So yeah I suck lol

Hey People,

I disappeared and really hadn't realized it until a few weeks ago.  I'm gonna do a photo dump and just say my hair is LONG now.  I like it but it's in the way sometimes.  I love that it's healthy and feels good.  I'll try to mock up some length shots side by side as well.

October Shots

December Shot

January Shot

July to January Comparison

New Interface, Hate This

Two of the primary platforms I utilize are switching the layout and I have to say I kind of hate them both.  I didn't default back to the old Blogger interface because they said it was going to disappear soon but that new Facebook had to go after I couldn't really control what I wanted to see on my feed.  Right now it's gonna stay "classic" until I'm forced to make the switch.  In other news, I got my retwist done by Sarah who started my locs in the first place.  Two years and one month or so into the game at this point.  I'm happy with the outcome and the drive is actually a little more straightforward.  I need to hang out under the dryer longer next time because dead center on my big head was still a little moist when I got in the car.  Anyhoo here are some photos.

And the comparison to last year

Loc Update & End of Semester Praise Report

So let me start this off by saying as of about 8 hours ago I'm officially done with this semester.  I cannot at all begin to explain how excited that is.  No last minute grading or negotiations with students about their grades.  I was even able to help one out on a paper she needs to rewrite for someone else.  I stayed on top of my grading this term with my two official classes, internship and research.  Proud of myself on that front so yeah do a dance there.  Okay let's move on.

So yesterday was my loc retwist and my hair keeps maintaining well.  As they get longer I can see more closely what size they will likely be as they continue to mature as well.  Loving that.  I'm officially five months loc'd as of today.  I saw someone's locs fresh off her retwist when I was just getting settled into the chair and she's probably six months plus ahead of where I am but around the same size and I was like in love.  We started talking to someone else in the shop who started wondering if the loc life was for her and it was like ma'am totally depends on you but I'm loving this process in ways I can't actually articulate.  She asked if I was saving money being loc'd and I'd have to say probably not on one front.  I'm still having to pay someone at least once a month to do my hair.  That's instead of the every two month Senegalese twist life that would be the equivalent of three months of loc visits and one month of my hair doing whatever it wanted while I let it rest.  Plus products.  At this point, I'm light on products outside of oils and my hair is doing its own thing with minimal input from me.  We both shared that sentiment and she seemed to take it to heart but probably not ready for that and I totally understand that.  It's a lot to commit to.

2016 the year almost no one EVER will say damn that was a really good year

Title is crazy long and horribly accurate for a lot of folks.  This year has felt like one punch to the gut after another and it is literally not taking a break in the last four days of the year.  I know that lots of non celebrities are dying as well as the famous folks but really this year has taken everyone from treasured musicians (Prince and David Bowie among others) to actors and actresses pivotal to my early years on earth to comics and peace makers and good Lord it just seems never ending.

It started off well enough but both my energy and patience with the universe died about halfway through.  Then the insipidness of the election finally gave way to what in the same hell did you idiots just do.  My hair is still growing which is nice which is what I'm going to spend the last part of this post on but really this year.  I hope it slips from my memory like the years you date a dumbass and then fail to remember why.  That would be awesome.  Please please please I beg of someone please.

So on to the hair.  For those that don't remember, and because I haven't done a bang up job of keeping you up to date this year, I cut off my relaxed ends in February.  It was by no means planned but the relaxed ends and the natural hair kept fighting in the twists so when I took them down and detangled things it was just at a point where there was enough hair to say I wasn't bald but it was a short fro.  Tiny bit of shrinkage but not too much as there was not a whole lot of hair.  That isn't the case now but let's start with where we were 10 months ago.  Ok looking at that there was more than a little bit of shrinkage cause I remember picking out this fro lol before taking the photo the morning after I got the trim.

And here's what the various few weeks have looked like.  I took my hair down a few days before my birthday because I planned on getting my nails done, a massage and a trim on my birthday.  And I decided that since classes were over and I had no major plans I would leave my hair down for a few weeks. 

This is me immediately after taking down the twists.  Way more hair that I thought would be there given my lackluster hair care over the preceding few months.  But growth is growth so yeah.

