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Luscious Healthy Ends Challenge 2025

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Which of these problems would you like to solve so you can have Luscious Healthy Ends in 2025?

  • Knots on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 20 51.3%
  • Splits on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 23 59.0%
  • Brittleness on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 13 33.3%
  • Tangles on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 7 17.9%
  • Velcro/Brillo texture on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 8 20.5%
  • Breakage on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 12 30.8%
  • Thinness on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 16 41.0%
  • Dull/Whitish/Grayish color on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Matted/Felted hair on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Sticky hair on Ends of Hair

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Total voters
    39
It's been two months so I went to my hair appointment for another smoothing treatment and trim. Got bangs this time too! I look like a different person... it will take sometime to get used to but I do like the bangs. I did get a little bit of growth. Honestly, I am enjoying the long bob.
 

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It's been two months so I went to my hair appointment for another smoothing treatment and trim. Got bangs this time too! I look like a different person... it will take sometime to get used to but I do like the bangs. I did get a little bit of growth. Honestly, I am enjoying the long bob.
Your hair looks very healthy and sleek. How often do you have your smoothing treatment?
 
Monthly Update Series of Questions

Alright, we are heading into the last week of August 2025.

How are you progressing? What are those ends looking like?

Have you had any epiphanies?

Have you set bolder goals?

Have you pulled back on some goals?

Have you had any realizations about your hair or your hair care practices?

How is your consistency?

Extending grace to you?
 
Monthly Update Series of Questions

How are you progressing? What are those ends looking like?
I'm staying steady. I'm getting my weekly reset in and not changing much right now.
My ends are slowly improving.

Have you had any epiphanies.
Yes, I think mini twist are a problem for my ends. I took down the larger twist with no problem. But the mini twist which I did in the front were not so easy to pull apart. My hair is too short in areas to do larger twist all over and have it look decent. I will stick to flat twist as much as possible and try larger twist maybe at the end of the year. Will see.

Have you set bolder goals?
No. Just sticking with something safe because I know I don't want to do the work for bigger goals.

Have you pulled back on some goals?

No. Still shooting for some parts of my hair grazing APL in December and most if not all of my hair being SL. :pray:

Have you had any realizations about your hair or your hair care practices?
A few things
1. Think I realized I needed to add some protein treatments on top of the bond treatments I do. Not sure what lead to that realization.
2. I need to buy a new comb. I've probably been using the same Hercules Sageman comb for over 10 years.
3. When my leave-in and conditioner run out, I think I'm going to try the salon products at CVS because I can get 40% off. That way I can try without worrying about spending too much. Plan to start with the Paul Mitchell products. I liked them many years ago.

I think I need to add a protein treatment in before I do my next length check. Will hit Sally's the holiday weekend and see what I can come up with.

For the holiday, I will give my hair some extra love and some extra treatments (protein and a bond treatment).

How is your consistency?
Yep, getting it done weekly

Extending grace to you?
Yep. On top of it.
 
August 2025 Update:

I have been back in the United States, permanently, since July 26th. I have not washed my hair. I feel like I broke into the US atmosphere like a space capsule returning to the Earth's atmosphere. I have had to hit the ground running and burning. I am caring for my mother and she has so many needs. The GREAT thing is that I have had the luxury to cultivate my hair care process in France over many years so I am on a healthy auto-pilot with my hair.

How are you progressing?
I have not checked in with my progress. I am trying to keep my hair braided and protected. I undo and re-do my braids gently and continue to use my S-Curl and Shea butter on my ends. People in Los Angeles stop me as I go about my business and comment that I have such beautiful hair.

What are those ends looking like?

I haven't seen my ends since my last trim in April. August is the month I am supposed to trim. I would like to get a blow dryer with a comb and get some scissors to trim my ends. It seems I am right on time for my second (2nd) four (4) month trim. I trim my ends every four (4) months in 2025. I changed from trimming every three (3) months like I did in 2024.

Have you had any epiphanies?

