Happy New Year & Hair Update

Hello Doves!

I pray your new year began with joy and by the side of loved ones. I spent mine with my family.

The new year always promises new beginnings, the chance to make things better and is a breath of fresh air.  I'm definitely entering 2015 with a lot on my hair agenda.

First things first. How is my hair doing?  I got a trim on 26 December 2014. My ends had loosened a bit, I noticed midshaft splits towards the last one to two inches, and I was having a horrible time retaining moisture. So during a cowash session I saw the loosened curls, I had discovered the splits earlier. I made up my mind and decided to do a one to two inch trim. I want healthy long hair and holding on to scraggly ends would simply hinder my progress.

 I was quite sad to have to trim such a large amount cause it meant I would no longer be at the coveted armpit length. That's when you really start to feel like you're getting somewhere you know? Big girl pants on and I trimmed..I'll do a post on how I trimmed without having to blow dry my hair. Keep tuned.

When I undid my braids

 Remember that I trimmed before my braids? A lot of scissors of late

After my trim

Bad ends

Still have sumthn' sumthn' to work with..

Loose ends
Might I add that my curls weren't even clumping right, they were out of sorts. I also found a few straight strands. So I knew I had heat loosened curls

More reversion, my curls went back to normal. However the ends were still a bit wonky

So i'm now somewhere between armpit length and past shoulder length. I have about three or so inches to regain. I will get them back do or die!

BUT I  have an action plan to regain length. I want to keep my ends tip top this year!! 

Firstly I identified the main factors that led to the deterioration of my ends. I did a great job protecting them and keeping them moisturised (hence the length retention). However I forgot that older ends means weaker ends more prone to damage. So I neglected to strengthen them with more protein. I would do protein treatments regularly enough, however my ends needed a lil extra to continue being strong. Hence the quick loosening when I blew out my hair for the braids.

What I will do

• Use protein on my ends at least every two to three weeks (also known as protein layering) to maintain them
• Low manipulation
• Peppermint oil with each deep conditioning session to enhance growth
• Inversion more often
• Continue giving my hair tlc. I will implement this goal by joining the Mz Direction healthy hair challenge for 2015. It will definitely keep me focused.

I have already made it to armpit length, so I know I can get there again. But this time I'm reaching there with my ends intact. I also got some T444Z to aid my growth . My mother got a jar and was so generous as to scoop out half the jar for me. Imagine that!! I will post an update on that later.

In other news, I  enjoyed my hair with this gorge updo!

  

 ..and did some museum  exploring with my younger sister during my december blog hiatus :-) We went to the national museum in Windhoek (IDK if thats the correct name, *facepalm* )

HAPPY NEW YEAR DOVES!