Hairspiration and My Progress
A lot of people who go natural are scared that they won't be accepted with their new hair.
I've never really been accepted, never considered myself pretty, and never really fit in, either. So, going natural wasn't that hard for me to commence.
I just embraced it.
Feb 2012 (17 yo): My Last Perm
May 2012: The Day I Declared PERM NO MORE
Summer 2012: Mom cut off quite a bit of my hair. I remember hating the length.
Fall 2012-Spring 2013: I continued to straighten my hair my entire first year of college.
Late Winter-Early Spring: Went back to brush outs and twist outs for a little while, since that seemed to be the styles my hair grew the quickest in. Growth became a priority, so I started doing the inversion method.
Fall 2015: I stopped really doing anything with my hair. All I ever did were WnGs and even they, at this point, were gelless and I hardly ever detangled. Moisturizing became a 5 minute post-shower thing. I was trying out low-manipulation.
Yet another Length check! This was after a trim, btw:
Late Winter/Spring 2016
Mini Twists, of Course! My Go-to style when I don't want to do anything to my hair. But this time... I tried to lay my edges, oh lord. This would be the first attempt of many. (Also Note: Punk+Igari Makeup)
I'm finally a free bird! No more classes, no more teachers, no more school! At least... until I have to start work (and eventually go to graduate school; I need to go to an actual ART school for ART).
So remember when I started doing the stretched wash n gos early this year? They're baaack. In three of my favorite styles: Messy bun, Double bun and double front bun. All With my new circle glasses, of course.
Winter 2017-18
I left in the purple box braids until after my birthday. They were fun, don't get me wrong, but I felt like I needed to try again very very soon!
So I gave my hair a little break, back to defined and undefined wash n gos
Playing around with Temp Color (of course)
And even a twist out
And by the end of January, I went straight back in on some LOOONG gray box braids (mostly done by me, but my mom helped too)
While I left the purple ones in for about 2 weeks, I left these in for a little over a month. I. lOVED. THEM.
I even had a last hurrah week where I dressed up every day for a week (in my Darkly-Inclined-Nu-Goth???-Witchy-Post-Punk-East-Asian-Street-Fashion-Whatever-The-Heck Style) with my box braids styled in a different way each day
And even when I started to take them out, I still left them in for a little longer. First in a shorter style (from me cutting the braids) and then in a poofy style before finally taking them out completely.
After I cut them out, I felt like I may have cut into my actual hair because I went for a mini length check afterwards and it felt like my hair was shorter. When I was cutting out the braids, I was thinking there was no way my real hair was longer than that but.... it may have been. I was in denial about it at first, but after about a year passed, well... you'll see
Meanwhile I went back and did what I promised myself: to try out the two braid twist out. The first one definitely flopped.
So I gave it one more chance and it was pretty nice!
Experimenting with temp color again, this time with stuff actually meant to be put in hair!!! =0 (btw, I only colored my roots because I saw a picture of a girl who had black dyed hair but her roots were only green and I thought that was cool--like as if she has naturally green hair and she dyes her hair black but her natural hair is growing out)
But after that I went back to lazy styles again (blow outs, bushes, buns, you know)
Until I decided I wanted to try Bantu knots again. They were definitely much better than the first but still only a day or two before I wanted to tuck them away.
However, I tried Bantu knot out bangs and a undefined Bantu Knot Out bush and I absolutely loved those.
Spring-Summer 2018
Short lived mini twists (they were too chunky to be considered mini)
Very soon after, I got my first job! I decided to do mini twists because I wanted to try again from my last failed mini twists and also because I found out we need to wear hats at my job. Getting my first job also meant I stopped playing around with temp color. Around the same time, I decided to grow out my side shave just because I wasn't using it that much anymore.
Soon took out the twists and did this "gothy" OOTD with a bushy blow out
This was the result of washing my hair with the intention of doing a wash n go, putting it in twists to get it out of the way, and then taking them out before they fully dried.
Because of work, I pretty much grew entirely lazy with my hair, keeping it in buns and, on some off days, keeping it blown out/undefined, but otherwise leaving my hair alone. I mostly just didn't want to do some time-consuming, intricate style just to have to brush it back into a ponytail the next day. This also means I slowed down taking pictures of my hair.
I did a half up, half down wash n go style for an OOTD and that was pretty much the only "styling" I did between the beginning and end of summer.
