Here it is! Finally, my 2 year retrospective on hair. It's
actually been a little longer than that now, approaching 3 years.
I've made slow but sure progress. It's funny how I can see changes
looking back from this point that were not evident to me at the
time. I always knew my hair was damaged. It was prone to splits,
frizz, and breakage. It's still much the same way in its
weaknesses, but the results from different care techniques is
evident.
I've blocked out my face in these pictures. I know Martine is
going to be mad! :)She always wants me to leave my face showing.
Sorry Martine! There's just too many... not so nice people in the
world today. I'd rather not post this many pictures with my face
in them. Also, my hair has been basically the same color from
start to finish. Different lighting conditions give different
results. My hair turns much more red in bright sunlight, and
indoors reflects the darker tones. So there's not been any
coloring going on through this time, other than the golden henna
treatment. Now sit back and enjoy the story of "Then and Now."
I never realized how thin my ends were, even when my hair was
shorter. Feeling those ends made me feel like my hair was longer,
and I never thought of taking pictures from the back view.
Looking at my picture
now, I realize I should have cut off those stringy ends back then.
Maybe my hair would not be as long now, but it would have looked
better, and perhaps would have grown better from that point as
well. Doing this retrospective reminds me of the mistakes I made
in the past, and how in some ways, I still resist doing what is
ultimately right for my hair. I really don't want to trim. I have
a love hate relationship with trimming. I want nice, neat, smooth,
full looking ends, so trimming is good. I want long hair and I
want it now, so trimming is bad!
Still, I now realize while looking over all of
this, that I am going to continue to trim. I will probably do a
nice shaping trim, going around all the edges, and just nip off
the ends that haven't been trimmed in forever. When I have been
trimming, I've only been nipping the bottom of the V in my hair.
For the most part, that is all that needs to be blunt cut at this
point. But once a year, I think all sides and edges need shaping
up. As I write this, my hair is 32.75 inches long from the
hairline. I have never had my hair this long before, and it's a
wonderful feeling. I can feel it hit my body in places it never
has before. While I always groan and complain over trims, since I
only have been cutting the V portion, my length continues to grow
in on my shorter sides, so I still end up looking like I am making
progress as the months go by, even with trims. My next trim will
be next week. Wish me luck! And now... for the pictorial look back
on my hair growing process these last few years.
When I first found Longhairlovers, I was so amazed to find a site
that specialized in growing out and caring for long hair! I was so
thrilled! My hair was at a low point, the damage catching up with
me. It was a do or die situation, basically get my hair in shape,
or cut it off and start again. I started reading the boards and
posting a bit. I learned so many things, but one of the first
things that was totally new to me was not washing your hair
everyday. Since I could not stand to go very long without getting
an oily scalp, I started putting conditioner on the length, and
just washing my scalp area. It would take a couple of years, a few
changes, and then the lovely Martine came up with the name CWC,
for this to really be called a method. It started to change the
way my hair looked. I didn't really see the changes that much, but
my Mom did, and commented on it. This is what my hair looked like
back in late March of 2000.
To be fair, my hair was not brushed, just scrunched and styled. I
was growing out a perm that I thought would be good to even out my
curls/waves. In the end it did more harm than it was worth.
Looking at the picture there is a clear line where the underneath
layer is shorter than the outer layer, resulting in thin looking
ends. I still have a somewhat similar problem since my underneath
layer is much curlier than the rest, and ends up being shorter.
Still, my thinner ends are farther down my back at least!
Here's a couple of
pictures of my underneath curls.
"
As I was reading up on the boards, learning new things, I tried to
apply the things I thought would work for my hair type. I tried to
find posters with similar hair to mine who had found things that
work for them, and I tried to model my hair care similar to
theirs. That worked well for the most part. I stopped using my hot
rollers, that I had been using nearly everyday. I stopped using
the blow dryer. I stopped using heated styling tools of any sort.
I avoided hair spray as much as possible, and tried not to use
styling products with alcohol in them. I learned about new
natural products called Aubrey Organics... the beginning of a love
affair.
