I attended the Return to your roots event last Sunday and it was lots of fun. I wish I’d had the foresight to take pictures of some of the wonderful hair I saw that day. Mostly it was an event for newbies who were considering transitioning plus veterans who just wanted confirmation that the’d made the right choice in going natural!
I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know but I met a few really good people. Diane Hall author of How I Grew It Long Naturally and another lovely lady who’s name escapes me now but she’s doing really good things with creating natural hair and body products, soaps, herbal hair rinses etc.
I felt a bit out of my depth because unlike the others I didn’t have anything of my own to sell apart from my wisdom but it seemed enough as I dispensed advice left right and center.
I wore my hair down in a simple blow out for the event.
Straight after the event I did mini braids with my hair. The recent interview that I did on BHI with Jay of the mini braid method reminded me just how convenient this style is. The last time I did this style was almost a year ago.
Anyway, seeing as my hair was already relatively stretched, I thought I should take a sneaky peek at my length. I wouldn’t quite call this waist length, I would say that I am just grazing waist length. Either way I am definitely within touching distance of my goal.
It’s much easier to wash my hair when it’s in these braids so a henna gloss was in order with my wash day yesterday. My recipe is simply 1 package of henna mixed with enough water to make a very thick paste and left overnight to release the color. In the morning I added about a cup and a half or so of a super thick conditioner, I used Boots Coconut & Almond hair mask. I also added a couple of drops each of peppermint, tea tree & rosemary oil. Don’t add the essential oils unless you don’t mind the fragrance because even after rinsing completely, your hair will still smell of peppermint. Personally, I think it smells lovely! Here’s my mixed henna, looks gross doesn’t it?
I applied the henna mix on completely dry hair, I find that I don’t get any annoying drips on my shoulders when I do it this way. I kept it in for 8 hours or so during the day as I went about my business and rinsed it off in the evening. After that I co-washed with Tresemme salon silk conditioner. All I did afterwards was apply my Redken anti snap and that was it for wash day.
A quick comparison of my mini braids about 1 year apart made me smile. It is very gratifying to see some decent length retention!
In both pictures my hair is pretty wet with nothing but a bit of conditioner added. You will also notice that I have braided further down my strands in my second set of mini braids which is why they seem flatter. The set from 2011 were meant to be more a braided roots style rather than mini braids.
I never braid my hair all the way to the very ends, I just feel that it’s unnecessary and makes the take down way more difficult than it needs to be. Once hair is encased in a braid, the ends never tangle anyway.
The curls on the ends always look nice and stretched while they are wet but when shrinkage strikes, they just look like an unattractive frizzy mass. These pictures make them seem more defined and curly than they actually look in real life.
On a positive note, the henna, as always, left my hair feeling stronger so I’m pleased with the results of the gloss. I will probably do a braid out to give me more consistent curls throughout and that will be my styling done for the week.
