Reflections: Length Obsessing

Just passing my 2nd year anniversary on this journey has had me doing so much thinking... One of the biggest thoughts being: Why have I been obsessing so much over long natural  hair?

As I have been trying to get out all of my last few TWA posts and now that I'm in the In-Be-Twa stage, it really put this length obsessing into perspective.

 When I was relaxed I hated my hair! It was always thin and stringy, though it helped me blend in with the rest of society for as long as I wanted until I decided to go natural (texturized really) in high school.

Once high school was over, I was over my stagnant hair.

I never remember having any hair that went significantly passed my shoulder, so with having "hair that doesn't grow", I opted for a short cropped cut, and loved it!

 I thought I could keep my hair texturized with this process, but that was too much work for me to keep it straight, so I finally gave in and relaxed it. I loved wearing my cropped cuts for a while, but after a catastrophe, even if I decided to relax my hair again later, I knew that going natural was the way.

All of my natural hair inspiration were long haired girls. I mean, I saw pics of beautiful TWA's, beautiful TWA cuts and hairstyles, but even though I went natural and chopped all my hair off, what I really wanted was natural long hair.

I liked my 2 inch TWA, easy and beautiful, but I won't lie, I've hardly enjoyed the in between time, and I still haven't gotten to a point where I truly love my hair and everything its doing. Don't get me wrong, I've already fallen madly in love with the textures of my hair, but I never wanted or even considered short natural hair, I want to see my curls in inches upon inches! I'm also dying to see my curl pattern as my hair gets a little longer and heavier! lol

So why am I obsessing over length? Because I want what I want! lol I wore my cropped cuts for nearly 4 years, and had nearly shoulder length or only a little past shoulder length (when i was much younger) hair my whole life before that, so I'd say I have every right to be extremely over having short hair...

That being said, I'm calming down on the length obsessing, because unfortunately i don't have play-doh hair that i can just press my scalp down and grow it as long as I want instantly, lol.

I also realize that I am a slow grower, yielding about a 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch a month, so I will not be reaching my goals as fast as the average growers, but instead I may be 6 months to a year behind.

I've also realized how extremely fine and fragile my hair is, and I think I can finally say that I'm ready to let go of color! I will be keeping my little party patch in the front, and i would be lying if I said I might not try some highlights or a little Ombre in the future, but I can say that i will NEVER do a full head of color on my hair again. I realized that my hair is silky and is a lot stronger without the color, which also means more natural slip, less ssk's and split ends for me... more length retention.. woop woop!

Look at how naturally happy, healthy, and silky my virgin hair is! I can't wait!

Funny because at the start of my natural journey, I had did a second big chop to get rid of color damaged hair and go back to virgin hair, and my hair wasn't even as damaged as it is now. One thing's for sure, I won't be making any hasty decisions and chopping my hair off again! lol

So, I'm calming down on the length obsessing and turning up the protective styling and patience, because I have at least 3 or 4 years before I reach my length goals. With my tightly curled hair, I want to grow my hair  until it's shoulder length to arm pit length in a wash and go without any stretching. You know what that means, look forward to at least another 3 to 4 years of growing and styling with me!!! Woo Hoo!!!

What reflections have your hair milestones bought upon you?

Yet Another Tragedy Has Befallen My Head!!!

But thank goodness it wasn't that bad!!!
Uhg... another story... here goes...

So ever since the end of last week, the weave hair I had decided it didn't like me anymore... one of the reasons I resorted to a high bun the other day. The sad part is, I was actually loving this weave and was uber excited about the prospect of wearing this weave for at least a month and I was going to too! Everything was working in the beginning, I didn't need to add any heat, my hair was blending so easily and beautifully, my hair I left out all around worked for a ponytail/bun and was still flourishing... no reason to take it out except for the dreadlocks it started to form.

I usually never buy pack hair for reasons like this, but with it working so well for my cousin I really wanted to try it. She bought the 8" which was a little different, and didn't have any issues. I watched two reviews for this hair on YouTube, two on the opposite extreme of good and bad, so with the good review and the raves from my cousin, the good outweighed the bad so I purchased it, until the bad outweighed the good when I wore it. All in all it was beautiful and easy hair while it lasted, and I still plan to try the 8" when I have a chance...

On to the real tragedy:

Upon the take down of my weave, I accidentally cut off the last 2 inches of my braid!!!! WAAAA!!!!!!

I was totally flipping out! My original intention upon taking down the matted weave was to blow out my hair and do extension braids, but as soon as this incident happened, I wanted to straighten my hair to see what everything was really looking like.

 I felt a sense of relief that it happened in the very back of my head for sure, but I was also dreading having to cut the whole back of my hair off because it felt like a pretty huge chunk, and it kinda is... but since there's hair all around it, I can kinda camouflage it. It really sucks because my hair was finally getting longer, and with the fine, low density hair I have, I need every strand I can get! So now in about a 2" x 2"box in the back of my head, my hair is 2" to 3" shorter than the rest of my hair... but I'm hoping by some miracle, and a little shaping back there it'll catch up.

The hair that was cut just reaches the top of my shoulder

My hair that wasn't cut is about an inch or 2 past my
shoulder

You can see the difference in the two lengths side by side here

 So I guess these are a bit of an unofficial 2 year mark photos, even though I still have about 2 weeks to go. I do need to trim my ends, so maybe I'll just take an inch off in the back and dust every where else, just to start evening things up a bit and still stay within my goal to get rid of some layers and have a more blunt cut. Once I trim at the end of this month I'll do an official 2 year update with all the comparison pics and all that jazz, lol...until then... buns it is..

Have you gone through a hair crisis? What have you done to combat the issues?

In-be-TWA-ers! I Need Your Help!

So it has come to my attention that I'm not really allowed to claim the TWA title anymore because my hair is getting too long for that (thought it's still damned short to me) ... It feels like my hair is in High School... (punchline) It doesn't fit in anywhere! lol

I'm sure anyone who's grown from a TWA to long hair understands... Where do we fit in when we get to the in between a TWA and Long hair stage? If your hair is shoulder length stretched but still shrinks above your ears naturally, are you or are you not considered a TWA anymore? It's all too confusing!!!
As a blogger, I don't want to miss-label my posts or mislead anyone and I want to make sure I'm reppin' for the right crowd...

So how should I label my posts with my current hair length?
In-Be-TWA-ers? (sounds like French, lol)  A term I kind of coined... should I stick with it or should we come up with a new title? I need some help!!!