Guess What I did?

So on April 16th,  after a long day at work, I decided to go ahead and chop off my relaxed ends.  Yup, I finally did it. I must say that I did not have a huge reaction, there were no water works, or weight lifted from my shoulders. It took a while to settle in, and when I touch my hair I still don't feel like its mine. Maybe because it really is quite coilier (is that a word) than I thought it would be. I've received mixed reactions, but no one has said they hate it (not that this would matter very much). I do feel a little insecure at times, but I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that I'm used to relying on my long hair to make me feel more attractive and I'm still learning what to do with what I have right now.

All in all I adore it, the only issue I have is shrinkage. Don't get me wrong, I knew it would shrink up like crazy, my issue is that it takes on a weird shape when it shrinks up because not all of it shrinks. The "type 3" sections don't shrink up very much (which is to be expected), but then there are the sections above my ears that are definitely "type 4" but they don't like to shrink up at all. So I just look crazy when shrinkage sets in. Not Cool.

This is my hair soaking wet with Knot Today on it, I was about to do a "wash n go" with KCCC. There were still a few straight pieces left that I'm still working on getting rid of.  That "wash n go" did not work out and I turned it into a coil out (kinda, sorry no pic)

This is my first twist out, I loooooved it, and even as it got frizzy I still loved it. I tried to do another one on dry hair and it was not good. Right now my hair is in twists and I like the ease of it, but wouldn't mind having my halo of hair back. 

So this might be my last post, I know, I know,  no need for tears ; ). I'll be starting grad school in the fall and I plan to spend the summer re-modeling my living space. And on top of that my crazy a** schedule at work is getting to me (as you can tell from the lack of updates). I just don't have time for much of anything other than work these days and I suspect it will only get worse with the addition of school.  

Anyhooo, until next time, (maybe?)

My One Year Transitioniversary

So I made it through one year of transitioning!!! It almost passed without me even noticing it. I still had my hair in the box braids on the actual date, so I didn't do anything special to it. I've decided (tentatively) that I will continue to transition. I know, I'm so indecisive, but I really do plan to continue. After I took my braids out, I did my usual braid out, and I was so in love with how much hair I had. It was so big, and long too. Maybe I just missed my hair because it was it was braided away for two weeks and before that it was hidden away in a bun. But either way, I was happy to see my hair with so much volume and length, so I decided that the saga must continue even though I cut some of it off.

My new growth is still a bit short, specifically the really kinky areas, so I don't wanna BC quite yet. The other thing that made me change my mind is my Tangle Teezer. Boy oh boy, that thing is simply wonderful, not to mention the fact that I finally got it through my head that I needed to detangle in smaller sections. Before the Tangle Teezer, I could never get my fingers through my hair from root to tip, and I mean NEVER. No wide tooth comb ever did that for me.

Wash day has been a dreadful experience for about the last 5 months or so, but the last few times I washed my hair I practically enjoyed it. I was shocked! Now when I finish detangling, I don't want to chop it all off or rip it out. So detangling and wash day are no longer obstacles in my transitioning journey. The only issue is styling at this point, and I can always fall back on bunning when that begins to annoy me. I haven't set a date for when I will end my journey, because it could be any time. I would like to go for another year (or two lol), but quite frankly I don't know if I'll last that long. So I will begin my search for a natural hair stylist to do my BC and once I find her (and it gets warm) I'll just let the spirit move me and BC when I feel like it ; )

Until Next time, deuces

Straight Hair and a Cut

So I finally got around to cutting my hair. First I blew my hair out on medium with my Denman D31, which gave me super fluffy and soft hair. I would have just worn my hair blown out like that, but I knew it would have to be straight for my stylist to trim it. I then straightened with my Instyler, two passes on my new growth and one pass on my relaxed ends.

It came out quite well, and I loved the fluffy texture of my new growth much better than the stick straightness of my relaxed ends. I couldn't believe how long my hair had gotten and I came really close to only getting a small trim.

However, I got in the chair at the salon, threw caution to the wind and told her to take off at least four inches. Her mouth dropped open and she said I had no reason to take off that much because my hair wasn't breaking at the LOD. However, she did end up giving in and she cut off a good amount (not sure how many inches). I'm back to APL and I have layers again, and the longest layer is only about 1 or 2 inches from BSL, all of which I love.


