#afrobservation

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My Current Afro Routine

Long time no post! Yeaah I fell off the wagon with all the crazy changes this year, but I’m going to “ride the wave of motivation” right now and put some effort into some much needed updates! Here we go :) First up routine.

I decided to try the whole Carol’s Daughter line after buying the “4-in-1 combing creme” after I ran out of Aussie’s Moist Conditioner (which I use for my #TightlyCurlyMethod) I used it once and fell in love and went a little nuts. The WalMart near me didn’t have the Black Vanilla Hair Mask so I got the Almond Milk which I think as a little bit of a saving grace because it balances out the high protein content of the rest of the Black Vanilla line.

My routine looks like this:

Wash Day (Saturday or Sunday)

Cleansing/DC Routine

Shampoo (see previous blurb post)

Condition

Deep Condition 

 Slather on Hair Mask as deep conditioner; 

Detangle (out of the shower) using wide tooth comb then denman brush; put in twists/bantu knots 

cover with plastic cap then a towel or scarf; 

leave in for 10 minutes - 60 minutes depending on my mood

Rinse with warm water taking down bantu knots, but leaving twists in; then using a cup already filled with cold water pour it over my hair especially the ends.

After Wash Combing Routine For Each Twist:

Unravel twist

Spritz with Leave-In Conditioner

Coat section with dime to penny size worth of oil of choice

Coat section with Combing Creme

Brush through once or twice with denman brush using clips to keep combed sections out of the way.

Mid-Week Wash Days (Usually Wednesday or Thursday Morning)

Cleansing

Shampoo

Condition

Rinse with warm water

After Wash Combing

Same as above but instead of unraveling twists I just detangle bigger sections for the sake of time.

Takes anywhere between 55 minutes to 2 hours. This isn’t my favorite routine, but my strands have seen a reduced amount of breakage in between washes and length retention has meant mega noticable growth! I’ll do this at least until January.

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Full Wash Day Antics sprinkled with a length check. Below that a front length check photo below showing January vs. July vs. December (today)

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Hello Beautiful, good to see you again. I’m back :)

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AfrObservation: Changing My Internal Beauty Standards

I see it every day on my Instagram and occasionally on FB. Those videos of young black women who twirl around with their natural curls (or as some say nappy hair, kinky hair what have you) and in the next 10 seconds they are transformed into long silky haired beauties. Their shrinkage is real and there’s now receipts with hashtags. It’s interesting to watch and I do like the style and I adore the confidence these women have afterwards. But it hurts. So I believe that if you “ingest” anything consistently over time- music, television, character traits, certain ideas- that you can be influenced by them, though it might show up subtly or rarely. What a weird dichotomy to love my afro and want to wear it every day and at the same time covet straight hair and internally fight to find afros in general beautiful. I have one piece of the puzzle to keep me from hating myself and fighting my hair, but the next part is to simply find it beautiful and not just a card I’ve been dealt  and must learn to love. 

I’m going to skip over these hair transformation videos (including the adorable ones where the little girls get their hair braided) not because they are bad, but the “before” shots of these women often have hair that looks exactly how I wear it every day in terms of texture. I’m getting the message that “natural is okay, but not that okay.” I’m only speaking for myself.

I’m going to seek out more pages with women with afros of all sizes and make sure those take up my feeds. Somehow I’m not convinced that my hair is the standard of beauty (har har) and I know that logically that this simply does not make any sense. I know that my subconscious can be changed on this matter. So I’m gonna do that.

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AfrObservation: Shampoo

I have come to the conclusion that if I don’t want to expereince breakage I have to use shampoo. In the last few weeks before I started stretching my hair I was co-washing a bit more often. It took about 3 co-washing sessions (every 3-4 days) before the breakage set in again. It took exactly ONE (1) shampoo session to notice an immediate difference- my hair doesn’t break. I know shampoos get a lot of flak and that they are stripping, can be damaging, etc. but seriously. My hair doesn’t break when I shampoo weekly/ or every 3-4 days. Even one co-wash between shampooings is suspect, but I’m still investigating.

That is all.

:)

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AfroChallenge: Bunning Before Pics

Since August begins on a Tuesday I’m just going to post my pre-Bunning length now. I’ll post “After” pics in September.

Bunning Routine

Wash once a week with OGX Coconut milk Shampoo and Conditioner

Detangle and set with Cantu Shea Butter Leave In (using because I never use it.)

Stretch in about 10 plaits (based on hair lengths)

Let dry to 80% - 90% and unravel

Bun!

If you want to join me for bunning this month tag me in your before and I’ll support you! Happy Bunning

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Bunning Challenge August 2017

You remember these riiiiiight? Man when I first went natural every winter month saw bunning/protective style challenges to get ready for the summer fros and twist outs. But of course it’s summer already, so why am I even going to do one? 

One word: STRESS. 

I’m taking my final class for my masters and it’s wearing me out. I’m an active member of my community watch and they are on some mess basically expecting me to turn results when I wasn’t even in charge to begin with AND I start a new job that I’m excited about and dreading all at once. So yeah. This will be one less thing to do. I’m going to start it in August since right now I’m just trying to figure out what will work best for putting my hair in a bun. My rules for it will be as follows

Length Check Pictures Before bunning

Shampoo Wash Hair 1 - 2 a week while moisturizing daily. 

Stretching Hair by plaiting

Dry hair bunning Only. My precious tresses really take too long to dry for me to mess around with this rule.

Check in weekly with pictures of bun styles of choice.

Bun for 4 weeks

Length Check Pictures at the end of the month

EXCEPTIONS: I’m going to wear my afro on August 7,8, 15-18. These are the days I’m starting my new job/meeting my new students and I want them to see what I will look like through the rest of the semester. Also it’s a means of not tricking myself or my co-workers into the whole “I’ll wear my hair ‘more professionally’” crap. THEY GON’ GET THIS FRO.

If you’re down tag me so I can support your progress! Here’s to giving fros a break and making them come back even better than before.

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Surgery Hair

Alright folks. I’ve been posting a lot less lately because life is full and keeping me busy. I have some AMAZING fro pictures to share soon, but until then let’s talk about Hair prep for surgery.

I consider my afro low maintenance. I wash my hair twice a week and spend no more than 35 minutes detangling after the washing. In a couple of weeks I will be in a position where I will barely be able to walk let alone stand with my hands in my hair for any length of time. I can’t braid (cornrow) very well so 2 strand twists will rule the day. Here is how I am wearing my hair this week to practice.

Two strand two strand twists in the front and chunky twists pinned up in the back. It will be a protective style and on surgery day I will likely wear a head scarf the whole time.

I will try to keep my hair this way for 2 weeks which will be a challenge because the intermittent care is always tricky, but I need something as low maintenance as possible so I don’t hurt mysef in the name of #slayage.  I will post an update on whether it’s better to style my hair wet or dry. So far wet styling  is absolutely beating out damp and dry styling.