2021 Shoulder Length Challenge

Last night I washed my hair without retwisting it. I went through and separated any "married" locs. Then, I did a loose braidout while wet and sat under the dryer for 30 minutes and air dried for the rest of the night. I am full collarbone length now on unstretched hair.

View attachment 474037View attachment 474039
Beautiful!! Your hair is thanking you for a job well done.
 
Last night I washed my hair without retwisting it. I went through and separated any "married" locs. Then, I did a loose braidout while wet and sat under the dryer for 30 minutes and air dried for the rest of the night. I am full collarbone length now on unstretched hair.

View attachment 474037View attachment 474039
Very nice. I'm sure you will have fabulous length by the end of the year.
 
Hi ladies. This week I baggyed 3 times. I haven’t washed my hair yet. My last wash was clarifying and new Giovanni products. I can’t say that my hair rejoiced. I also hydrated every other day. My ends are improved. A lot!! Which I’m thrilled about. Not as dry and rough. My hydrating black tea/hemp oil spray seems to like my hair. I added saw palmetto to it. My hair in my center scalp has thinned out some. Glad I noticed sooner than later. Scalp massages almost each day. I think that’s it. :drunk:
Ps. Does anyone use wood combs? I’d like to know which one to buy.
 
Ok I’m
I colored my hair and did a wash and go. I last colored my hair in April, so I'm pleased that it held up so long. My wash and go is getting better.

And I can truly see the change in length from month to month. I'm pleased with that. The pictures are a life saver :yep:

View attachment 474171View attachment 474173
you are definitely coming along! Do you massage your scalp?
 
I forget sometimes too! This natural hair thing is so much. :hair:
It doesn’t have to be a lot. Have you ever looked at iamblackgirlcurls on IG? They offer very simple hair care advice.
Some people find them controversial because their advice is contrary to what a lot of people do with their hair (and their tone isn’t always so nice), but they have helped a lot of people.
 
It doesn’t have to be a lot. Have you ever looked at iamblackgirlcurls on IG? They offer very simple hair care advice.
Some people find them controversial because their advice is contrary to what a lot of people do with their hair (and their tone isn’t always so nice), but they have helped a lot of people.
I’m not familiar with their page. I’ll look them up! And the moisture thing, 3-4 days/week. Managing my fairy and SSK’s, detangling… then there is wash day. Making my DIY goodies,

Pre-poo(with steam), shampoo, deep conditioning(with steam), then the LCO and braiding or twisting.

This type 4 hair definitely needs all of that. If I don’t? My hair becomes dry and breaks/becomes brittle. It has gotten better because I do keep up with its keeping.

Update- Yes I know them. I learned of them last year. Let me just say this. This tumble weed head needs butters/oils… fish grease! You name it. :D My hair has thrived with moisture. When I first did the big chop? My hair was so horribly dry/super tangled where I couldn’t even get a comb through it. It broke like crazy. I was relaxed from age 9-age 49 so I knew absolutely nothing about my hair. Took me 2 years to find a product line that loves my hair.
 
Last edited:
Hi ladies. This week I baggyed 3 times. I haven’t washed my hair yet. My last wash was clarifying and new Giovanni products. I can’t say that my hair rejoiced. I also hydrated every other day. My ends are improved. A lot!! Which I’m thrilled about. Not as dry and rough. My hydrating black tea/hemp oil spray seems to like my hair. I added saw palmetto to it. My hair in my center scalp has thinned out some. Glad I noticed sooner than later. Scalp massages almost each day. I think that’s it. :drunk:
Ps. Does anyone use wood combs? I’d like to know which one to buy.

I bought a new comb yesterday (Diane Rake), but it's plastic. I stumbled on a wooden comb, but I was scared that it would break.

Diane Rake.jpg

(Not like plastic is much better, but I'm curious as to what combs you ladies are using.)

eta: Nice hair shaping @GettingKinky :yep:
 
I bought a new comb yesterday (Diane Rake), but it's plastic. I stumbled on a wooden comb, but I was scared that it would break.