So the straight hair only lasted about a week. I was eager to get back to my braid outs and to see the new length with my go-to style. I was pretty happy with it, and doing my hair seemed a bit easier (probably because of the Tangle Teezer) so I decided to try cornbraids again and I loved the look, but my ends still fell flat after the third day, so I bunned for the rest of the week (as usual). The only difference is that on the first day my hair got really big. I lost some definition in the front so I had to improvise, I usually walk around with a headband in my handbag, but it looks like it was in there too long. I finally found it at the bottom of my bag, but the elastic in it had....melted? It was horrible and sticky, but luckily one of my coworkers had a hair pin. So I did manage to tame it. My roots may have lasted longer if I had kept the braids in for a few days, but time doesn't always allow for that. Anyway here's a pic:

Detangling Tools and Saving my Transition

Over the past year of my hair journey, I've searched high and low, far and wide for the best tool to detangle my hair with.

Initially my hair journey started as a relaxed healthy hair journey and I already had a wide tooth comb, so I used that only and stayed away from my tail comb except for parting. Anyway, after my decision to stop relaxing my hair, my old wide tooth comb didn't seem to quite cut it anymore. At this point I purchased the Jilbere shower comb and then another Sally's brand wide tooth comb. I then tried out the famous Denman brand and finally a Tangle Teezer brush.

The Wide Tooth Comb:

This comb did an okay job of detangling my hair when I barely had any new growth. But as my hair grew out more, it became more difficult to comb through my hair with it. I then decided to get a comb with even wider set teeth. It seemed to do the trick initially, I would start with my ends and work my way up the root combing out tangles (after some finger detangling). However, after my hair was combed out I was unable to comb from root to tip, and then trying to braid was a nightmare. It was like I detangled, but my hair was still tangled. Bottom line, it felt kind of pointless at times. 

Denman D31:

So I continued to use my comb and I just assumed it was detangling my hair the best way possible. However, as the little relaxer free sections got longer, I began to see that those ends were not fully combed out*. I would twist those sections separately and the ends felt horrible and did not curl up or smooth down at all. So after much deliberation and flip flopping, I finally decided to purchase the D31. There was NO WAY I was gonna get the D3, I mean come on those bristles are sooo close together so that's why I decided on the D31. I wanted something with even wider set bristles, but the paddle brushes had balls at the ends and for some reason I think my hair would get caught on them. Anyway, the Denman D31 was not good for detangling my hair overall. Don't get me wrong, it detangles quite well, but I could hear my hair breaking and see it coming out. I would have to detangle with a comb first and then go through in TINY sections to keep my hair from breaking off. So in the end it doesn't seem worth it as a detangling tool for me. However, I used it to blow out my hair and it was absolutely perfect, my old round brush couldn't hold a candle to it. And I also used it to get every tangle out of my hair when I did my box braids, and I think it helped to keep my hair tangle free for the take down almost two weeks later. So the Denman D31 is a good styler for me. 

Tangle Teezer:

I saw the Tangle Teezer get reviewed by someone whose hair was nothing like mine and it seemed to work for her, but I didn't pay it much attention. I went to Sally's one day for something else and I happened to see it there, so I did a little inspection. I was not impressed. I thought, "those tiny little bristles are supposed to detangle my hair without yanking it out of my scalp, that's a joke." So I left it. The following day (literally) I saw a review on CurlyNikki with a girl who had hair similar to mine. My wheels began to turn because it did amazing things for her, so I looked up a few more reviews and I was sold. By the end of the week I had my very own Tangle Teezer. I must say it's the best detangling tool I've used so far. I decided that I needed to use smaller sections in general to detangle with because it was obvious that my head of hair could not be detangled in six sections. So I'm up to about 12-14 sections and detangling actually goes faster now. The Tangle Teezer detangles my hair and keeps it detangled, and I don't hear as much snapping or feel any pulling like I did with the Denman D31. However, I'm used to losing only a little hair, like I did with the comb, so seeing the amount of hair that comes out with the Tangle Teezer is a bit unnerving. However, for me the pros outweigh the cons, and I actually like wash day now. I used to despise detangling, but it's almost an enjoyable experience now. Yes I said enjoyable (almost anyway) so I'll stick with it right now unless something better comes along. 

Overall, I feel that what makes the Tangle Teezer different is the fact that the bristles are soooo pliable, and yet they are well cemented into the base which is not pliable at all. The Denman D31 has a pliable base, but the bristles are pretty hard and have a very small amount of flexibility. So when the Tangle Teezer bristles will graze the tangles in my hair, the Denman D31 bristles will end up pulling through them, leading to more breakage. 

