Last blog I decided to do a big chop to remove all/ majority of the heat damaged hair I've been holding onto for the past couple two or three years ( i.e when I first started this blog and decided to stop using heat on my hair altogether). Now, I would like to update you on all of my progress. The good the bad and the ugly!!! (^_^)
First of all... I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new haircut I gave myself!!! It's interesting , because as much as I enjoy having long hair sometimes I just like to start over with a nice cut. I know it sounds counter productive since this entire blog has been devoted to growing my 3b/4a hair to waist length. But , I'll give you a little background story about this that should shed a bit of light on the insanity!!!
Majority of my late teens and early twenties up til now I have maintained what most people would consider long hair by normal standards. It would pretty much hover above or right below bra strap length.
I had been maintaining my hair for years visiting a hair salon and having my hairstylist take care of my mane. But when I started doing my own hair sometimes I would damage it.So I would take some scissors and clip a couple of inches off. In 2009/2010 my hair was uneven and driving me crazy. So I had my sister and her friends cut my hair to the top of my shoulders. I loved it like that because it was a blunt cut and it felt good running my fingers through my hair after I had straightened it. They didn't particularly like the fact that I had cut off so much hair, but I certainly enjoyed the fact that they went ahead and cut off what I wanted anyway!!! Shortly after that I ended up moving to Chicago to work with my producer on one of his friends albums. We arrived in the summer and left sometime during the spring, and in between that time period my hair grew like straight weeds!!! The humidity in the mid west and the moisture that is just trapped in the air helped me 1000% in maintaining healthy hair. Naturally since I was still using heat at the time I was still doing my part in destroying my tresses, but because of the moisture , I was getting some assistance in keeping the damage minimal! As it was , I was chipping away at the health of my hair during my stay in Chicago because when I would use hear on my hair , I didn't just use heat... I used flat irons, curling irons, hot combs and blow-dryers WITHOUT USING HEAT PROTECTANT!!! YIKES!!!
Fast forward to the year 2012, and I had been doing some research , reading magazines, blogs and youtube video's trying to find hair care products that were natural and did not strip my hair of the natural oils and nutrients that most standard hair care products would manage to do the moment I took the cap off the bottle. I had learned during that time that there were products lines like Aubrey Organics, Alba, Jason and Giovanni who specialized in not only natural hair care , but also natural skincare and in some instances other types of natural products for the entire body. But at this point I had not yet discovered how to naturally style my hair without using heat!!! So I searched and searched but I had discovered that my main issue was that my hair texture at the time was mixed up so much because I had 4 different grades of hair for one reason or another. There was the straight hair ( which I later found out was limp and lifeless/ dead hair derived from all of the heat damage), the undefined bushlike hair, the curly hair ( which was my favorite ) and then there was the complete BUSH!!! I didn't even try to attempt a wash and go because I know that I was ill equipped to deal with the ignorance that was my hair at that point in time. So I started doing double strand twists. But now, I can admit that after watching extensive volumes of various youtube video's featuring some of the popular natural women of color that styled their mane and had the perfect routines and the length I wanted, I had figured out what I was really looking for. I wanted to find the products that would define my curls so that I could literally wash my hair style it and leave the house whether it was wet or dry and STILL have a bomb hairstyle that did not explode into a frizz basket. It took quite a while to create the right combination of products and a routine that allowed me to achieve the look I have been aspiring to aquire, but I finally found everything I needed!!! YES!!!!!
Anyway, I bought everything from curlformers which would give me more of a press and curl look which was great, but didn't last very long ( introduction of that product is in one of my earlier blogs in 2013), to Flexirods which would give me the perfect ringlets and has also been my favorite method of producing perfect curls ( also listed in a previous blog in 2013). I even managed to discover the beauty of the super tight coils that were produced by using perm rods. Since chopping more than 5 1/2 inches of hair off, I have only managed to try one of the tools. Here are a couple of pictures from some perm rods and a twistout, but they did not look as good because I did not have the right type of gel in my hair to hold the curls!!!Well, the twistout did, but not the perm rods!!!
This is my very sexy twistout using Kinky Curly curling custard!!! It only lasted a couple of days because the gel started to flake on me.
My first attempt at using perm rods... Had the wrong Gel!!!
