What I learned...One year natural

Pony rides for the kids, because I'm not showing you a picture of me on a horse.

 

Hello everyone!  I'm back from my vacation and feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.  From the horseback riding to hiking and then canoeing, I'm exhausted.  It was great to go on this retreat with my family through church.  I proved to everyone that yes, you can take a 3 year old canoeing.  We didn't catch any fish, but having our family (sister in law and cousins) with us made this vacation a lot of fun.

The cousins climbing the rocks while hiking Rib Mountain.

Last week was the anniversary of my first year natural and this got me thinking about what I have learned over this past year.  Besides learning to care for my hair I have learned a lot about myself and beauty.  I could go on and on about detangling with conditioner to the different styles and products I explored over this year, but I feel like talking about something different.  I want to talk about what I learned, now that does include hair care, but I want to go deeper. 


1.  Failure is good!  Yup, you heard me right.  Failure is good.  Now many of you know that I'm a teacher, so I'm not talking about taking a test and getting a F.  For all you folks out there that failed a test or class you really know that was from your lack of studying and or effort mostly.  The failure I'm talking about is the good failure.  The type of failure you learn from.  So many people look at the failure in their life and think only negative.  I'm here to tell you that failure is good!  You just need to adjust your way of looking at failure.  I see failure as a learning opportunity.  If you try and fall completely on your face, but learn from that experience you didn't fail!  Now yes, you didn't achieve what you wanted to and your pride might be bruised, but you learned something new.  So, I learned to embrace my mishaps and learn from them.  When you fail, get up and try again.  Don't make the same mistakes!

Picture of us in front of the Church at camp in Wisconsin.

2.  Beauty is only skin deep.  I have talked about this before, beauty is what we decide it to be.  We are raised to chase beauty and maintain it for as long as possible.  We spend thousands of dollars to achieve a certain standard of beauty acceptable to the society we live in.  Guess what, if you are lucky to live to a ripe old age that beauty standard we chase and try to hang on to wrinkles, spots, grays and basically completely erodes away.  So, since we all lose our outward beauty embrace who you are and what you have.  When I started to see myself as beautiful just the way I was made my mental transformation started to click into place and my curly hair was just part of who I am.  For me having a short transition and wearing my TWA really pushed this concept hard.  Wearing my TWA couldn't go unnoticed and I had to look deep within myself to find my beauty.

Hubby goofing around with Aunt Laura as we pose by the river.

3.  Be inspired.  Don't be afraid to try new things.  I watched lots of You Tube videos and in the beginning I thought "my hair isn't long enough to do that".  Then one day I watched a video on a very simple elegant style and thought "I think I can do that, but modify it a little" and that's when I was inspired to try something new.  So, my version of "Midsummer Romance" by Naturally Curious had me pin my sides back giving me an illusion of longer hair.  Don't be afraid to copy others styles.  They will look different on you and embrace that others might copy you (love you Minsek!).

Have I learned more than three things over this past year?  Heck yeah!  But, I'm tired and I can save something for another day.  I hope I have inspired you too look at your journey differently.  I pray that you look for the blessings in your life and push yourself to grow.  Until next time...
Blessings!

One Year Natural!

One year natural wash n go.

Hello everyone!  Today one year ago I cut all my relaxed hair off and became 100% natural.  This first year I didn't just style and grow out my hair I redefined beauty and how I perceive what beauty looks like.  I measured my hair and I have 8 inches in the front.  I know the back is longer but considering I started with 1 7/8 inches after my big chop I have grow a little over 6 inches this year which means I was able to retain the average amount of hair growth in a year.  Not bad, I'll take it!

I created a collage of my fro from my big chop to six months to now one year later.  I was sporting some serious big hair yesterday so I thought let's see how big I can get this hair.  I achieved this big hair (one year picture) by picking out my curlformers picked out look I wore this past weekend.  The picture with the blue flower was taken today after doing a wash n go.

I decided to created a one year video of my hair journey this past year.  This has been fun and don't ask me if I plan to cut my hair anytime soon because I'm part of the 2014 hair growth challenge, so I plan on growing it out until then.  I do plan to only do hair length checks every 2 months instead of every month.  I will post sometime next week what I have learned about my hair over this year.  Until next time...
Blessings!

11 month anniversary of big chop

Hello everyone!  I have returned from my week long adventure at the bible conference.  The hubby and I were in charge of the nursery and we didn't get out much.  The good news is that my son is pretty much potty trained!  He only had 3 accidents the whole week and he woke up wet only once at night.  The bad news is that I didn't get a chance to hear many sermons or attend many of the studies.  I think I heard two sermons and three bible studies.  Oh well, the nursery was a lot of fun and I got to know the parents of the children my son's age very well.  In fact one of the parents is a natural and new friend of mine that I will be featuring latter this week.

