A look back at 2011 and I am kind of satisfied with my progress. I am unimpressed with the retention that I had from my mid year check to end year results because I fully expected to reach waist length by the end of the year but you live and learn!
What I learned is that braid outs on my wet natural hair hinder length retention because of the formation of single strand knots. You may remember that from the begining of 2011 to about June I mostly wore my hair straight and as such, I had phenomenal length retention.
Mid year for some bizzare reason I decided to move away from my tried and tested routine with the idea that avoiding heat would be better for my hair. Well it wasn’t! My hair retains length better when it is straight.
Here is where I was at the begining of 2011:
And here are my end year photos, some were taken in the first week of January when I was doing my review of the instyler.
However, if you look at my length from June/July to the end of the year, it’s a bit less impressive:
I have noticed that the longer my hair gets, the less I am able to wear it in truly ‘natural’ styles in order to retain length and wash and go’s reached the ‘out-of-the-question’ stage over a year ago! I have actually noticed a lot of natural (4 hair types) get stuck at this current length for years. Personally I don’t think my hair is long enough yet (will it ever be?) but I know what works is to keep my hair straight or at the very least do my braidouts or any other curly styles on blow dried hair only. And of course my ponytail no-comb regimen!
I also want to go back to doing regular monthly henna’s. I know it means that I may have to give up coloring my hair with standard box colors but the benefits of henna are worth it.
I will update soon with my ponytail regimen pictures, my trim plus henna.