Fall 2018
Continued being lazy in my hair routine. I did mini twists again but that was yet another classic lazy move from me. I also trimmed my hair while in the twists, completely forgetting about the accidental "trim" I gave my hair back in February.
In order to make up for all the time I usually spent styling my hair, I've been building my alternative wardrobe since I have a steady income now, so there's that. But because I haven't been styling my hair, most of my alt outfits include lots of hat-wearing or me embracing the weird stuff my hair does when I just wash and moisturize without styling.
Then I decided to temp color my hair again... only when I knew I'd have a 3-day weekend.
Halloween I tried out another bantu knot out! (I'm supposed to be a dark/demon sheep so I wanted SUPER FLUFFY CURLS) I, then, just styled it like normal and I fell in looooove.. For a rushed bantu knot out, it came out surprisingly well.
A classic example of me just washing and moisturizing without styling because I had to work the next day and didn't want to work on my hair for hours just to brush it out the next day.
Length check!!!!!!!1!
Now you'll finally see the damage that was done from me cutting out my braids earlier this year.
This is how much my side shave grew from the end of April to the beginning of December (8 months!!). that's A LOT of growth, right?
And this is the growth in the rest of my hair...
Front Left
Back Left
Bottom Left
Front Right
Back Right
Front
If you compare to last year, it doesn't look like it got much longer does it? I thought at first maybe I just didn't retain any length this time. Maybe I did something different with my hair that was bad. Maybe it's my job? Stress? Not enough detangling/moisturizing?? Too much hat wearing??!! Then I remembered when I cut my box braids out and felt like my hair was much shorter but just assumed that I was overthinking.
*sigh* It's a setback, sure, but at least I've learned.
So lately, I've been keeping my hair off my shoulders as much as possible, in protective styles, detangling it every two days or so and keeping it as moisturized as possible to keep my hair healthy and get that length back as quickly as I can. I try to look at the bright side. This just means it'll take less time for my side shave to catch up with the rest of my hair. Gives me more time to think about how I'm going to dye my hair or when I'll be ready to take my dreads out. And, on top of everything, my hair, even if only a little, did get longer. Just not by much.
So, my goal for 2019 (wow, an actual resolution?) is to protective style like heck, don't trim until the end of the year, moisturize and detangle at least 3 times a week and continue to refrain from playing
in my hair (that means no straightening nor temp color arggghhhh that's going to be tough for me)
Winter 2019
The name of the game? Wednesday Addams braids. The same braids I'd use last year for braid outs!
In order to keep my hair protected and encourage myself to moisturize and detangle more, I decided to stick to these braids for about the first half of the year.
It made it way easier to wear hats.
Look at her in her post-wash twists... completely oblivious at the absolute chaos that would come in the months.
I took those twists out and it wasn't too bad actually, especially since twist outs had been a thing of the past for me.
Back when I was super excited from somehow managing to actually snag MCR tickets anD HOLD ON, WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE DREADLOCK, WHAT DID YOU DOOOOOO
My hair dry/unstyled after the cut 
Now, I absolutely dropped into a depression during all of this and ended up at a point where I hardly ever took care of my hair properly (again). I usually stuffed it into a ponytail or when I felt like it, did mini twists and didn't touch it again for a month or two.
Look how dry it is here lol. I wanted to take pictures in this costume but didn't want my hair to just be in a bun or whatever so I tried to style it and... yikes.
Front (the cut grew so quick this was after a pretty recent trim)
Left front
Left behind ear
Left bottom
Right front
Right back
Right bottom
Definitely got longer, but only a little. I think I'm used to growth being slower, now. I'm guessing it's simply because having longer hair takes more to retain length and I've been doing the same things (even less this year tbh). But I did trim all of my hair when I did the cut, so keeping that in mind. I didn't measure my side shave because it's practically caught up to the rest of my hair. See what I mean? 2 and a half years and it's almost as long as the entirety of my 9 year old head of hair. Also, considering a lot of the bottom of my hair was shorter than the rest of my hair from combing out the dreadlocks, that is actually a TON of growth.
See you again, next year for another update!
I'm nearly 9 years natural! Feb 2021 is the anniversary of my last perm!
If you like to be more technical, I'm more like 8 years Natural, because even though I didn't perm anymore, I still straightened my hair for about a year as a "transitioning" style.