11 months all natural wash n go church hair.

Anyway, today is my 11 month anniversary of my big chop.  I remember battling with myself this time last year about whether I should transition for a year or just cut it all off.  Well, clearly I didn't do a long transition and I'm glad I big chopped.  My hair is now measuring about 7.5 inches in the front and with one whole month of Viviscal I have noticed that I'm shedding less hair when I co-wash and shampoo my hair.  I have noticed that my thinned out spot is not as noticeable as before.  Maybe because my hair is longer now and hiding that spot better, or maybe the Viviscal is starting to work.  I think it is too soon to tell either way.  My hair doesn't feel thicker, but when I do wash/wet my hair my eyes don't see only scalp on my crown.  I have noticed that my nails are growing longer and if you have weak brittle nails I recommend Viviscal.  I plan to do a full update on Viviscal next month and of course a wrap up in September where I will decided if I will continue with this product or not.  Maybe I will need more time to see the full effects.  We'll see.

Ignore my tired look.  I'm trying to hold my hair and work the camera.

I purchased some Mop Top medium hold gel before my trip and I have been using it for about two weeks now.  Since I'm basically a Mop Top girl this gel works great with the other Mop Top products.  I like the hold that this gel has been giving my hair and the humidity is not affecting my curls at all.  I do want to play with my curl formers sometime this month, but my niece, nephew and mother will be visiting and my son turns 3 this month so, we'll see how much free time I will have for basically a one day hair style.  By the way this is post 100 for me!  Until next time...

Blessings!

Collage of the evolution of my fro

Hello everyone!  Before I washed and twisted my hair yesterday for my twist out I decided to pick out my hair to see how big I could get my fro.  I then looked at my big chop picture and I thought "hey, let's put a collage together".  So, I put together this collage and you can really see my growth over my journey so far.

Big Chop, 3, 6, and 10 month fro.

Until next time...
Blessings!

10 month anniversary of big chop

Hello everyone!  Yesterday  was my 10 month anniversary of my big chop.  I measured my hair and I retained another 1/2 inch of growth this month.  I'm starting to figure out my hair cycle and noticing that every couple of months I get regular growth, sometimes more and then some months with very little growth.  With me starting the Viviscal I'm hoping that my hair doesn't slow down in the growth department and my thinned out spot fills in.  Last month my hair was just barely touching my mole above my lip and now it is curling around my lip and touch the seam of my lips.  So, now in front my hair measures 7 inches.

 I did a wash n go this morning and used the Eco Styler Olive Oil as my gel.  The temps and humidity are high today, so I thought what the heck lets do something firmer.  Since reading Curly Girl I have been finger combing my hair more and using my wide tooth comb less.  I like the results, but I won't be giving up my Hello Hydration or my Denman brush any time soon.  So, I take what works for me and I do it.

Wash n Go with Eco Styler Olive Oil.

This entire week I did wash n go's almost everyday.  It's because I've been thinking about doing a twist out, so I would co-wash my hair then lose energy to to twist my hair for a twist out.  Since school is out I have my son full time and running around after a toddler is exhausting.  The hubby is volunteering at a bible camp with my dad and my mom is with me and my son.  We have gone to the zoo, swimming, and shopping and I'm just to tired to twist my hair for a twist out after I'm done co-washing it.  I also feel like I have to wash my hair more when I'm outside a lot.  I've been gardening and walking more and the wind has been blowing dust around so I touch my hair and feel the grit and think "yuck, I'm co-washing".  Yesterday, we were rained on at the zoo.  When you can feel the gel and conditioner being washed out of your hair you got to replace that so your not a frizz ball.  Until next time...
Blessings!

9 month anniversary of big chop

Nine months ago yesterday I cut off all my relaxed hair and started my natural hair journey.  I almost forgot that it was my anniversary!  Wow how times flies.  Nine months ago I was getting ready to go back to school and now I'm writing my finals and getting my seniors ready for graduation. 

 To the right is how I wore my hair today.  I really like my "curly" fro hawk.  I used my Denman brush to help define these curls in the front.  I might even do a video on how I get this look.  It only takes me about 10 minutes in the morning.  Considering some mornings I'm dealing with a cranky toddler who refuses to sit on the potty, this style comes in handy because I can do it and run out the door.  I always get compliments when I wear my hair like this, so it's become my go to style usually on day 2 or 3 hair after a wash n go.

My hair in the front is now touching my upper lip when it's wet and measures about 6.5 inches in the front.  I did pull a shed hair from my brush and it measured 7 inches.  So, I know that my hair in the back is probably longer then the front and I'm happy with my growth.