I was super worried about the trim because I told her to go after whatever split ends were left after my wash and detangle session but not a lot was lost and I had a realization that I will share later among others.

This is me with my new doctoral tam.  We wear these during graduation ceremonies but my old tam was not fitting my puffy new hair.  For some reason my brain was slow on the uptick that when I bought the thing my hair was always bone straight.  And I didn't really need to wear it much until I was transitioning to natural and that was a snug fit.  Now with either twists or tight coils in play I needed a bigger one.  I just ordered the largest size they had because I have no idea what my hair will end up doing over the next few years.

This is me after this week's wash and during a deep conditioning session (prior to cap being put on of course) which was brought on by another realization and let me just say that even with a slight tug on the curls that relaxed a little bit with the deep conditioner my hair is evil when it comes to shrinkage and makes me think of this shirt.  You can't see it in this photo but there's another realization on tap because of this and the last few weeks.

And finally this is me yesterday after waking up from my overnight baggying to keep the hair moisturized but not wet.  A little tug to pull up the top but I left the sides alone because they spring back like a gymnast doing a tumbling pass.

So what have I learned about my hair:

1. It grows no matter what I do but I haven't been doing enough to make it grow better.  As I was deep conditioning my hair I realized that was probably the first time I had in at least three or four months.  Yes it's tucked away in the twists but it still needs some nourishment.  I need to wash and deep condition it better while protective styling.  And I'm great about daily or every other day moisturizing for a while with my twists but that has fallen off as well so I need to get back on board with that.  
2. Two that what I was fretting about in terms of split ends is really just how my hair feels when there aren't 50 million chemicals on them smoothing everything out.  As I was letting the stylist work on my hair I was on the verge of saying no more than an inch but seriously outside of a few spots to even it up a bit (back section of my hair on each side was freakishly longer than the rest) she had very little to trim.  So hey it's healthy despite of me but I need to keep working on better overall care.
3. There are at least two, potentially three, different curl patterns on my head.  From the front to my crown, probably a bit further down, my hair is super tightly curled.  When I stretch out the hair at my side burns for example it reaches down to where my chin meets my neck.  It snaps back up immediately though like why did you even bother lol.  The hair at the nape of my neck in the back is much looser and feels on the verge of going straight if I brushed it hard.  Can't tell why as there's no really good reason for it.  And then there are random bone straight pieces of hair.  Same length of the rest of my hair and not patches just stray strand here and there.  I thought it was a loose piece of braiding hair that hadn't come out at first but the stylist pulled on it and was like you can feel that right.  After I said yes we just both went wow and moved on.
4. I can wear it down and it not be a big old hot mess but it's not that the length I want it to be when it's this tightly coiled for me to rock it like kiss my afro.  I will need to do some more studying on how to stretch it and what my curls want.

So that's my year and hair revelation in 10 months natural.  What's going on with you?  Belated Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Blessed Kwanzaa and Diwali, and Happy New Year.  2017 needs to be better.

So About that Trim

I took my hair down on Friday and went to sleep.  Saturday I let it deep condition with a plan to wash it that evening and yeah my lazy took over.  Sunday I finally washed it and something that has been bugging me about my hair came to light.  When I rinse out the oils and conditioner my hair is happy as hell.  Some shedding happens of course but nothing crucial.  The first wash through my hair is good and acts like yes queen hook it up.  That second wash though.  It might as well be the flying monkeys from The Wiz cause all I end up hearing in my head is Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.  Tangles just pop up randomly but usually towards the front and are not even pretending like they are going anywhere.  But I'm in this new enlightened place so I didn't panic.

I loaded in my product and spent forty five minutes finger detangling my hair and I got out most of the minor tangles no problem.  And then the front territory remained.  Four major tangles took another thirty minutes and the addition of more product and a comb.  There were minor tears but once I was done I was satisfied with the basic end result even though it wasn't even or quite what I was shooting for when I started.  This was my out about the town look for the day lol.  Had a research meeting, got my nails and toes done, ran to the store and then came home.  Promptly went to sleep and yeah totally flat head in the morning.