Hairspirations/Hair crushes and people that have encouraged me to continue my journey:
I've never really been accepted, never considered myself pretty, and never really fit in, either. So, going natural wasn't that hard for me to commence.
I just embraced it.
Feb 2012 (17 yo): My Last Perm
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| (Yay for finally taking charge of my own hair!) |
May 2012: The Day I Declared PERM NO MORE
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| (Graduation Day) |
Summer 2012: Mom cut off quite a bit of my hair. I remember hating the length.
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| (Rare Sighting of an Early Completely Natural Moment) |
Fall 2012-Spring 2013: I continued to straighten my hair my entire first year of college.
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| (Ah! So short! Hard to believe my hair is straightened in this *shivers*) |
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| (It started growing, though!) |
Summer 2013: First summer home from college and the first time I started embracing the idea of non-straightened natural hair.
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| (Poofy straightened hair!) |
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| (Not straightened!) |
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| (I even tried my first [failed] braid out) |
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| (And trying...) |
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| (and trying......) |
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| (and trying some more!) |
Fall 2013: Back @ college and I wasn't very comfortable there as I was at home, so I did lots of buns, instead. I also started slowly chopping ends, thanks to the researching I'd been doing.
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| (Last braid out my hair would see in a while) |
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| (Hello, buns! I would be so well acquainted with the side bun for this semester) |
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| (I did do that twist/braid out for Halloween, though) |
Winter Break 2013: Went back home for Christmas and started getting comfortable with my hair again. Straightening was no more!!!
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| (I started a full twist out and realized I loved it much more than braid outs) |
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| (My hair was also growing, but, with that, I noticed some hair grew longer than other parts) |
Spring-Summer 2014: Let me just call 2014 - The Year of the Twists
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| (Oh hey, look, it's a bun!) |
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| (Quick progress check! Look at that asymmetrical growth... smh) |
Fall 2014: Growwwwth. Holy Moly when did my hair get this long?! I stopped chopping my ends so often, so my hair actually started retaining length.
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| (Halloween '14!) |
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| (Experimenting with *ahem* color) |
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| (First straightening since 2013--Good gracious it's so long) |
Winter 2014: "Wash n Go"s and lots of experiments
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| (The first time I actually walked out to class with my natural hair out--not in braids or in a bun[although it was under a hat]--Still trying to get comfortable with 'princess fro fro' at college xD) |
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| I'm still learning! My wash and go's were so dry and brittle just a month ago and now, I've already gotten better. |
January 2015: I chopped off quite a bit. Not necessarily a big chop, but I got rid of a good 2 inches of hair. I think I'm finally done transitioning! I've realized a lot about my natural hair now that the perm is gone and have been continuing my experiments to make my hair happy.
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| (Finishing up my deep condition) |
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| Length Checks! |
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| My hair is so crazy! Selective shrinkage, multiple textures, and multiple lengths... lol. But, I love it! |
Late Winter-Early Spring: Went back to brush outs and twist outs for a little while, since that seemed to be the styles my hair grew the quickest in. Growth became a priority, so I started doing the inversion method.
Day 1 of Twist Out Experiment (Normal)
Day 2 of Twist Out Experiment (Re-twist)
Day 3 of Twist Out Experiment (Satin Cap--also note the red strand)
Day 4 of Twist Out Experiment (Ponytail--I was pretty much done with it at this point lol)
Doing the "inversion method"
Brush Outs and Braided undercuts (note the green strand)
Spring/Early Summer 2015: Mini twists became my bae for protective styling and I experimented with Wash n Gos again.
Mini Twists!
Some WnGs turned out better than others (note the unintentional WnG created by using red paint, sorry not sorry)
Here's a "length check" I did right before Summer Break (excuse the early morning stank face):
After about 6 months from the length check I did early January... it's pretty much what I expected!
Summer 2015: Best believe if I was swimming, I was breaking out the mini twists. I also started using way less gel in my WnGs. Continued doing "extended" twist outs (twists outs that last longer than a day or two).
Mini Twists During Vacation 2015
Llama Wash n Go
Day 3 of a Twist Out I forgot to document
Also... Buns came back... in TWOs. Then I started trying to extend Wash n Gos.
Gotta love those double buns
This one was also to check how long a chalk coloring would last. By day four, the red was a light brown.