No epiphanies but just reminders, in the form of tangles on the ends of my hair, that I MUST protect and tuck away my ends. If I wear my braids out for even a few hours they curl up into balled knots and I instantly lose length.

Have you set bolder goals?

No. I am would like to go through 2025 to see how this every four (4) month trim cycle does for my hair. I can compare it with my 2025 three (3) month trim cycle to determine which one may work better for me. I'm not feeling bold right now. I am trying to stay in a safe harbor with my hair as I have had so many abrupt changes in my life since April 2025.

Have you pulled back on some goals?

No, not really. I love the certainty and surety of my protected, braided style. It keeps breakage and tangles to a minimum and I enjoy the hairstyle. I feel beautiful with my hair like this and am comforted by the fact that my hair is protected.

Have you had any realizations about your hair or your hair care practices?

A reminder more so. I have not been home in my Southern California sunlight in a long time. Normally when I visit I am just ripping and running. Now, as I care for my mother and her needs, I am doing things more methodically and reflect as I drive about town running errands. The sun here bounces off and reflects my hair like no other place I have lived. So, I enjoy the gleam and shine of my hair in the sunglight here.

How is your consistency?

I am quite consistent in keeping my hair protected. I use my fingers to detangle when I re-do my braids. I don't keep my hair covered at night and I want to go back to that.

Extending grace to you?

Absolutely! I take time to do my hair when I am going out and I do it gently. I appreciate my hair and myself. It helps to keep my cup full as I care for my mother and her needs. When I extend grace to myself, I can better extend grace to my mother. So it is PARAMOUNT that I practice extending grace to myself at this point and time in my life.
 
@faithVA

I got extra bucks for hair care products at CVS and thought nothing of it and discarded them. Now, I am going to be smart like you and retain those receipts and use them for hair care products, too! I love the fact that you have had realizations.
Sign up for the text messages or emails or whichever. They send out a monthly 40% off one product without fail. And between those they have 20% of this or that. Of course they have bumped up the price but at 40% off you are still saving especially if it is something you just want to try out.
 
August 2025 Update:

I have been back in the United States, permanently, since July 26th. I have not washed my hair. I feel like I broke into the US atmosphere like a space capsule returning to the Earth's atmosphere. I have had to hit the ground running and burning. I am caring for my mother and she has so many needs. The GREAT thing is that I have had the luxury to cultivate my hair care process in France over many years so I am on a healthy auto-pilot with my hair.

How are you progressing?
I have not checked in with my progress. I am trying to keep my hair braided and protected. I undo and re-do my braids gently and continue to use my S-Curl and Shea butter on my ends. People in Los Angeles stop me as I go about my business and comment that I have such beautiful hair.

What are those ends looking like?
I haven't seen my ends since my last trim in April. August is the month I am supposed to trim. I would like to get a blow dryer with a comb and get some scissors to trim my ends. It seems I am right on time for my second (2nd) four (4) month trim. I trim my ends every four (4) months in 2025. I changed from trimming every three (3) months like I did in 2024.

Have you had any epiphanies?
No epiphanies but just reminders, in the form of tangles on the ends of my hair, that I MUST protect and tuck away my ends. If I wear my braids out for even a few hours they curl up into balled knots and I instantly lose length.

Have you set bolder goals?
No. I am would like to go through 2025 to see how this every four (4) month trim cycle does for my hair. I can compare it with my 2025 three (3) month trim cycle to determine which one may work better for me. I'm not feeling bold right now. I am trying to stay in a safe harbor with my hair as I have had so many abrupt changes in my life since April 2025.

Have you pulled back on some goals?
No, not really. I love the certainty and surety of my protected, braided style. It keeps breakage and tangles to a minimum and I enjoy the hairstyle. I feel beautiful with my hair like this and am comforted by the fact that my hair is protected.

Have you had any realizations about your hair or your hair care practices?
A reminder more so. I have not been home in my Southern California sunlight in a long time. Normally when I visit I am just ripping and running. Now, as I care for my mother and her needs, I am doing things more methodically and reflect as I drive about town running errands. The sun here bounces off and reflects my hair like no other place I have lived. So, I enjoy the gleam and shine of my hair in the sunglight here.

