2015 has been a great year for me from learning how to be the best mother to my one year old son, learning more of my husband’s swag, and just coming into my own as a dancer. But I will say I have really accomplished with learning and appreciating my natural hair even more in 2015 than the years before.
I have learned about my hair fully, done numerous natural and extension styles, stayed with my hair care regimen, and even did Big Chop Number #2! However, with all of my accomplishments there have also mistakes and failures.
That is what a healthy hair journey is about! If you do not make the mistakes or go through the failures, there would be no way to make yourself better at caring for your own hair. With that said here are my top 5 natural hair mistakes of 2015:
Not knowing my hair was heat damaged
Getting my hair flat ironed November 2014 left a huge impression on my hair during this entire year (2015). For most of the year, I really thought my heat damaged hair was my fine and wavy/coily natural hair pattern.
From 3-10 months I found that my twist outs were looking thin, my hair was shedding like crazy, my ends kept splitting, and even my protective styles didn’t look right.
Then I decided to do some tests…lo and behold! My hair was damaged and more so, the damage dated back to when I got my hair flat ironed (I had 5.5 inches of ‘new growth’).
I even went further to do the porosity test (with a cup of water) and found that the heat damaged hair sank to the bottom of the cup in less than a millisecond. Even though I was doing healthy hair practices and techniques, I was doing them on damaged hair.
Getting a sew-In weave
In July 2015, I decided to get a full sew-in weave. I wanted something different for my hair and thought that straight hair would be easier to care for with this humidity. Well, I found out that I was completed wrong.
My last weave install taught me a valuable lesson and I realized the grass is not always greener on the other side. I only had that install for about 3 weeks and that experience helped me discover what I really want for my healthy hair journey: my own kinks and coils.
I have made alot of mistakes in the past as well but now I’m learning more and more about my hair. I am 2 years natural. I learned to love my hair and to learn how to take care of it . My hair is now longer than my relaxed hair ever was. I think my biggest mistakes I made in 2014 was being a product junkie , nor deep conditioning, not drinking enough water, and going a long time with tour a trim . Now I get trims every 4 months, I deep condition, drink water everyday , and stick with the products that work on my hair . Also I constantly protective style. I wear my hair in two French braids with just my real hair but I do give my hair a break sometimes. Also I hate wearing my hair down as well . Even when I take my braids down , I put my hair in a bun only leaving my bang out .
Nice thanks a lot 🙂