However, the bristles in my Tangle Teezer are so pliable that they look like they won't last very long, so I'm actually already on the hunt to find a back up, Sally's is already sold out and I'm not a fan of paying for shipping so I'll just have to wait and see if they ever come back in stock. To sum up, the Tangle Teezer pretty much saved my transition : )

*Sidenote: I cut the relaxed ends off of two very small sections a while back to see what my shrinkage and texture would be like once I BC. 

Adventures in the Land of Henna

So I did a henna treatment again. This time I used store bought henna and well..... I won't be doing that again. When I opened the package it was in a plastic bag and the inside of the box was different than the other one I used before. Both were Jamila henna and had the same exact picture on the outside, but this one had 'henna for hair' written all over the inside of the box. I was a little concerned, so I did a strand test (well actually it was more of a hair clump test on shed hair). The hair came out just fine, so I decided to go for it.

The henna itself was fine, however I found a few pieces of plastic in it. Yes!!! Plastic!!! in my henna!!! Oh and it wasn't from the plastic bag that it came in, it was simply random pieces of plastic. Initially I thought, "oh, leaves" but then I rinsed them off and saw that they were plastic. SMDH. So no more buying from that store and it's the only one in my area, so back to online vendors for me.

I left out the oils and conditioner in hopes of getting the full effects of the dye release. And I also left the henna on for an extra hour, but everything else was done pretty much the same way. In the end, my hair looked almost no different from the first time I did it. The results were almost identical, the color was only a little more noticeable than the last time, but detangling didn't seem any different and my hair still didn't feel stronger. I'm starting to think that the time it takes to do a henna treatment is just not worth the outcome. 

I will try again though (glutten for punishment that I am), but next time no Jamila. I will probably purchase from Mehandi.com, they have a pretty good looking henna selection, so we'll see. I think two more tries and if the results aren't any better then no more henna at all.

Until next time, Deuces ; )

Hair Break Update

So....

Remember when I posted that I would be taking a REAL break from my hair? Well I tried and it was only partly successful. 

Style 1:

Wet Bunning = Super Tangles

I wet bunned for a full week with quite a bit of gel, mid week I cowashed the gel out of my hair and re-did the bunning process. At the end of the week I did my deep conditioning process and then I tried to detangle my hair. OMG, I've never seen tangles that big in my hair, at one point I actually contemplated cutting them out.  Even though it looked pretty good and it was simple, I'll NEVER be doing that again. Well, at least not for a full week.

wet buns look better to me now that I have more new growth

Style 2:

Stretched Hair Bun = Fail + Hat

I detangled my hair and then re-braided into the same detangling sections and tried to put my hair in a bun. That was a big fat JOKE. I could not get my hair into a ponytail for the life of me (I'm assuming the braids were probably not tight enough). So I saw that my ends were pretty wavy, and decided to throw on a hat. I wore a hat all week, which is no biggie with my current job : ).

Style 3:

Small braids = Mixed emotions

I took a night and a day and did some box braids without the boxes. I did not part my hair, I simply pulled small sections out and braided with a soft hold gel. I started with the back and ended up doing them too big, so I did the front in smaller sections, but I wasn't going to go back and do the bigger sections over again. The first week I did small flat twists in the front, but I didn't like it, so the second week I took them out and did box braids instead. 

It was great not having to really do anything to my hair mid week, no restyling was required whatsoever, yay. I did curl the ends to hold the braids better, but I wore buns and french braids for the most part. I only wore it down once and with a hat. I also co-washed on wednesday of the second week in tight braids, because my scalp was acting up. I liked the fact that I could get to my scalp, and I left the braids in so I got a nice braid out effect. 

I did not like the fact that so much of my scalp was visible. I thought the roots would look thick and the ends would look thin, but all of it looked thin. I have a massive head of hair, and to see it look so thin was not a pleasant experience. There was no volume no matter what I did, so even though it gave me a break I don't think I'll be doing it again. Next time I want a break like this, I will most likely do twists.

I'm currently taking them out, and I'm not experiencing much tangling at all, so that's a major plus. I think this may be due to the gel that made my hair feel super soft, and the fact that after I detangled I used a Denman D31 to smooth (more on that experience later).

you can see that the ones in the back are bigger

close-up showing the visible scalp

Hiatus

Hello Readers,

Please excuse my absence, I've been trying to get my life together. I'm applying to grad school and getting used to my schedule at my new job, so at this point I'm definitely feeling pretty overwhelmed. I do have quite a few updates as far as my hair goes though:

1. New Ultimate DC recipe
2. 2nd Henna experience
3. My one year Transitioniversary (I really like making up words), and other transition updates
4. Possible Tangle Teezer Review (I will not be one to do a lot reviews, but this might be worth writing about)

So, please stay tuned.