How is your consistency?
I am quite consistent in keeping my hair protected. I use my fingers to detangle when I re-do my braids. I don't keep my hair covered at night and I want to go back to that.

Extending grace to you?
Absolutely! I take time to do my hair when I am going out and I do it gently. I appreciate my hair and myself. It helps to keep my cup full as I care for my mother and her needs. When I extend grace to myself, I can better extend grace to my mother. So it is PARAMOUNT that I practice extending grace to myself at this point and time in my life.
I know you are busy but it sounds like you are starting to settle in. Thoughts and prayers with you!
 
August:

How are you progressing? What are those ends looking like?

-Ends look better now that I cut 2” off, earlier this month.

Have you had any epiphanies?

-Yes, kind of…. think I already knew, but forgot…I suffer from instant gratification syndrome. I sabotage my progress adding processes and or products that don’t necessarily do anything for my hair or scalp, but I BELIEVE it will because my favorite hair person uses it. AND I expect to see results or feel results immediately. For example, I immediately felt the results of hibiscus powder (strength) but I didn’t need it everday. My hair became brittle and started breaking.

Have you set bolder goals?

-Nope

Have you pulled back on some goals?

-Yes, I have pulled back. My original goal was to get to APL. Now, I just want my shortest layer to reach SL. Currently, it’s NL.

Have you had any realizations about your hair or your hair care practices?

-I’m fighting perimenopause right now, so I need to wear my hair in a way that will not require too much work. I’m in WNGs for now, until I have the patience to braid my hair without raging.

How is your consistency?

-My consistency is much better. I have solved my damage issue. My hair has recovered now that I cut off the damaged ends. I’m not seeing any breakage when I manipulate my hair. I wash weekly and may cowash 2x per week, if necessary. I still have some heat damage to remove, but those hairs are behaving.

Extending grace to you?

-Always
 
August:

How are you progressing? What are those ends looking like?

-Ends look better now that I cut 2” off, earlier this month.

Have you had any epiphanies?

-Yes, kind of…. think I already knew, but forgot…I suffer from instant gratification syndrome. I sabotage my progress adding processes and or products that don’t necessarily do anything for my hair or scalp, but I BELIEVE it will because my favorite hair person uses it. AND I expect to see results or feel results immediately. For example, I immediately felt the results of hibiscus powder (strength) but I didn’t need it everday. My hair became brittle and started breaking.

Have you set bolder goals?

-Nope

Have you pulled back on some goals?

-Yes, I have pulled back. My original goal was to get to APL. Now, I just want my shortest layer to reach SL. Currently, it’s NL.

Have you had any realizations about your hair or your hair care practices?

-I’m fighting perimenopause right now, so I need to wear my hair in a way that will not require too much work. I’m in WNGs for now, until I have the patience to braid my hair without raging.

How is your consistency?

-My consistency is much better. I have solved my damage issue. My hair has recovered now that I cut off the damaged ends. I’m not seeing any breakage when I manipulate my hair. I wash weekly and may cowash 2x per week, if necessary. I still have some heat damage to remove, but those hairs are behaving.

Extending grace to you?

-Always
That’s a superb realization!!!!
 
Decided to do an Apoghee 2 minute reconstructor, followed by a K18 treatment because I feel like I have been slacking on my treatments this summer. I have not done protein in years probably.

I continuously do search and destroys whenever I touch my hair. My gray hairs split every time I take a breath (lol) Overall though, my splits have decreased a great deal since January. With a few more trims I should be in a very good place. I think it will be Spring though before my ends are of quality. I'm not willing at this point to cut off 2 inches to have wonderful ends. I need that length to put my hair up easily each week.

I took progress pictures in June and I don't see any real signs of growth when I do a pull test. However, this morning I was able to pull my hair back into a small bun in the back when I ran errands. And after cleansing, I put my hair easily into 4 Bantu Knots, instead of the usual 6.

