Often, many women go through the motions of trimming every eight weeks, eating fad diets, and jumping on the latest exercise craze not really understanding why and not seeing any positive results.
Have you ever wanted to make something better, but didn’t know where to start?
All you knew is that it had to be better and you were determined to figure out how to make it better. I’ve had that desire before and I named it my “15 week Personal Challenge”.
This challenge was the catalyst for me to become more conscience about things concerning my natural hair regimen, eating a balanced diet and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
What started this is all is simple: I had a desire, so I set a goal to achieve it. I wanted my stretched natural hair to reach middle back length (MBL) by Memorial Day 2012.
I noticed that my hair was starting to tangle, primarily the last two inches. Some naturals might opt for cutting the tangles off; however, I decided to take a different approach. I decided to treat my hair and better preserve my ends so that I would have a better chance to achieve my goal.
Step one of my personal challenge – Set My Goal:
I decided that I wanted to grow my hair longer. More specifically, I wanted to reach MBL. I’m not referring to full middle back length. I wanted my hair in the back to reach MBL first.
Step two of my personal challenge – Timeframe:
Based on previous measurements, pictures and calculations, with my best estimate was that Memorial Day 2012 would be a reasonable target end date. The timeframe for the challenge was eleven months. Within these eleven months, I planned to dedicate three and a half months to discovering a better length retention process for preserving my strands.
Step three of my personal challenge – Discovery:
I began to think about potential issues that would prevent me from reaching my goal. I began to analysis the information. If I wanted to have longer hair, I needed to identify what things were required to accomplish my goal.
The first thing that I needed to plan for was preserving the ends of my hair. If you don’t preserve the ends, your hair will grow but you will never retain any length because it is constantly breaking. So, that’s where I started – at the ends of my hair.
Step four of my personal journey – Understanding the discovery:
My ends tangle very easily. Then, they usually knot and break when I comb through them. Tangles occur because of raised hair cuticles that snag and twine on each other. So, what causes the hair cuticles to not to be smooth and bend upward?
Immediately, I knew high pH products were not the culprit because I pH test my hair products before using them. However, I realize that damaged cuticles snag and tangle. Then I came to the conclusion that it was due to my hair being damaged from normal wear and tear.
There really isn’t a way to eliminate 100% of hair damage. The only thing that can be done is to minimize it. Hair is damaged daily by the wind, sun, daily combing and styling, friction, and even washing. Don’t forget about natural wear and tear that the hair encounters just because it’s older.
Since we have more cuticle (protein) layers on the newer parts of the strand, damage is most visible on the ends of our hair because we see split or splitting ends.
Step five of personal challenge – Preserving the discovery:
Since I contributed damaged cuticles causing the tangles, which were ultimately a stumbling block to reaching my goal, I was looking for ways to temporarily repair the damage cuticles.
I thought about how could I preserve the protein or replace the missing protein that had already chipped or weather away.
How could I minimize further additional damage to my strands? Finger detangling and 2-step protein treatments were the solution that I choose to implement. It would be a huge injustice if I didn’t mention that protective styles play a huge role in preserving my strands as well.
At the end of my personal challenge, I realized that manipulating my hair less often works best for my hair. Protein treatments are very useful and I have incorporated them every six weeks. I am approximately an inch and a half away from achieving MBL.
|  |
About Jael
Not manipulating is definitely the best way to grow out hair. I don’t do anything to mine during winter months other than deep condition, wash, condition and twist once a week. This is my second winter of no manipulation and my hair literally has grown nearly 2 feet and it’s super thick and heavy. I’m also not a product junkie. While I do try the occasional product, most of what goes in my hair is what I make.
It’s definitely has worked well for me and I plan to keep it up during the warmer months as well. How do you normally style your hair?
This sounds like a great plan. I’m currently only braiding mine in two or three big braids. I spray it at night with Rose Water or Aphogee keratin/green tea spray. Around the edges & on the “new growth” that is exposed at the parts, I use a shea butter mixture I made – tie it up in a silk scarf & go to bed! I’m hoping the lack of manipulation works for me as well. Oh, I also use the 2step protein treatment every 6 weeks!
Hi Alarice,
This is the fun part of being natural and learning about your hair, experimenting. Are you keeping a natural hair journal?