Grow It Long 2020 Challenge

[nyeredzi]

I'm happy to report that my hair is back on track. I had it in the cornrows for just 2 weeks. I couldn't take the weight of the added hair and took the crochet twists out after about 5 days. But I left the cornrows themselves in until 2 weeks. They didn't look great, because I'm not good at cornrowing and taking out the fake hair messed them up further. But whatever. After 2 weeks I carefully took them down and took advantage of some of the cornrow parts to put my hair into medium twists. And left those in for another week. In that time, I washed my hair once, while still in the cornrows. I've now started washing my hair again, but in sections. Because of time constraints. This is a strategy I've used before, but not for a while. It makes it more workable time-wise and is also less stressful for me. Before when I did my hair in sections, I'd do half at a time. This time I just couldn't. I washed the most difficult quarter, the front right quadrant, a couple of days ago. I did another 1/3 or so tonight. The remainder I just undid the twists, coated with leave in and oil and retwisted. They'll have to wait another couple of days. The process was: wash with dandruff shampoo, coat heavily with cheapie Suave (which has great slip!), finger-detangled most of the way, and then gently used a brush to get out the remaining shed hair. Retwists, rinse out conditioner, then dry with Revair. Coat with leave-in and oil and retwist.

I've done my ends like this woman. It seems a good strategy to keep them from tangling:



The only reason I was able to do this was because I was able to not wash weekly. My scalp's been doing well allowing me to go a couple of weeks without washing. When I wash I pretty much have to detangle, so being able to wash less allows me to detangle less. I must remember to keep up with the dandruff shampoo, even once the issue has been mostly controlled.

 

[snoop]

I'd be interested in seeing your threaded hair styles.

They totally are not fancy or neat, as it was not part of my culture so I'm still learning and I'm a finger comber so my parts are messy. Also, my household still indoors since March so I really don't have anywhere to go, so the basic suffices. I've added a couple of a baby boy and baby girl who I use threading on for the same reason.

The mini twist picture are a bunch of mini twists that I gathered up to thread in larger sections, which is a style I wore earlier this summer for about a week.

The pigtail and ponytails are styles that I wore last month for a week each. You can see the slow progression of the frizz at my roots, but my twists held up over time. The twists look emaciated after taking the threads out, but they plumped up when I rinsed them at the end of each week.

 

[Mapleoats]

Posting some random hair thoughts here... but they are all growth and retention related so I think it fits

Washed and DCd last night. My hair is really changing for the good. While rinsing my DC my hair felt so soft and was really weighed down by the water and just very smooth... it was so weird to me lol. My roots and length were so smoothed I could feel a noticeable puffiness on my ends from tangles and SSKs. Usually my whole head is puffy so I don’t notice if my ends are misbehaving.

I also have had very minimal breakage since my last wash when I did a protein treatment. I never thought I had excessive breakage before but these past two washes I have had only a few broken hairs. I think I’m nearing the point where I don’t need to DC with each wash, but I will continue to anyway lol

lastly, I think I’m very near to becoming a semi straight haired natural. I’ve always been a twist out girl, but the last 6 weeks I had my hair semi straight ( one blow out and two back to back rollersets). Last week I wore my hair in twists and wore the twists out, and then in a bun for a few days before washing and the difference in tangles was just insane! I think the extra time/ manipulation required to stretch hair is worth it for the time (and hair) saved in detangling

I have my hair in some twists now and I don’t even think I’ll bother to wear them out, I’ll just leave them in until the next wash to avoid any tangles. I have definitely been spoiled by these rollersets lol.

 

[Mapleoats]

I'm happy to report that my hair is back on track. I had it in the cornrows for just 2 weeks. I couldn't take the weight of the added hair and took the crochet twists out after about 5 days. But I left the cornrows themselves in until 2 weeks. They didn't look great, because I'm not good at cornrowing and taking out the fake hair messed them up further. But whatever. After 2 weeks I carefully took them down and took advantage of some of the cornrow parts to put my hair into medium twists. And left those in for another week. In that time, I washed my hair once, while still in the cornrows. I've now started washing my hair again, but in sections. Because of time constraints. This is a strategy I've used before, but not for a while. It makes it more workable time-wise and is also less stressful for me. Before when I did my hair in sections, I'd do half at a time. This time I just couldn't. I washed the most difficult quarter, the front right quadrant, a couple of days ago. I did another 1/3 or so tonight. The remainder I just undid the twists, coated with leave in and oil and retwisted. They'll have to wait another couple of days. The process was: wash with dandruff shampoo, coat heavily with cheapie Suave (which has great slip!), finger-detangled most of the way, and then gently used a brush to get out the remaining shed hair. Retwists, rinse out conditioner, then dry with Revair. Coat with leave-in and oil and retwist.