Hoping with small wins each month, the remaining 4 months will show some visual wins in my end of year photos.
 
I have beauty supply stores galore around me. There are about five (5) in walking distance. I would like to purchase a blow dryer as I left the appliances I had in France because they were built for the European market and French, electrical outlets.

I am not sure I have the bandwidth to do my hair. BUT, I don't want to be whining at the end of the year regretting what I should have and could have done. So, I think I am going to try to purchase that blowdryer this week and do my hair. Meaning, wash, condition and trim my ends.

I am so excited to peruse the aisles and look at ALL the products for hair care.

I may be a week or two late for my four month blow out and trim but I am determined to stay on course for the year. I only have four more months to finish it out sticking to my schedule.

I just hope I have the energy and the opportunity. Wish me luck!
 
Yall, I broke down to get twists in my hair cause I am just very over my hair and exhausted and in pain every day.

I am shocked that people still try light people’s hair on fire “to neaten” a style. I stopped her the second I smelled/ heard the fire but it honestly didn’t occur to me that people still do that. She did get a few strands before I caught it but psa to those who don’t get styles like that regularly and just don’t think of it.

My ends towards the middle are probably burnt / broken now and it’s a bit of a set back but lesson learned. Not planning on keeping these in longer than 8 weeks and the braider was actually fine otherwise (braids aren’t too tight). Hopefully I can keep good scalp health with diluted shampoo and conditioner for my hair. Going to grab another jumbo bottle of conditioner when I have time.
 
I am shocked that people still try light people’s hair on fire “to neaten” a style. I stopped her the second I smelled/ heard the fire but it honestly didn’t occur to me that people still do that. She did get a few strands before I caught it but psa to those who don’t get styles like that regularly and just don’t think of it.
:eek: Do your braids have added hair, or is it just your natural hair? I did mini-twists for my daughter last week - just on her own hair - and while we were contemplating on whether we had used the right combination of products to keep them neat for about two weeks, I was wondering whether the braiders that do the “dip in boiling water” or lighter/fire thing would do that on real hair too.
 
@Chicoro I was at Costco last week, and they had three levels of hair dryers with attachments galore included… Dyson at $300+ (I saw the first “3” and quickly looked away :lol:), the “more reasonable” Shark Flexstyle at $199.97, and the budget Conair Performa at $39.99.

The Conair one made me mad, because that was what I paid for my no attachments/accessories included Conair dryer over 30 years ago, and I have probably paid more than that in buying and replacing attachments for it in the years since. It works just fine though, so I never feel justified in buying a new one.
 
Yall, I broke down to get twists in my hair cause I am just very over my hair and exhausted and in pain every day.

I am shocked that people still try light people’s hair on fire “to neaten” a style. I stopped her the second I smelled/ heard the fire but it honestly didn’t occur to me that people still do that. She did get a few strands before I caught it but psa to those who don’t get styles like that regularly and just don’t think of it.

My ends towards the middle are probably burnt / broken now and it’s a bit of a set back but lesson learned. Not planning on keeping these in longer than 8 weeks and the braider was actually fine otherwise (braids aren’t too tight). Hopefully I can keep good scalp health with diluted shampoo and conditioner for my hair. Going to grab another jumbo bottle of conditioner when I have time.
I'm sorry to hear that you are having pain. I hope that you will find something to manage it and if possible resolve it. I hope that your natural hair is preserved and that she only burned the added, synthetic hair.
 
@Chicoro I was at Costco last week, and they had three levels of hair dryers with attachments galore included… Dyson at $300+ (I saw the first “3” and quickly looked away :lol:), the “more reasonable” Shark Flexstyle at $199.97, and the budget Conair Performa at $39.99.

