No More Protective Styling

Hey naturalistas,

Just giving you guys an update on how my hair is holding up without protective styling.  I have to admit it hasn't been easy fighting the dryness and the tangles.  For some reason I find that when I wear it out no matter how much I moisturize, it always ends up being dry anyway. Aside from those two things its been going pretty well. I've had to consign myself to spending 10 to 15 minutes every night prepping my hair for the next day which usually means braiding it for a braid-out or styling out in a bun or updo. Honestly I have not missed having my hair in twists.  One could argue that wearing your hair out all the time is more damaging than having it in a protective style. There is the nightly manipulation and unfortunately I have hand-in-hair syndrome which can cause knots, tangled and breakage.
Oh and lest we forget it's summer and the humidity is a b@%ch!  So I kind of have to set my expectations low for wearing my hair out.  Frizz and shrinkage are inevitable. 
But I've been trying to offset these things with gentle manipulation, drinking more water, taking my biotin vitamins, and consuming more protein (more on the benefits of all these things in a later post). This is basically an experiment to see how it goes and hopefully I will continue to retain length even without having to wear long term protective styles 80% of the time. That's not to say I will never wear my hair in twists again.  Sometimes I do need a break from styling my hair daily and twists are definitely good for that.

I

My Hair Just Wants to Be Free!!!!

I'm feeling a bit rebellious.  Here's the deal:  I'm tired of protective styling.  I've been  wearing my hair in twists about 80 percent of the time for the past two years.  Now as much as my hair has grown out and it's gotten a lot easier for me to style it while in twists  its still not the look that I envision for myself. I still sometimes feel a little bit frumpy so after a frustrating week last week I decided that I am forgoing wearing my hair in twists at least for a while and I will see how this goes.  The biggest challenges i foresee are knots, shrinkage, dryness, and split ends.  I will have to figure out ways to minimize all of the above and it's  going to be a challenge.  Wish me luck and I will keep you guys posted.

Before: wearing my twists at work

After: rocking my twist-out on the weekend

Hair and humidity 2

It's been raining here in south Florida for over 2 weeks straight!! The ground is saturated with rainwater and starting to flood.   The air is wet and humid...everything outside is soggy.  Between rainfall the sky is just gray and dreary and then it starts to sprinkle again.  Then torrential downpour then it starts the cycle all over again.  After 2 weeks straight of this I'm fighting to maintain a bright mood but boy is it hard! 
As for many hair...well I'm determined to ignore the rain and humidity and do as I please.  Last night i retwisted some of the frizzier parts of my old twist out, wrapped the ends around rods and slept with them in (quite uncomfortably might I add...i guess it's true that there's a price for beauty).  Anyway I was hoping today would be somewhat sunny but I woke to torrential rain and drizzly humid weather in between.  Today it's harder than ever not to feel gloomy!
  I was tempted to just pull my hair back into a bun after all that trouble I went through to prep it for wearing it out in big bouncy curls.  But then I  decided not to let the weather get me down.  I refuse to spend another depressing day sitting on the couch watching the rain fall and I decided would be wearing my hair out rain or sunshine.  I undid my twists, got dressed and ran in the rain to my car. .no umbrella!
So here i am.  Oh and on the way to my car I found this purple flower growing out of the lawn...it seemed so out of place there all alone growing out of the soggy ground.  I plucked it and stuck it in my hair and off I went. 
I ended up at Starbucks.  Ok so it's not a fine day at the park but at least I got out of the house.  And yes the beautiful curls of this morning are transforming slowly into a giant ball out frizz but so what?  One thing I can say about this bad weather... when  the sun comes out again I will appreciate it so much more! I guess you need the dark to appreciate the light.  Happy Saturday natualistas!

Wash N Goes Don't Work on Nappy Hair

Funny I came across this video because I haven't worn a wash-and-go or even considered wearing one since I had a TWA and it's been awhile.  But recently out of sheer laziness and also curiosity I've been considering trying one.  I've watched a couple of videos on how to do one on Type 4 hair but looking at the videos, I kind of snapped back to reality.  It's just not for me.  Anyway, this video had me laughing because it's definitely MY reality.  I guess I'mma stick to my twists ant twist-out or whatever.

Wedding Glamour

I got all dolled up for my sisters wedding I had my makeup done professionally for the first time and was amazed at how different I looked.  It was a little bit more makeup than I was used to wearing but I also felt a lot more glamorous than I usually feel. It was a great night.  She was a beautiful bride and I was happy to share this experience with her. Please check out the pictures of my hair and makeup and  my beautiful sister below.

Jessica Lavin's Natural Hair Feature

 I had the opportunity to photograph and interview one of my favorite newbie naturals!  I can’t tell you guys how excited I was and still am.  Jessica has become a good friend of mine and her attitude and her spirit are so beautiful, I was just hoping I could do it justice by bringing it to light in this photo shoot.

