I Cut It...Again

So I relaxed my hair on April 28 at 12 weeks and 2 days post. I am satisfied with my stretch and I was satisfied with the amount of growth I received. It was not anything extraordinary, just my normal growth rate. My ends were tangly and coarse feeling which I knew was due to split ends, residual damage remaining from when I colored my hair a while back.  So I decided not to worry about them because you all know I cut off 2 inches the last time I relaxed and more cutting would just be taking my length shorter and shorter and shorter.

So a week went by and this past Saturday, May 5^th, my fiancé and I were going out and I decided to wear my hair down and curl it. Not really the best idea since it is now very hot in Texas and if I am feeling hot for any short period of time I will begin to sweat which causes my hair to stick to my face, neck, and any exposed skin that has sweat on it. Also, as I curled my hair, I noticed I wasn’t really getting that “look” I am used to….black, shiny, bouncy healthy looking curls. I knew it was due to the split ends. Well, I completed my style and we went out. The combination of the heat and my split ends caused me to get thoughts about cutting my hair...again. I mean cutting shorter than it has been for years.  So when I came home that evening, I went in the bathroom, grabbed my cutting shears and cut a little more than 3 inches off from the length of my hair.

Yay! Freedom from ugly tangly crunchy split ends! I really think I have cut off all the damage now. Examining my hair I believe I have a fresh start to begin growing my hair back out. My hair feels light and airy and healthy! The real test that convinced me that all the split ends are gone was washing my hair. My hair felt so silky and I had so much slip as I washed and conditioned my hair last night. My hair has not felt like this in a loonnnggg time and I thought it was due to hard water and mineral deposits building up on the shaft of my hair but I have now concluded that it was due to split ends. Split ends are the devil, lol.

So it’s back to the basics. Back to following my simple hair goals:

• Relax every 12 weeks or longer.
• Moisturize and seal hair nightly.
• Sleep with satin scarf every night.
• Scalp massages 3 times a week.
• Reach full BSL.
• Repair and maintain damaged hair in nape of neck.
• Take multi-vitamin daily and drink lots of water.
• Air dry after every wash and use heat very sparingly.

I no longer have the goal of repairing the hair in the nape of my neck because during the series of cuts over the past couple of relaxers, my hair is now even and healthy all around and there is not a short spot in the nape of my neck. I had begun to slack on moisturizing, sealing, and sleeping with a scarf as of late so I will really focus on making those things a priority because I don’t want this cut to be in vain. I don’t want to end up back in the same situation with tons of split ends due lack of care and maintenance. I also added one more goal related to heat usage. I used to not care about blow drying my hair and would do it anytime I felt like it after a wash because it gave me better results when stretching than air drying but that is a counterproductive practice that I will no longer do. I already use heat sparingly as far as curling irons, flat irons, etc. I use those kinds of styling tools maybe once every two months. Now I will cut down and hopefully completely cut out my usage of the blow dryer.

Healthy hair is sooo important, long or short, because healthy hair is beautiful hair at any length.

Happy Hair Growing y’all!