I can’t believe it’s been over two years since I last posted anything on this blog! Time really does fly. Well…… I have made a drastic change this year with my hair. I’VE CUT IT! (Gasp). Yep! I did. Lol. It’s so different from the cute, sophisticated style I’ve had for the past few years. Before I show you my new style, I’ll show you a quick length check of my hair before I cut it. My hair is blow-dried in the March 2011 Pics, but isn’t in the Jan 2015 ones.

As you can see, my hair grew quite long, between mid back and waist length. My hair care routine was very simple.

1. Pre-poo – Tresemme Luxurious Moisture Conditioner, Coconut Oil blend (extra virgin and fractionated), under hooded dryer for 10-15 mins.
2. Detangle (in shower) – Tresemme Naturals Conditioner, Tangle Teaser
3. Shampoo – Either Tresemme Luxurious Moisture Shampoo or my own Moisturising Shea Butter Shampoo, scalp only
4. Deep Condition – My own conditioners, either moisturising or protein balancing, under hooded dryer for 15-20 mins
5. Air-Dry – My own Leave-In Conditioner, my own Shea Butter Hairdress or Capuacu Pomade. In 4 large twists,
6. Style

At night I would twist my hair into two large twists and cover with a satin head wrap for bed. Maybe once a week or so, I would re-moisturise with more leave-in conditioner and Hairdress or Pomade. If I wanted to do a twist-out for a special occasion, I would use my Shea Buttercreme in place of the leave-in and pomade after washing, which gives me better definition.

But… Hair loss was crippling me. It isn’t falling out anymore, but it isn’t growing back either. If you go through my archives here, you’ll see that I really did take time to try and encourage re-growth with all sorts of treatments from Onion Juice to Cayenne Pepper. Last year I tried again using MSM and caffeine powders dissolved in a little hot water and mixed into some conditioner. The MSM was for sulpher in place of stinky onion juice, and the caffeine was for… well, caffeine, lol, in place of staining black tea. It helped a bit to maybe even out the blotchiness caused by the hair loss but my hair refused to awaken out of it’s stubborn stupor and grow more than a few centimetres!

It really shocks people when I show them how far up my head my hair loss reaches, because I wore my hair in such a way that it is covered and you can’t tell. Let me show you.

It reaches up past the top of my ears, nearly half way up my head on my middle left side. My right side is not as bad, but the middle and left side is very bad. After a while, I just learned to accept my hair for what it is. I’ve tried to help it along with changes in diet and hair treatments, but it is what it is and it does what it wants so it’s better I accept it then get depressed over it. I’m not going to lie to you though. I have mourned the loss of my hair. I have mourned over the fact that my hair would be almost hip length at the back if it wasn’t for the hair loss. I’ve mourned over the loss of creativity in being limited to one hair style (and variations of that one). Here’s that one hairstyle.

I haven’t bothered to trim my hair over the last year or so, so my ends could be ‘straggly’ enough to secure the ponytail. Because I have no hair at the back of my head, this is the only style that stays in place. If I use a hair band to create a ponytail it will eventually ‘lift’ and cause my hair to ‘bump’ at the top because there’s nothing to keep it secure at the back. So this has been me for past few years.

But I’m ready to embrace who I am right now. Embrace my hair for what it is. And so I scoured YouTube for short hair styles. I was ready to cut it all off, to do a big chop. But I wasn’t 100% convinced that was what I really wanted. Until I came across one hair style by a YouTuber named BeautyCutRight. When I saw THIS VIDEO, I knew that was what I wanted to do. It was ‘The One’. So I went for it. I got my brother to do it for me since he’s the best barber I know! Here’s the process in pics.

I’m still getting used to it, since it’s such a drastic change. But I’m so pleased with it. I feel ‘liberated’ and ‘free’. I don’t have to hide my hair, I’ve incorporated it into the hairstyle. Now I can be more creative with the top and do different styles and try new things out. I might even dye the ends. lol. We’ll see. Since my hair will be maintained at this length, I’m not worried about preserving my ends as much and will be switching to a more style-oriented regime. I’ll also be including silicones in my products because my hair absorbs moisture really easily and poofs up, and I want my styles to last. Silicones will help to create a protective barrier around my hair and stop it from frizzing up and help keep the styles smooth for longer. I’m not really afraid of much in my hair products anymore. When you first start the natural hair journey you can get caught up in the hype and follow advice blindly. But when you become educated about ingredients and the pros and cons of them, you begin to balance out and not be so extreme. Sites like Point of Interest and books like The Science of Black Hair, have all helped to reshape my thoughts on ingredients. Silicones have their place, as does mineral oil. Both are great heat protectants and silicones are the best anti-frizz, anti-humidity ingredients you can get. It’s just to remember that hair with these ingredients on it needs regular shampooing, which I already do, so It’s not any real change in process for me.

Here’s my hair freshly washed and twisted.

My washing routine was exactly the same as that outlined above, except the product I used to twist my hair was different, Shea Pudding. It’s more of a creamy gel like product with silicones in it rather than the more stiff and buttery Shea Buttercreme. I used THIS TECHNIQUE from YouTuber Napturals85 to twist my hair, as it’s the only method i’ve found that gives me a great twist-out, since my hair doesn’t separate well and just frizzes when I do try to separate my twists for more volume. This technique allows me to incorporate tiny sections in each twist so when it comes to taking them down they are already separated and voluminous. I smoothed over a silicone serum I made (I’ll probably call it ‘Smooth and Shine Serum’, or something like that) over my twists before taking them down and styling. So… Here I am.

Goodbye sweet, simple, sophisticated. Hello edgy!

New year, new me! 2015 – Embracing Change!