QUICK HAIR CHAT: I AM TRANSITIONING!

Hello Loves,

That’s right; I have finally concluded that I am transitioning from relaxed hair to natural. For those who might not be aware of what I mean exactly, I have decided to stop relaxing my hair and gradually cut of the relaxed bit as I grow out my natural texture. I am currently at 7 months plus some weeks since my last relaxer (16^th of March) and as the days go by, I continue to consider big chopping. My initial schedule involved MAYBE big chopping at the 9^th month mark, but I am getting very curious every day now. I believe I have about 3.5+ inches of new growth and in order to tame my curiosity, I decided to get me some crochet braids. But can I just say, it is not helping. LOL

Anyways guys, that is it. I need some advice from those that transitioned and those that big chopped. How long did you transition for? How much growth did you have when you big chopped? Were you scared of the ‘short do’? Do you love that you big chopped rather than long term transitioned?
Please feel free to share and comment about your experiences, it may help others come to a decision about their hair journey.

Love,

Dumsy.

Hair update/ Rant

Hey guys,

As you know, I was/am contemplating going natural. Well I still have not 100% decided, although I think I did mention I was doing so. I did however, cut my hair. I took of about 4 inches and right now, I am back to shoulder length. I did this because honestly, my hair kept breaking. I thought I was doing so well in March and April, but May came and for some reason something was not working.

Let me walk you through my wash sessions in May.......

As I said in my pervious post, I kept my PS in for a maximum of two weeks or minimum of one week and I moisturised as often as possible. Everything was okay until wash day. The take down was fine. I detangled with my hands and removed as much shed hair as possible. Then came pre poo, and thats where the problem starts. I rake the oils through my hair with my hands trying to coat every strand, as careful as possible and my hair starts falling every where. Those tiny annoying breaks are the ones I got. They were so annoying, but I looked past them. Then comes washing and deep conditioning.

My wash sessions are nice, I wash in sections and loose little too no hair. I air dry for about 10-20mins before deep conditioning, then apply my conditioner generously to my hair in sections too. I have low porosity hair, so steaming is apparently really good for my hair. My roots loves them, but my ends, not so much. After each steam session, I proceed to wash of the conditioner in my hair and then I see those tiny annoying breaks again. Although I find like much less strands than during my pre poo, it is still VERY annoying that I am treating my hair as well as I think I should and I still loose hair without even combing it.

Anyways to cut my story short, I was pissed during my last wash day in June so I cut booked an appointment and went an hour later and got it cut.

I thought about every possible reason. Over moisturising from the steam? My hair does not just like oils? My ends are just too weak? Yep, Settled with the last point. Anyways, its funny cause I do look at my ends closely but I hardly ever see actual splits.Those I see, I cut off immediately. I got my last trim end of November last year so I guess I was really due for a trim. Moral of my story? Splits/dead ends are not necessarily split into two.

Was this cut me easing my transition route? I do not know. But I currently have braids to help aid my 'stretch'. I'll see what happens when I take them down.

I promise to inform you of my decision once I am a 100% sure of what I am doing. Right now I am just nursing my hair back to health and length with the aid of protective styles and Manetabolism.

Thanks for reading my long rant/post?! LOL

Love,
Dumebi. :)

Late Check Back?

Hey guys,

I have been so MIA is not even cool!! But I am here to do a mini check back on my May goals even if the month of June is almost over :(. To be honest, I didn't do too well on one goal in particular.

May goals:

For my Hair:
1) I need to figure out protective styles that would limit my hand in hair time to just M&S time a couple of days in a week.  I managed to style my hair every wash day and only M&S when needed, therefore keeping my hand in hair time at bay.

2) Take my hair, skin and nails vitamins religiously.   This is managed to accomplish.

