'm beautiful, attractive, pretty, sexy even with short kinky-curly hair. And I'm not feeling the love. To me, it's a part of loving everything about me that has been given through my African ancestry, and kinky-curly hair is one of them. But I am surrounded by people who not only don't love the African-ness in them, but think I'm crazy for doing so...or at least trying to. Which  makes it hard. I'm trying to re-define something not just in my mind but in theirs and expecting them to relate to me the same way and its not happening. I don't see why it can't but then I've always been more of an idealist than a realist. I suppose it doesn't matter why. It just isn't that way.

My mother is a big critic in this. I have always sensed that although she is black (of African ancestry), she has a disdain for anything that is 'too' black. Its one thing to have the broad features, the kinked hair, the dark skin, but to actually think it looks good? To flaunt it? You must be delusional. It seems that black isn't beautiful to her. At least that's what I've gotten from her. So, in my generation, to not just try to ignore that but to stand against it and ask why the hell not? Well, I'm not getting any love. Specifically, I have been made aware that my texture isn't beautiful unless it looks 'curly.' So I was discouraged.

But I haven't given up thanks to my hairspiration below. I mean I would look so awesome with this puff!

Kitty Bonding

I'm totally lovin' this!