4 Year Natural Anniversary!

Made it to year 4!!!

Greetings my natural beauties! I know it has been quite a while, but I am recently coming down from a birthday trip high!

I celebrated my 25^th birthday on August 7^th and celebrated my big chop anniversary the next day! It is absolutely insane to think that I have been on this journey for 5 years now. (I transitioned for a year before I big chopped)

This year for my hair has been a rather interesting one to say the least. I believe I have finally gotten out of that stage where my hair grows out instead of down, and because of that I am able to see a lot more of my length.

I straightened it for the first time in over a year, focused on low manipulation styles, and pretty much completely removed shampoo from my regime.  It was completely opposite of my first year, which was filled with hair pressing, constant twist-outs, and product junkie-ism.

Beginning a new job in January caused me to look at the time I spent on my hair, and ask myself was it worth it. While in school, I spent tons of time styling my hair because I couldn’t imagine going to class with my hair not done. Now that my schedule is plagued with very early mornings and gym filled evenings, styling really isn’t on the top of list because it becomes 10 times easier to just put it up and keep it moving. However, I have been styling maybe once or twice a week, depending on how I am feeling, and focusing more on maintenance and upkeep.

Playing in my hair less keeps me from pulling and tugging on my strands, and has made for better length retention. I have actually gone back to the ever so popular puff that I was so tired of a few years ago.  I also made huge changes to my diet and exercise routine this year as well.  I believe those changes have helped my hair tremendously. I have added tons of water to my diet and switched over to a predominately raw vegan diet before four o’clock 5-6 days a week. I believe that the combination of focusing on total health, low manipulation styling, and less product experimentation have played a huge role in the amount of length that I retained this year.

My entire life recently has been about minimalism. From fashion, to my diet, to my hygiene; the idea of keeping things simple has been working well for me. Most of my products are as natural as possible and I have been using coconut oil tons this past year as well.

The past 4 or 5 months I have focused on finger detangling and opt for it as much as possible over using styling tools. I realized that I was beginning to rely heavily on paddle brushes to detangle and would see a lot of my strands on my bathroom floor. I actually threw my brush away so that I wouldn’t be tempted, but just recently replaced it because I needed something while prepping my hair for wand curls.

Overall, I have actually used more heat this year than any other year, but because it is so spaced out my hair hasn’t suffered any damage. I have done two flexi rod sets and wand curls 3 times over the past year, and have been in love with my results every time. I was able to maintain the flexi rod sets for 5-6 days even with my regular workouts. The wand curls were a little more difficult for long term upkeep, but I would touch up the few that were flattened during my slumber.

This has been a good year as far as less stress, better overall health, and hair growth. I shall try to continue the things I have found out have worked for me hope next year I’ll have even healthier hair!

Enjoy!