Yet another Length check! This was after a trim, btw:
I can definitely see growth! And, as you can see, my hair was starting to loc, lol
December 2015: Low manipulation was great for a lazy girl like me but I'm never doing that again. My hair started locking up and I couldn't enjoy a twist out or any other style like that. It took almost 5 hours detangling that mess out. NEVER AGAIN. With that said, I detangled my hair but decided to pick up on some pet dreadlocks. I was reluctant to do it at first because I couldn't find black girls with partial dreads FOR THE LIFE OF ME. But that just makes it all the more unique, right? So I did it.
Here we have (the names of my dreadlocks from left to right) Kur, Fafnir, Nidhoggr, Jormungandr, Toothless, Nomgraeczr, Norbert, Midgardsormr, Draco Malfoy, Kal Myhk, and Quetzalcoatl... yes those are all names of dragons (in some form or shape)
And here's a glimpse of them now (December 12, 2015) under some mini twists (yes I decided to go with a week long protective style even after the whole low manipulation scare)
Late Winter/Spring 2016
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| I straightened my hair for a quick spell. This was the first time that my hair got longer but it felt like it hadn't. This straightening would be the last time I *obsessed* over length. |
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| And when it was over, boy was I glad to see my curls again. |
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| The first time I straightened with my dreads, it was weird. |
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| I loved this little style and was amazed at how ridiculously fierce my ponytail was! |
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| You guys... *sniffles* on the 28 of January, 2016 I finally GOT AN UNDERCUT!! |
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| I said, eff it and went all the way to the scalp |
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| So when it grew back out it looked amazing! |
Late Spring/Summer 2016  | |||
Probably my fleekiest twist out ever Stretched curls--look at the difference! .      |
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| A couple months later in a stretched style; Again, not obsessing with the length of my hair so I wasn't selfie-ing as much |
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| Undercut next to a "frohawk" |
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| Braids for Halloween (I went as a Dark/Demon Fairy) |
And the moment we've all been waiting for: Length check 2016
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| Left bottom |
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| Left behind ear |
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| Left in front of ear |
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| Right bottom |
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| Right behind ear |
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| Right in front of ear |
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| Front |
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| Top I think the reason why I was so much happier this year as opposed to last year was because I stopped obsessing over length! I used to do bi-yearly length checks and this last one was exactly one year later and look how much more progress there is! So if there's anything I learned this year, it's that I shouldn't worry about whether or not my hair is growing--IT IS! Late Winter/Spring 2017 
I
found a new way to tackle the Wash N Go! With the amount of busyness
and laziness that accompanied my final semester of college, I washed and
detangled in the mornings and immediately slicked them back into a
ponytail. This created this stretched wash n go and I actually loved it.
 |
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| I still did regular Wash n Gos, though! |
Another Hairstyle I got obsessed with is the double bang buns! I actually did this hairstyle first in late 2016 but I never snapped it.
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| I did a twist out for Graduation. Unfortunately didn't get any (good) pics of me in my cap and gown. |
Summer 2017
So remember when I started doing the stretched wash n gos early this year? They're baaack. In three of my favorite styles: Messy bun, Double bun and double front bun. All With my new circle glasses, of course.
Rockin a bush (or at least my version of one)
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| Had to return to the mini twists for a quick spell |
Double front buns, I'm tellin you, they're my new thing
And then I kept the double front part for a while. The drumsticks (instead of chopsticks) in my hair was just... pure genius, I assure you.
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| A "Blowout" leading up to a.... |
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| Straightening! |
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| So Long! *0* |
First Straightening With my side shave!
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| I even rocked pigtails, yo, I was having fun! I did forget to try to lay my edges, dangit |
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| The last moments of my straight hair, I decided to do bantu knots for the heck of it, but I just looked like a straight up potato |
So I said... "Why not put on Makeup and Slay these Bantu Knots Properly?" and I did
Fall 2017
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| Curly hair came Back! It didn't snap back immediately, but I never expect it to. It eventually gets there. |
Then I was just like: Wash N Go and Makeup PLZ (Punk+Igari Returns but with korean tinted brows this time)
I finally did a bantu knot out... and it flopped. One side was like, "Yas, I am feeling this!" but the other side was like, "HECK TO THE NO!"
I've been growing on the bush (which, in actuality is just a very very undefined wash n go)
I told you it would come back! I tried so hard to lay my edges... they just... don't
I had kind of fell out of love with my side shave after giving it a trim, but doing this style made me love it all over again.
