Naturalist~~ One Month or So Later ~~Update!

So here I am ... one month later... and this is going to be a lot harder than I thought, but I am still committed to letting my "fro grow" for one year.

This was my starting point ...


~~~Evolution ~~~

Slowly but surely my curl pattern is returning (photos were taken on different days, I don't wet my hair everyday so when I don't the curls are fuller and fluffier)

Having the bleach in my hair really did a number on it... the color was pretty but damaging even with the precautions I took.... I am coming to realize that there will be some cutting as a go along to get rid of damaged hair and for shaping and styling. 

I love seeing that  the curls are coming back but sometimes I feel like my hair is a big ball of frizz. The next step is to try some products to combat this. I am excited because I saw an add for new Optimum products that I can't wait to try. I read in a Natural hair blog that much of the journey is trying to figure out what works for YOUR hair and that sometimes what works changes as you hair grows... I am finding this to be very true. What worked before this little Fro is not working now lol. I also find that my hair is very very dry, even after the castor oil and other oils I am putting in. I have a plan for that too, I plan on making a mixture of oil and also trying more deep conditioning and steam treatments.I am also going to try the LOC method for moisture. The LOC method is a layering of leave in conditioner and oils to really moisturize your hair.









I have been watching a few YouTube videos and they have been helpful; I will be trying some of the things I learned so stay tuned. I also found a link on Hello Beautiful about the best 10 natural hair videos you should watch and I must admit most of them were helpful.  One of the bloggers on there, Yolanda Rene, has her own channel and has a 12 or 13 part series on natural hair... a kind of all you want to know about natural hair thing which I found very helpful, find it here .





Inspiration

I am really looking forward to all the things I can do as the length of my hair changes, I am also inspired by protective styles like the crochet braids and head wraps too!!!!!

(these photos were found on the Internet and natural hair blogs)

Naturalista~ ~ ~

So I am no stranger to the big chop- This is my fourth time! But this time, I have committed to letting my hair grow back completely natural. No perm, No texturizer, nothing but some color to hide the greys lol

 

I think my hair has seen it all, I have been a red head, I have had black, brown, burgundy and platinum hair, I have let it grow, I have cut it off, I have worn protective styles, wigs, weaves, you name it ALMOST anything and I have done it. 

About a year ago I came across some natural hair pages on Facebook (E Clark , My Natural Sistas , and Courtney Natural Hair ) and instantly fell in love, it reminded me of how beautiful my hair was when I was younger. My mother cherished my sister and my hair. She took really good care of it and in tern we both have beautiful hair.

Now, my sister started this process before I did. She did not do the big chop as she is obsessed with big hair lol but she went about it gradually. First she went to texturizers instead of perms but found that her hair still was not at the level of health that she wanted. Then (because she is an avid weave and wig wearer- to achieve the style and look she loves) she stopped using chemicals all together. This practice and the combination of good old fashioned hair care allowed her to grow her hair out until she was able to be completely natural (maybe I can get her to write a post on her hair care- fingers crossed). Now all of her 4 girls are natural as well.

This is my sister with her natural hair blown out and curled

My sister with a full wig she made herself (see Ghinais Hair & Beauty for more of her work)

Full wig made by my sister

My sister and I - this is a U wig- again made by her. She is also the person who cut and colored my hair until I got the hang of it see Ghinais Hair & Beauty

The last big chop I did was to go platinum (this was before my natural hair craze) and to go platinum because of the amount of stress on your hair from the bleach, I had to stay natural.  I loved the platinum but it definitely changed my curl pattern. My curls were not as tight and eventually my hair became very damaged.

So.... I transitioned back to black.... I decided to really take good care of my hair like my mother did and gave myself a challenge to "grow this fro" for one year.... So for one full year (I started on September 15th) I will do no major cutting, just trimming  and maybe some shaping. I know this will be a major challenge for me but I am prepared to transition with protective styles and wigs .... so let's see how this goes! See my Hair tab to see my current hair routine and the products I am using! I will also be taking the Mane choice Vitamins! I will be blogging on that experience as well!

So.... Here is my starting point:

Welcome to my Journey!