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?

I Just Graduated from the TWA Academy!

It's been super hectic for me since I've started at Wilhelmina. I'm learning better time management and with needing to look decent for work, I live in twist outs! I try my best to twist my hair up every night, not always in the same exact twist pattern, and sometimes I may just put my hair into little pony tails. Of all things important, I'm doing my best to never go to sleep without a satin/silk scarf or bonnet on my head. In the begining of the winter I was having a bit of trouble with dryness, but now with a little regimen adjustment and my handy dandy bottle of Jamaican Black Castor Oil, my hair has been soft, moisturized, and I can really see the length I'm retaining now! One other thing about my regimen, I've been staying away from heat and I would say that has made a big difference as well. Since twist outs and I seem to love each other, I am going to stick to what I've been doing, as I'd love to retain my full 3 inches by summer! The crazy thing is, though I've been the busiest in my life like ever, this is also the best care I think I have ever taken of my hair, all which I attribute to finally understanding...

The coolest part of this all?! I finally feel like my hair is longer and not a TWA anymore! 

It's almost all going in to a ponytail holder and I really can't wait to just be able to get a little lazy with my hair. I will probably straighten my hair once more before it gets warm, maybe some time in March or something so I'll do an official length check then...               

(The hair in these photos was from putting my hair in a ponytail after washing, then blowing the back out because it was still wet inside)

 These photo's are today's photos of a failed twist out that I pulled back into a banana clip.
All in all I see the effects of my hard work paying off, and in some ways I would say even the hard work I haven't been doing. Since I've been so busy I guess my hair has been more low manipulation, especially because on days off I would try my best to keep my hair twisted up, keeping the HIH syndrome at bay. Lol

I have to say, it feels good to feel like I finally "get it" when it comes to my hair and to be graduating from the TWA academy and leaving all those super awkward stages behind!

For all of you ladies who have started from a short haircut, how did it feel when you Graduated from the TWA academy?

3 steps to TWA Bob-ery!

SO.... My hair is looking more and more like a bob now... yay!

This Bob style was actually discovered accidentally so these are the steps i took, and will continue to use to re-create this look as my hair grows:


1. Wash hair, add leave in conditioner and gel and smooth hair back into 2 buns for drying and stretching.
I did my buns in the morning before going to work so i wore them for the entire day, about 12-14 hours. When i returned home my hair was still not dry in the middle, which led to the next step...
2. Once buns are mostly dry or dry, take them out, add a favorite moisturizer (I used coconut oil), and without disturbing the smoothness of the front of your hair, separate each ponytail in half and band all the way down so you end up with 4 banded ponys, put a bonnet or scarf to tie them down and go to sleep!
I like to band my pony's to already face in a downward motion so my hair will want to hang instead of stick up...
3. In the morning, take out your banded pony's and fluff and separate your curls with a favorite oil or serum for minimal frizz. 
If you want the front to stay flat like i did, do not disturb it, simply add some moisture for shine and fluff only in the back, lifting with a pic at the roots if desired.


Seem simple enough?! I can't wait to continue to try this as my hair gets longer and longer!

Wet bunning to Stretch + Style

 I guess I could say it's kind of a good thing when i'm feeling down about my hair, because it always gets me to think of new alternatives to what i can do... mixed with a little bit of laziness, lol. Yesterday while trying to figure out what to do with my hair, i knew didn't want to do anything time consuming or damaging and i wanted to wear my hair stretched... That's when it popped into my head: Wet Bunning! Now of course i've never tried Wet Bunning or there would surely be a post on here about it, and i would have been doing it sooner!!! Not that it never crossed my mind, it was just something that i was looking forward to, not something I saw as a possibilty for right now.

I co-washed with HEHH and Aussie Moist and fully detangled my hair with my Tangle Teezer (Which of course i love). I shook the excess water out of my hair and left it extremely damp to make it easy to stretch for ponytails. I parted my hair in 4 sections, added Shea Moisture's Curl and Hold Smoothie to each section, and began ponytailing, folding the ponytail under to bun each one.

About 3-4 hours later I had gotten a headache so i took the little buns out to breathe for about an hour, before putting them back in, except banding to sleep. When i took them out last night they were still damp, but they dried by this morning. I used some Vatika coconut oil to take the pony's out and loved how my curl pattern was still there, just a little stretched out... I separated some curls and tried to cover the parts by using my pik to lift at the roots. The outcome kind of looks like a few day old twist out, fro-ey with curls on the ends! I think this is def going to be a new thing for me for the times that i'm feeling lazy about doing anything to my hair. I dont want to do it too often because my edges are still very thin and im still working on thickening them out, so i wouldnt want my progress to backfire because im wearing tight little pony's just to stretch my hair out. I styled my hair using my little "Pin-down" method and i think it looks super cute!
Outcome under the jump! =o)