Once again it has been a super long time since I have had the time to write to you all. In April right around my birthday, I installed another set of Twists. This set was Black and Blue as you can see here in this picture listed below:
I will double back later and tell you all about the process and what it took for me to get that together, as well as post many pictures about this last set of twists.
Well, last week I removed my Black and Blue Caribbean Twists ( hair by Black N Gold both colors) that I had installed for my birthday around the 16th of April. So I had them in for just about 3 months like I did with the red kinky twists I had put in. Unlike the Burgundy and Red kinky twists, I noticed that I suffered lots of knots, tangles and clumps of hair basically forming soft locks. My definition of soft locks is natural hair that has clumped together but can still be detangled with careful finger detangling, BUT, if left alone will turn into permanent locks that one CAN NOT detangle. Well, suffice it to say... I had never had this type of experience while my hair was done in twists or braids. The second time I washed and styled my hair after I had removed the twists, my scalp became itchy, inflamed. painful to the touch and sensitive in multiple different places. One place I am used to having this feeling in my scalp ( that happens to be my bald spot, and it acts up every so often) but this was different. So for that I purchased some Burdock Root and Nettle hair oil to see how that will deal with the scalp issues. I will update you on that when I get it in the mail!!! Eventually I am going to go to the dermatologist and have them tell me what is going on and do tests and the whole 9.
Now, lets move on the the second part of this post ... the "Short and Sweet" part. Well, some months back I tried to wear my hair in a was and go style and discovered that that was not a possibility for me. Mainly because there was so much hair that I had that was still damaged from heat years ago. It has been growing out, but still remains since I do not cut my hair anymore!!! I have watched all these women with amazing hair that curls from root to the ends. And some of my hair would NEVER do that ... for reasons that I explained earlier. SO... I decided that I was just going to hack it all off and get that big chop thing out of the way!!! Here are a few pictures of what I did!!!
My hair before picking up the scissors!!!
Left Side
Right Side
Those pictures listed above are the before pictures ( obviously). Here are the after pictures:
All Nice and Cut!!!
Left Side
Right Side
I have to admit that after I cut my hair I noticed how full my hair seemed to feel. Not to mention how much easier it was to comb through and detangle!!! I am certain that it will not take long for me to see the growth start to take place!!! Here is the thing though... How about I must have cut off like 5-7 inches of hair!!! Like... SERIOUSLY??? Yeah... like that!!! I got tired of the straight hair messing up my look all the time!!! So, I just took the plung and chopped it off!!! When I stretch my hair it is still past my shoulders. It just looks really really short because all of my hair can curl up to maximum capacity now, unlike what it used to do. Mind you... I still have a few spots where there is still about an inch or so of straight hair, but for the most part, I have taken care of the most messed up parts!!! NOW... let's see how long it takes me to grow my hair to waist length!!! Hmmm. I might have been close, but by the way my hair looked before the cut, it just was not healthy enough to do it's best I think. Anywho, I hope you have enjoyed my update. Hopefully some time soon I can give you the measurements!!!
Cut Sooooooo much hair!!!
Will you look at that ??? I can't believe I did it!!! Actually , yeah I can believe it !!! (^_^)
Well , that is all I have to share for this blog!!! I will be logging back on to share some of my new hairstyles to see if I can pull off a wash and go now!!! Stay tuned!!!
Are you surprised that I was able to get back here and write the continuation of my length check info complete with pictures??? Well if you aren't , I certainly am!!! LOL
Well. I can tell you that there was definitely some growth going on... and I am stoked about this 100%.
I took hair measurements from 3 different pieces/ strands of hair from the same section. I measured super curly hair ( as you can seen in the pictures ) so it is not going to be 100% accurate, but I am pretty sure it is as good as I could possibly get it considering how I had to try to get it done ghetto/ creative style!!!
