Monday, August 6, 2012

Natural Hair -- Back To the Basics I Go....

This is what split ends can do...
Welp, I told you this blog would be about growth ---- the ups and the downs. 
Sometimes you grow after you've been down. 
This is my journey, lol.

While everyone can 'write a book' on how to grow your natural hair long, I should be writing a book on what NOT to do when trying to grow your natural hair long. AND.......there should be a "Postpartum Natural Hair Care Practices for Dummies" book! I would be the first in line.

I mean sheesh!!!! W.T.F!

In December, I had about 4" cut off of my hair. Then another inch in January when I saw how thin my hair had become. I didn't want to just cut it down to a fade, when I probably could have or should have. Am I exaggerating a little bit? Eh, maybe, but the fact remains that I did not take good care of my hair after my second son was born. I'm assuming I had 2 years worth of postpartum shedding taking place because I got pregnant with my second son when my first son was only 4 months old.
Yep, I accidentally missed that "give your body a year to heal before getting pregnant again," and didn't prepare myself for the aftermath.

So, combining ALL of the shedding I was dealing with along with NOT taking any vitamins when I stopped nursing, yeah, I can write a book on what not to do! I was so tired of taking vitamins that I cut my body off cold turkey. Not smart.

To make matters even worse, I 'jacked' up my version of the Curly Girl Method. I still think its an awesome method, but my interpretation of it wasn't. I thought it was okay for me to wet my hair everyday......and reapply conditioner. I'm almost embarrassed----> and it took me 9 months of doing that to realize it. I was hoping that since I wasn't putting any tension on my hair that I would be rewarded with growth. I should've only been wetting my hair 1x/week, 2x max!

I've learned that I have low porosity hair and moisture has a really hard time getting into my strands so wetting it daily wasn't doing anything but causing me more damage (dryness) than just regular tension.
So, the enormous amounts of postpartum shedding, abruptly stopping vitamin intake and daily water to low porosity hair cause 1+ year's worth of split ends that probably took some innocent bystander strands with 'em.
From now on, I will be cutting my ends much more regularly and going back to what I was doing before I got hooked on youtube.  No more copying those girls, at least not until I completely understand my hair. Their luck is not my luck!

Back to the my basics I go.....

7 comments:

  1. I have always LOVED your curly, natural, gorgeous locks. But you, my friend, looks SO unhappy in your most recent pic. It makes me sad.....perk up! And love those locks, they are so fine!

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  2. Lol....I wasn't upset when I took the most recent one. Actually I was focused on taking that picture with my right hand on the left side of my face. It was intense! But...I do FEEL the way you're saying I LOOKED whenever I look at old pictures of my longer hair. I'll try to perk up and just not look at those damn pictures! ;-)

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  3. awww, chica! well, at least you know what you need to do to get back to where you were. now the fun part begins! i've been trying not to watch too many things or buy too many products and i think that might not be the best thing for me because i am too basic when it comes to my hair care. so i think i need to do a little more research and buy a few more products for my hair. i'm not doing enough, lol.

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  4. That hair will be back before you know it! You know that I definitely know a thing about the PP shedding. It did a doozy on me too. I couldn't imagine going through it back to back. Oh, and daily wetting would KILL my hair, not many people can really get away with that. Perk up--your hair still looks good!

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  5. i'm just now going natural after over 10 years of relaxing my hair. and i'm so scared of messing it up!! way to check yourself and get back on track. i have no idea what i'm doing over here. lol

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  6. @Melifaif- You're so sweet! I'm gonna change my attitude....grudgingly. :-)
    @Faith- I know right! I was trying to do a whole lot of nothing with many products, smh. Can't wait to see what kind of new things you try!
    @Nik- Yeah I know it'll be back, just kicking myself for not realizing and paying attention until I lost it all. :-/
    @Kiranda- Good luck. Once you find a method you like, just keep doing it, don't change it up too much like I did. If it ain't broke....

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  7. Glad you figured out your hair and don't worry your hair will grow back in no time. But I think it still looks cute, and healthy.

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