2011 A TWA Year In Review: Protective styling by any means necessary...

This post is kind of like a 2011 in review post looking back on my second year being natural and growing out my hair from an inch long... I decided to come up with a "TOP 5" of categories to kind of track my hair progress or digression.. here they are in order from most to least important (for me, that is.)

Moisture ~ I have definitely learned how to perfectly moisturize my hair for all seasons and needs... My problem is remembering when the seasons change that I have to switch up my regimen too... I always seem to have a bumpy start at the begining of a season and then i'm like "Oh yeah... DUH. Time for the old one, two, switcharoo!"

Ends ~ Split ends and single strand knots (curse those things) Inevitable for me as with my hair texure and curl patterns. I just do my best to keep my ends protected, stretched, moisturized, and I dust them (small trim) every 2 months approximately.

Satin/Silk head covering while sleeping & under hats ~ When I wear a hat I always make sure to wear a bonnet underneath so my hair wont get dried out and ripped up by cottons, fleece, and wools... Yeah... this is where I start messing up... I'm so lazy!!! If I sit down without my bonnet when I'm tired, that's it, I'll knock out without it... sometimes I'll get up in the middle of the night and put it on (if I can find it). I've been much better about it though lately and my boyfriend will even put my bonnet on my pillow if he finds it first

Length Retention ~ The question I should have asked was set backs?! lol All due to me not tying my head down at night and it getting all tangled, dry, and forming single strand knots ::shudders at the thought::
Otherwise, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give myself a 7.5 on the length retention scale

Protective styling ~ I hate it!!!! Isn't that horrible? I'm going to be honest, all I wanna do is grow my hair out so I can wear it out, do cool updo's, cool styles with large long braids or twists, or wear it in a ponytail or bun... The only thing i've really been able to do from that list so far is wear my hair out and try an updo or two (which was a struggle)

Now that I'm finally growing out of this TWA stage, I feel like protective styling is starting to have much better options for me and I'm so ready because I want to retain as much length as I possibly can from now until my birthday! I just don't know what to do... Extension braids? A weave? Should I stay weaved up from now until the summer? I also really want to protect my edges, especially in the front, so we'll see...


This week's style:

Rollerset hair which I decided to lightly flat iron.... once it gets all puffy on me it'll be twist-out time... and guess what?! I made a video too so as soon as I can get it up and edited I will!