Tag Archives: hair

6-month length retention challenge

Uncategorized, , ,

Challenges when it comes to our hair is a funny one! It is basically to do with setting ourselves strict boundaries and rules to follow for a period of time in order to reach a certain goal. But you wonder why would we need to do this for our hair?

For many of us, when it comes to our natural hair, the issue is that we are doing too much, or too little in some cases. Funny enough, when it comes to the health of our teeth, we know the routine to follow to ensure that we have pearly white smiles and when we need to go for check-ups etc. When it comes to our skin, we know the routine to follow to ensure that we are clean and moisturised regularly. But when it comes to our natural hair, we tend to stray from our routines and for some, we don’t even have a set routine that we can say confidently that we have been following for a number of years. And by a set routine, I mean a set of simple instructions that we do to our hair each time and continue to repeat.

For me at least, I have strayed away from a set routine more times than I can count. I seem to always be on a hunt for better, but I am genuinely reaching roadblocks and getting nowhere. I find myself starting back at square one quite a lot.

So this challenge that I have set myself is to simply follow a set of rules for a prolonged period of time in order to see the positive results I have been looking for.

The challenge:

  • Wear my hair in twists for at least 5/7 days of the week – current style of choice mini twists (I aim to wear these twists for 3-4 weeks and ensure I moisturise my hair as and when needed)
  • Wash and condition my hair as and when needed (For this challenge, I am willing to stray from the routine of washing my hair once a week and instead follow what my hair needs. How do I determine this? – is my hair dry and not taking in added moisture? Is my scalp flaky or my hair dirty?)
  • Moisturise my hair as and when needed – paying attention to signs – does the ends of my hair look or feel dry? Is there a dull look to my hair? are my ends breaking off more than usual?
  • Protect my hair at night with either a satin/silk scarf, bonnet or pillow
  • Massage my scalp gently on a regular schedule – 3x a week to daily for 3-5 minutes
  • Do not measure my hair until the end of the challenge

And that’s it. Nothing complicated. I genuinely do not want things to be complicated. I want it to be easy enough to follow.

I know that my hair has been growing steadily, the issue comes when the hair routine that works is being changed for something else..well..just because. This is when I find I might be introducing breakage as I have now reached a stage where I am either overmanipulating my hair or causing excess breakage. The length of my hair starts to take a hit and I may either need to trim my hair more often than I’d want, or I will notice that it seems my hair length progress has reached a plateau.

With the above 6-month challenge, my biggest challenge will be sticking to it. If I can do this and ensure I am not overmanipulating my hair in the process. I am sure I will reach my goal of retaining at least 3 inches of hair by the end of the 6 month period.

Challenge start date – Monday 28th March 2022

Challenge end date – Wednesday 28th September 2022

Average starting length – 7″ and CBL from the nape

Goal length by end of the challenge – 10″ and APL from the nape

Please feel free to join the challenge as and when you are willing to commit!

Hair and consistency

Hair, , , , , , ,

I have been pondering on this of late. Why is it that most black women are not consistent when it comes to their hair? It seems that other cultures tend to accept how their hair grows out of their scalp and can basically wear the same style for years upon years. Other cultures do not seem to have a problem growing out their hair, and we all know by now that all hair grows. On average hair grows at about 1/2″ a month whether you are black, white, Asian or any other culture for that matter. Of course, some people’s hair may grow slower or faster but this is based on genetics.

Now with other cultures, other than black, they tend to know exactly how to wash and condition their hair, how to dry and detangle their hair and how to wear their hair on a daily basis. It might be that they choose to wear it out and down for the most part and on special occasions change things up. Or maybe occasionally it is in a bun or ponytail. But let’s be real, they know exactly how to handle their hair for the most part (unless they are damaging it severely with heat styling or colour in which they know what the actual issue is and how to handle it). And if they were to have a bad haircut, they know it just will be a matter of time before their hair grows back. It’s basically predictable.

But when it comes to us black girls, we tend to change things up with our hair so regularly that when I wrote a list of the styles I have done to my hair in the past, I was pretty shocked! I have put my head of hair through so much it’s unbelievable! Now I know that our hair is versatile and we can do so much to our hair, and lots of us like to use our hair as a form of expression. But could this be the reason why lots of us cannot get our hair to retain length? Could this be why so many of us suffer from breakage and damaged hair a lot of the time?

I have been pondering on this because it has been a very long time since I have been trying to grow my hair long. It was 15 years ago when I went natural and I told myself that I will like to grow my hair to bra strap length. I never did get there. And now here we are, 15 years later and I have changed my goal to waist length. Yes, optimistic I know, especially considering that I did not get to grow my hair to my initial goal of bra strap length. But I am optimistic and I believe one day I will grow my hair to waist length and even beyond!