I've done my ends like this woman. It seems a good strategy to keep them from tangling:



The only reason I was able to do this was because I was able to not wash weekly. My scalp's been doing well allowing me to go a couple of weeks without washing. When I wash I pretty much have to detangle, so being able to wash less allows me to detangle less. I must remember to keep up with the dandruff shampoo, even once the issue has been mostly controlled.

I’ve come to realize that half the battle with tightly coiled hair is in the detangling, doing it right costs a lot of time, not doing it right costs a lot of hair lol

 

[GettingKinky]

I’ve come to realize that half the battle with tightly coiled hair is in the detangling, doing it right costs a lot of time, not doing it right costs a lot of hair lol

how long does it take you to detangle?

 

[Mapleoats]

how long does it take you to detangle?

It really depends on my hair that day. Anywhere between 15 minutes (if I’m coming from straight hair) to an hour (if it’s been a while). On average maybe 30 - 35 mins. What about you?

 

[GettingKinky]

It really depends on my hair that day. Anywhere between 15 minutes (if I’m coming from straight hair) to an hour (if it’s been a while). On average maybe 30 - 35 mins. What about you?

If I wash my hair 2x a week it takes me about 5 minutes to detangle. When I wash 1x a week it’s 7-10 minutes. This is why I’m trying to stick to my 2x a week schedule.

 

[Mapleoats]

If I wash my hair 2x a week it takes me about 5 minutes to detangle. When I wash 1x a week it’s 7-10 minutes. This is why I’m trying to stick to my 2x a week schedule.

5 minutes detangling? Sounds like a dream , but unfortunately my hair could never LOL

 

[apple_natural]

I forgot that I wanted to do a prepoo/hot oil treatment before I detangled my perm rod set for wash day... it was a reeeeally long detangle.

 

[GettingKinky]

5 minutes detangling? Sounds like a dream , but unfortunately my hair could never LOL

I could probably stand to be a lot more gentle, but I just can’t see myself going much slower than I do now.

 

[nyeredzi]

It takes my an hour to detangle on the best day, with not being gentle. The normal time is 2 hours

 

[GettingKinky]

It takes my an hour to detangle on the best day, with not being gentle. The normal time is 2 hours

This is how I know I don’t really belong in this thread. I don’t have LONG hair. Do you detangle on wet hair with conditioner?

 

[Mapleoats]

It takes my an hour to detangle on the best day, with not being gentle. The normal time is 2 hours

Your hair is so thick, long and lovely though!

 

[nyeredzi]

This is how I know I don’t really belong in this thread. I don’t have LONG hair. Do you detangle on wet hair with conditioner?

The time difference between detangling my medium length hair and my long hair is not that great. Detangling on wet hair with conditioner is one common way I might do it, but not the only method i use.

 

[Daina]

They totally are not fancy or neat, as it was not part of my culture so I'm still learning and I'm a finger comber so my parts are messy. Also, my household still indoors since March so I really don't have anywhere to go, so the basic suffices. I've added a couple of a baby boy and baby girl who I use threading on for the same reason.

The mini twist picture are a bunch of mini twists that I gathered up to thread in larger sections, which is a style I wore earlier this summer for about a week.

The pigtail and ponytails are styles that I wore last month for a week each. You can see the slow progression of the frizz at my roots, but my twists held up over time. The twists look emaciated after taking the threads out, but they plumped up when I rinsed them at the end of each week.

I'm curious about the benefits of threading...is it just another means to keep the hair stretched?

 

[keranikki]

I’ve come to realize that half the battle with tightly coiled hair is in the detangling, doing it right costs a lot of time, not doing it right costs a lot of hair lol

I totally agree! You really have to decide what is more valuable, your hair or your time.
Today, I washed my hair in sections, which is something I don’t normally do. While it took more time to complete, I had less shedding because of it. Washing my hair in sections caused me to use less tension to detangle. Also keeping my hair in four plaits, under a wig, for the week helped.

 

[Daina]

Hi Ladies, pray everyone is safe and well! I don't believe I ever joined this challenge? Currently my hair is HL I think and I think I will shoot for TBL or is BCL the next length? I'm not sure but after that I am going to go into maintenance mode and try to maintain. I am extremely hair lazy these days and just don't have the patience anymore. Most weeks(3 out of 4) I wet bun cause it's quick and easy right out of the shower. It will last me all week and I like not having to do anything to it during the week. The other week I typically do a twistout. Right now my hair is straight and hoping to keep it straight for another 2 weeks. The pic below is after blow drying using my Revair before I flat ironed, so I will use this as my starting point. Hopefully this challenge will give me the motivation to stop being so lazy.