Jade21
supplied me with my first sample of this and I've been hooked ever
since! Aubrey's products were so different than anything I had
ever used before, and the GPB worked wonders in my hair. Having a
more expensive product was hard on the budget, and I used my
products sparingly, finding that they worked just as well in small
amounts, compared to my normal glob of shampoo I used to use. I've
learned that you don't need that much shampoo, natural or not to
clean your hair! I've learned how to make my products last longer,
which is a really valuable lesson! Learning how to dilute these
products and apply them using a shampoo bottle with a squirt top
came later, but I'll add it here for reading ease. Diluting
natural shampoo with water or aloe vera gel (for added softness)
can stretch your product, plus allows for more lather. Pouring
natural shampoos into your hand, and then trying to apply to your
scalp area usually gives very little suds. While suds are not a
factor in cleansing, it's something we are all used to, and it
does help to make sure you are getting the product over all your
scalp area. So whether you use natural shampoos or synthetics,
diluting and applying by the squirt bottle can make a big
difference in how long your products last, and how well they work
when applied.
My hair began making progress. Here is a shot from the LHL contest
last year.
My Mom trimmed my hair up, taking off about 3 inches of the V. It
looked like the following two pictures at that point. In the first
shot, it's me on the right, my sister on the left. We had gone on
a jog with braided hair and caps just before the picture was
taken.
This picture was taken sometime after Christmas 2001, just before
the New Year I think, after my first henna treatment. I used
Rainbow Research's Marigold blonde, and got subtle golden
highlights.
While I was discouraged about the numbers dropping, the ends did
look much better.
As time went on the bangs or no bangs theory of hair growing would
always pop up on the boards. Does hair grow longer when your bangs
are grown out? Does it grow faster with no bangs? I liked to
believe it didn't, simply because I loved bangs! I've worn bangs
my whole life. I've never been bangless. I thought I would forever
wear bangs because I believe I did not look good without them. I
tried slicking them back and looking in the mirror... nope,
wouldn't work for me. Here I am with my typical bang look.
About a year and a half ago my bangs started to rebel. They would
not behave for me. They decided to part in the strangest ways. I
would use a curling iron to straighten them into place, and that
lasted all of a few hours before they would break free of their
heat induced styling and go back to their crazy ways. I decided I
would try to grow them out a bit. I saw some pictures then of my
hair at that point, just a month or two after I started growing
them out, and I quickly cut my bangs back again! I thought I
looked so incredibly awful! I did look bad. Want to take a peek?
Here are the bratty bangs!
After cutting them back short, I tried wearing them to the side,
which did help.
The truth of the matter is, before you can look better, you might
just look worse! The key to success is patience! After cutting
back the bangs and going through the hassle of trying to keep them
in place, I realized I was driving myself crazy. Martine was very
influential in helping me decide to grow my bangs out for good.
She never told me to do it, but her positive comments on how we
can all be bangless and beautiful helped me immensely. She wasn't
saying that everyone would look equally good without bangs, but
that there was a classic beauty that came without bangs, even if
you thought you were the type that must wear bangs always. With a
deep breath and a sigh of relief, I stopped fighting my bangs and
began to let them have their own way. There was certainly that
awkward phase again, but I brushed the bangs to the side, sprayed
them with some hair spray and hoped for the best. When Christmas
came in 2001 I had been growing my bangs out a few months. I felt
like I was making progress. I was starting to enjoy my new look.
Here I am at Christmas time 2001.
Here I am from the back in spring of 2002 after my second henna
treatment. This time I used Logona's Golden Blonde, and saw much
more gold in the result. You can't see it so much in the photo
because it was overcast and the sun was not shining. I could see
the added glimmer. I still longed to try some red tones, but the
Golden Blonde was all I found on the clearance table, so I took
it! You know me, the bargain hunter!
Now, back to the bangs... While I have trimmed my bangs at an
angle, I continue to grow them out. They are now past my chin and
blending in well.
Here is a picture taken in August of 2002.
This one was taken in September.
This one is a current close up, with my bangs portion pulled a bit
forward so you can see the growth progress. As you can see in
other pictures, they can blend right in.