So, through the years I have of course had a lot of setbacks and have had to start again on my hair growth journey a few times. Even as recent as last year. It was November 2021 when I went to get the damage chopped off. It was the best decision for my hair. The longest I had ever grown my hair is to below shoulder blade length (BSB) but my hair was definitely not at its healthiest then. Anyway, after my chop in November 2021, I was back at neck length. My hair was short again and could not even fit into one hair band talk less of a bun. And so the journey continues. Now I am here just over 4 months after what I hope is my final set back, and I am proud to say my hair has been growing in steadily and I have been retaining a good amount of length. I am now at collar bone length (CBL) if stretched at the back.

I truly believe that in the black community, we do way too much with our hair. I think there is no argument with this point. We continue to chop and change our routines, our hair styles, whether we are going to wear extensions or a braid out, wash and go, or have it straightened or in a Bantu knots, relaxed or maybe this time we will wear weaves. It’s just too much! I don’t see how our hair can thrive if we keep changing things up!

It was just this week I told myself I am going to give myself a 6-month hair challenge because I suddenly got the itch to change things up and I knew it was not going to serve me or my hair! It got to the point where 2 weeks ago I wanted to experiment with wash and go styles and that same week, I found myself straying from my hair wash routine of once a week, to washing my hair every other day to keep up with my wash and go maintenance! Let’s just say things did not turn out well for me and I thought I was going to have to chop off a bunch of my hair yet again! Thank God that all I needed was a thorough trim after that week. That week I literally washed my hair 4 times! I knew it was time for a challenge. I am not about to have another setback, this time I am certain I will reach my goals.

So of course, I pondered on it and thought, why is it so hard to just be content with my hairstyle of choice and keep things consistent. Surely, with a consistent style choice, there will be no confusion and I will keep up a healthy regimen to allow for my hair to grow and thrive with minimal breakage. And this is what I aim to do.

Just to point something out, last year in August, I decided I was going to stay away from wearing extensions until at least the end of the year. I had had enough with the damage that was caused by wearing extensions. I literally had thinning hair, and breakage and the icing on the cake was that I had a very noticeable bald spot in the middle of my head, which I am still recovering from now. I am proud to say that up until now, I have not worn any form of extensions in my hair. Oh, I almost cracked a few times but my husband thankfully talked me out of it (he loves my natural hair and has tried to get me to care for it properly by looking after it without the need for extensions). So here I am, 8 months later, and I can say I am recovering from the need to wear extensions. Side note – there was a whole movement where black girls were going natural and staying away from the ‘creamy crack’, but I think a new movement of staying away from wearing extensions and simply accepting the hair that was created just for us, is necessary!

Anyway, back to what I was saying about consistency. For the next 6 months, I have decided that boredom is what I need. My hair should not be what I use to experiment with. That is, if I want my hair to grow long anyway! I do not need to chop and change things up, or just see what my hair will look like in this style or that style, or focus on other people’s hair journey’s and try to imitate what they are doing. I simply need to choose a style that I like on me, with my own hair, and simply stick to it for a long enough time. My hair does and will grow, with consistency it will continue to retain length. I have even decided that washing it and moisturising it, will be based on my hair’s schedule, not on what other people says I need to be doing. I do not necessarily need to choose a day out of the week to wash my hair and stick to a rigid ‘regimen’. I can simply get to know my hair, feel my hair, is it dry? does it need extra moisure? If it does, I give my hair the extra moisture that it needs. If I notice that my hair has reached a point where it can no longer except extra moisture, and I know that with my hair this happens and this is because my strand is full of too much product with no extra space to take in more moisture, and in that case, I will simply wash my hair and remove the excess buildup. And it should be as simple as that! I pretty much guarantee that by the end of my 6 months challenge, I will have retained the length I want, and that is at least another 3 inches meaning I will go from my current length of CBL to APL (Arm pit length). And at that point, the journey continues and I simply repeat until I reach my goal of 20″. In theory this should take me 2.5 years taking account of extra trims throughout the year.

So yes, I have already calculated this, it is not rocket science. We as a black race, are just doing too much. We need to choose 1 style and stick to it.

My style of choice? Mini twists. I actually have in my hair now, mini twists with a twist. I had mini twisted the back half of my hair and flat twisted the front into 4 large mini twists. It turned out that I like the style. So, i’m either going to wear my hair just like that for 6 months – of course re-doing my hair when needed, or I will have my whole hair in mini twists. And that’s it! The rest is a waiting game.