 

[snoop]

I'm curious about the benefits of threading...is it just another means to keep the hair stretched?

You can use it for threading, but these past weeks I've been using it to protect my twists from frizzing. My 4 week old threaded twists looked like my 2 week old unthreaded twists.
I did water rinses weekly so that I wouldn't over agitate my hair. With the heavy moisturizing and butters, my hair was a breeze to take down.

 

[water_n_oil]

This is how I know I don’t really belong in this thread. I don’t have LONG hair. Do you detangle on wet hair with conditioner?

I personally only spend 15-20min detangling.

 

[Kiaray8]

I spend roughly 20 minutes detangling I only detangle in the shower when I wash my hair.

 

[Kiaray8]

Hi Ladies, pray everyone is safe and well! I don't believe I ever joined this challenge? Currently my hair is HL I think and I think I will shoot for TBL or is BCL the next length? I'm not sure but after that I am going to go into maintenance mode and try to maintain. I am extremely hair lazy these days and just don't have the patience anymore. Most weeks(3 out of 4) I wet bun cause it's quick and easy right out of the shower.

BEAUTIFUL hair!! what is your routine when wet bunning & what products do you use?

 

[Daina]

BEAUTIFUL hair!! what is your routine when wet bunning & what products do you use?

Thank you! My routine is super simple because as of late my hair has taken a big back seat. The routine below is when my hair is in its curly state:
1. I cleanse once a week - 2 weeks out of the month I co-wash and deep condition. To co-wash I use Wen Fig or Sweet Almond mint; to deep condition I use Alikay Naturals honey and sage deep conditioner.
2. The other 2 weeks I cleanse with either African black soap (currently really liking the Melanin hair care ABS) or I clay wash using bentonite, rhassoul, amla and ACV; after the clay mask I deep condition usually with the Alikay.
3. I detangle in the shower and will usually add my leave-in...I don't have a staple leave-in that I love but use either Alikay lemon grass, Wen, or Camille Rose moisture milk
4. If I wet bun I add a little more water and then seal with either grapeseed oil or Melanin multipurpose oil; finally I use either wet line (original as I have 2 big tubs left) or ecostyler olive oil gel

That's it pretty basic, the longest step is deep conditioning which I try to do for at least an hour. I leave the bun in all week and sleep with a satin scarf. My scarf is typically on most of the time when I am in the house. On the weeks that I don't bun I do a twistout. Now that it is turning colder I will probably do more twistouts versus wet bunning unless I can let my hair somewhat dry before going outside or I will wear my scarf and use one of my trusty slap caps. My routine is super boring at this point!

 

[water_n_oil]

I personally only spend 15-20min detangling.

Apparently that was an overestimate based on last night's wash. More like 8-10min. Takes longer if I go a while with only finger detangling or minimal detangling. I use the FL brush in the shower w/ just the water.

 

[GettingKinky]

Apparently that was an overestimate based on last night's wash. More like 8-10min. Takes longer if I go a while with only finger detangling or minimal detangling. I used the FL brush in the shower w/ just the water.

I really like that brush. I get out a ton of shed hair. I’ve stopped worrying about breakage, and just go straight for the brush without using a wide tooth comb first.

I do some finger detangling while I’m shampooing and conditioning, but that brush makes it so easy to finish the job.

 

[water_n_oil]

I really like that brush. I get out a ton of shed hair. I’ve stopped worrying about breakage, and just go straight for the brush without using a wide tooth comb first.

I do some finger detangling while I’m shampooing and conditioning, but that brush makes it so easy to finish the job.

Yup, I'll usually do light finger detangling when there's anything in my hair but I use the brush prior to that point. For my girls I brush before and after adding their leave in. That brush makes tangles almost a non-factor.

 

[Prettyeyes]

I am interested in doing this next year

 

[GettingKinky]

Here’s my latest progress.

 

[Mapleoats]

I am interested in doing this next year

Yes definitely. We should have another round for 2021

 

[Mapleoats]

Here’s my latest progress.

Your curls are hanging noticeably lower now

 

[GettingKinky]

Your curls are hanging noticeably lower now

Thanks!
I’m finally starting to notice progress. I think it’s a combination of growth + better technique. My diffusing skills have definitely improved since December, and I’m way better at applying my gel.