My hair has been stressed and tense lately, and I needed to find a solution. I was fed up with the tangles, knots and uneven growth. When my body is tense, I can rely on yoga to loosen me up and make me less stressed. I thought that if yoga can do such good things for the body, why can't there be yoga for the hair? Then I realized - there definitely is such a thing as hair yoga! It's basically what most naturals in a blogosphere and on youtube have been talking about, but I thought a comparison to yoga works to remind me that I need to "destress" my hair.
Let me explain exactly what I mean. There are only two moves in hair yoga
- Stretching: This basically means keeping you hair detangled as much as possible. This limits shrinkage and KNOTS. Knots have to by clipped, which limits growth retention!
- Twisting: Putting your hair in two strand twists or braids as much as possible keeps your hair in a stretched state. Twists and braids also retain moisture (in my experience at least). If you leave your twists or braids in for a week or more, then you will lessen the amount of "handling" (brushing, combing, playing with) that your hair goes through, which then limits opportunities for breakage.
This is all I mean by twists:
This "hair yoga" analogy is kinda corny, but helps me remember that I don't want my hair to be all tense and tangled. Also, I think it pretty much explains why everyone is so hype over protective styling. Protective styling really does help. Now that I have 5+ inches of hair on my head, I really gotten to know my hair type. Its EXTREMELY curly, and the curls are small, which means endless knots. To be honest, I think this 5-6 inch average height is awkward. I'm struggling with coming up with cute styles, and sometimes I just don't have time. Furthermore, I'm getting tired of knots, so over the passed couple weeks I've rarely been seen out and about in just a wash-and-go afro. I keep my hair in twists. I don't LOVE the twists aesthetically, but I've found ways to make them work for me:
- Tiny Twists: smaller twists tend to "adopt" to my curl pattern, while larger twists just hang.
Larger twists
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| I didn't really like how these twists came out, they remind me of spider legs lol |
Smaller twists
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| These took longer (way longer) to do, but I like them better |
- Curling my twists: Using Eco Styler Gel and perm rods I simply curl and set my twists. Here's how it looks:
At the end of the week, usually a day or two before I shampoo my hair, I'll probably untwist and wear a twist-out. This works well because the twist-out lasts through Friday and Saturday - the days I might want to go out, socialize etc.
I really hope this "hair yoga" plan works to retain my growth. I plan to take it on as a hair-lifestyle, instead than just a thing I'll do until I have x amount of new growth. Although... I actually would like to have about 5 new inches of growth by this time in December. *crosses fingers*
While I've been protective styling for a while, this particular blog post was inspired by Kimmaytube's video: "AFRO - Why I won't wear my hair in one!" WATCH it - its very informative.
Be beautiful :)
xoxo
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| Estelle. so unique and fly! |
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