I Love My Hair!!

For those of you who don't know i've had natural hair all my life. Two years ago I decided to stop hiding it away and embrace it fully. It hasn't been easy. The increase of Natural Hair Care Blogs (NHCBs) and youtubers has helped but at the same time hasn't. What do I mean, all of a sudden there was all this beautiful hair to look at and then there was me. 

I'm going to be real here, for a long time I felt like I drew the short straw when it came to my hair. I do not have wash and go hair, I do not have defined, organised curls. My hair is dense, unruly and sometimes a burden. Combs shred my ends and result in splits upon splits upon splits and then there are those pesky single strand knots (ssks) that seem to exist just to make me unhappy.

Don't get me started on products and how nothing seemed to work for me. Despite all of this I still had hope. I still wanted to make things work. I knew that my hair will never be silky and easy to manage and I settled. I settled for only feeling like I had beautiful hair when I did a flat twist out or some other out style that resulted in curls that I could wear loose. 

This Friday all of that changed. I told you all recently that I was going to be cutting my hair and I did. Over the course of a week I'd take down an old twist, finger detangle and cut. Sometimes half an inch sometime three. But when I was finally done I felt like I had a chance at a fresh chance. 

I had also been on the search for a new shampoo and conditioner, the ones i'd been using were on the verge of running out and I didn't know whether to repurchase or not. Before I did I wanted to try something new, something cheaper and more accessible so I did some hunting took a chance.

So there I was, almost damage free with a new shampoo and conditioner at hand, desperately needing a wash. I prepooed over night with condish, honey and oil. Nothing special. Then the next morning it was time. Time to see if this hair thing could work for me. I went all out. Shampooed in twists and actually took down each section to condition. I was thorough and determined. After I got out the shower I applied the leave in, sealed with castor oil and braided it all up to dry while I went to uni. 

I get back from my 4 hour lab and my hair still isn't dry. I refused to let the fact that I had somewhere really important to be panic me. I restyled the braids, packed my stuff and began my two hour journey back to London. Once I arrived at my family home I went to the bathroom and proceeded to take down the plaits. My hair was about 20% damp but it didn't matter, it was going to get styled whether it liked it or not. 

I split it in half, and left hair for a bang or pomp then put the top half in a ponytail. I braided the end then put the bottom half in a ponytail aswell. This time I gathered the tail together and folded the hair back up, I twirled the ends and pinned them so I had a kind of bun. Finally I loosely flat twisted the front and added a clip to the bun. And in less than ten minutes I was transformed. 

My hair was the smoothest it has ever been thanks to the conditioner and the cut just gave my hair life. I look at these pictures and feel so at peace with my hair it's ridiculous. I drool over the texture. I feel special. In that moment I felt so beautiful. I felt regal. Do you know what I mean? I never thought I could get to this place where I fully embrace, accept and celebrate my texture. I nolonger feel like the uglier hair type, I don't feel inferior or unfortunate. I fully and wholeheartedly love my hair in all of it's forms.

I love that I can say that.

I hope this finds you well,

Rels

Superscarf to the rescue!!

Hey Guys!!

I just wanted to quickly come and share this quick hair story with you. So a bit over a week ago I woke up in a musical mood. I'd been meaning to record some new videos but generally laziness had been preventing me, but this morning was different. I was practically buzzing with musical energy! So I get up and grab my guitar and camera but then I remember that my hair was a mess. A hot mess. My twists were well past their sell by date smh so i'm like "what am I going to do?" I didn't want to take out all of my twists and style my hair only to put them back in an hour later but there was no way those twists- if I could even still call them that- were seeing the light of day.

Then suddenly, Eureka! My scarf, my lifesaver of a scarf, the new love of my life. I took out the four twists that made up the front row of my hair, separated and then separated some more and played with the shaping till I liked the way the bangs fell. Finally I donned the scarf and all was right in the world.

Here's how it turned out.

Now I don't know who reads this but get at me guys?
Has a scarf ever completely saved your hair day?

As usual I hope this finds you well :)
Rels x

Hair Talk...

Hey guys,

I've had a very hair filled morning! I've literally spent maybe three hours surfing the hair web *hides face*. Why, you ask? Recently i've grown increasingly frustrated with my hair. The thickness, tangle prone-ness, dryness, single strand knotted-ness all of these -nesses came together to make one defeated feeling Rella. I was ready to call it quits, I felt like nothing I was doing was working and it just wasn't worth the time and effort. At my worst I was ready to cut it all off, the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I haven't found solutions to my hair problems yet and why cut it off when it's likely to grow back in the same crappy condition it's currently in.

Ok to be fair it's not that bad. Anyway this morning I woke up and was ready to make a plan to deal with all this hair ish so here are the problems.

• single strand knots
• splits ends, mid shaft splits, looks like a tree branch splits
• dryness
• detangling time/ tangle prone nature
• products...

The Plan

1. Single Strand Knots and Splits

Trim Trim Trim. Seriously I'm cutting my hair, not that sugar coated 'tip of each twist' business. I'm going through it all and chopping all the damage out thoroughly until all the knots and splits are gone. Section by section. I don't care how much hair it takes I want to be damage free. Next I'm going to monitor the condition of my hair over the next month to see if they return and why. Was it after combing? after a particular style? 

Speaking of combing, a while back, maybe last year I stopped using combs and solely finger detangled. I don't know what happened to make me go back... I think one day finger detangling stopped working on my ends so I went back to the comb. But in hindsight I think that had more to do with the state of my ends than the effectiveness of finger detangling. This time round my ends will be on point so I'm going to make a real effort and see if I can seriously cut down on comb usage.

2. Dryness

I am lazy. I won't lie. The idea of moisturising my hair, all of my hair, everyday is impossible. I just can't. Take a twist down, finger comb, spray with water, moisturise, seal and retwist everyday .0_o, Not gonna happen. But I am going to up my moisturising game, even if it's something as simple as running my hair under the shower mid-week. 

3. Detangling time/ tangle proneness

4 hours is just too long and without a comb it's probably going to take even longer. This month i'm going to experiment with different detangling methods/ combinations to see if there is anything better than my current routine. I already know that detangling my hair in the shower loaded with conditioner does not work for me. Like at all. The spray bottle prepoo detangling method aka my current routine is aiight but I think my next step is to try dry detangling. I mean, my hair just outright misbehaves when it gets wet so I'm thinking eliminate the water all together and maybe just maybe i'll stand a chance.

4. Products

When you're using a product do you ever wonder if it's actually working? It's obvious when something doesn't work because hair protests but what if your hair just shrugs it's shoulders all the freaking time. Is it because the product is average and not worth repurchasing or is it because shoulder shruging is about as excited as my hair can get? At my next wash I'm going to establish a baseline. After washing I'm just going to seal with castor oil and see how it dries. That way I know how my hair feels with no product so if my hair still feels like that after adding product; that product has some 'splaining to do! 

I'm going to leave it there, I'll definitely be back with updates, reviews and all that jazz. I'm really excited, I feel like I've been at a hair standstill for sometime now and it seems like things are finally going to start moving!

As usual I hope this finds you well!!

Rels x x