The Conair one made me mad, because that was what I paid for my no attachments/accessories included Conair dryer over 30 years ago, and I have probably paid more than that in buying and replacing attachments for it in the years since. It works just fine though, so I never feel justified in buying a new one.
I JUST renewed my mother's Costco membership. AND, I had been planning to step into that store. I am not sure if I have to have my own membership to get in, too. My mother has mobility issues and she can't navigate around that large, vast store.

Well, well, well. Another BLESSING! I wanted to go to Costco and buy a blowdryer and looky here, those two wants are not only beautifully combined, but have been communicated to me by my LHCF sister, Ms. @yamilee21 . We all know that if a Niko's cousin says something, you better pay attention.


Thank you!
 
:eek: Do your braids have added hair, or is it just your natural hair? I did mini-twists for my daughter last week - just on her own hair - and while we were contemplating on whether we had used the right combination of products to keep them neat for about two weeks, I was wondering whether the braiders that do the “dip in boiling water” or lighter/fire thing would do that on real hair too.
There’s added hair so that’s some level of protection and the boiling water was well past my real hair so I didn’t mind that. I guess I was so thrown off by a literal fire next to my head. I don’t care about style perfection that much here though since I will be washing my scalp regularly and I know that will naturally accumulate some frizz. I think some leave in/ mouse under my flexible dryer should be good enough to keep it decent.
 
There’s added hair, so that’s some level of protection, and the boiling water was well past my real hair, so I didn’t mind that. I guess I was so thrown off by a literal fire next to my head. I don’t care about style perfection that much here, though, since I will be washing my scalp regularly, and I know that will naturally accumulate some frizz. I think some leave in/ mouse under my flexible dryer should be good enough to keep it decent.
Yeah, that lighter method is 90's old school. I didn't realize people still did that after Y2K. I had a braider who used to do that to my '93 'Poetic Justice' Dookie Braids when I was little lol. It was supposed to melt the straggly pieces of the false hair to make the braid neat, but definitely was unhealthy for the real hair, and honestly unnecessary for hair braided well/neatly.
 
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Yeah that lighter method is 90's old school. I didn't realize people still that after y2k. I had a briader who used to do that to my '93 'Poetic Justice' Dookie Braids when I was little lol. It was supposed to melt the straggly piecs of the false hair to make the braid neat but definitly was unhealty for the real hair and honestly unnecessary to hair braided well/neatly.
I love your braids when you do them. Can you do those 'dookie' braids? And if so, what is it about them that gives them or makes them that distinctive 'dookie' braid? I believe it's the thickness. What would you say @Lylddlebit ?
 
@yamilee21
I decided to go to the beauty supply because I needed a blow-dryer and wanted a flat iron. I love the Conair Yellow Bird that is at Costco, but I figured I'd need additional tools such as the k-cutter and the scissors. I have NEVER heard of these brands but I went cheap because I got these things to help me straighten just to trim. I usually keep my hair straight from maximum 24 hours to minimum, 1 hour.

I paid 16.95 for the blowdryer and 12.99 for the flat iron. Let's see if they hold up. My standard use of these styling tools is about 3 to 4 times per year. All together I paid about 52 dollars for everything pictured.

WHEN I get to my hair, I don't know. I hope it is no later than this weekend. My hair is matted at the roots and gummed with product. But, HEY, my ends are protected!

I already have shampoo and conditioner here. Those products are easier 'for me' to get anyway. So, I think I am good.

Blowdryer and Styling Tools September 9th 2025.jpg
 
I love your braids when you do them. Can you do those 'dookie' braids? And if so, what is it about them that gives them or makes them that distinctive 'dookie' braid? I believe it's the thickness. What would you say @Lylddlebit ?

Thank you. I do know how to install 'dookie braids'. I classify them as large braids that have the knot at the base(where the false hair attaches), large parts and melted ends that taper to a point. They are basically the same braids that Janet Jackson wore in the movie poetic Justice or the Rapper Patra used to wear in the early 90's. They last about a moth and used to be really popular from aroudn '91-'98.

Both of of these are me in the 90's. These are on the smaller side but still pretty thick. I used to go even bigger. I had all the spunk on earth as a kid.
 

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