Stay tuned for more content on this topic and subscribe to follow me on my journey.

Hair growth series 2022!

Uncategorized, , , ,

I have now been on my natural hair growth journey for 15 years! During my 15 years on this journey, I have chopped and changed a lot! I have gone through a silly amount of setbacks, I have been there and done it when it comes to experimenting with styles. I have had to cut my hair several times, I have changed my routine several times and I have lived and learned when it comes to sticking to a plan. I am proud to say that I am on a new journey. This journey is simply about consistency and keeping things simple. It has been a while since I have posted on here, but I am back! I am back to post my journey. The truth is, I love to write about my hair care practices and I haven’t stopped writing! I just haven’t written on here, but again I am back! If this site can be informative for anyone that will be a bonus, other than that, I am simply writing my thoughts about my hair on a different platform than just MS word and I can at least have the hopes that I can help a few people out. I really hope you enjoy the content.

Hair challenge and regimen

Hair, , , , , , , , ,

I have been researching a lot about the benefits of Castor oil of recent and I’ve seen some impressing results with using this oil.
Castor oil is a natural oil that derives from a plant.
Castor oil has many benefits for the body, skin and hair amongst more. Some of the benefits for hair include:

– Promotes hair growth
– Thickens hair
– Darkens hair
– Thickens eye brows and eye lashes

I have decided to incorporate using castor oil in my regimen to receive some of the above benefits, therefore I am setting myself a challenge. I will start off with a 3 month challenge and extend it if I see great results! Please comment if you will like to join me on my challenge to grow healthier, longer hair.

The challenge rules:
– Apply castor oil to scalp at least 3x a week (I am planning to apply it every other day)
– Massage the oil in to scalp for 1 – 5 minutes (massaging will increase blood flow and help aid in faster hair growth)
– The night before washing and conditioning hair, apply castor oil to scalp and hair, wear a steam cap to bed (I aim to do this at least 1x a week as an added deep condition step)

Note: You may want to mix your castor oil with a carrier oil e.g. extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil etc. This is fine and will help to lighten the otherwise thick consistency but make sure you have at least 50% castor oil in the mixture.

You do not have to wash your hair every time you apply the castor oil, you can simply apply a small amount to the scalp and wait until your wash day, since I am following the curly girl routine, I plan on co-washing my hair at least 3x a week but if you will like to stick to 1x a week then it’s up to you. It doesn’t matter if you use shampoo or conditioner for your wash, as long as you moisturise with a good conditioner after you shampoo.

Challenge start date: 12/02/2015
Challenge end date: 12/05/2015

My regimen:
Day 1
1. Put hair in 4 sections then Clarify my hair with either baking soda and water mixture (2tbs baking soda to 2 cups of warm water) for 2-7 minutes or Apple cider vinegar mixed with water (1:1) for 30-60 minutes then rinse out
2. Apply kinky curly knot today in the 4 sections and finger detangle before steaming or deep conditioning over night
3. Apply bentonite clay mixed with water and leave for 10-15 minutes before rinsing
4. Apply kinky curly knot today (watered down or on sopping wet hair)
5. Apply kinky curly curling custard to define my curls

Day 2 and 3
1. Rinse hair with water then put hair in 4 sections
2. Apply kinky curly knot today
3. Squeeze out excess conditioner (for low porosity hair)
4. Apply kinky curly curling custard to define my curls (wet hair if hair begins to dry before this step)

At night: Apply castor oil to scalp every other day and all over hair before day 1 wash

Update: 18/02/15
I’ve noticed that my hair has not been responding well when product has been applied and products are starting to sit on my hair much more than before (when I was doing the maximum hydration method). At first I just thought that I will do the full MHM method once a week and cowash in between but my hair is definitely looking more dry and losing alot of moisture. Therefore I have decided to go back to square 1 and do the 7 day maximum hydration method full regimen. I’m hoping I’ll be able to gain moisture again in my strands and after the 7 days I will hopefully be able to do it less often – at first every 1-3 days and in time every 3-5 days (when I have reached max hydration on all strands of hair). The max hydration method is the day 1 routine above and I will be doing this as this is what helped my hair receive much more moisture than I used to get before knowing about it. This time I’m hoping to be more consistent with it before adapting the routine to make it a little less time consuming which is the whole reason why I stopped doing it often enough. Additionally I have noticed that my hair does not like coconut oil and glycerin as it causes my hair to appear dry. An update will be made after 3 months to show my progress