Having some Issues

So I'm about 5 days short of a month since having had my very own "big chop" and much like a month-old baby to a brand new mother, the thrill is gone. Maybe not gone, but I've hit a bump or two.

My hair, my glorious, beautifully curly-sometimes straight-sometimes NOT so beautiful hair has grown a bit and that little bit has forced me to change my routine. Why couldn't it be easy? I had it down pat after a week or so and was feeling mighty fly, but today and the past few days have proven a bit...dried out and unmanageable. If you've ever had a bad hair day, try a bad 3 days...in a row, with no hope and no real understanding of where you've gone wrong.

Okay, here in good ol' Colorado, winters are incredibly dry. Well we've gotten snow and 35 degree and below days since my hair catastrophe. I washed it on Saturday, like I usually do. I go all out with the deep conditioning and hair dryer, the whole shabang. Why after I washed it did my head covering feel like dry, fragile straw?

"Hm," I thought, "maybe I need to do a clarifying treatment to get the gunk out and combat the hard water (gotta love Colorado)." So I tried said remedy. Why was my hair even harder, dryer and more fragile feeling than before? I panicked.

"Natural hair is extremely fragile, especially if it's coiled," I remembered reading. Mine is coiled like a spring, read: fragile. What if it's broken? What if I've completely ruined my baby?!! With my stylist, aka mom, in Africa until January I'm going to have to deal with this on my own for another...another...THREE weeks!?

Panic has set in. It's still here because I don't know what to do with this baby of mine. I love her so much but I feel like every idea I have in hopes of "repairing" her takes me three steps back and at this point, I'm so far behind I can't afford to go any further!

So I baby my baby. Yesterday was spent saturated in a natural oil with a silk scarf to cover it. I prayed about my baby last night, going natural is important to me and I just can't see God leaving me out here with the hair HE gave me, feeling hopeless and, well, fragile. Today I had to go out and wanted to see how much the oil helped...my scalp feels better but my hair still seems very, very dry. Once I'm done writing here I'm going to saturate once again and tie it down, again.

I've hit a bump in the road and my hair is having some issues, but once we get on the same page I think my baby and I will get along famously. If I can adjust to my, now, 6 1/2 year old daughter after the sheer shock of becoming a mother, I know I can take care of a little hair.