I’ve finally succumbed to doing another length check. It’s been six months since i did my very first length check and i’ve had to re-convince  myself to blow-dry my hair again. Last time it was a horrific ordeal, i struggled to get the blow-dryer through my hair because the hot air from the dryer sucked all the life out my delicate strands, leaving it crispy and dry. Not Good.

There is more to the story than just blow-drying issues. In all honesty i have felt a lot of pressure, not from anyone at all, but because i write blogs about natural hair. Everything i do points to having healthy long hair and so i’ve kind of put off doing another length check. My fears of my hair not growing and nullifying everything i have been promoting is quite strong for me so i just didn’t do it.

However, the other day i was taking a look at my hair and i was quite fed up of it. Don’t get me wrong, i LOVE my hair. But it just didn’t look as healthy and full. The ends of my hair were damaged, thin and straggly looking. I didn’t think it looked nice. Since starting my hair journey to healthier longer hair in October 09 my roots have grown immensely thick and are putting the ends of my hair to SHAME.

Even though i’ve been natural for over 5 years i really didn’t know how to care for my hair. I neglected it badly, just leaving it in braids most of the time. Not properly moisturising, conditioning and caring for my hair as i should have been. I blow-dried my hair after every wash.

So even though for the last 8 months i’ve been taking great care of my hair it doesn’t negate the 5 years of mistreatment. My ends are a lot weaker and prone to damage then my new growth. That’s a fact. So all i could do was trim off the damaged ends.

After all, it’s better to have shorter healthier looking hair then to to have long straggly damaged ends (i’m convincing myself).

So yesterday i began by co-washing my hair with the Curl Harmony Hydrating Conditioner. I used plenty this time as i wanted to compare it to the cleansing conditioner. It went on easily and detangled my hair well. I’m still not sure whether i prefer it over the cleansing conditioner but it is still good for my 4b/a hair.

Once fully detangled, i retwisted the sections and rinsed out the remaining conditioner. I towel dried and starting with one section, i un-twisted and applied some A’Kin 24 hour Intensive Moisture Leave-in conditioner. I then parted the section in two and blow-dried it on a low, gentle heat. Once it was nearly dry i smoothed on some of my Shea Butter mix and finished blow-drying it, again on a gentle heat. Once dry i twisted the section. I repeated this for the other part of the section and for the rest of my hair. It wasn’t a nightmare like it was the last time. In fact it went rather well. Even so, i still hated the fact that i was blow-drying it. I could feel my hair ripping and breaking all the time and i just thought, ‘MY HAIR’. I’m sorry to do this to you. I can’t believe i used to do this after every wash, no wander my ends are not coping well! I will leave the length checking to every 6 months if i have to as i am certainly not going to apply any heat to my hair earlier than that given period of time. I just can’t afford to damage my hair.

I left it in the twists, covered it and went down to see my sister at the salon. She is a hairdresser, now specialising in caring for natural hair using natural products. She trimmed off all the straggly damaged ends. It was a lot (to me) and it has set me back nearly 2 inches in reaching my hair goal but it was so necessary. My hair now looks healthy from root to tip and i’m satisfied.

Ranting Over! Here are the pictures. lol

Excuse the face, lol. As you can see my hair comfortably sits at the top of my shoulder blade.

Side View, Sorry about the dark Picture. Just trying to show the full length of the back.

Fully stretched, blow-dried hair. Nearly Bra Strap Length (BSL).

Fully twisted.

My gorgeous sister. An excellent hairdresser. The best i know of. She is the only other person (besides myself) that i let ‘touch’ my hair.

   Before the trim. Just took out the twists. If you look closely, you can see the straggly, thin ends i’m talking about.

After the trim. Comfortably sits just below the shoulder. (my poor, poor hair) it’s all gone. lol

Here’s a comparison of my hair from Dec 09 to now, June 10

Dec 09

June 10

As you can see it grew several inches. I also had a trim after i took the pictures in Dec so that’s why the growth seems minimal (less than two inches) but really it has grown about 3 inches (half an inch per month, which is about right). I showed you before the trim so you can see how much my hair actually grew.

I’m so glad that’s over. Until the next length check.