Read her interview below:

1)  Why did you decide to go natural and what was the transitioning process like for you?

When I was 15, I put a relaxer in for the first time and so for about half my life I’ve been with a relaxer and my hair was constantly breaking.  The first five years was fine but then when I went to college with all the stress and I didn’t really know how to take care of my hair and my mom wasn’t close enough to help me take care of it, it just started breaking and shedding.  I started putting in weaves to compensate and that was even worse.  It was just too much strain on my hair.  I had been thinking about going natural for over 2 years.  The last time I had a relaxer, my mom was like, “You have patches of hair that are basically gone.  No more relaxers!”  So in July, I put my last relaxer in.
The transitioning process was very difficult.  For the first ten months, while I transitioned, I had the two textures and it was hard to find styles to do with both textures and the line of demarcation was breaking.  Everybody had advice but it was just not great advice.

2)  What do you love most about being natural?

There are two things.  The first is to be able to rediscover my new hair.  It’s like an adventure.  The second part is the attention that I’m getting.

3)  What is your regimen and how do you often style your hair?

I just did the Big Chop 2 weeks ago.  Now every other week I cowash with As I Am conditioner and every other week I wash with Shea Moisture shampoo.  When I cowash I just use a leave-in and that’s it.  Every two weeks when I use a shampoo, I do a deep conditioner with a treatment ... usually a protein treatment and recently a Henna Placenta treatment.   I do the finger detangling a little bit and I also use a wide tooth comb.  I braid it while in the shower.  And then every night I two strand twist my hair.  It takes me like 20-30 minutes.  I also use a treatment my mom brought me from Haiti.

4)  What advice do you have for other naturals or those considering going natural?

Be gentle with your hair.  The biggest advice is when it comes to rediscovering your hair it’s something you have to do on your own because everybody’s hair is different.  The biggest problem for black women in America about being natural is thinking you won’t be as attractive and that it won’t be accepted in the workplace and it's not professional.  Every time someone says it's not professional, I think "Why is my hair in it's natural state not professional when a white person's hair in its natural state is?"  That‘s just another form or racism because this is how God gave me my hair.  I didn’t realize how going natural could change my whole life.

5)   What are three words that describe your hair now?

 Free and happy and… I don’t know… just ME

5) How did your significant other react?

He met me with straight hair.  He doesn’t understand what natural is because his only experience of natural was his sister with doo-doo braids.  So when he thinks of natural he thinks of that and he’s like “Oh no.”  At first he didn’t want to have anything to do with it but I just started doing it and he didn’t even realize it.  He was like “I don’t want you to cut your hair off.”  He was very upset about it.  He doesn’t like short hair.  I just started showing him pictures and sneaking it up on him.  He got so interested in it and he realized it was bigger than me… he realized the bigger picture.  He said “Whatever makes you happy, do it.”  When my mom cut my hair, he didn’t even realize.  I wore a half wig for the first few days until I went to a Haitian event and half the black women there were natural and he was all excited.  And then I said, “I’m gonna just let it go.”  I just did it and I went to work the next day and they were so happy for me and so excited about it and I just kept it like that.  He’s adapted.  Now he likes the attention.

Is the grass greener on the other side?

Chloe in Star's bed

Star in Chloe's bed

I always thought it was human instinct to have what other people want instead of what you have.  it's such a prevalent nature in people that we even have a saying to describe it.  "The grass is/isn't greener on the other side".  You would think that being aware of this faulty tendency would give us the ability to override it, but that is still rarely true.  It takes more than awareness but the patient cultivating of that awareness and then still...
This is usually the underlying root of jealousy.  I catch myself sometimes looking at other people's  jobs, families, vacations, material things and feeling like my -fill in the blank- is inadequate.
Well before I turn this into some deep philosophical post, and I do love to go off on my soap box, we'll go back to making this a light airy post about the comical nature of not just people but all living, thinking beings.
I am pet-sitting for the weekend.  Which has reminded me in case I forgot by the way, that having more than one dog is not a good idea for me, but that's another story for another day.  Anyway, my sister's dog, Star came with her leash, her bed, her own food and so forth.  The first night I went downstairs to find my dog, Chloe sleeping in Star's bed all snuggled.  At some other point, I have caught Star snuggled in Chloe's bed.  I let that go, neither one made much of a fuss.  But I have found now the challenge of having to feed them separately.  If I feed Star, Chloe tries to eat Star's food and vice versa.  No big deal you say but Chloe has a sensitive stomach and gets sick if she eats any dog food other than her specific kind.  Anyway, my point is, it's not just human nature, it's just how the mind works I guess.  Whether it's just the novelty of wanting what you don't already have, or the boredom of keeping what you have, or whatever.  But I am making the conscious effort to appreciate what I have because I've come to see that very rarely is the grass greener on the other side.  It's green where you water it!  (I got that from a Justin Beiber song, btw... Yes, I listen to Justing Beiber!! Don't judge!)