Braids

I braided my entire head using only my hair so that i wouldn't have to style my hair for at least a week. The braids came out ok for my first try. I would really like to learn, though, how to braid to my scalp. Today was pretty uneventful, i really got to get my hands in m y hair when braiding an saw how many different textures there were in my head. my new growth on my sides in the back is long and have many tight curls while the top of my head has many strands curled together in a thick coil. the back of my head in the middle has this loose wave going on. My sides look like they are trying to fill in because I have a lot of baby hair dotting the thin spots. I'm so happy. Today my mom walked in with a Dark and Lovely Relaxer an sat it on the table. I picked it up and it was saying how it has Shea Butter and adds a lot of moisture while relaxing your hair. At that moment, I was like, wow, I'm really giving up these relaxers. It was like it finally hit me what i was doing. When I was braiding my hair and feeling all the thick new growth and noticing how fast my hair was coming in at places, I was just a little overwhelmed. The feeling that hit me was strange. I guess I truly accepted my hair and what I was doing to it. My mom walked back in the room later and said, "You know that isn't for you right?" And I ust had to say no and shake my head. I'm really over these relaxers. I know my mom doesn't approve of this journey because she doesn't want me to look all crazy when I have no clue what to do with my hair, but this isn't about her. It's about me and how I feel about myself. She hinted that my natural hair was a wooly bush, i guess trying to get me turned off at the porspect of having a coarse head of hair, but I want to see for myself what my hair is capable of. In my baby pictures my hair is so pretty and curly. I just want to have that back. I want to get back to my roots and start my junior year in August that much more sure about who I am. I have no clue at this point how long I'm going to transition. I'm just going to wait until I believe the time is right.

Almost 4 Months Post-Relaxer :)

Alrighty, I've just realized how much I want to document this journey, so I will definitely post more and at a regular schedule. I washed My hair today and measured a curl on the top of my head. I'm so excited in feeling the thickness and the curlyness of my roots. I have almost 2 inches of new growth, maybe 1.6 or 1.7 inches. I'm glad that my hair is filling in at a good pace. The back of my head, however, is filling in slowly. well, there are curls, but the curls seems finer and looser than the top of my head. One thing I have noticed about my hair is that it dries ridiculously fast when I'm air drying it, but it takes hours with rollers and a hooded dryer :P Air drying is the way to go! (I always hated sitting under the dryer anyway) Today, I'm doing something a little different. My mom had not contacted the lady to do my kinky twists, so I have decided to do them myself with just my hair. One day, after co-washing and applying products, I found a combination of water,oil, and Palmer's headress would hold my twists without anything being at my ends. Therefore, I will wait until my hair dries and do my twists tomorrow. I'm a little depressed today about something, so fooling with my hair is not high on my list. Surprisingly, my mom told me I should just cut all my hair off!! She, besides my dad, is the LAST person I would ever think would tell me to cut my hair. It was crazy. She doesn't really understand that this journey I want to go on is for me. I'm not trying to copy anyone, I'm trying to get the hair that I dream about. I want to have confidence in the natural me, and not rely on harmful chemicals to get the hair I want. I love my curls, and I so look forward to when I have a head full of them without any relaxed ends. I've finally found a wash regimen that works for me: put hair in 4 sections and put olive oil leave-in conditioner with cap on and sit for an hour or more. Then I rinse, wash, and condition my hair in two parts while running my hands through my hair in a downward motion to take out some tangles. After I deep conditioned, I alternate 3 weeks with protein, 3 with moisturizing, I use a rat 0tail comb to work through each section, apply leave-in conditioner and oil, and then use a wide tooth comb to comb out the tangles. The pre-poo helped my detangling tremendously, and so did the finger detangle when washing my hair. I DID MY FIRST CUT TODAY!!! WHOO!! lol. I cut about an inch all around and am happy that I'm cuttign away some of the relaxed ends. I'm that much closer to my goal now :) I also took pictures of my new growth so far when its wet, and the curls are so beautiful I want to cry and smile. I know I can make it through this journey. I have the determination and the patience. One thing I do want to work on is getting my fingers out of my head (I'm constantly fingering the curls and hunting for new curls) and doing hairstyles that keep my away from styling for at least 5 days. The journey continues!