So I woke up and washed out as much of the product as I could and just did a simple cowash.  Hair was much happier and then I added in minimal leave ins, sealed with some grape seed oil and then added some Eco styling gel to try to get some curls defined up front and maintain the ones in the back.  I left with wet hair cause I wasn't in a drying frame of mind and my wet hair stays stretched better for a while but yes shrinkage is a evil evil thing.

Some of the ends weren't feeling fantastic which is why I went on in for the trim.  No need to have length if it's not healthy right?  I told her what I was looking for, not a shape just nix the split ends where they were and in a few months I might ask for it to be shaped.  Right now though let me be delusional about how much it's grown.  She laughed at me and said no it's growing.  It's not doing the weird split mullet of stress that the relaxed hair was creating in the back.  And it's much thicker than it was.  So yeah there was more length to lose than my delusional self wanted to believe but there's still a fair bit of hair there and looks dramatically different than my first cut it all off day.

I can't say it's massively longer but it's so much fuller than it was.  It's also a bit grayer than it was but I'm okay with that.  The sides look to have maintained the most length along with a bit of length up top.  The back is so much thicker and fuller that it's weird to feel honestly but I'm so happy.  Now I have to do a better job of tending to the length and ends of my hair as they are tucked away.  Yay for progress even if it wasn't what I was initially hoping for.  Anyhoo.  How was your wash day?

Just a Quickie: Relaxer Update

So I am no longer counting down to the next relaxer.  I went ahead and went in today after doing a bunch of research and talking it over with the young woman that was going to do my hair.  Everyone agreed that ten days should be enough time and encouraged me to keep doing what I'm already doing when I go swimming.  And after talking over what I am trying to do with my hair and working out she was willing to help me find someone local to braid up all this mess of hair.  I'm thinking around the time I finish swim lessons.  I was actually a little dumbfounded by how much my hair had grown out since December and still looks pretty good after she took about half an inch off to even things up in the back and get rid of stray length along the sides and back.

 The back evened out

The front and sides and my newly arched brows.  The gray is here to stay.

Peyton Manning & I have come a long way

Picture it, Sicily in 19..., umm scrap that.  My first awareness of Peyton Manning came when I was in college in Nashville, TN.  Yes I know Peyton didn't go to school in Nashville but every year the Vols came up to Vanderbilt's stadium and played one game.  And every year they came there was a massive influx of people who had never been near a college who spent the next five days asking us about Peyton and the game and the what not and what not.  Didn't matter that we clearly were no in Vols gear or looked remotely interested in the game.  They were everywhere and made doing anything in town ten times more painful than it needed to be.  I hated Peyton.  He hadn't done anything to me but make my life difficult for a few days once a year but really hated him because they came because of him.  I heard all about his daddy and his brothers and blah blah blah.  Hated him.  Hated him a little more the year after he graduated because Vols fans were lamenting their lack of Peyton Manning so much they didn't notice their new quarterback, Tee Martin, was doing quite well.  It totally wasn't his fault again but he was the target of my displeasure for years.  Playing for the Colts didn't chart for me until I got to grad school and that was all the talked about again.  But at this point I actually started paying more attention to him than the hype and the more I did the more I found him to be kinda goofy and a nice guy.  I was still happy when Eli won the Superbowl first but that was more because I love a good underdog story and they just didn't seem to give Eli a shot in hell of winning.  After his year off, I was rooting for Peyton to make a strong return and he did.  This year he's done even better and hopefully will complete the greatest feel good story the year could manufacture.  No offense to Russell Wilson but he's got plenty of time to climb this mountain again.  Peyton may be on borrowed time.

I'm sure some of you are wondering what any of this has to do with a hair blog.  Well if I showed you pictures of how jacked up my hair was during this time you may hate it as much as I hated Peyton.  It would grow just fine and then boom start breaking.  I wasn't even remotely pretending to take care of it well and do more than run to the hairdresser or dorm do doctor when I was broke lol.  I'm no longer trying to figure it out I kinda know what I'm doing with my hair and my grown up life.  This year may be my make or break year as far as making good positive changes in my life an so far I'm feeling good about it.  17 workouts in a month equals a third of all my workouts for the year.  If I don't do much else beyond keep that up who knows what I'll be looking like by December.  Root for us old timers continuing to get over the hump.  And if you are an old timer join the club.  20 years rushed by much faster than I thought it ever could lol.