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| I tried to lay my edges again with 2 chunky braids but this time I used this ancient bandana to set it. |
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| still didn't turn out great. |
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| yeah, not great. Probably won't be doing this again. Too much work for a meh result. |
I eventually took the braids out (because even if the edges failed me, the braids were great!) and got this unexpected braid out. I was super happy with this considering how I stopped liking my twists outs (did you notice I only did one twist out this year?).
I don't know if it's because my hair has gotten longer or the grain of my hair has changed, or what, but my twist outs haven't been all that great lately.
If I would've used some ecostyler with those braids, it probably would've turned out even better! So I have a new thing! It's Easy, it's a nice protective style, it's cute and it's replacing my twist out routine. I've definitely got to try it again next time I'm feeling a twist out.
I also started messing around with ways to decorate my dreadlocks. Yes, that is a flower. Yes, that is a Binder Ring. Yes, that is a safety pin. I never said I was normal.
I also started messing around with ways to decorate my dreadlocks. Yes, that is a flower. Yes, that is a Binder Ring. Yes, that is a safety pin. I never said I was normal.
And now *drum roll* Length check 2017
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| In front of left ear |
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| Behind Left Ear |
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| Left Bottom |
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| Right in front of ear |
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| right behind ear |
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| Right Bottom |
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| Front |
There's really nothing I can say about it this time! Last time, I pretty much said everything. I didn't obsess over the length, I just took care of my hair like normal and it grew a good little bit! I'm extremely happy with it. Maybe I didn't retain 6 inches like some naturals are able to do but if you look at last year's and this years... most of my hair barely went past the letters and they're so much further than that now.
My hair is sooooo close to my goal length. One or Two more years and I'm there!
Did I ever discuss what I'm going to do to celebrate reaching my goal? I don't think I ever did, huh. When I went natural, one of the main reasons why I decided to go natural was because I wanted my hair to be at utmost health. I wanted my hair to be super healthy before... dying it! If you didn't already figure this out, I'm an alternative Girl (side shave, temporary color, dreadlocks I mean, c'mon). Before I went natural, I was thinking about dying it but it was so short and unhealthy that I was scared I would end up with super short fried and dying (haha) hair and I didn't want that to happen. Plus, dyed hair is so much more magical when it's LONG and FULL (in my opinion). So I decided to grow my hair out without relaxing it so that when I dye my hair, if I get any damage, I won't feel so bad about having to cut it. I'm hoping that won't happen and I'll be able to keep all of my hair, of course, but I purposely shot for a length goal longer than I wanted, so cutting it would be no big deal if I got damage.
And speaking of dying my hair
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| No it's not a wig, it's tracks. I was enjoying myself a little too much because I thought I looked like an anime character! |
I took the left over purple hair from my Senior prom (5 years ago...!!!) and braided it into box braids (something I've been wanting to do for a while). These tracks were 10 inches... Girl, my hair ranges from 13-18 inches I was struggling! This was also my first time box braiding. It didn't turn out too bad though... I'll be leaving these in for the rest of December.
I left in the purple box braids until after my birthday. They were fun, don't get me wrong, but I felt like I needed to try again very very soon!
So I gave my hair a little break, back to defined and undefined wash n gos
Playing around with Temp Color (of course)
And even a twist out
And by the end of January, I went straight back in on some LOOONG gray box braids (mostly done by me, but my mom helped too)
While I left the purple ones in for about 2 weeks, I left these in for a little over a month. I. lOVED. THEM.
I even had a last hurrah week where I dressed up every day for a week (in my Darkly-Inclined-Nu-Goth???-Witchy-Post-Punk-East-Asian-Street-Fashion-Whatever-The-Heck Style) with my box braids styled in a different way each day
And even when I started to take them out, I still left them in for a little longer. First in a shorter style (from me cutting the braids) and then in a poofy style before finally taking them out completely.
After I cut them out, I felt like I may have cut into my actual hair because I went for a mini length check afterwards and it felt like my hair was shorter. When I was cutting out the braids, I was thinking there was no way my real hair was longer than that but.... it may have been. I was in denial about it at first, but after about a year passed, well... you'll see
Meanwhile I went back and did what I promised myself: to try out the two braid twist out. The first one definitely flopped.
So I gave it one more chance and it was pretty nice!
