The Harvest Hair Regimen 2014: The Hair Growth Challenge

Hello Lovelies!

So, as a mentioned in my previous post, I've had some hair regimen hiccups that have caused me to change my hair care approach.

I call my new regimen the Harvest Hair Regimen not only because it will take me into the beginning of fall, but because I expect a "harvest" of new growth by the time I complete this challenge.

Basically, my plan is to keep my hair in cornrows throughout the month of August and September. During this time I will be keeping my hair very moist. Basically, my hair growth challenge was inspired by this YouTube Vlogger 7Princess7Noire7's  vid:

I won't be doing wigs, I'll be doing crochet braids, just personal preference. In my recent article I posted a link to a crochet braiding video if you're curious.

I've read two points of advice so many times 1) that protective styling is very important and 2) putting a lot of tension on strands inhibits length retention, but in my case, experience has been the best teacher. I'm being very cautious about my hair during this Harvest Hair Regimen; I'll only have it "out" on special occasions.

So... for the actual regimen:

1. Grease my scalp almost every night with a organic coconut oil, castor oil, blend. 
2. Some nights mix in a little tea-tree oil to my nightly/every other night scalp greasing
3. Keep hair covered at all times: scarves, silk bonnets or shower caps**
4. Wash hair every 2-4 weeks. I know this may be a point of contention for people who stick to washing once a week, however, I would prefer to keep my hair braided up for a long period. 
5. Cornrow wash and conditioned hair to secure moisture. I've found that when I moisturize my hair really well, then put in cornrows, my hair strand stay soft from root to tip. 

** Note: shower caps seal in H2O vapors--it works as a natural steam. 

Yeah, that's really about it. 

Wait! One more thing! This would be an excellent transition style! Why, you ask? Well:

1. It protects that fragile divide between the old, relaxed hair and the growing natural hair.
2. It seals in moisture. 
3. It gives you more growth time before cutting the relaxed ends. 

I will definitely updating you on how this works out!

Don't you love Harvest Season?! (Photo Credit)

5 Hiccups in my "Hair Growth Journey"

Hey Lovelies!

Just as a side-note, my posts are so far and few between because it seems like hair blogs are already a thing. By a thing, I mean this blog is a tiny drop in a huge ocean of very popular hair blogs. I love talking about hair, but I feel like everything about natural/black hair has been said already.

So, what I have decided to do is focus on my personal holistic health journey. My hair will still be the central topic of my blog, but I will be discussing it as it relates to my general health and personal growth.

I will say I am a bit discouraged as fair as my hair growth journey is concerned. I did my "big chop" at around the same time as several of the online hair personalities that I follow on Facebook and YouTube. However, they've surpassed me by FAR in terms of hair length. I've taken their hair-type and ethnic background into account when I compare my hair growth and theirs, however, those who still have similar "hair backgrounds" as me have still "outgrown" me. I began my hair growth journey in December of 2010 and its almost August 2014... this right around the time my big afro should be making its debut...right?

I guess not. I decided to do a bit of self analysis in order to figure out what am I doing to cause the hiccups in my hair growth journey. This is what I found:

1. I have severe Hands-In-Hair Syndrome. Its sooo bad. I play with my hair when I'm stressed, bored, in thought, or not fully focused.... so 90% of the time. Yikes
2. I was dying my hair quite often early on in my hair journey.
3. I was not as gentle as I could be with my quite fragile strands 
4. I wasn't protective styling enough
5. I began living a Vegan lifestyle in 2013 which destabilized my protein and iron levels for a while

What am I doing to improve my hair care habits?

• O July 17, 2014 I decided to start a whole new hair regimen. My hair has been in cornrows. I did crochet braids for almost 2 weeks, washed my hair, and re-did my cornrows. I will be wearing scarves for the rest the week. Every other day I grease with a castor oil.coconut oil mix. I don't plan on wearing my hair "out" for a while. I want to seal in as much moisture as possible and I've found that cornrows are the best way to do it. Also, I don't look cute in cornrows, which pushes me to find ways to keep my hair wrapped up... which meeeans... no more Hands-in-Hair!
• I'm taking my vitamins and minerals and trying to be more careful with my vegan diet. I am doing research and trying to have more well-rounded meals so that I can get all the nutrients my hair needs to grow

These are two quite simple solutions, but I'm very confident in them. For one thing, I've noticed that dudes who wear cornrows always have nice, lengthy hair. That's because they don't mess with their hair... its all braided up, and most times, in a du-rag. The pressure on women to "look cute" all the time, in combination with the natural hair "movement," have made the big hair with a gorgeous twist-out the holy grail of natural hair beauty. Trust, I want my big afro too, but most days, I think its best for me to protect my hair and keep it moist. Having "cute" hair everyday has led me to knots, dryness, and breakage. If I really want to be cute and fabulous, I'll find a nice natural hair wig or weave. 

So, the cure to my hair growth journey hiccups is be simplistic, realistic, and prioritize my hair health above all else.

Love y'all!

Spice Girl Melanie B. aka Scary Spice vs. Blogger Yomi

(Photo Credit)

Hair Yoga: Stretching & Twisting for Healthy Hair!

Hello Beauties!

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

1. 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!
2. 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 

I didn't really like how these twists came out, they remind me of spider legs lol

Smaller twists

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

Estelle. so unique and fly!

One Year (and some) of Happy Nappiness!

Hey Lovelies!

I've been trying to do a better job of document my hair growth and styles, and I just wanted to share some pictures from late 2011 with you.... By the way Happy New Year!!! My goal for this year is to really get some good blogs done (in a timely manner). I'm really hoping to have a HUGE Afro by December 10 2012 (My Natural Anniversary) so part of my good hair care regimen will be documenting what I'm doing. Ok so here are my pics!

So at the moment I consider myself to be a 4A- after washing and conditioning, my curls are very spirally, and are a little smaller than the width of a pencil

OCTOBER

Don't mind the ridic face I was making.. I was being a fool lol... no particular style here 

I loooved how these curls came out so I had to take a pic. This was a Wash-and-Go

NOVEMBER

Big Twist - Twist Out (I'll explain at some point)

Twist-out part 2

My Twisties! I kept these in for like a week and a half.

I tried kinky twists for about 2 weeks. They came out nicely!

After I took out my kinky twists I had a pretty decent  fro.
I'm lookin kinda rough tho... I think I was tired

JANUARY

I did some more twists for the beginning of the year.
They came out pretty wild but I don't really care lol.

Yep! So thats about how my hair has been lookin' for the past couple months. I've been having some protective styling issues, and I'll share them in another post.

TTYL!

Be Big & Beautiful :)