OK, another journal log (bear w me, ladies. lol)...
I am currently a SAHM. DH works from home. I homeschool my son, who has special needs, and we moved 4 states over and bought a house a year ago that needed a TON of work. Now we now live in a climate that pretty cold for at least half the year so I RARELY leave my house. I'm the "handyman" around the house so if I do leave, I'm often just running to Home Depot. Like, I even have my groceries delivered. lol.
I'm saying all of that to say that it has been so easy to become hair lazy. These days, my hair stays under a satin skull cap with a bandana over it. I have a duffle bag full of wigs but I only rock them once maybe every 5 months for a day. A big reason why I locced a couple years ago was bc I needed to be hair lazy. In retrospect, I probably should've just gone under extensions or crochet for those two years but I wanted to be able to rinse my hair daily (turns out my locs were NOT good for that). I knew I was gonna go back to texlaxing once I cut and combed out my locs.
For inspiration, I often look at two of my similar photos for progress pics. Because my current hair length is shorter than I've ever had (relaxed) since starting my HHJ, I frequently look at these two photos:
Staring point ............................... One year later
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But I was natural in those photos. I kept my hair in cornrows under wigs or mini-braids without extensions. And I know it's possible to really retain under wigs and other no-manipulation, full PSs. So then I look at these two:
My first virgin texlax ............................. First touchup 4 mths later
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To see if it's possible to retain without full PSing. I can see that my hair looks much fuller. Both are post-touch up braid outs bc I didn't used to use heat on relaxer day. In between those times I stayed in braidouts, WNG ponytails, bantu knot outs and mini braids. I'm currently approaching my first touch up after another virgin relaxer and I'm trying to decide what to do with my hair after I relax it.
I'm trying to become hair un-lazy. But it's still winter. And I
really don't go anywhere now. I'm thinking of going back to some of the out styles I used to rock bc my son has stopped his hair-pulling, except during one of his meltdowns, which are truly epic. I want to feel pretty sometimes and I want to try to find a way to enjoy my hair at its current length. But the last time I did that, I stayed in MBL purgatory. It was when I started dating my husband and I wanted to be cute, since I had never had long hair before. Lol.
These were my styles:
bantu knot outs ................... my trusty minibraids .........WNG Ponytail ................. braidouts
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None of them really protect my strands or my ends like my full PSs do. And this was my non-progress:
April length check ................. August length check, that same year
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Yup, the same daggone line. Lol. Nowhere near what I retain when I'm using full PSs and only minibraids as my "loose" style.
I guess I'm trying to figure what balance of rocking it out loose vs under full PSs I need to do in order to retain length while boosting my desire to wear my hair out more. To be fair, part of my being hair lazy was abandoning Ayurveda. I'm never giving that up again - I attribute it to my progress in the first photos and the health of my hair before I locced in 2020. I guess it's better to experiment now that my hair is short than to wait until it's long again. Yeah, I think that's my verdict. I'll rock it out when it's warm and then cover it fully in the Fall and Winter.
OK, end journal entry. lol