Experimenting with temp color again, this time with stuff actually meant to be put in hair!!! =0 (btw, I only colored my roots because I saw a picture of a girl who had black dyed hair but her roots were only green and I thought that was cool--like as if she has naturally green hair and she dyes her hair black but her natural hair is growing out)
But after that I went back to lazy styles again (blow outs, bushes, buns, you know)
Until I decided I wanted to try Bantu knots again. They were definitely much better than the first but still only a day or two before I wanted to tuck them away.
However, I tried Bantu knot out bangs and a undefined Bantu Knot Out bush and I absolutely loved those.
Spring-Summer 2018
Short lived mini twists (they were too chunky to be considered mini)
Very soon after, I got my first job! I decided to do mini twists because I wanted to try again from my last failed mini twists and also because I found out we need to wear hats at my job. Getting my first job also meant I stopped playing around with temp color. Around the same time, I decided to grow out my side shave just because I wasn't using it that much anymore.
Soon took out the twists and did this "gothy" OOTD with a bushy blow out
This was the result of washing my hair with the intention of doing a wash n go, putting it in twists to get it out of the way, and then taking them out before they fully dried.
Because of work, I pretty much grew entirely lazy with my hair, keeping it in buns and, on some off days, keeping it blown out/undefined, but otherwise leaving my hair alone. I mostly just didn't want to do some time-consuming, intricate style just to have to brush it back into a ponytail the next day. This also means I slowed down taking pictures of my hair.
I did a half up, half down wash n go style for an OOTD and that was pretty much the only "styling" I did between the beginning and end of summer.
Fall 2018
Continued being lazy in my hair routine. I did mini twists again but that was yet another classic lazy move from me. I also trimmed my hair while in the twists, completely forgetting about the accidental "trim" I gave my hair back in February.
In order to make up for all the time I usually spent styling my hair, I've been building my alternative wardrobe since I have a steady income now, so there's that. But because I haven't been styling my hair, most of my alt outfits include lots of hat-wearing or me embracing the weird stuff my hair does when I just wash and moisturize without styling.
Then I decided to temp color my hair again... only when I knew I'd have a 3-day weekend.
Halloween I tried out another bantu knot out! (I'm supposed to be a dark/demon sheep so I wanted SUPER FLUFFY CURLS) I, then, just styled it like normal and I fell in looooove.. For a rushed bantu knot out, it came out surprisingly well.
A classic example of me just washing and moisturizing without styling because I had to work the next day and didn't want to work on my hair for hours just to brush it out the next day.
Length check!!!!!!!1!
Now you'll finally see the damage that was done from me cutting out my braids earlier this year.
This is how much my side shave grew from the end of April to the beginning of December (8 months!!). that's A LOT of growth, right?
And this is the growth in the rest of my hair...
Front Left
Back Left
Bottom Left
Front Right
Back Right
Bottom Right
Front
If you compare to last year, it doesn't look like it got much longer does it? I thought at first maybe I just didn't retain any length this time. Maybe I did something different with my hair that was bad. Maybe it's my job? Stress? Not enough detangling/moisturizing?? Too much hat wearing??!! Then I remembered when I cut my box braids out and felt like my hair was much shorter but just assumed that I was overthinking.
*sigh* It's a setback, sure, but at least I've learned.
So lately, I've been keeping my hair off my shoulders as much as possible, in protective styles, detangling it every two days or so and keeping it as moisturized as possible to keep my hair healthy and get that length back as quickly as I can. I try to look at the bright side. This just means it'll take less time for my side shave to catch up with the rest of my hair. Gives me more time to think about how I'm going to dye my hair or when I'll be ready to take my dreads out. And, on top of everything, my hair, even if only a little, did get longer. Just not by much.
So, my goal for 2019 (wow, an actual resolution?) is to protective style like heck, don't trim until the end of the year, moisturize and detangle at least 3 times a week and continue to refrain from playing
in my hair (that means no straightening nor temp color arggghhhh that's going to be tough for me)
Winter 2019
The name of the game? Wednesday Addams braids. The same braids I'd use last year for braid outs!
In order to keep my hair protected and encourage myself to moisturize and detangle more, I decided to stick to these braids for about the first half of the year.
It made it way easier to wear hats.
And the fact that I could call them "Wednesday Addams braids" made me a proud Black Goth Girl.
I did occasionally depart from them into other hairstyles during this time frame but tried to go back to it after taking little breaks.
The original plan was to do it the whole year but I got tired of it by time summer hit...
Summer 2019
Summer 2019
I ran straight back to the bun.
