I Do It Because I Am Growing My Hair

BEWARE OF FAIRY KNOTS!!!!!

I hate fairy knots. I despite the thought, the feel and the whole concept of strands of hair intertwining into a knot. I hateeeeeeee fairy knots............. don't ask me, i'm not even sure what it is my self but i have tons in my hair which i started noticing last month. I have done a fair amount of research and from what i've read, there are many theories to the whole "fairy knot" dilema :
1) That it is actually a disease
2) It is simply tiny knots that appear on strands of your hair due to frequent exposure that result in your hair intertwining, because of drying thus creating knots.
3) Fairy knots are severe split ends that appear because of breakage
4) Fairy knots are as a result of tiny fairies that come in the night and tie the knots themselves.

So after looking at a strand of my hair that contained knots, I have decided to eliminate theory number 1 , theory number 3 and theory number 4.

A look of my hair under the microscope ( sadly during my invertebrate zoology class) showed that the knot was obviously and simply caused by the accidental intertwining of my hair due to its curly behaviour. Because I wear my hair "out" alot, in twist outs and puffs, I am guessing that there was no escaping knotting.

I wish I had known this before because now I regrett chopping a whole inch and a half of my hair off because I thought it was a disease I was reading about and that it was all going to fall off.

However, it is now exactly a month after the appearance and the knots have come back even after cutting them off!!

I must admit, after cutting them out I hadn't really payed much attention to hair exposure or adapting new techniques to combat the reappearance of the knots and thats only my fault. So here I am, back to square one and I have cut yet another inch of my hair. ( it needed cutting though, because I have also noticed some split ends)

Essentially, what I plan to do is to put forward a challenge for myslef, which is to avoid the reappearance of the fairy knots at what ever cost possible and I will stick to this challenge. This will be done by:

• wearing more protective styles




• wearing more protective styles




• wearing more protective styles

Until the month of August.............. I will keep you posted on whether this method was effective.

FAIRY KNOTS MUST DIE ! :@

1 YEAR NATURAL!!!

Ok, So I really thought I would be more excited about my 1 year anniversary. I thought I would put my hair in some awesome style or treat my hair to some good lovin or something :S .........but i'm not really that hyped. I am happy but not as excited as I thought I would be because I have realised that the more my hair grows, is the more I would want it to grow.

In other words, when it was my 1 month anniversary, I couldn't wait for it to be 1 year to see the length ; now that I am 1 year natural ,I can't wait for when I have 3 years of natural hair.

Nonethelesss, I LOVE my hair and i'm soo happpy.......* does the happy dance* ( I actually did a happy dance for my 1 year anniversary so that counts for something)

I have a new hair care regimen, I haven't dyed my hair (decided not to), my hair can actually go in a sort of pony tail now :) and ...........what else? i've learnt that shrinkage is something else :(

Hair Care Regimen:

So my products have boiled down to a few ....again!! but I swear, this is my last product change.

For Moisture, I made myself a spritz, I use vegetable glycerin mixed with water and rosemary oil.

I put that in a bottle and spray it on my hair anytime it gets dry/brittle or just whenever i'm styling. This thing makes my hair super soft and very manageable.

I also use Miss Carols Daughter leave in conditioner for more like a sort of hair perfume than any thing else because it smells sooooooooo good. I don't really think that it has an effect on my hair in terms of making it softer (which is what it is suppose to do) so i'm not ever buying that again neither am I ever going to buy Miss Carol's daughter hair butter. It is a good product, does what it says it does which is moisturize your hair and make it softer but I use Shea butter which does the same job and is cheaper. Thus, this is my official good bye to miss carol's daughter's hair line which are really good products but are kind of expensive. I've found cheaper, local ones that are much more accessible and that I don't have to order every few months online.

I use raw shea butter , olive oil and rosemary oil which is excellent for the scalp and for conditioning, I use either VO5 or suave coconut conditioner.

For Deep conditioning I use either my Avocado Mix ( detailed in another post) or just Organics Hair Mayonaise ( I deep condition weekly) .

