BSL by Dec 2011

Ummmm....BSL? Ladies I'm feeling very disheartened. I prepooed, washed, deep conditioned, airdried and went to the salon for a trim today because I could tell my ends were getting worse, not better despite my best efforts. I expected to lose about 1-1.5". Fine. I was very explicit in my instructions to the stylist (who was white and awesome btw) - "See the ragged ends? *I point to my hair* Take this off. Just so my hair looks neater and my ends feel better. I am growing my hair out and I do NOT want to lose any more length than necessary. Follow the natural "u" shape and do NOT give me a blunt cut, I don't like them and my hair doesn't grow that way anyway. I should not leave here with more than 1-1.5 inches of hair gone." She didn't mind my specificity at all. So my expectations were that my hair was going to be above my bra strap but thick or some-what thick all the way through the ends.

However my stylist said she could not do an accurate trim on my airdried hair. My hair...airdries VERY big and poofy if I do not use the scarf method, which I didn't. It was kinky and kind've dry even though I had sprayed leave in. I was prepared for that though....so I told her to blow dry it on cool air first to smooth it out and then she lightly flat ironed it. I was impressed with her skill. She sprayed heat protectant and did the roots thoroughly with more tension and didn't even flat iron the entire length of my hair if she didn't have to. She definitely only did one pass down the length on the parts that she did flat-iron all the way.

Anyways...after the trim, I looked and my ends were definitely BETTER but still very very very thin and see through. WHAT GIVES?!?!

Of course when I got home I immediately came in to take length shots (I had also done some on wet and half-way dry hair for my blog) and I was UN-pleasantly surprised to see I was still touching my bra strap. I wore this bra today so I know it's at the "right" spot on my body....but the bigger issue is LOOK AT MY ENDS! They are now even and trimmed but sooooooo thin! I feel like the entire area between APL and BSL could go honestly. I'm pretty upset about it because I have not slacked on my hair at all this year...I think the culprit was long stretching. I've already expressed on my blog and YT how my ends have thinned due to breakage during detangling sessions...but here is the proof.

Well here is my BSL hair that is hardly worth bragging about. :cry:
 

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NappyNelle said:
EbonyCPrincess You may have lead hairs that need to fill in. How have you been wearing your hair? Are you doing anything in particular for your ends?
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EbonyCPrincess I agree w/ NappyNelle. You may just have lead hairs that are beating your other hair to the punch so to speak.

Don't be discouraged. Just figure out what you want to do. Do you want to wait for the rest of your hair to catch up or do you want to cut and even things out. Don't feel bad. You are doing an awesome job w/ your hair. I know it sucks when your hair doesn't do what you want it to do.

Chin up chica. :)
 
NappyNelle said:
EbonyCPrincess You may have lead hairs that need to fill in. How have you been wearing your hair? Are you doing anything in particular for your ends?
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Lately, I have been wearing it down a lot, not everyday but often. But for the first six months of the year I was protective styling. My ends felt a little rough when I took out my sew in back in May but they didn't LOOK like this. So maybe I need to go back to protective styling? I'm going to get another sew-in weave in January but in the meantime? I really don't want to trim it all off at once...but I don't think I can stand looking at them everyday! I've just started using ceramides and doing the GHE method nightly. And drinking protein shakes and getting back to taking my vitamins. I'm trying to think of all angles!!!!

shasha8685 said:
EbonyCPrincess I agree w/ NappyNelle. You may just have lead hairs that are beating your other hair to the punch so to speak.

Don't be discouraged. Just figure out what you want to do. Do you want to wait for the rest of your hair to catch up or do you want to cut and even things out. Don't feel bad. You are doing an awesome job w/ your hair. I know it sucks when your hair doesn't do what you want it to do.

Chin up chica. :)
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I would think they are just lead hairs because I fully believe in that theory after seeing a couple of people's updates. BUT, they FEEL rough! Its like smooth...smooth....smooth....SCRATCHY! Thanks for the compliment on how I am caring for it, that means a lot coming from you. I think I'm going to trim frequently. I don't think I can mentally handle losing 3" and going back to above APL all at once. So I am just going to hope that the frequent trim + other changes will help them turn things around...
 
Wearing your hair down + not moisturizing adequately (=) dry, scratchy ends. I would go back to protective styling, not necessarily the sew-in, but something where your ends can be lubricated, then put up and out of the way.
 
NappyNelle said:
Wearing your hair down + not moisturizing adequately (=) dry, scratchy ends. I would go back to protective styling, not necessarily the sew-in, but something where your ends can be lubricated, then put up and out of the way.
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Agreed. I'm just frustrated bc nothing has changed in my reggie. I wore my hair down WAYYYY more when I was SL and didn't have this issue. And I def moisturize more than adequately I'm actually a little heavy handed. I think after a lot of reflection its more diet and vitamin related than my hair practices but going back to PS'ing will only help.

