Grow It Long Challenge Keep Growing On...

[Lucia]

 

[Aggie]

Deep Conditioning overnight with 22nd Century Protein-Free Deep Conditioner tonight.

 

[Aggie]

This morning I used the 22nd Century Peppermint shampoo bar and it sud up really good plus it cleaned my hair without stripping it. I now have some Annabelle's Moisturizing Conditioner on my hair.

One thing I should make a note of. After I rinsed out the 22nd Century Conditioner and washed with the shampoo bar and rinsed that out, my hair felt light and it clumped beautifully. I do like how the 22nd Century DC feels on my hair though.

These I will not use to detangle with but they work well together to clean and condition the hair. Hence my reason for using the APB DC.They do have that herbally smell to them but not in a bad way to me.

 

[Lucia]

This morning I used the 22nd Century Peppermint shampoo bar and it sud up really good plus it cleaned my hair without stripping it. I now have some Annabelle's Moisturizing Conditioner on my hair.

One thing I should make a note of. After I rinsed out the 22nd Century Conditioner and washed with the shampoo bar and rinsed that out, my hair felt light and it clumped beautifully. I do like how the 22nd Century DC feels on my hair though.

These I will not use to detangle with but they work well together to clean and condition the hair. Hence my reason for using the APB DC.They do have that herbally smell to them but not in a bad way to me.

What's APB ? Thanks

 

[Aggie]

What's APB ? Thanks

It's Annabelle's Perfect Blends. There is a thread in the vendor forum about these great products if you' re curious.

 

[ItsMeLilLucky]

What's APB ? Thanks

You didn't ask me but it's Annabelle's Perfect Blends=APB

 

[Lucia]

It's Annabelle's Perfect Blends. There is a thread in the vendor forum about these great products if you' re curious.

Thanks will go look

You didn't ask me but it's Annabelle's Perfect Blends=APB

No problem whoever can answer should, were pretty informal here.

 

[Lucia]

If you haven't read this, please do it's a MUST READ for every long hair or soon to be.

SHS (scissor happy stylists), are not your friend

https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/shs-stylist-are-not-your-friends.443230/

 

[Leo24Rule]

State your challenge goal Bronze, Gold, Platinum, Diamond (you can change this status at anytime)
Diamond Plus

Start Date: January 14th, 2017

End Date: December 14th, 2017

Hair Length Goal for this Challenge: MBL Curly (hangs passed my chest)

Ultimate Hair Length Goal: WL Curly

What or who inspired you to go for this goal:
It looks pretty.

YouTubers:

• CourtneysCurls
• JasmineBrown
• Leximarcella
• Shizen
• Curly Proverbz
• Lauren Lewis
• Jewellianna Palencia
• 1ballerina

Instagram:

• alyssa_redenti
• joyjah

Regimen: Ayurvedic Powders 1x a week, Deep Condition 1x week, moisturize and seal daily

Extras to help get to goal faster: Hiding my hair with wigs, sleep on satin pillowcases, eat healthy, exercise 3-7 days a week, drink LOTS of water, take vitamins.

What you will do once you reach goal: Aim for a TL curly

 

[Chicoro]

Babying my ends. They are becoming less knotted and split. I feel like my hair is responding to my extra gentle touch and revamped hair regimen.

 

[Lucia]

Babying my ends. They are becoming less knotted and split. I feel like my hair is responding to my extra gentle touch and revamped hair regimen.

@Chicoro

Would you post your updated regimen? or a link to where it's written? Thanks we'd all appreciate it.

 

[Chicoro]

@Chicoro

Would you post your updated regimen? or a link to where it's written? Thanks we'd all appreciate it.

@Lucia, Sure!

The summary of the information below in my [new] routine is that I no longer use a comb. I also do not take all my hair down at one time anymore. I wash, condition, and moisturize in braids. I do take one braid down at time to finger detangling after washing and conditioning. Almost every day, I saturate the ends of my braids with water and coat the last 5 inches with pure castor oil.

I made some observations about women with afro-textured, tail bone length hair and wrote it out. The notes are detailed below in the link that I have provided. This is pretty much my new routine, in detail.
It is post #7 in this link:
https://longhaircareforum.com/threads/how-to-care-for-tbl-real-hair-in-protective-styles.808475/

Here's what I wrote:
My observations for many tail bone length women with afro-textured hair:

1. Hair is rarely washed more than 1x per week
2. Hair is washed in braids or twists or sections(one on one attention is given to either each section and/or each braid in that section). This one may seem obvious and well known. But the difference is that these women don't take all braids/twists out at once and combine the hair on a regular basis. Either they undo the hair and leave it in its own section, or they wash, condition and leave all hair in braids/twists. To detangle and comb out, they do one braid at a time, leaving the rest braided or twisted or sectioned but tend to not combine all the hair together.
   • Note: I overlooked this. I have always washed and conditioned my hair in braids. But after I detangled a section, I would combine it with the other sections. Hence, I would always need to use a comb to detangle it and get it back into sections. With these ladies, fingers are used more than the comb.
   • Also, I realized that I have been damaging my hair NOT at the detangling stage, but before, during my braiding and unbraiding. I pull and snatch my hair apart and the force or tension maximized at the ends of my hair causing tangling and breakage. I have been damaging my hair before I even began the detangling process.
   • For the first time EVER in my hair care process, I did not need to use a comb because I washed, oiled and conditioned my hair in braids. I carefully and gently undid a braid, while leaving the rest braided. I put in my leave in and gently re-braided that one braid. Surprisingly, the unbraiding/leave-in/braiding took a long time even without detangling with a wide, toothed comb.
3. Hair is sectioned / done in sections-See detail above, point #1.
4. Hair is stretched before it is styled (bantu knot, banded, heat stretched). Some women let there hair dry in
   • braids or twists
   • bantu knots
   • banded hair
   • put on rollers
   • Some women lightly blow dry
5. Hair is kept stretched after it is styled (These ladies tend to gather their twists and pin around their heads or combine the twists creating some kind of stretching on the hair.)
6. Shea butter is often used (protects hair and organic tissue like hair and skin from the break down of proteins on the exposed surface by the environment, specifically protects against the sun.) It may not be used throughout the entire journey, but during significant time frames or points in the journey (transitioning only, washing, sealant, etc)
7. Extremely low maintenance styles (For me, low maintenance styles are not necessarily protective styles! I define low maintenance styles as those where the hair is manipulated as little as possible.)
   • Some braid or twist hair until it dries and leave it for three days to a week, then undo the hair to wear braid outs or twist outs until the next wash day.
   • Some leave the twists or braids in until the next wash day.
   • Some do up do's
8. Specific daily hair end regimen (or frequent as in 2 or more times per week, ends given special attention)
   • Even if the entire braid or twist is redone , they tend to have a specific regimen for the ends
   • Ends are wetted or spritzed with water, an oil is added (Water + oil) (Usually castor oil or shea butter).
9. Protective Styles (For "me" , protective style is determined by what you are doing with the ends of the hair. If the ends are not up and out of the air, I do not consider the style protective.)
   • Ends are twisted up, covered, tucked and/or kept from the air like Wanakee Pugh taught years ago
   • Hair ends or the entire head is kept covered or protected during the day and/or at night
     • Head scarves for night
     • Tucking or hiding hair during the day or night
10. Trimming
    • Trimming done on a fairly regular basis
    • Trims tend to be done in braided or twisted styles (Unevenness not an issue as most of these women rarely or ever wear heat straightened hair styles)
11. Time (2 to 8 year journeys. The average seems to be 5 years.)

That's all! It's enough, I know!

Edit: Forgot some form of protein is used whether be in a commercial product, treatment or DIY. Frequency depends on the head of hair.

This is the work or process one needs to do when hair is in the 3b to 4a and beyond range. My hair is in this category. If your hair hits tailbone simply because you stop using heat and bleach, start to condition and do hot oil treatments, you may not likely have the kind of hair that requires this type of process to gain length.
____________
P.S:
YouTube video reference added January, 20th, 2017!


This video, linked below (Natural Hair: How I twist My Hair For a Twistout -by Naturally_Nica) epitomizes the process I wrote out above. She has tail bone length, afro-textured hair. (Steps 1, 8, 10 and 11 are not observable in this video. These steps are observable or she communicates this information in her other videos).

 

[Leo24Rule]

Even though I had already cut my hair prior to another challenge; I'm finding spit ends. Bummer...
So I'm going to try @Chicoro method of spritzing ends every night & applying castor oil.

 

[Chicoro]

Even though I had already cut my hair prior to another challenge; I'm finding spit ends. Bummer...
So I'm going to try @Chicoro method of spritzing ends every night & applying castor oil.

I don't spritz!
I saturate those ends under running water! I literally put my braids under the faucet and let them get soaking, wet. I put a towel around my shoulders. Then leaning in the sink, I coat my hair with undiluted, not mixed with anything, pure castor oil. I don't put a tiny dab on the ends. I pour out a dime or nickel amount for each braid and coat the last 5 inches, and ensuring the end of the braid is covered. Then, I put the braids up and protect the ends. I try not to put any tension on the ends, either!

With the water/castor oil combination, my hair is a bit 'hard', almost firm. It's different than dried out brillo pad-like dryness. The hair seems almost 'fortified' with the water and the castor oil.