View attachment 474223

(Not like plastic is much better, but I'm curious as to what combs you ladies are using.)

eta: Nice hair shaping @GettingKinky :yep:
Hi. Thanks for sharing. I’ve been using what we’ve been using since birth. Lolol. I just use the wire tooth combs. I saw a post or a video that says that combs are joined in the center in two pieces. So most will have a seam. Which can be detrimental to our hair. And I checked!! All of mine have seams. I usually finger detangle but will be nice to have a hair safe comb.
 
I’m not familiar with their page. I’ll look them up! And the moisture thing, 3-4 days/week. Managing my fairy and SSK’s, detangling… then there is wash day. Making my DIY goodies,

Pre-poo(with steam), shampoo, deep conditioning(with steam), then the LCO and braiding or twisting.

This type 4 hair definitely needs all of that. If I don’t? My hair becomes dry and breaks/becomes brittle. It has gotten better because I do keep up with its keeping.

Update- Yes I know them. I learned of them last year. Let me just say this. This tumble weed head needs butters/oils… fish grease! You name it. :D My hair has thrived with moisture. When I first did the big chop? My hair was so horribly dry/super tangled where I couldn’t even get a comb through it. It broke like crazy. I was relaxed from age 9-age 49 so I knew absolutely nothing about my hair. Took me 2 years to find a product line that loves my hair.
I’m glad you’ve found what’s working for you, and if you’re happy with it I think you should keep doing it.

I was also relaxed from age 9 to 42. After I went natural I tried so many things. I used to prepoo, moisturize multiple times a week and do the LOC method. I also tried baking soda shampoo (which damaged my hair), ACV rinses, clay washing, cherry Lola, oil rinsing, and DIY shea butter mixtures.

For the last 2 years I’ve used just shampoo, conditioner and styler and my hair has become much quicker to deal with, and never looked better. I spend an hour a week on my hair, and I love the results.
 
Hey ladies, I removed the braids that I had because I wanted to wash the demi black out of my hair as I believe the demi with the developer was too strong for my strands especially since I have a relaxer. I used ion color remover and a clarifying shampoo, after about 4 shampoos, I believe 90% of the black demi is gone. Right now I'm wearing a bun knot with added hair.. I know I'm not going to make shoulder length by December, but I will remain in the challenge to keep my progress moving forward.. :blush2:
 
I pulled the crown when I shampooed. I think I might make NL by the end of the year. That is good progress for me.

During my lunch break, I shampooed, conditioned, detangled and applied a leave-in. I will put in twist for a twist-out later.

I have an appointment tomorrow to get my ends clipped. I have been having more SSKs in the past few months.

I have been wearing wash and goes but I'm getting a bit tired of trying to maintain them. I will probably go back to 2 strand twists after my appointment. Overall, 2 strand twists don't take too much more time than a wash and go and for me the maintenance is easier. And I don't have to sit under the dryer which is not my favorite. :yep:
 
I follow a girl on TT that has a humongous Afro. The hang time is amazing on it. She stresses water and she’s butter in many of her videos. I went my hair while I showered theirs evening and removed my twists. Finger detangled, applied plenty of Shea. Focused on roots/ends. Twisted it and tucked my ends. Let’s see if this basic approach works well in the next few days.

And my detangling session produced very little shedding. I think my adding chlorella and saw palmetto to my smoothies is beneficial. Collagen and msm is also helping I’m sure. :yahoo:
 
My mini braids are coming out at the end of this week. Have to find a style for August. Thinking of doing some twists
I’m think I may do some crochet braids. I have all this hair in my stash. I had them installed in September 2019(she charged $200). I had them installed a second time by someone who is less expensive and that was in a 2 month period. So I decided to learn how to put them in myself.

What I didn’t know was that I had to keep my hair moisturized. So each time I removed the braids, my hair was super dry/brittle and broken. Now I know better. Lolol. I took my last set out just before the pandemic and didn’t put them back in.

I need to prepare my hair maybe with some hair oiling and an intense deep conditioning session. I know ps’s will help me retain length.
 
Back
Top