The measurements that I came up with are as follows ( pictures are posted below without captions because ... I can't seem to caption them ):
Front Middle Section: 19/17/18 =18
Right Front Section: 15/12/17 =14.6
Left Front Section: 17/14/15 =15.3
Left Side Section: 15/17/18 =16.6
Right Side Section : 17/18/16 =17
Middle Section : 19/17/18 =18
Left Back Section : 10/12/12 =11.3
Right Back Section : 12/13/15 =13.3
Middle Back Section : 11/12/14 =12.3
Below are literally some random pictures of me trying to photograph my length using measuring tape. You should be able to see the tape measure , and where my hair stops in most of the images. As you can see in the pictures my hair towards the end is not as thick as the hair at the top of my hair. It sort of tapers to the end. My hair is going to look like that for at least a couple of years because as I had mentioned in my previous blogs, I am not going to trim my ends anymore. The reason the hair looks that way at the end is because that is the hair that is still straight from heat damage that I caused by flat ironing my hair extra hard without a heat protectant. But since the objective of my challenge is to achieve waist length hair, I intend to only cut the ends of my hair after I achieve the length that I am striving towards. At that point I will probably chop off a few inches just to make my hair even. What I did find remarkable about this investigation is that my hair towards the back grows quite a bit slower than the hair in other sections of my head. So weird!!! LOL
Back Left Side
Back Left Side
Right Back Side
Right Side/ Middle Back
Well... I have to say that this concludes the second portion of my Length check post!!! Oh... I forgot to mention, I have not flat ironed my hair or used direct heat on any of my hair for 1 year and 10 months!!! (^_^) I am more than certain that has a great deal to do with the fact that my hair has begun to attain length.
Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this post!!! I will have more for you soon!!! (^_^)
I was looking through the various posts that I have made and realized that it has been quite a while since I have done a length check.
The last length check I managed to complete was in August and it is now the end of February. So if I can, I will do a current length check, and post pictures of the measurements here for you all to see.
Since I had never really been intelligent about the process of measuring my hair, I did not pin down the idea behind taking specific section and measuring them. SO... There will be several sections that I will specifically measure:
Front Middle Section
Left Front Section
Right Front Section
Left Side Section
Right Side Section
Middle Section
Left Back Section
Middle Back Section
Right Back Section
All measurements will be performed on hair that has not been flat ironed. As a matter of fact , it has been like close to two years since I have last had my hair flat ironed, or used a heat device on my hair. Yay me!!! Since I have also refrained from trimming my hair, my assumption is that I should see a bit of growth. In addition to that idea, I have also realized that after I removed my hair from the kinky twists , I did not actually measure the length of my hair then either. So, at this point I should be able to legitimately determine if my hair was able to grow / benefit well from remaining in that particular protective hairstyle for 3 months.
According to the last hair check that the following discovery was made:
Majority overall length fell between 15 - 16 inches long
Longest strands ( mainly the middle of my head ) were between 17 -18 inches long
Shortest strands (mainly the nape of my head. back of the neck) 14 - 15 inches long
So... with that new task, and the purchase of my trusty little tablet, I should be able to give you all a few pictures of what I discover!!! I am pretty excited!!! (^_^)
Well... that is all I have for you for the time being... I had better get to the good stuff. I shall return soon for part 2 of this blog.
I have not posted at all this year, so let me start by saying ... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (^_^)
Let me update you all on my hair progress thus far...
Last week I took out my fabulous kinky twists exactly three months to the date that I finished installing them . Naturally , this is the first time that I have had extensions in my hair since removing heat any other stress related methods of hair treatments from my styling techniques. This is also the first time that I installed the extensions myself. I was a bit concerned that with my lack of experience I would suffer a really serious setback from not properly installing the hair or maintaining the style in a healthy manner. What I made sure to do several times a week was moisturize my scalp by spraying it with my water and oils mixture. I also made it a point to set my hair under the shower head for at least 10 minutes three times a week and massage my scalp to remove any excess product and dirt to keep my scalp from getting too dry. I believe that because of my efforts I was able to notice that my hair did not feel dry or brittle once I removed the extensions. As a matter of fact, I was surprised that my hair was as soft as it was after I washed it with the Indian clay and acv treatment and deep condition. I detangled my hair once again while I had the deep conditioner treatment in. After that I put my hair in three twists, and let the deep conditioner sit overnight in my hair. ( I do not have a picture for that though) I had no problem at all setting my hair with flexi rods. And man did they look good after I removed them too!!! Below are sets of pictures throughout the process the first two days that I had removed the extension hair and transitioned back to wearing only my hair.
This is what my hair looked like when I first removed the twists:
This is what my hair looked like after I finger detangled for about 2 hours, and then applied the Indian clay and ACV treatment to my scalp and hair:
After leaving the deep conditioner in my hair overnight, I rinsed the conditioner out, put leave in conditioner and all of my oils for my hair in, and styled my hair with flexi rods.