 

[Leo24Rule]

@Chicoro Huh... Every night? Well your hair is beautiful. I'll upload a pick of my stratened hair come spring

 

[Chicoro]

@Chicoro Huh... Every night? Well your hair is beautiful. I'll upload a pick of my stratened hair come spring

Thank you for the compliment. I appreciate it!

I have a lot more free time, I think. It takes me about 5 minutes to do this because of my hair style.

 

[Chicoro]

@Leo24Rule,
When I'm in the house or wearing a head wrap, I'm in Bantus. When I'm actually wearing a wig, I release my Bantus and just pin the braids around my head. But I do not re-braid my hair or manipulate my ends. I'm braided from wash day to wash day. I decided on this style because it allows me to do all that I need without having to re-style my hair. It's either wrap those braids in bantus, or release them and pin them. This one style allows me to wear head wraps, wear wigs and easily access my ends to put water and oil on them at night. Lastly, I put my hair in bantus, and put that plastic cap on at night, and I have my protective style that keeps in moisture and doesn't allow my hair to rub against anything during the night.

It's not exciting or sexy, but works for what I am trying to do.

 

[Leo24Rule]

@Chicoro thank you for the visual...Our hair looks the same in plaits

 

[Lucia]

 

[Aggie]

I washed my hair this morning with 22nd Century Shampoo Bar and now DCing with 22nd Century Deep Conditioner under a plastic cap while at work all day today with my wig on top, of course.

I won't have time to DC tomorrow because I have an all day women's seminar to attend.

ETA: Looks like I'll be sleeping with this DC in my hair tonight because it's too late for me to deal with my hair right now. I just got off from a 13.5 hour day at work and ain't no way I'm washing my hair tonight .

 

[Aggie]

I used Naturelle Grow Sweet Plantain Leave in this morning and sealed it in with Sarenzo Creamy Oil.

 

[Dee Raven]

Welp, I learned something really important. The products I "loved", the CD Marula line, my hair actually hates. It's been a while since I used it, and I just bought another bottle of conditioner (boo). When I used it, it could feel that it put a coating on my hair, but that it didn't actually moisturize it. And I even sat under a heated bonnet for 30 minutes. So I'm back to the Deva Curl products. My hair was super curly and I tried pairing the styling cream with Eco styler gel. It came out great.

I guess it's better to learn now then later. I wonder if this is why I was having breakage last year.

 

[B_Phlyy]

Well since today is the last day of the challenge, I would like to say that while I did not reach my goal length, I am happier that my hair is longer and healthier than it was when I started. Slow and steady wins the race so I'll stay consistent with my routine and get to my length when I can.

It was fun spending these past 18 months with you ladies. I'll post a pic later on today or tomorrow.

I wrote this when I thought the last day was 12/31/16 but since this thread is still going, I'm still going.


Start Date: 1/1/17

End Date: 12/24/17

Hair Length Goal for this Challenge: Mini braids to be shoulder length shrunken

Ultimate Hair Length Goal: Hip length stretched

Regimen: Same as last year, Co wash 5x a week, shampoo and DC 2x a week
LOC daily

I'll be wearing wigs from now until April and then bunning from April/May until November

What you will do once you reach goal: French braid with flowers down the back

 

[Aggie]

I moisturized my hair with APB Moisturizing Hair Creme and sealed it in with SSI Coriander Fig Balm. My hair smells awesome and feels great too .

 

[WeirdoBeauty]

@WeirdoBeauty,
Congratulations on reaching your goal of APL! APL can be one of the hardest milestones to reach. You've done it!

@Lucia,
If you do another one for 2017, I plan to join this time around!

I know this is a super late response, but thank you. Now on to BSL

 

[Lucia]

 

[Leo24Rule]

Sunday I recut my splits. And since doing so I've been wearing ALL of my own natural hair without hair-add-ons or wigs. I'm proud of myself...
This way I'm controlling how my hair stays moisturized because under a wig it gets zapped dry. And also this allows me to appreciate my hair!
So far I've been getting lots of compliments even though I've only styled it so far in a pineapple bun with the ends tucked.

 

[Lucia]

Clarifying: shampooed with Neutrogena anti residue shampoo (FYI: it will strip motor oil from your hair) I only use it when I feel like I have a lot of buildup that's not coming clean with acv diluted in water.
Amla mask: Massaged then coated entire hair with amla paste. Let sit under heat cap 30m, let cool.
DC : under steamer right now with CRN coconut water DC will be 40m total then let cool
After my regular LOC with some of my favorite staple products. S and d on the ends, which I could count less than a dozen. Done.

 

[Lucia]

My hair is in some loose braids, will rebraid or change style on wash day
Re-moisturized hair, spray mister until hair is moist to damp and avocado oil.
My new hair steamer broke, I'm getting a refund and looking for a diff brand. Any suggestions I want to stay under $100

 

[Lucia]

Great idea I'm going to try this.