Sent from my DROID3 using DROID3
 
shasha8685 i need your regimen! your hair looks great

i hope that i can reach bsl by the end of the year. i was barley scraping it when i got my relaxer i just cut another .5-inch off to even my ends a bit. they still look thin:nono: im so upset that i let my hair go like this.my hair grows pretty evenly so i know that all of these thin ends are breakage.my hair is also a bit frizzy in the last picture. it usualy doesnt look that rough:lol:i wont be airdrying anytime again soon:nono:

first haircut march 2011


last straightening as a natural may 2011


when i got my relaxer sept 2011


today sept 2011
 
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Also EbonyCPrincess you and i seem to be in the same boat! i know you want to go further in your length journey but i think you should continue to grow it out and trim it back to bsl at the end of the year. i know thin ends are no fun and i love wearing my hair out too

also you ends may not really be that thin. maybe if you flat iron your hair very very lightly you can still keep some of the poof from airdrying that will make your hair look thicker..

also is it just me of is my BSL look much higher than many of yours? its not much farther than my armpits but for some of ya'l it looks like 4-5 inches from your arm pit....whats up with that?:perplexed
 
Napp said:
Also EbonyCPrincess you and i seem to be in the same boat! i know you want to go further in your length journey but i think you should continue to grow it out and trim it back to bsl at the end of the year. i know thin ends are no fun and i love wearing my hair out too

also you ends may not really be that thin. maybe if you flat iron your hair very very lightly you can still keep some of the poof from airdrying that will make your hair look thicker..

also is it just me of is my BSL look much higher than many of yours? its not much farther than my armpits but for some of ya'l it looks like 4-5 inches from your arm pit....whats up with that?:perplexed
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Napp - wow our timeline really does match up! Thanks for your encouraging words...that is precisely what I'm going to do! Grow, trim every 10 with every relaxer, grow, trim. I really do feel like BSL is "long" hair so its not like I'll be making a drastic cut. And yes you are so right about airdrying. I plan to camouflage the thin ends by not wearing styles that emphasizes it, great suggestion!

As for your bra strap, it falls where it falls. I am SO over people scrutinizing other's length achievements by saying "your bra looks high". Your brastrap is OBVIOUSLY inches below APL and so IMHO its a completely new length. And...yours looks to be sitting below your shoulder blades which is the "correct" place to support your breasts so I say its fine!
 
I must regretfully bow out of this challenge. I cut my hair off back in May like a big dummy listening to a stylist who told me it was too damaged to save. Maybe next year.
:(
 
Boy I am staying a APL a long long time, but I want healthy hair, so I am trimming monthly until she is healthy. Seeing progress there. Hair is getting stronger and thicker. I am going to hang in there and hope for an end of the year growth spurt. Being able to claim BSL with healthy thick hair would be a great christmas present.
 
I haven't been posting much due to a crazy work schedule. Life is sooo boring without visiting the site everyday:yep:.

The last pic I took was in August and it doesn't look like I've actually gotten much length since January :perplexed. HOWEVER, I trimmed a few times. I really need to learn to put the scissors down :sad:. It does look like my nape caught up but that could be me and my wishful thinking lol.
 

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So I said I wasn't going to do another length check, but I did lol (hey I'm only human). But I am now actually believing that I can make it by the end of December then very end tho lol. Here's my new picture...
 

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Hi, just want to give an update. I had a major setback last month, I decided to flat iron my hair and I was distracted and burned of a section of hair that I was about to flat iron. I used the marcel iron and electric stove, but I was not paying attention and did not remember how long it was in there and I just put my hair in it. Big mistake, I cried and I feel very discouraged about ever achieving healthy hair. :darkcloud:I did manage to get a picture, but my hair is looking raggedy.:ohwell:
I am entering the no heat challenge for next year, because that is one thing that I am gonna make sure I stick to. As for BSL, I suppose I will make it there by the end of December, but it will be bittersweet.
 

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I have not checked in for a long time but nothing new, I am still wearing the sew in i got in August. I am about 14wks post texlaxed. I may take this out to texlax in a wk because I am getting tired of my bob. I have been slacking by rarely moisturizing and only washing every 2wks...i know..i know. I am scared what my hair is gonna look like when I take this sew in out. I have been so tired and busy with my new position at work that taking care of my hair underneath has been the last thing on my mind.
 
Tomorrow I'll have a friend install a sew in... Not sure how it's gonna go... But I'm excited!

It's gonna be a full head, no hair left out, 8inch Janet Indian Remy Zizi curl. Not sure how "quality" the hair is... But it felt nice in the shop... And it was less than $20 per pack ::lachen::

So we'll see how this goes!
 
My hair is braided up with my own natural hair and then in Nov I will get a sew in. My first in years! I'm hoping to retain another 1" before I do my length check at the end of the year.
 
MsKikiStar It looks like you grew a lot to me. In the black hair picture I can see 2/3 of the tatoo, but in the red hair picture that top curly cue is now completely covered. Did you notice that?

I have been cutting, trimming, and trimming. Finally just had to tell myself that my hair will keep getting thicker without me chopping it down. I have so many layers because chunks of my hair fell out then grew back.

Anyway I see yawl getting serious in here in the month of october. Weaves, sew ins, no heat. Ya'll grow now. So here is what I am doing. Got me a bottle of Mega tek, and MTG. I am mixing them with my hairdrenaline, co washing daily, DC nightly, massage, chlorella, biotin, msm, and stretching my trims to monthly instead of every other week. Sometimes I can trick my hair into a growth spurt. We will see if I can bust out four inches in three months.

Going to restart yoga and drink lemon water for the rest of the year. Grow hair grow:rocker::roadrunner:
 
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I've just been bunning my hair lately. But I have been experimenting with different products each wash because I'm trying to find the best combination for airdrying my hair. When I hit jackpot, I'll let you all know. HHG, ladies!
 
I just did a quick length check and I'm within 1" of BSL. I will post a pick when my daughters get home from school. It looks like I might make it by Dec
 
Haven't updated in a while. I was considering taking myself out of this challenge after my setback where I lost 4 inches, it seemed improbably I could go from barely SL to BSL by the end of this year.:nono: But 2 months later I've already grown 2+ inches!:yep: (Thank You Hairfinity!:grin:) So I'm more hesitant to take myself out of this challenge when it looks like my growth rate's increased to at least 1 inch a month. If things keep going like they are, I should be back to my pre-setback length by the beginning of November and maybe BSL by New Years Eve!!
 
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