Glam . Lush . Hair: 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* )