Man, I was surprised my hair looked this good immediately after taking the extensions out!!! I did notice though that the new growth frizzed out faster in this hair style than the rest of my hair did. So it seems like the new growth was pretty extensive. I think I managed to get about 2 inches or so out of the deal which I think was really REALLY good considering this was the first time I have ever done this with the new information and no heat regiment.
I was only able to leave the flexi rod curls in for about 4 days . Mainly because I did not want my hair to start drying out. Especially since I do not yet have a product that I like to keep my hair moisturized when I have it set in this style several days into wearing it. So anyway, yesterday I took a few hours and devoted my Martin Luther King day to setting my hair into a protective style. I noticed that in addition to my hair gaining some length, I noticed that my ends were on the scraggly side. BUT, since I have decided not to trip or cut my hair anymore, I am going to leave the ends like they are and protect the ends by keeping my hair up and away from my clothing. Here are some pictures of how I have styled my hair. These are basically two strand twists that are the same as the twists I had in for three months except I do not have extensions here.
I am really starting to enjoy how my hair looks in this style. I am not sure how long I will keep it in this form, but I believe that for the next month or so, I am going to continue to wear my hair in protective styles since it is still winter time. But not only that, I am going to try and see exactly how long I can grow my hair by manipulating it less than how I have been doing while I have had my hair out of extensions.
OH YEAH... as you can clearly see, I have finally purchased a replacement for my phone that allows me to take pictures . LOL. Not like you all have not figured that out already, but I just wanted to officially comment on said accomplishment. LOL
Well, I think this is about all I can share for the time being. If I think of anything else interesting that I had forgotten to mention, I will do so in the next blog. As always thank you for reading, and I look forwards to sharing more with you very soon!!!
Since I have already done the Burgundy look, I am switching colors and going with Jet black and T1b Blue!!! How excited am I about this??? VERY!!!
It has been 7 weeks since I first installed my long and beautiful T1B Burgundy / Scarlet Red kinky twists. I was thinking that I should keep them in for another week, and then give my natural hair a breather for about a month or so!!! It is funny, but I am really REALLY used to wearing my hair like this. So I know that I am going to be missing the convenience of just jumping up and going after I finally take them down!!! But that is okay. I am actually curious to see if I have retained noticeable length after having my hair in this state for almost 2 months.
One thing I will say though... I am starting to get the hang of moisturizing my hair more!!! I am sure that I have kept my hair moisturized with this set of twists far better than I ever have in the past when I used to get my hair braided. ( Back then, I never even washed my braids/ scalp. I just let it do what it did!!! YIKES!!! ) The main thing that I have done differently was washed my scalp and tried to keep my scalp moisturized. I am certain that I have a certain amount of product build up because let's face it... anyone that has had their hair braided or twisted for more than a month has seen some of that weird dust bunny looking stuff keeping the new growth roots locked together. LOL. This time, however , I have discovered a new way to make sure that I do not remove more hair than is necessary from my scalp when I take my twists down.
First - After I separate and remove the extension hair from my hair, I am going to saturate my scalp and the parts of my hair that suffer from the most product build up / dirt /grime and lint with a mixture of apple cider vinegar, water and aloe vera gel. I will make sure that my hair is as close to soaking wet as possible so that I will be able to easily remove everything that does not belong in my hair.
Second - I will finger detangle my hair. It will take some time to get through my roots, but the first order of business is finger detangling enough to be able to separate my hair into 4 large sections. Once I have done that , I will focus on finger detangling each individual section and then twisting the section after it had been finger tangled to my satisfaction. I can then resection the hair into 8 sections to make it easier for me to work through my thick hair.
Third - While the ACV mixture is still in my hair ( if my hair is no longer wet, I will reapply the mixture to my scalp and needed areas ) I will take down the twist separating the part and detangle it once more with my tangle teezer brush. After I am satisfied that my hair is thoroughly detangled, I will place that section in a twist again and start on another section.
Fourth - Once all of my hair has been through steps 1-3, I will apply my deep conditioner to my hair section by section. Cover my head with a plastic bag or a hair cap and let the mixture penetrate my hair and scalp for 30 - 45 minutes.
Fifth - I will rinse the ACV and deep conditioner treatment out of my hair section by section. After each section has been rinsed completely , I will detangle each section once more with my tangle teezer brush, apply my leave in conditioner and oils , and proceed to style my hair in an easy protective style that keeps the ends of my hair tucked away.