The castor oil is making my hair really shiny and I'm loving the softness.  I have used castor oil in the past to help with my edges and if I knew then that it would make my hair soft I would of used in on my entire head.  I'm actually considering adding castor oil to my leave in conditioner because I love the results so much.

As you can see in the picture on the right my edges are very healthy, so let's pray that the castor oil works on my crown.  Since I'm talking about my crown.  Denise over at It's Perfectly Natural checked out my blog the other day and she is recommending some products.  I'm really considering purchasing them after reading about her struggle with hair loss.  I wouldn't be a product junkie if it wasn't for the thinned out spot on my crown.  I would basically have a gentle cleaner, a rinsing conditioner and a great leave in conditioner (maybe some gel for styling), but no that spot makes me jump at any natural remedy to help it fill in.  I will say that I'm pretty good at hiding it with my curls, but I do feel like I pull a lot of hair forward to try and hide that spot on my crown.  I really notice the pulled down effect on my day one hair where I have the flat top hair because my curls are really defined and that spot is too visible if I don't pull my hair forward to cover it up.  If I decide to purchase the two products she recommended I will do a product review and an update.  Until next time...
Blessings!

One year after my last relaxer ... random thoughts with a point

One year ago this month I gave myself my last relaxer.  After rinsing the perm out of my hair I ran my fingers through my hair and had a Kim Cattrall moment from "Sex in the City".  You know that scene, the moment when Samantha finds out that she has cancer then the scene where she runs her hands through her hair and she comes away with hundreds of strands caught threaded in her fingers.  The moment she realizes that she is losing her hair.  I had that moment as pure crippling fear took a hold of me and panic set in and gripped my heart, but I didn't have cancer, I had a bad perm!  How could this happen to me?  Yes, in the past I had some burns and over processed hair, but I had never suffered mass amounts of hair loss.

Look at how healthy my hair looks!

So, just like any reasonable women would do I started to do some research and of course I confirmed through my research that yes, relaxers can cause hair loss.  To put the cherry on top of the sundae, relaxers can cause permanent hair loss.  Right then I made a promise to myself that I would never relax my hair again!  My mistake was telling others.  I should of just keep my decision between myself and my husband,  but no I had to blab to everyone.  So, when I officially started my transition in May 2011 I was told by many, including family that I was either crazy or that I would be back to relaxing my hair in just a few months.  Well at the time I had no memory of my natural curls and I wasn't completely sure if I would like my curls, so this was to me a big leap of faith.  So, I closed my eyes leaned back and prayed that the dear Lord would not let me fall.

Well the beauty of transitioning is that you have this time to mentally rewire your thoughts.  I have been reading a blog Slimwavy and Jazz Wife (whom I consider a friend) and I have been engaged in several dialogues lately about how beauty is tied so much to our thoughts and not based on logic and healthy practices.  Basically, I had to convince myself that I was beautiful and that my beauty is not defined by long flowing straight damaged hair that broke off every time I brushed it, washed it, and or simply touched it.  My transitioning and these past several months post my Big Chop have forced me to learn to care for my hair and to build self confidence in myself by shedding old myths I took as gospel truth.  The reason why this was hard for me was because I was told by many love ones (not my husband) that beauty was to NOT have nappy hair.  I was told over and over again that I was pretty with that damaged relaxed hair, so I thought that was what I had to do to be beautiful.

I transitioned without the aid of a wig, weave, braids, and or extensions.  I did it the old fashioned way.  I grew out my hair until I got tired of the two textures and made an appointment to cut it all off five months after my last relaxer.  I told myself that it's just hair and that it would eventually grow back.  Why was I hanging onto something I planned to cut off anyway?  Basically, I had to convince myself to let go of something that was bad for me, but it was familiar and it had been with me for so long I didn't know how to live without it.  It was like asking a smoker to simply quit and even without the addiction of the nicotine you have to learn new habits, you have to change your thinking.  That's what my transition was like and especially wearing my TWA.  My TWA forced me to learn so much about my hair and who I am.  There's no hiding when you wear a TWA!  A TWA is a commitment.  A statement to the world.  For me wearing my TWA was the best way to break free from everything that I thought was beautiful and reshape my thoughts by embracing who I have always been, but hid with a bad habit for decades.

I had to get a picture of the pin in my hair.

 I have a point, I really do!  Basically this journey I am on is simply that a journey.  When you plan a trip to a tourist trap like Mt. Rushmore you have to enjoy the journey because once you see those presidents faces for several minutes you're ready to do something else.  I am now out of my TWA phase and entering a new phase and I'm loving this journey.  Some days are better than others, but everyday I wake up to my beautiful son and devoted husband who loves me regardless of what I look like.  I think to myself how blessed I am!  Make goals, move forward, but don't forget to enjoy where you are right now.  Until next time...
Blessings!