For "Shampooping" Lol, I use any shampoo. I'm not sure whether that is a bad thing, but i'm kind of confused with the whole shampoo thing, people say that sodium larel sulphate, which is found in almost all shampoos, is bad for natural hair and that you should use baking soda instead of shampoo's because its a "natural way" of cleansing your hair. However, baking soda isn't as natural as people think, its actually made in a factory!! and........well...... baking soda is like a base with a ph of like....10 which is the same as regular shampoos so I just use any shampoo that I can find, bottom line , you can't run from the sulphates. Well you can but actual all NATURAL shampooo is way too expensive for my pocket .

So after shampooing ( which I do once every month), I usually condition my hair with the conditioners that I mentioned earlier and then I pour apple cider vinegar ( diluted in water in a 2:1 ratio) and proceed to styling. No, I don't rinse the apple cider vinegar out, I just leave it in my hair. Apple Cider has a Ph of like 3 and when you dilute it with water, that brings the ph up to like 5 which is how the actual ph of your scalp is suppose to be. Confused? Ok lets get this straight:

Hair/ scalp has a natural ph of 5.

When shampoos ,containing sulphates are used, these have a ph of 8 to 10 because they are alkalines. These can help to strip your hair of its natural oils so I use the apple cider vinegar to regulate the ph of my hair after shampooing. It probably doesn't matter that much because the ph of your hair is only 1 factor among MANY that may affect growth or the health of your hair but I started becoming concerned about ph when I found out that relaxers have a ph of like 12 to 14!!! which is so close to the ph of shampoos! ( I know, I now have a phobia for relaxers I don't want to get anywhere near close to it) so I feel much safer using apple cider vinegar knowing that I've regulated the ph.

AND NOW, FOR MY * drum rolll* LENGTH CHECK AND OTHER PICS :)

Update

So!! What have i been up to? How is my hair going? What is the latest!!

I have no idea where to start, but i'm so excited to share so....... I guess I must start somewhere!!

I am, OFFICIALLY.........10 months natural! *yayz* almost a year and well, what can i say? I don't regret one bit of it! From my b.c in January to now, I would so go over the natural hair journey again. Mind you, there were some ups and downs and I still haven't reached the appropriate hair length that i'm aiming for but atleast I can say that I am better off than I was when my hair was relaxed. My hair is now healthier and i'm having lots of fun with it while watching it grow.

Regimen:

Currently, my hair is 6 inches long when i stretch it out. It is more difficult to manage compared to when it was newly cut to half an inch in January but i'm sort of trying to adjust to this change.

I remember going to sleep with it by easily putting on a satin cap, wake up in the morning and just brush and put it in a band but now, I have to make that I comb it out and mosturize it before I go to bed and still comb it out when I get up in the morning to ensure that it stays soft and manageable ( thats for when I have it in a puff) and when it's in a twist, I have to spend hours trying to twist it neatly. Therefore, my hair is now more time consuming than it used to be.

Products that I use:

My products have now boiled down to a few.For conditioning, I use Suave coconut conditioner. I also use raw shea butter, miss carol's daughter hair mimosa honey, olive oil, long term relationship and eco styler jel. For deep conditioning, I use a mixture of avocado, honey, egg, hair mayonaise and olive oil. Blend that up in a blender and leave it in my hair for about half of an hour after which I wash out with warm water. ( I do this weekly).

Changes:

It seems as though my hair has become more dry than it used to be. I have also realised that whenever it is dry, I notice a sort of brownish colour at the end. I know this is definitely not the most wise decision to make but as a result, I have decided to dye my hair in a colour, most likey a honey brown or sort of red to give it a more rich look. On the contrary, my hair actually feels soft but just looks really dry. ( don't know if that makes sense).

So thats my next step, dyeing. Below is a picture of my 10 months of hair and styles that i've been putting in my hair. When I do dye it however, I will post a pic of how it looks and then do a review.










Naturelle <3

My webcam is straight tripping

So i think i should atleast apologise for the messed up volume in the videos and also my brothers who were watching football in part two.

Basically, in part one i was just explaining the process of curling your kinky twist braid.

1) Using embroidery thread i first took a section of braid and tied it around three times
2) I then proceeded to loosely coil the thread around the section of briad
3) I pulled on the string and in so doing the braid tightened and sort of bundled up together
4) I then tied a knot at the end to secure the braids.

In part two i left out a section to show the process of putting the braids in hot water and then cutting the string to obtain your curl.

NB

the hotter the water the tighter the curls

Curling your kinky twist part 2

Curling your kinky twist part 1