I know I promised to do a hair update a week ago but I have been extremely busy with life.  Today I finally sat down and gave twisting a second try.  Yes, the title is correct.  It took me nine stinking hours to do these twists, mainly because I was watching TV, on LHCF and browsing videos on YouTube.  The very first time I twisted my hair I was 2 months natural and it was…Ok.  Not a look I was ready for as I only had about 4 inches of hair.  My hair is currently 6.25 inches and my twists this time looked much better than before.  

I used raw shea butter to twist  and when it was all done I used aloe mixed with castor oil on my ends.  I twisted on dry hair.  To get the twists to lay where I wanted I also added the Aloe/Castor Oil mixed onto a few twists to shrink them up.  

Here are a few pictures.  I would have uploaded more but there is a space limit on the site now…

Ok so after going through some stressful times at home, instead of neglecting my hair through all of that I decided to braid it up because two strand twists just weren’t working for me and the current length of my hair (4.25inches). 

Since I colored my hair early into my journey I had to go with a lighter color than my normal 1B, this time a 4 was a better fit.  I used “Jerry Curl” curly braiding hair because that was the tightest curl I could find that would properly conceal the ends of my kinks.  I braided my hair using 100% pure Shea butter mixed with Aloe Vera gel. I plan to keep these in until 7 November 08 and at that point I’ll re-braid my entire head for another three months.

My Regmine in micros consists of
Daily leave in of (Glycerin, V05, water) /Moe Gro Oil Nightly / Rinse weekly

Here’s a pic. Who says braids don’t look good on natural hair divas?

Give me a break braids Aug08 - Nov08

Just wanted to post a hair picture since I haven’t in a while.  Just a random day in May when I thought I was looking cute. 

Okay for real for real….I was cute as hell that day!

I know I’m cute and all, but don’t be stealing my damn pictures for your own dirty lil gains.  I got a fresh bag of whoop-ass…don’t make me open it.

Click Click!

What’s good computer world? I’ve been busy as hell or lazy as hell and went MIA for a while. I”m back and there isn’t really much news to share.  I don’t really know where I’m going with this blog at all, may it be fashion, food, fun hell if I know.  What I do know is that at this moment 2 1/2 months natural, I’m geeked up about this hair shit.  Who would have thought hair would make a person so happy?

I’ll admit I was skeptical about this whole shrinkage shit, with your hair looking short and all beat up…but I love it right now. I almost never “pik” out my hair, I just choose to wear it in it’s shrunken state.  I finally got my muffin top back from those scissor happy moments I had at the begining of Month 2 and I’m glad to say that I’m on the grow.

I’m thinking my growth rate is about .25-.50 inches a month.  I’m at 4 inches stretched and my year end goal is collar bone streatched from the nape.  I aint trying to set my goals too high but I know I’ll be content and will focus less on growth once I reach shoulder length unstreatched or in shrunken state.

I know I aint got no damn readers…but if I do I hope yall is on da gro too. 

Deciding to go ” Au Natural” was an easy decision for me to do.  I woke up and decided that this was it, I was done getting relaxers only to cover it with weave.  So here I am.  My last relaxer was in September (I think) and I’ve decided on “transitioning” with braids.  I don’t think I am strong enough to handle doing a “big chop” especially since I’ve ALWAYS had long extensions. 

I am 6 months down the road and I am timidly excited about what the future holds for my hair.  My new growth is banging and I am ready to lose these thin ugly relaxed ends.  6 months to go until I wear my hair out.  Until then off into braids you go.

Low Manipulation Style of Choice: Braids 2 1/2 months out for 1 week; Repeat

Current Regimen: Co-wash 1x a Week / Shampoo & DC 1x a Week (while in braids)

Current Staple Products: Beauty4Ashes “GodHead” Shampoo and Conditioner / B4A SuperGro Hair Lotion / B4A Hair Thickener Fertilizer Oil

PHOTO: 1 week old, after first wash and DC.

Friday night 7 Mar 08, I was chill-laxin’ at home surfing the net as usual and I can across a link to a YouTube instructional video.  Since I’m so very easily distracted I ended up watching a woman’s journey to natural video and it put me in tears.  Something inside me clicked and I broke down.  Her video made me acknowledge that I’d been running from myself for YEARS…I didn’t look right if I didn’t have 18inch micros or tracks.  It was like living up to a standard I felt like I would never achieve. I was using “transitioning” as a scapegoat not wanting to face the reality that I cared about what people thought about me.  I liked blending in because that meant the attention would be away from me.

Click Here if you want to see the video!

 So I took out my braids and picked up the scissors…I emerged hours later like this:

I’m free y’all!  {Black is Beautiful} just like all the other colors of the rainbow…

So I up and decided about 2 weeks ago that I wanted to “actively” go from relaxed to natural and actively grow my hair a few inches below “bra strap length.”  This is the start of my journey and I am overjoyed beyond belief.  I’ve been “passively” going natural since September 2007 and on the real…natural hair can be a pain in the ass.  The two textures are making me plum crazy (oh…there’s that word again) but I am welcoming the change with a mildly open mind. 

My reason for making the transition was that simple.  I want to be proud of my heritage, and have my husband enjoy my natural beauty.  With my job and all the moving, who the hell has time to keep up with a relaxer anyway? I’m tired of running from myself, hiding who I am to please some dude that probably can only see the fine image of my tits and ass anyway…Or the other fellow that’s so damn ignorant, he can’t see past the divinity of my chocolate complexion.  Man these fools just don’t know…It’s about to be a dawn of a new era up in here.   

Current length: Neck length (Almost SL)      2009 Goal: Armpit Length

Ultimate goal: Mid Back   Hair Type: 4ab                

My current regimine: Wed: Water Rinse Fri: Co-Cash    Sun: Shampoo & DC 30 min hooded dryer