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?

Putting Together My Hair Looks for the Fall/Winter Season

 With all of this cool weather coming in NYC, my mind has been so preoccupied with what I'm going to do with my hair for this upcoming fall/winter season. My hair is about shoulder length when straight, and doesn't even pass my ears when fully shrunken, so I plan to live in roller sets and twist outs to be able to easily manipulate my hair into different styles.

With the idea of keeping my natural hair freedom, protective styling, and the look I would like to have for myself in mind, I took some time to google a few cool styles I can definitely see myself pulling off this fall/winter season. I know my hair is much shorter, and a lot more textured than a lot of these photos, but of course I will be tweaking them to my needs and liking (The In Be-TWA version).
I will also be trying using a curling iron on my natural curls and plan to buy some curlformers for some different sets. I don't think I would enjoy flexirods... they've never interested me really... and the flexirod tutorials I've enjoyed have all been on longer hair with huge flexirods... so I think I'll just wait to experiment with those on own my hair when it's longer.
I'm really liking the a little messy, carefree look a lot of these updo's have and with beautiful sets I can also create these controlled messy looks.
I really want to try to keep my hair up as much as I can this fall/winter because I'm scared of the breakage that ensues when fragile hair like mine rubs against the harsh fabrics of coats, hats, and scarves. I do my best to buy silk scarves and wear my bonnet under hats, but even then my hair gets caught in all the layers of fabric and snags, tangles, and/or gets dried out. If I am wearing my hair down, I will combat the damage by putting the back of my hair up to go outside with either pincurls and bobby pins or a quick ponytail or bun.
I'm pretty sure these are looks I'm going to love even as my hair grows longer so this will be a great post to refer back to when I need a little inspiration with styling my hair. A few easy, classy, and timeless looks that I will also enjoy translating for us TWA ladies as well.
Have you started forecasting your fall/winter hairstyles? Any of these spark your interest?

Combating Breakage in Dry Desert Climates

 I recently came back from the west coast for a work trip, spending a week in Los Angeles and 2 days in Las Vegas. A few posts ago I had mentioned how ever since my hair's been long enough to go into ponytails, that's exactly what's been happening with it... I had been moisturizing daily and making sure to tuck my ends under whenever I did little buns, but one day while removing my ponytail holders, I saw a few broken strands of hair and totally freaked out!!! I knew it wasn't the ponytail holders because I got some new ones I really love that don't snag my hair at all. I knew my hair had been feeling dry with all of the dry desert heat, visits to the pool, and tanning, but I never thought it would start breaking. All I could think of was all of my hard work, feeling like I've been working for it forever and then watching it going down the drain.
Immediately, with my small resources (seeing as how I wasn't home I didnt have everything I needed) I began putting together a concoction of what would be the deepest conditioner possible at the time... A mix of whatever conditioners were on hand, and some Palmers Cocoa Butter Body oil. Thank goodness it worked! I started mixing the oil into my conditioner every time I washed my hair, and left a good amount of conditioner and oil in my hair afterwards too. I'm so glad I've come this far in my haircare to understand that what I saw was breakage, and to have had an idea of how to combat it.

How have you dealt with your hair under different climate circumstances?

My Last Straightening Before Summer Concluded

Here is what my hair looks like straightened after being unwrapped, without having any real bump to it. These pictures may be kind of horrible, but they've been great with helping me track my progress.




As you can probably see, my left side is my faster growing side, and my right side is my fuller growing side, so my hair is a little asymmetrical but I'm okay with that for now. I've been growing out my layers a little before focusing on length, trimming more in the back and less in the front or I would have definitely had an afro mullet by now -___- Not happening. Seeing as how I "big chopped" twice, I would definitely say my goals were readjusted from growing length first, to shaping my hair first. I'm really looking forward to this summer coming and the length I can retain, since last year I dealt with a setback and basically had no summer retention, plus needed to trim a good 1/2 inch of split ends. This year I'm really on my game so nothing of the sort will be happening under my watch. I'm definitely looking forward to those 2 inches I should gain from now until September.
I've gauged that my hair doesn't grow that fast, and I think it definitely misses Hairfinity. I can't lie, I feel like my hair was growing like weeds when I used to take these vitamins religiously back in 2010... My birthday is coming up, I think I'm about to make myself an order...
I've been fully natural for the past 2 years now, so I have more than enough mistakes and set backs to have taught me a thing or two so I can now avoid those issues. I know certain things are unavoidable (Yeah, I mean You SSK's! #ikillyou! You too split ends!) but I'm so happy I've learned different techniques and theories to keep these issues at bay. Aside from any setbacks, I'm also really happy just to have learned my hair, what it likes and needs, the fact that I have like 7 different textures and all of my beautiful hair is in a mohawked section on my head, and my sides and edges will be the death of me. The fact that my hair doesn't seem to grow the average 1/2 inch a month but instead a little slower. Understanding is a beautiful thing.

Looking back at the different goals I've set and readjusted on this blog over time, I wasn't doing too bad with staying on track until my setback last summer. With a quick goal readjustment, I'm hoping to claim full shoulder length by the end of the summer, Collarbone length even, and full arm pit length by Valentine's Day 2013. By this point, hopefully most of my layers will be grown out, so all of my hair can reach these lengths, not just a tail in the back. My hair is really fine, so it also adds to the reason why I don't want too many layers, I want my hair to look as full as possible. My goal is actually to achieve all one length (with probably just like an inch of layering from the bottom for shape), full, hip length hair that is full all the way down to the ends. It might sound crazy, but since I'll be wearing my hair curly 97% of the time, it'll probably still be shrinking up to shoulder length in Wash n Gos if I let it... Plus with my short torso, hip length is jsut about 20-22 inches of hair on me... 6 down, 16 more inches to go! lol

And lastly, I will say I'm uber excited to see my ponytail, as with relaxed hair I never had a ponytail even half as full as it is now (sad. I know). The even better thing  about that is, my hair still has a lot of growing to do so my ponytail will be even fuller soon! =D

I can't wait to see what my hair will look like straightened come September!!! Who out there is Growing with me?!