Prelude to the " It's All for My Hair" Series

Hey everyone...lets grab a cup of our favorite beverage (mines is a hot cup of Foldgers Vanilla coffee), stand in front of a mirror, take a deep breath  and ask our selves out loud, " Have I been taking care of my hair!?" I'll be the first to admit,  I do get breakage and tangles and sometimes excessive shedding and worse of all I IGNORE IT! Yes! Yes! I know, why would I take myself through 15months of the transitioning phase to allow my natural hair to go astray? Well I had a line of excuses written up, ready to defend my reasons of neglecting my hair.
- " I don't have time to properly detangle"
-" No matter what I do, it still breaks!"
-" Maybe its in my genes to have damaged hair!"
-" Finger detangling is the DEVIL!!!"
-" I don't have the proper products!"
Trust me, the list goes on and on. But like everything in every aspect of  life, excuses are unacceptable!!

Lets think about it, while we look at the ends and strands of our hair; what are my hair goals? Now in MY mind, I think everyone's hair goal, natural or chemically altered, is to have long, strong, manageable hair. Am I right?! Now, since I'm not a mind reader, I'll play safe and speak for myself. My hair goals are to accomplish, longer, stronger, thicker, moisturized  and manageable hair! Now that you've thought about your goals, go back to looking at those strands; how close are you to accomplishing those goals? Again, i'll admit, i'm no where closer to my goals. I'll be bold and share picture of my strands but in a later post. Lets focus on what we're seeing; are you seeing frizzy or tamed strands, tangled or untangled curls, smooth curly ends or split ends/ single strand knots or both, and/or straight ends or curly ends( regarding excessive heat users). Now get a sheet of paper, opps forgot to tell you to grab that, and write down your observations. * take your time* Now, lets feel our strands and ends; how do they feel? Dry or moisturized, weak or strong, and/or soft or hard?  Now next to each observation, jot down what you'd prefer your hair to look and feel like. Doing this exercise can help us realize where we are on your growth, healthy, or definition journeys. Here's my list below:

                                   My Hair Analysis

Current                                                              Goal
Visual:                                                                Visual:
a) some split ends                                          a) little to no split ends
b)Some knots                                                 b)little to no knots
c) frizzy                                                         c) less frizzy ends
d) frizzy strands                                           d) less frizzy strands
e) some tangles                                           e) little to no tangles

Touch:                                                               Touch:
a) slightly dry strands                                 a) less dry strands
b) dry ends                                                  b) less dry ends
c) strong curls                                             c) stronger curls
d) soft curls and strands( for now)            d) Always soft curls and strands


 Making this list also might be an eye opener to some that they may not be taking care of their hair; which might be the reason for the excessive breakage, damage, tangles, and frustration. I'll admit, it took me a while to acknowledge the, for lack of better word, abuse I've done to my hair and even longer to take the first step to taking proper care of my hair.



After making that list, I thought of techniques I can use to achieve the above goals; I thought to myself about what I did to my hair daily, weekly and monthly, what I've been doing wrong during those time periods and what I can do to improve on them.

Current                                                      Goal
Daily:                                                        Daily:
Style                                                          Style less 
Moisturize                                                Moisturize when necessary
Mostly and heavily manipulate                Little to no manipulation

Weekly:                                                    Weekly:
Detangle with deman brush and              Detangle with fingers and deman brush when needed
shower comb
Shampoo( with gentle or clarifying          Gently shampoo hair(mostly scalp)
shampoo)
Condition or/and deep condition              Condition AND deep condition
Add leave in conditioner and seal            Add leave in conditioner and seal

Monthly:                                                   Monthly:
N/A                                                           Clarify with clarifying shampoo

Now I know this seems like a little too much to go through just for hair but going natural is a journey that I've became linked to and a part of my life that I want to improve and build. Plus taking care of it now may result in less frustration and work in the future. So to make this extremely long story a bit short, i'm going on a challenge; a challenge to improve each and every one of those techniques above to accomplish my Visual and Touch goals for my hair. I've started this two weeks ago and will post how i'm improving each techniques later into a " It's All for My Hair" series.

No one has to join this challenge but I do encourage anyone who's experience the same or worse with their hair than I am, to take a deep look into your strands and question yourself, " What do I want for my hair?!" I don't know how long I'll be doing this challenge but I know I wouldn't stop until I see the results that i'm expecting and hey if I do get those results then what'll be the point in ending the challenge.

Anywho, I wish healthy hair to everyone!! And we'll chat later on in the blog.  God Bless!