Kinky Twists

hey, So i've decided to get kinky twists to give my hair a break and to stop me from constantly having my hand in my hair. It's frustrating to be fingering my curls, get up and realize my hair is sticking straight out from my head because it's not relaxed and falls back in place. Plus, the guy I really REALLY  like is starting to hang around me more, and I don't want to constantly come up with new hairstyles and check every 5 minutes that my hair is ok. I'll try to do these twists for like 2-3 months, and I should have a good amount of new growth going on. I want to cut my ends before I start the twist and I did a protein treatment this morning. My new growth is getting thicker and my breakage looks like it is also thickening. most of it is shedding, but there are some hairs that have curly roots and I'm getting kind of nervous. I constantly have my fingers in my hair feeling the curls and planning what i will do with them once I finally have all natural hair. I really don't know what my hair will look like fully natural, but I am excited about my curls. Some are really coily and others have loose spirals that take up a 4th of the strand. My hair growth is not fantastic, but there is growth so no complaints. I want to start cutting my hair, but I have to buys a new good pair of hair scissors since my old pair has cut paper, string, packages, you names it, it's cut it. I don't want to risk my hair on that. I also want to try out castor oil for my edges. My left edge is a lot thicker than my right, but it is still kind of thin. My right side has a small bald spot surrounded by curly hair and some curly hair is sticking out of it. I want to get that to grow in before I cut my hair off in my mini-chop. I still debate whether or not I'm going to let it grow out or let it grow to a certain length before chopping the rest off. The middle of my head has the most growth and there is a lot of new growth on my side burn and the back of my head on the sides has a  lot of growth as well. The only spot where there is little to no growth is the middle of the back of my head. its like the roots are slightly curly, but i can run my fingers through there without any problem. it's like this small patch of slightly wavy curls.
So maybe by tomorrow I will have kinky twists and leave my hair to do its job: grow and be healthy. I'm going to look up how to care for kinky twist so to not let this be an absolute nightmare when they come out.

New Growth at 3 months post-relaxer

I have a good amount of new growth for 3 months. Sometimes, when I'm just running my fingers through my hair, I come across a curl that is longer than the rest. I get really excited and rush to see it in the mirror. I am anxious to see what my natural curl pattern will be, and I already have a list that is compiling about what materials I need to get. At the top is hair scissors, because i need a new sharp pair to get ready to start chopping! lol. Next is castor oil, since I want to grow my thinning edges in, and then after that is extra virgin olive oil since I've heard that it is really good for hair. Some other things on my list are hair clips, spray bottles, pure shea butter, coconut oil, and some vitamins.  Yes I have way to much time on my hands, but so what? lol. I like to be prepared as I can be. I'm going to a Sweet 16 this Saturday, and I know what I'm wearing, but I'm worried about how my hair will look. The roller wrap works just fine, but it only lasts 2-3 days before my hair starts to thicken up again and I can't run the brush through it without breakage. I have these itchy spots on my head that pop up randomly, and I don't know what that is all about, but since I've been moisturizing more and washing, conditioning, and deep treating my hair in sections, the itching as reduced drastically. My mom says my hair looks really healthy, it's thick, and I haven't had much breakage so that is a good thing. The real work hasn't come yet though. lol. I'm only 3 months post, and I have at least 9 more to go. I want to grow my hair out until my hair is the length naturally that my relaxed hair is now. If that takes a year or two years or 3, I'll just have to wait, but I'm not really comfortable with short hair at all. I had to cut my hair to my ears last year and I was so uncomfortable and didn't feel that good about myself. My hair grew back really fast. This time last year, my hair was at my ears, and now it curls at my collarbone. my hair has just seemed to grow past my shoulders, but now I'm starting all over again with this natural journey. I know it's going to be hard, but I'm willing to chop a little at a time for thick, beautiful, natural hair. I watch other channels almost everyday, looking at their progress and predicting mine. As my curls come in, I like to finger them constantly and I'm caught many times at school focusing more on a long curl than what is going on in the classroom. lol I love my curls. They show me I'm that much closer to my dream. I will probably start making videos on Youtube to mark my progress as well, but for now, this blog will be my outlet.

New Hairstyle ;)

Ok, so I have this new hairstyle idea and I'm kind of nervous about how it will come out. I twisted my hair back about an inch and a quarter and then braided the rest of my hair and put a roller on it to curl the ends that don't have braid on the end. It should come out cute, but I'm still nervous because I haven't done this before. I just don't want it to come out stupid, and then I'll have no idea how to do my hair in the morning. We'll see what happens!!!