Friday, December 6, 2013

Trying out some new things....

Old twist out that I added moisture to

Hey there Natural Beauties! I hope you've been keeping inspired on your natural hair care  journeys?  I reached my four year natural hair anniversary this year in September and I've been going through quite a few things with my hair.  Physically and emotionally.  I'm not sure if I shared them with you but I've am learning that once you get to this point in your natural hair growth journey your hair can  force you to switch some things up!  Detangling still remains one of my least favorite tasks..hands down. And because of that, I sort of go back and  forth on if I want to continue to grow my hair longer. I am currently  slightly past BSL. I am shooting for full MBL as my  length goal because I would like to see my hair in its shrunken state fall a little longer.   However, at 4 years in I kinda find my self getting bored of  "actively growing" my hair out?  I feel like I just want to enjoy my hair for what it is and not always concern my self with how much length I'm  retaining.
Length check in April 2013
 I started a length challenge earlier this year to reach MBL by year end. I  decided to actively chart my growth and this is the ONLY photo that I've taken since then! I am horrible at this. Before now I just took great care of my hair, wore primarily protective styles, and it naturally retained length. I sort of want to keep going with that. So my length checks and charting will be random. I don't won't to worry myself at all with how long my hair is or isn't getting that's just not fun. And I think I may have set my self back with this one. I did a random snip on that V that hangs past my m bra strap(I'll have to tell yall about that another time.lol).

As for my hair products, I have added  a couple things. Cleansers and stylers are products that I am consistently trying out. 1. Because with cleansers I typically want something that will help with  detangling my hair making the rest of my wash day a breeze.  2. Stylers have been important to me lately because I want to keep the frizz down on my beloved two strand twists. 

I've been wanting to try this Purification Masque for a long time now and I'm glad I finally did. This mask has tons of slip and helps to really break down the tangles in my hair. I skipped my pre-poo(which is huge for me) and tried it on damp tangled hair to see if this stuff really did what people were saying.  And it did! It was a huge time saver for me on my last wash day.  The directions states that you should leave it on between 5 and 15 minutes. After I rinse my hair it feels soft and clean. It's not stripped feeling so that's a plus as well. I am going to continue using this to see how long I love it. (you know how that goes). Next on my list of newbies...


I was given a sample jar of this twisting cream by one of my clients. Because its glycerin free it doesn't continue to draw in moisture so it keeps frizz low. My client said her hair was still damp when she unbraided it, and her style didn't fro out.  Now that had me very interested. My hair takes forever to dry and I have to leave my twists in for at least two days when I want to do a quick twist out.  I tried this,  and continued to use up the sample jar. I loved how soft it actually made my hair and all of my strands were very smooth. My twists also seem to dry a lot faster.  I constantly found my self going back to this jar whenever I would twist my hair, specifically if I knew I was going to wear a twist out.  So we will see how long I continue to use this. I do love it but, I may not be able to get it locally anymore. The supplier stated that they were no longer going to  sell it which  leaves me to online purchasing, and I don't like to get ANY of my staple products offline. So we will see how long this lasts.  I have tried a local styling pudding that is sold at Sally's that's nice(will review eventually) so I may default back to that if I can't find this Darcy's Bontanicals Twisting cream anywhere locally. 

 The journey continues ladies! Until next time no matter what you do, keep it healthy and happy!    



    

6 comments:

TheNEW007 said...

We will do the challenge together? I was 4 years post in July, so we're basically at the same spot. I relate to what you said about not actively trying to grow out my hair--but grow healthy coils.

Accountable to God said...

Hey there Tia! Thanks for always stopping by I have to come over there to see what's new because for whatever reason I don't get my email updates whenever you post?
I know I've subbed atleast twice!! I always love your blog posts.

As for the challenge aren't you already at MBL? Your hair is really long. I feel bad because I haven't been protecting mine as well as I know I could have to meet this year end goal. Not to mention I had to do a small 1.5 to maybe 2 inch cut on the longest point of my hair in the back because I think I got a little heat damage from a braider who kept pulling out the blow dryer to make my hair "more managable" while she was trying to braid it??

My hair is already longer and looser in the back. When I came out of my last set of braids I noticed my V was hanging a lot looser and longer with not as much spring. I could only conclude that she damaged it some. My ponytail puffs were not perfectly rounded but had a couple hanging strings! My braid outs and twist outs I looked like a sting ray in my side profile like I was growing a long tail. I couldn't take it so I snipped it! So we'll see how far that sets me back when I go to do another length check.

TheNEW007 said...

Hey Sweets! Am I at MBL LOLOL! IDK what's going on. I keep wearing a different outfit for length checks. My bra keeps going in all different directions LOL! I think I may be 1 or 2 inches lower than you. Help me find a more scientific way of measuring this hair thing LOL! That stinks, you think you have a bit of heat damage? Sounds like a little snip here and there will remedy. Try to deep condition for a few weeks first--unless you're getting breakage from it. Still trying to figure a way for us to do a project together. If you think of anything, let me know. Lets get the creative juices flowing. TTYL

Accountable to God said...

Hey Tia! Well I feel like it had to be loosened by the heat in my nape area some because my hair was hanging really low with minimal shrinkage. I did do my typical deep conditions, henna and Amla all of that stuff before deciding if I thought it was looser back there. It wasn't "that" bad but I am really picky when it comes to stuff like that, so when I put my hair up in its typically pony and saw those longer pieces hanging so far away from the bulk of the rest of the hair, I just snipped it because it never does that. I couldn't stand looking at it.

Girl if you want an exact growth chart its probably best to pull out the measuring tape! Because the body placement can sometime be confusing. There was a girl that told me my markings were off on my shirt and that my hair was longer than what I was giving it credit for, so I was like idk chile!?

As for our challenge, you know I I am about to go into a string of protective styles(probably with crochet braids)just to see if I can keep my ends healthier (I'm seeing more single strand knots) As well as, I just want the over all condition of my hair fibers to look smoother? I notices some small breakage pieces at my last wash, and I feel I have roughed my hair up some how. So I am about to kick it into high gear with Crochet braids and stay consistent with my Henna and Amla treatments.

I am going to try and force my self to wear these braids starting this month. So maybe we can do that together? Just finding something about our hair that we want to improve and then give ourselves 3 mos to a year to see how it does.

KnottyAuthor said...

I enjoy watching you go through the long hair journey…I sure am glad it's not me! Reading your posts are so informative and wear me out! I love looking at the fruit of your labor-beautiful hair sis!

Accountable to God said...

Cheleski..lol I am glad that I can offer you some loose natural hair entertainment. And girl it wears me out having to do it and then to turn around and write about it as well! lol. I have been on a serious brake. When its out I've been going 3 weeks without a wash day to avoid the manipulation. And and as we speak I am in my crochet braids have been for over a month now.