well, those folks at work "just don't get it"! they see your gorgeous long locks and admire them, but they have no idea the work and effort that goes into caring for them.
my boss was telling me today to wear my hair how she likes it str8 and down like I had it one day when I flat ironed, and I told her I can't do that everyday, I have to wear my hair up in order to keep it protected and retain length. She said she never heard of that before.
some things that i'm finding are really helping me with this stretch are, strangely enough: yogurt and banana baby food, buttermilk, oil rinses, ceramides, baggy bunning, cowashing, and dc'ing overnight on "dry hair".
it seems that the dry hair just eats up the dc and JBCO like the wet hair cannot. as if the wet hair is already "to full" to digest anymore.
cowashing has taught me that, contrary to many beliefs, water is a stretchers best friend! i used to worry about the reversion, but wearing wet/damp baggy buns, solves that problem.
the oil rinses make detangling easy to do because it coats the hair to keep it soft.
once the water has softened the ng through the cowashing, applying the JBCO (sometimes i mix it with EVOO or a ceramide like hemp oil, just to thin it out a bit) with an applicator bottle directly to the roots of the hair really locks that moisture from the water in and makes the hair incredibly soft.
and the yogurt banana baby food and buttermilk have proven to me, beyond any doubt, that my hair will lay flat, even without the need for a scarf. the protein in those (and the moisture from the bananas) really help the ng and that all important "line of demarcation", which always needs strengthening.
in that dc mix i was speaking of last night, i had AO HSR and those grocery store bought "foods" mixed with other moisturizing dc's, put the JBCO over it and today, i've got hair that is shiny, soft, and closer to my head at almost 16 weeks post than it was at 8 weeks post when i didn't know about these other methods.
please try it BlackGeisha, you might find that it works for you, too!