Two Year Anniversary

This month I will have been natural for two years! It's exciting to me because adapting to the needs of hair you've never seen, run your fingers over (which I did often after my BC!), or maintained takes effort and consistency. I'm so happy to have gone natural and although it has taken some getting use to, the time I put into my hair truly has become a labor of love.

During year two I wondered what I would have to figure out - added length brings added time, product, and without a doubt detangling. So I started reading posts about longer natural hair at my favorite hair forum "Happy Curls" and bought products that worked for the ladies there. This is a good idea, to a point, but in the end I typically found nothing that worked for them worked for me. My hair is 100% different from anybody else's on this planet so taking tips willy-nilly proved useless to me in my quest for moisturized, lovely hair.

Then I started hearing the ladies toss around a term, "Hair Twin", and I set out to find mine. A Hair Twin is someone who has hair very close to the type growing from your very own follicles. It's the closest you can get to hair that is like yours. Especially among African American women, hair texture can run the gamut. We all naturally have a curl pattern to our hair, but said pattern can range from very loose (culminated into big bouncy curls) to very tightly coiled curls. Finding your twin in that mix can be tricky, but I followed a lady on Happy Curls and found we have similar hair - she is my hair twin.

My twin uses a ton of different products, none of which I plan on incorporating into my hair regimen, but different hair growth issues would arise and I would feel like she was preaching to the choir. During year two my ends desperately needed a trim. Little did I know, initially, this would cause massive tangling, matting, locking, in a word: disaster. My twin spoke often of how her hair would just flip the script on her when it needed a trim - after having my hair trimmed I found this to be better than ANY product on the market. The tangling has subsided tremendously and detangling is no longer a nightmare. Who knew trims were so vital to the curly girl?

Another big issue that came up during year two was dryness. And I don't mean just "Oh my hair is a little dry today." I mean when I scrunched my hair in my hand I could HEAR it respond underneath. Seriously? I began to think this was my hair's plot in life and I was not pleased.

When you go natural you hear about how dry African American hair is, especially in its natural state so it's to be expected. I think I expected it a little too much to the point where I figured, "why bother, it's just going to be DRY anyway!" During year two I tried the worst kinds of products on my hair in hopes of shiny, moisturized, quiet hair. Grease my mom used on me when I was a kid, a kid with relaxed hair that is. It worked wonders then, but not so much on natural hair! It seemed to make my hair happy upon application, but in the morning my hair was a greasy mess! It just layed on my strands.

In the end I decided to try jojoba oil on my hair - not easy to apply by any means, but boy does my hair show signs of sheer joy after I use the natural oil. Makes sense: natural hair, natural oils.

Dryness and tangling were the battles of this past year, but since discovering what my hair prefers, what it needs, I am happy to oblige. And my "natural-versary" is in November, I discovered all of the helpful hair hints in OCTOBER. Yes, it was a rough year. I even considered my stylist's suggestion of a texturizer...that's a whole 'nother post in itself.

So my new hair regimen is as follows:
-wash twice with Cream of Nature Ultra Moisturizing (plus a teaspoon of jojoba added to the bottle)
-condition with Silk Elements Luxury Conditioner (to which I also added 1 tsp of jojoba)
-while in shower, comb through conditioner and leave for a couple of minutes before rinsing
-after rinsing immediately apply Cantu Shea Moisture Leave-In throughout hair (not just on the top!) and run a nickle sized amount of jojoba through ends of hair
-I detangle my hair and braid or twist into big sections as I detangle
-once all hair is braided or twisted, I go back through and divide the big sections in half and twist/braid again. Keep a spray bottle of purified water on hand because the hair will dry FAST seemingly just because you want it to stay damp.
-If I'm not going anywhere I keep in my braids/twists or ensure they are all dry and take them down to wear out for the day.
-My hair never goes to "bed" without it being twisted/braided up again. On night 3 or so after having it washed, I'll apply jojoba throughout, then wear my satin bonnet to sleep.

This has worked well for me lately...but just wait, it's sure to change on me again although I hope it is much later. Moisture is the key with natural hair, and spritzing water over your hair daily helps as well. Pure water that is!

If I've learned nothing this year I have learned that natural hair will give back to you whatever you put into it. A little effort goes a long way! Here's to the next year!