Length Check & Trim

It's that time of year again! Time to whip out the blow dryer and flat iron for my six-month length check and trim. But something strange happened this time...

I wasn't excited.

Weird, right? Usually I can hardly wait. I'll plan for it ahead of time and check the weather forecast for rain. But some reason last Friday I found myself impulsively blowing out and flat ironing my hair out of obligation rather than joyful anticipation. It could have something to do with the fact that I'd returned that wonderful-but-oh-so-expensive Sedu Revolution flat iron that I'd purchased and used for my May blow out, so I had to resort to using my old flat iron, which is in terrible condition. But honestly, I think it's because I've grown to prefer how I look with my kinks and curls. 

It's important to deep condition before
applying heat to your hair!

However, I was glad to have my hair straight so I could get it trimmed. It was in desperate need of one. My hair had surpassed waist length, but my ends were knotty, frizzy and looked just plain awful. It looked like my ends had been stuck into an electrical outlet! So serious. It was driving me crazy.

My Mom wasn't available to trim it for me and I had to run errands that afternoon. So guess who stepped up to the plate? My awesome Hubby!!! That's right, ladies! I gave him directions, handed him the sheers and he proceeded to do an AH-MAHZING job!! In fact I went to see my Mom two days later so she could clean it up for me and make sure he'd got it all, and she said he'd done a great job! Love my Hubby :) He's the best!

Since my last blow out in May, I'd set a goal of growing out my layers so that the majority of my hair would be waist length, not just my fastest-growing areas, resulting in a fuller look. Well, my plan is working! The picture on the left was of my first blow out in 2011, the year I did my grow out challenge. As you can see, my longest point was about bra strap length, which is where the crown of my hair is now, as pictured on the right. 

What a difference two years makes!
Length of my crown (@BSL) is as long as my longest point two years ago!
Left: November 2011
Right: December 2013

Product Update

Alikay Naturals, founded by popular YouTuber BlackOnyx77 (Rochelle Campbell), sent me a couple of their products to review (my official review will be up on my YouTube Channel soon - stay tuned!), so I decided to put their Knots Be Gone Hair Detangler to the test. The directions say it can be left in, so I used it as my leave-in conditioner. Let me tell you, when I say my hair was SOFT...that is an UNDERSTATEMENT!!! I'm talkin' BUTTERY soft...like I-can't-keep-my-hands-out-of-my-HAIR, soft!! Yeah...more on that later! 

I applied Knots Be Gone to each section and detangled first with my fingers then with a wide-toothed comb. Then I set my hair in chunky twists until I was ready to blow dry. See the soft sheen of my twists?

I attribute the sheen to the aloe vera juice in the Knots Be Gone. AVJ is close to the pH of our hair, so it closes the cuticles. And what happens when your cuticles are laying flat (or "sealed")? Your hair looks shiny! :)

Next I took down each twist and applied a dime-size amount of heat protectant to each section before blow drying. This heat protectant is super heavy, so less is definitely more. I twisted each section after I'd blown it dry. I've never seen my hair blown out and twisted, and I've gotta say, I was really feelin' it!

See how rough my ends were? Yeah..... :/

All done flat ironing! Can you tell I wasn't thrilled? LOL!

                     

I was much happier after my dear Hubby gave me my initial trim:

If there's one thing I've learned about this straightening process, it's that I need to do it more often. When I was doing my grow out challenge two years ago, I was mostly wearing my hair in two-strand twists. This kept my ends protected and well moisturized, so getting trims every six months (with search-and-destroy trims in between) was enough. But now that I wear my hair out all the time instead of in protective styles, my ends are constantly vulnerable and exposed to the elements and they rub up against my clothes, chairs, sofas, jackets, etc. daily. Since I have neither the time nor the patience to do search-and-destroy trims right now, I need to straighten and trim my hair more often. I'm going to start with every three months and see how my hair does with that. That is why it's called a "natural hair journey" - I'm always learning and I love it!

How often do you blow out and trim your hair?