Naturally since I have gone a long while without having my hair trimmed I will check to see if I believe it is necessary to trim my ends. If my ends do not seem drastically jagged, then I will leave them as is. I'll make sure I apply product to the ends and put my hair away. If it looks as if I do need to snip snip some of my ends, then I will make sure to clip the minimal amount. Makes no sense to cut off all of the length that I might have gained just to make my hair even. So in that case , I will just have to see.
Well, I plan on leaving my hair alone in it's natural state without twists for at least a month to see how well it has done. After a month or so, I will be installing possibly a smaller set of Caribbean Twists using Black N Gold's Caribbean Twists Braid hair. I am sooooo excited about this because the hair is different than the kinky twists, the color is sooo much different, and I am anxious to see how much better I have gotten at being able to install twist extensions.
Okie Dokie Artichokies...
That about does it for me today!!! As always I hope you enjoyed reading , and I hope to blog again soon!!!
Alright Ladies and Gents... as I promised a couple of days ago, here is a detailed account of all the prep work and items used and upkeep information for my new hairstyle!!! (^_^)
After watching numerous video's on youtube featuring various women ( and a handful of men ) and their techniques, hair purchases and product lists, I decided I had gathered enough information to do my own.
In the previous blog I wrote a list of items that I used. So let me just get straight to it...
On October 10th I washed and deep conditioned my hair.
I washed my hair with a combination of Aztec Secret Bentonite Clay, apple cider vinegar, water and aloe vera juice. I made sure that the mixture was very watery opposed to paste like ( remember how I talked about the ayurvedic kalpi-tone experience??? Well, I was not going to make that mistake again ) With the mixture thin opposed to thick, it made the formula easy to apply to my scalp and the rest of my hair without pulling at my roots or messing altering the textured of my hair. Naturally because the mixture contains clay, the ingredients start to stiffen while drying. I allowed the product to do their thing for about 20 minutes, then I washed the DIY shampoo out of my hair with first warm water, detangled my hair under the showerhead via sections, and re-rinsed my scalp and hair with ice cold water. The idea of using the warm water/ ice cold water was to keep the hair shafts first closed to rinse out majority of the cleaning agent, and then with the cold water , open the hair shafts again to suck in as much water as possible. I then took my Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque and generously applied the conditioner to my scalp and hair. I did not wash the conditioner out of my hair because I wanted to make sure that my hair was very well conditioned before I installed my twists. I then pulled my hair into a lose bun and covered my hair with a silk scarf. On October 14th wet my hair under the shower head making sure that my hair and scalp were wet. I then re-applied the deep conditioner with leave in conditioner and sectioned my hair into 5 parts, finger detangled my hair via section, and twisted each section. The 5 parts that I made basically served as a dividing template for how I was going to start installing the twists. Since I have never actually installed any form of extensions in my heir before , I knew that I wanted to be able to see what I was doing at least in the beginning. So the first section I started working on was the right side of my head. But before I speed ahead... let me back track a little bit!!!
In watching the youtube video's there were a lot of people talking about whether they blow dried their hair or flat ironed their hair before installing their set of kinky twists. To me, since I have not used any form of heating tools for close to two years and I was going for the natural texture look of my hair , I preferred to do my hair while it was wet opposed to blow dried or flat ironed. I also wanted to make sure that the products that I was going to be applying to my hair would be applied the same way I always applied them when I was putting my hair in two strand twists. Another thing I noticed in watching the video's was that there were quite a few people that were having difficulty installing their twists with the invisible method especially if they had decided to install medium or smaller sized twists. Some of them complained that with hair product it was very difficult to attach the added hair and their natural hair firmly. So they decided to install with the braid in method. I just simply did not like the way that looked , so I decided from the very beginning that I was going to take as long as I needed to achieve the invisible twist in method opposed to the braid in method.
So... after I had made sure my hair was parted properly, and moisturized, I set up the items I needed to install my twists:
First... After I re-moisturized my hair and scalp on October 14th, I opened two packs of the T1B/ wine/burgundy tip hair. With each individual piece, I ripped it in half and put it in a pile. ( The pieces of hair are already cut into specific portions, but I pulled them apart because I wanted to maximize the length of the hair and make the pieces the size I wanted for the desired thickness of each individual twist) I used my rat tail comb to create the box size I wanted for my twists. Then I used the clips to keep stray hair or the other pieces from falling into the already parted and boxed hair. I took two pieces of hair
from the pile and staggered the pieces so that one piece was about 5 or so inches shorter than one side, and about 5 inches or so longer on the other. What that did was extended the hair length from 17 inches to closer to 25 inches long.
