2021 Shoulder Length Challenge

Alta Angel said:
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.

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Beautiful!! Your hair is thanking you for a job well done.
 
Alta Angel said:
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.

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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
faithVA said:
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:

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you are definitely coming along! Do you massage your scalp?
 
KenyafromCT said:
I forget sometimes too! This natural hair thing is so much. :hair:
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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.
 
GettingKinky said:
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.
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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.
 
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KenyafromCT said:
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.
Click to expand...

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:
 
awhyley said:
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:
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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.
 
KenyafromCT said:
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.
Click to expand...
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:
 
B_Phlyy said:
My mini braids are coming out at the end of this week. Have to find a style for August. Thinking of doing some twists
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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.
 
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