Here are a few lessons I learned along the way:
1. Don't be surprised if you have to adjust your reggie as your hair gets longer. I discovered that I'm working with multiple hair textures and have to treat each texture accordingly.
2. Do embrace doing your own hair. I still don't self relax, but doing the regular weekly care (wash, DCing) myself has kept me in tune with changes in my hair. Before LHCF, I NEVER, EVER washed my own hair or did anything to it. I was a slave to my stylist.
Knowing my hair
prevented me from listening to my stylist's recent advice to cut the bottom 3 inches of my hair because it is texlaxed rather than bone straight like the rest of my hair. I knew the hair wasn't damaged, so I sought solutions other than the scissors!
3. Don't sleep on protective styling. I didn't do it at first, but when a few LHCF members suggested that I do it as a way to break my BSL plateau, I noticed a major retention difference. I've been bunning since May and as you can see from my trim, I hardly had to trim anything. It was more of a dusting. Prior to this, I was having to trim about a 1/2 inch each time.