3) Carry on with my regular hair routine. (Wash&DC weekly and sleep with stain bonnet). As you can see here, I only cancelled out half of the goal. Thats because I did keep up with my regular hair routine but changed a few things around. Some protective styles lasted me two weeks, which meant I washed my hair every two weeks rather than every week.

For my health/body:
1) Exercise at least 3 times a week. (I signed up for a 10km race in June to motivate me with this task). This was a total fail!! I trained 5 times in the month of May. FIVE time. So Sad. But I did do well in the end with my 10km race. I beat my all time record and ran 10km in 59.02mins!! Was so proud of myself! hehe :)

2) Eat 5 fruits and/or vegetables a day. This was easy for me as I found my self making smoothies everyday. I threw in fruits and vegs in  my blender every morning and made my smoothies part of my breakfast. I love my smoothies and this has therefore become a staple.

3) Take my daily ABC vitamins religiously. This was also good for me

All in all, I did enjoy doing this. Although I didn't accomplish my most pressing goal, I did do most of it. The month of June is already over and I didn't set an goals for this month, but I plan to do so for July. I really have to get in shape as I am slowly gaining unnecessary weight. I would very much like to join a healthy hair/body challenge next month so let me know if you know of any. Or maybe I should start one myself? Let me know if you would interested in joining me if I do so.

Love,
Dumebi. :)

Grow, Growing, GOALS?!..

Hey guys,

So the month of April was ending and I felt that whole month was a lazy month for me. I literally did nothing!!! Went for a couple of language classes, worked on my thesis a bit, but generally nothing intense.  At some point, my boyfriend (and including myself to be honest) questioned if I was getting depressed, cause all I wanted to do, and did most times, was lay in bed watching youtube videos. Anyways, I do not think I am depressed, I just wasn't occupied much.

Because of this, I felt I needed to set up goals to motivate/occupy my time. Plus I have to study for an exam next month and seriously start working on my thesis, so I guess I should be really occupied this month.

Anyways, my May goals are:

For my Hair:
1) I need to figure out protective styles that would limit my hand in hair time to just M&S time a couple of days in a week.
2) Take my hair, skin and nails vitamins religiously.
3) Carry on with my regular hair routine. (Wash&DC weekly and sleep with stain bonnet)

For my health/body:
1) Exercise at least 3 times a week. (I signed up for a 10km race in June to motivate me with this task)
2) Eat 5 fruits and/or vegetables a day.
3) Take my daily ABC vitamins religiously.

I check back at the end of the month too see how I have done. Lets hope for the best. :)

Love,
Dumebi. :)

Its been a year....

Hello,

Well its been a year since I have been on this HHJ and I must say, I am very happy I started and I am pleased with my progress. In my last post, I lamented on the problems I had during the first few months, plus my decision to just "chill" on the length issue and focus on the health.

I am happy to say that while I focused on the health issue, I saw tons of growth. :) My last touch up was a month and some ago. I can totally see the difference in my hair from the last time. I used to be worried about my uneven growth, but I have come to learn that not all sides grow equally. Peep my progress below. These are the best comparison pictures I have as these were the only times I flat iron during this 1 year HHJ. On the left, I was 8 weeks post relaxer/ post beginning of my HHJ and on the right, 3 weeks post relaxer, after my one year mark.

I see about 3 inches progress (out of the 6"/yr)? From between shoulder and armpit length to between armpit and bra strap length. Thats good enough for me, especially after my 'August relaxer problem' and my trim.

Well, guess what? Now that I have learnt how to better take care of my hair, I have been dabbling with the idea of going natural. I am really indecisive about this one, but I think I will try and transition and then see. I know for sure that if I do decide to go natural, I will long term transition, so I have been searching for long term 4a/b/c transitioners to use as guides.

Guys, I think I found one. One of my all time fav relaxed hair ladies Jen from just grow already!, recently announced that she will be long term transitioning from her texlaxed hair, and from the pictures, seems like her hair falls in the 4 type category. I plan to follow her lead on this one as she inspired and helped (unknowingly) with my HHJ.