Second... I began to install the twists on the right side of my head. That way I would be able to see what I was doing in the mirror. It took me a while to get the hang of starting the twist with the invisible method, but after a while I got the hang of it. I divided the box'd part of my hair into two pieces, placed the extension hair in the middle crating an "X", twisted my hair in with the extension hair on the right side to the right about 7 times or so, and then twisted the left side of my hair and the extension piece in the opposite direction. I then crossed the twisted pieces over and continued twisting all the way down the hair. Before I created each twist, I made sure to spray my hair and scalp with the oil, water, leave in conditioner mix spray bottle and also apply my shea moisture curling soufflé and kinky curly curling custard gel mixture to my natural hair from root to tip. My hair easily blended into the textured marley hair without any of my hair sticking out. I credit that breakthrough to not blow drying my hair and leaving it in it's natural state prior to installing the twists.
I managed to repeat this activity for the entire right side of my head and completed the section in close to 4 hours, and then took a 2 hour dinner break.
Third... I took the pack of M1B/ Red with Red tip hair and separated about 1/3rd of the hair from the pack in the same manner I divided the T1B/wine/burgundy with burgundy tip hair. I then started working on the bottom back portion of my head taking one of the pieces of the M1B/Red hair and one piece of the T1B/wine/ burgundy hair and staggering the hair the same way I extended the length of the hair for the twists I installed on the right side. I used the same parting method to make medium box parts for the twists I was going to make, and installed them. I only used this color combination on the bottom back portion of my hair to create a bright highlight hat did not over power the hairstyle that I was looking to achieve. Basically it gave a very convincing ombre look to my twists when the whole thing was completed.
Fourth... I finished the far back high light colored section, and then completed the rest of the back using only the T1B/wine/ burgundy hair. I also finished the left side of my head. That left only the very front and the middle sections of my hair to complete. But I had stopped working and wrapped my hair in a silk scarf once the clock read 4am.
Fifth... I finished the last two sections of my hair. After looking at my handy work, I realized that there were several twists that were really loose ( mainly on the right side of my head, which was to be expected since I had not really gotten the hang of how to use the invisible twist in method all that well until I got into the back part of my head), so I had to take them down and re-do them in order to make them tighter at the roots. I started the front and middle sections at 12pm on October 15th and finished both sections as well as re-did the twists that were in need of repair by 4pm.
Sixth... I dipped the ends of my twists (which literally reached the middle of my butt ) in hot water to make the ends smoother and look less like puffs of unattended hair...just tamed them up a bit. Then I cut the ends so that the length of all my hair was hovering around my hips instead of my tailbone. After everything was done, I made sure to spray my scalp with my oil, water, leave in conditioner mixture. It stopped my head from itching like crazy the first day I was able to wear them out!!! (^_^)
M1B/Red with Red tip hair on the left.... TIB/wine/burgundy with burgundy tip hair on the right!!!
Extra Dark Jamaican Black Castor Oil
I really have no idea how log it literally took me to complete this hairstyle. But, my guess is that it probably too between 13 -15 hours to complete. The great thing about the entire process is that I discovered that I was able to twist my hair faster and with pretty good accuracy after I got the hang of twisting the hair close enough to the scalp to make the twist tight. My fingers never developed blisters or were sore. And I know that is something really important . I remember installing braids in my baby sister's hair many moons ago, and I had sore blistered fingers like you wouldn't believe. But that to me just proves that there are some hair brands that make your fingers bleed , while other synthetic brands feel and act like real hair. I was pleased with the outcome of my hair because I realized that whenever the twists started looking old or loosened to the point of detachment, I can easily take them apart and redo them in less than 5 minutes. I do not have to schedule and appointment for my hair dresser to charge me half the price of my original hair style just for 3 rows of part detailed twists ... because I am my own hairdresser!!! Thank goodness for DIY ( Do It Yourself ) abilities!!! I have had these twists in for 10 days now, and I have re-done a few twists here and there since the original setting, but to be honest, I am very VERY pleased with my overall look and very proud of my accomplishment!!! I think I did a pretty good job, and I have the confidence that the next time I install them, I will be able to do them in 8 hours or less!!!