And on the way, did some awesome non-hair related things like going to Universal Studios: Harry Potter and living my childhood dreams.
And getting my first tattoo after going to my first concert.
Oh yeah and doing box braids again xD
Yeah I was a little hesitant going back into it but ultimately decided it was fine. I'm just going to stay away from the scissors.
So I enjoyed those for 2 whole ass months because I'm a madlad.
Fall 2019
Fall 2019
Did a last hurrah photoshoot with my best friend! (guess which outfit's my favorite)
Then said...
From here on I just toggled between bun and having my hair out.
And now for the moment we've all been waiting for (what is that my 3rd time in a row using that joke?)
Length check 2019
Side shave
Front Left
Back Left
Bottom Left
Front Right
Back Right
Bottom Right
Front
Alright, so, my hair has grown a bit more this time than last time. Which is great! For some reason, it looks like I had more progress on my right side than my left side which is odd because it's usually the other way around. Maybe it's because of my side shave? I dunno. Either way, I'm happier with the growth this time, even with that little odd bit.
I will leave you here for the year with me being an absolute nerd on my birthday (what? you don't just casually wear your Hogwarts robe on your birthday? what are you doing with your life?)
Are ya'll ready for the 2020 update? Because I'm not... and I've already lived through it lmao
Winter/Spring Apocalypse ye 2020
Look at her in her post-wash twists... completely oblivious at the absolute chaos that would come in the months.
I took those twists out and it wasn't too bad actually, especially since twist outs had been a thing of the past for me.
Back when I was super excited from somehow managing to actually snag MCR tickets anD HOLD ON, WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE DREADLOCK, WHAT DID YOU DOOOOOO
That's right, y'all. I finally combed out my locs. It was their time to go. RIP Draglocks 2015-2020
Lockdown/Summer 2020
Pretty much immediately after, I went for some shape. I blame Covid-cut trends. Everyone was doing mullets and I pretty much did a toned down version of that. So now the front of my hair, which is usually waaaayyy longer than the rest of my hair, is the shortest part of my hair. And now that my locs are combed out, the back appears longer than the rest of my hair. MINI MULLET
Pretty much immediately after, I went for some shape. I blame Covid-cut trends. Everyone was doing mullets and I pretty much did a toned down version of that. So now the front of my hair, which is usually waaaayyy longer than the rest of my hair, is the shortest part of my hair. And now that my locs are combed out, the back appears longer than the rest of my hair. MINI MULLET
Autumn 2020
Now, I absolutely dropped into a depression during all of this and ended up at a point where I hardly ever took care of my hair properly (again). I usually stuffed it into a ponytail or when I felt like it, did mini twists and didn't touch it again for a month or two.
I also brought back the flat twists/flat braids when I was still depressed (even though I was getting just a little better) and lazy but wanted to at least try not to let my hair do the 2015 low maintenance thing again. Buuuut didn't take any pictures of it so here's just me doing mini twists again lol.
Aaand Length Check 2020 (already? yeah, this year is looking like a repeat of the other year I was kind of depressed, hardly took any pictures.)
Definitely got longer, but only a little. I think I'm used to growth being slower, now. I'm guessing it's simply because having longer hair takes more to retain length and I've been doing the same things (even less this year tbh). But I did trim all of my hair when I did the cut, so keeping that in mind. I didn't measure my side shave because it's practically caught up to the rest of my hair. See what I mean? 2 and a half years and it's almost as long as the entirety of my 9 year old head of hair. Also, considering a lot of the bottom of my hair was shorter than the rest of my hair from combing out the dreadlocks, that is actually a TON of growth.
I honestly think I have pretty much hit my big goal, I believe one more good year to make sure the ends are nice and solid, should be it for me. And the best thing about that means, it'll be my ten year hairversary!
I'm nearly 9 years natural! Feb 2021 is the anniversary of my last perm!
If you like to be more technical, I'm more like 8 years Natural, because even though I didn't perm anymore, I still straightened my hair for about a year as a "transitioning" style.
Hairspirations/Hair crushes and people that have encouraged me to continue my journey:
Nefertiti Bourne
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| Natasha Oforsagd (AKA TashNaturally/NaturallyTash of Youtube) |
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| Sabina Karlsson |
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| And, the lady who started it all--Corinne Bailey Rae |
My Goal length is Mid-Back while Blown out! Wish me luck!