I think seeing her post was really the 'sign' if you may cause just like her, I am totally indecisive. Anyways, I have a little more free time now so I will keep you posted on this long-stretch/transitioning journey of mine.

Love,
Dumebi.

My Journey: 8 months and counting. Performance, Problems, Pictures.

Hello,

Perhaps I should first start by apologizing? I have not blogged in months and I have no reason. For that, I am sorry. Today I decided to check my blog and I found out I have few readers. As little as they may be, I am happy. Hello readers!!! This blog is not only to inform people about my findings, and my hair journey, it is also for me to keep track of my "doings".

Right now, I am torn. I started this journey back in March with hair barley touching my shoulder. I had just taken out my braids and was well past 12 weeks posts. Decided to "nurture" my hair they right way and then relaxed two weeks after. After my relaxer, I continued with my regimen and decided to stretch. Between that stretch, I had braids for about a month and a half, and by August, I relaxed again after about 19 weeks and some days stretch.

My August touch up was a fail. I left the relaxer in for way too long and let my sister comb it (this I know is a nono). The result? My hair fell out!! It was everywhere and I cried. I was mad at everyone including myself. I was mad that I was watching all my hard work fall into the drain. I was just furious. This is why I am torn. I expected to see growth but my hair seemed "stagnant". There was no difference between my March touch up and August, at least in my eyes.

However, I see a difference with thickness. My ends seem healthier, and for that I should and am happy.

I guess you can say I was reminded that for one to retain length, one has to grow healthy hair. I have now chucked up the past 8 months to learning about how to get healthy hair and now, as from next week when I plan to get my next relaxer (15 weeks post), I will focus more on maintaining health and now retaining length.

I have read and I am still reading on how and what to do before, during and after getting a relaxer. I still have not decided wether or not I should go get it professionally done or do it myself (never done it myself btw). But by next week, I will know.

I am currently deciding if I should do the inversion method for the days leading up to my relaxer. Please let me know your views on this.

Below are my pictures from March till now. I will do an official length check after my relaxer next week and use that as my base for this "new" journey.

Tell me what you think. Do I still need to work on my ends? Although I got a trim two weeks ago, I still feel I should trim again.

Love,
Dumebi :)

The very beginning

Left - September 2013, Right - March 2013 (Right when I began my journey)

Left - August '13 Touch up, Right March '13 Touch up.
As you can see, the difference is little due to the relaxer mishap.

Why I Decided to Embark on This HHJ

Hey,

So some morning after class, I decided to go to the library to do some studying. Before I start a study session, I check Facebook, thesun.co.uk, and Bella Naija. Yep, as I was going through the posts on Bella Naija, I saw a post about a full blooded Nigerian girl with MBL and was shocked. I always imagined that length like that was only possible for African American and mixed girls, so I asked myself why my hair was not as long or even close, and decided to go through her blog. From her blog, I discovered lots of new information.

I learnt that to gain such length, I have to retain what I currently have. I also learned that even though I had braids in or a weave, I should wash, condition and moisturize my hair underneath as frequently as I would if my hair was 'free'. Furthermore, I discovered the art of different protective stylings to do while I had my hair 'free'. I aslo learned that I NEED to sleep with a satin or silk scarf/pillowcase in order to retain moisture.

Yes, as you can imagine, these were 'common' knowledge to most girls but me. I became a youtube addict. I started researching all things relaxed, hair growth and the likes.

So, here I am, with my new 'addiction' if you may. I call it an addiction, not in a bad way, but in a good way. This is because I really to get attached to something I am determined to achieve. For instance, last year, I was determined to lose weight and I did just that (13kg lighter). Some saw my little habits that led to my weight loss (constantly checking my weight) as addictive, I saw it as motivation? Now I look at 'researching and learning about hair' as my new motivation.

Thanks for reading and join me in this journey.
Dumebi. :)