The front portion of my head where you can clearly see the invisible twist roots!!! (^_^)
*** Maintenance ***
One of my biggest concerns with wearing my hair in this style was whether my scalp and roots would become super dry and unbearably itchy. I also did not want to cause more damage than good by having them in this hairstyle without being able to keep my scalp and roots moisturized the way I would like to. But so far...there have only been a few days where my scalp was absolutely itch central. I have parts of my scalp that have minor alopecia patches, so for those locations I made the twists larger and made sure that I kept those area's properly moisturized with water and oil. At one point I was worried that the itch would lead to my hair falling out in those itchy patches. So I looked up information on itchy scalp with kinky twists, and this is what I found from blackgirllonghair.com
Of the many problems that plague women and hair care, a HUGE concern is how to alleviate or get rid of itchy scalp. Sometimes scalp irritations are minor annoyances due to product build-up or changes in the weather. While no one is excited to see loose flakes of dandruff dotting their clothing, most times this will clear up with a specially formulated shampoo for dandruff. But in other cases, itchy scalp goes from a mild inconvenience to a full-blown, scalp-on-fire, can’t-keep-your-hands-out-of your-head type disaster of epic proportions. Anyone who has experienced these symptoms knows the pain of scratching or even massaging your scalp to the point that your whole head begins to feel inflamed and tender to the touch. Chronic bouts of itchiness will leave you wondering which came first – are you frantically digging your nails in your scalp as a result of the inflammation, or is the inflammation a result of all the scratching? It is a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum of the worst kind, and at the end of the day, who really cares which came first? All we want is relief.
Luckily, there are a few natural remedies you can try to see if you can finally win the war against the “itchies and the scratchies.”
1. Apple Cider Vinegar
A staple in the world of hair care, when diluted with water apple cider vinegar is used for its clarifying properties as well as its ability to help reduce hair porosity as a rinse due to its low pH balance. It also has anti-bacterial qualities that make it particularly helpful in treating an itchy scalp that is caused by bacteria build-up, and against any fungal condition (yeast on the scalp). Yeast don’t like an acidic environment so swabbing the scalp with an ACV solution can be helpful. Just be careful to make sure that you dilute it enough to a level where it is comfortable enough to put on your scalp, or else it will sting like crazy, especially if you have any abraded skin. The raw, unfiltered organic ACV is the best kind.
2. Aloe VeraIn case you decide to try the ACV, consider having some aloe vera gel on hand to soothe any stinging sensations that you may get. Aloe Vera can be used straight from the plant, or the organic gel can be bought commercially. Naturally emollient and calming, it is a great balm for the scalp that will also soften the hair and feed your roots.
3. Tea Tree OilMelaleuca Alternifolia, or simply “Tea Tree Oil” is ubiquitous in shampoos and conditioners for this very condition in large part due to its highly antiseptic qualities. It’s a triple threat to scalp irritations because of its anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. Again, Tea Tree Oil should not be used full strength and is best when used with a carrier oil. Which brings us to the next tried and true product…
4. Coconut OilEver seen a moldy coconut? That’s because the capyrilic acid in coconuts inhibit the growth of fungus. Incidentally, caprylic acid is also an active ingredient in a lot of vitamin supplements for women who are trying to suppress an overgrowth of candida (yeast) throughout the body. As always, look for the unfiltered, unrefined, organic extra-virgin coconut oil, cold-pressed if possible. It’s especially effective when infused with a few drops of tea tree oil.
After I read this information, I was immediately relieved because I had a spray bottle of aloe vera juice already waiting for me to use. So I sprayed my scalp with it, and no longer had the itching problem that I was experiencing. I also make sure to spray my scalp with my water, oil and leave in conditioner mixture every night before I go to bed. Every other day I try to apply a thin coat of extra dark Jamaican black castor oil on my scalp too because it is supposed to have remarkable healing properties as well as ingredients that are said to help you hair grow!! And I am all about that life!!! LOL
So... that in a nutshell is my complete Kinky Twist hair process. I hope you have enjoyed today's detailed blog!!! I shall return soon to give you an update on some of the new styles that I am going to try and experiment with since my twists are no longer too stiff to style. LOL
*** Special shout out to LaReinaMcMeanie on youtube. She was the ONLY woman to post a tutorial using the colors that I eventually ended up purchasing to create this style!!! Thank you soo much!!!***