I think at this point I should note some other valuable lessons I
learned over the last few years. First of all look at your
sleeping habits. Before I visited LHL and even for awhile
afterward, I always slept with my hair loose. I enjoyed the
feeling of it. I would lay my hair over my pillow, rather than
laying on it, and I would often put my arms up over my head and
slide them under my hair. I didn't see the point of braiding or
bunning, or securing the hair for sleeping. I did however love
satin bedding, and reading that it was good for hair was a great
excuse to get a satin pillowcase. I did not like the price for one
at tenderheaded.com, so I went to Wal-Mart and bought one for
under $5.00. However, I was not happy with the pillowcase from
there. It was not like satin! So, I decided I would make my own. I
got some satin from a thrift store scrap bin, and for a couple of
bucks made two pillow cases; one for me, one for my sis. I had my
Mom help me out since I am not much of a sewer, but it was really
not that hard. I've made more pillow cases since then, so I always
have them handy! After reading a post about how braided hair could
help hair grow faster, (I assume by preventing damage or breakage
from restless sleeping movements) I thought, why not braid it up!
So I started braiding my hair and putting it up in a satin
sleeping bonnet. While I still use my sleeping bonnet at times, It
tends to fall off more often than not. I am a restless sleeper! I
did keep up with braiding or bunning my hair at night. One night
my hair was too wet to braid right away and I wanted to go to bed,
so I just decided not to braid it, and to let it air dry over the
pillow. I was amazed to realize how much my hair was getting
rolled on, tugged and pulled that night! I either got used to
having it out of the way, or because it was getting longer during
the time I braided faithfully, I didn't realize how much wear and
tear it was getting before. Braiding or bunning is a must now for
peaceful sleeping for me and healthier care for my hair.
Dust trimming was also new to me. While I had tried to snip split
ends off, this method endorsed by some of the best long hair care
specialist in the world gave me hope of ridding myself of split
ends! I still have way to many, and I certainly haven't dust
trimmed enough, but I continue to use the twist and snip method to
weed out those split ends. Some day I hope to find none! For now
it's simply a dream, but all good things come in time.
Using good hair care tools was also new to me. Before I simply
found a brush style that I liked, which styled my hair well. I
never thought about how it tugged on the hair, caught hair, or if
it was able to spread sebum down the hair shaft. And then I
learned about Mason Person brushes! Oh my! I worked an extra job
when I had time off from my regular work, to earn some extra money
to help pay some bills, and to get a MP! I got the Popular mixed
bristle brush, and I've been loving it ever since. It feels so
great on the scalp and glides through the hair. I've never spent
that much money on myself before, but thought of it as a lifetime
brush, and that's what it is. This brush will last me a lifetime
with proper care, and will certainly be treasured.
I also learned about horn combs. Martine was instrumental in this
as well. Horn combs are smooth as silk. Not only do they feel
great on the scalp, but they also look beautiful! While a rake is
my favorite style, and I haven't found a horn comb in rake form
yet, a horn comb is a great choice for long hair care. I don't
have a great recommendation for a rake style comb, since I've yet
to get a seamless one. I do hear great things about the MP rake's
so....
Hair styling accessories have also been introduced to me via the
hair boards, both on LHL and LHC. Can you say Ficcare? Teacherbear
has certainly been spreading the news to all who will listen! I
received a Fakkare (a name for a faux Ficcare) as a gift from my
Hair Fairy and enjoy it very much. I still look at the Ficcare
Primavera styles and try so hard not to be tempted... I am
failing! If only I had more pennies, or if only they cost less!
Still, one of these days...
Hair sticks, while not unknown to me, also caught my attention. My
Hair Fairy's came to the rescue and presented me with these
sticks. I enjoy them both very much!
Hair pins replaced bobby pins for securing buns. Karen Marie
introduced these to me, and was kind enough to let me order some
through her. I was not finding any locally at the time. Good Hair
Days Magic Grip Pins are really wonderful and hair friendly. I
still use bobby pins for some things though. I'm just careful in
how I take them out.
Scarves were a posting topic which inspired me to try hair styles
with scarves braided in.
I never thought to use vinegar on my hair until I visited the hair
boards! Jade21 was a valuable source of information on brewing up
my own mix. I was even out snipping and carefully collecting my
own nettle for the magical brews. Vinegar rinses helped to soothe
my scalp, and left my hair feeling and looking softer and more
shiny. I continued to use vinegar rinses from that first
experience until the present, where vinegar rinses continue to be
a regular part of my routine.
I don't think I measured my hair when I first came on the boards,
and I am not sure of the length it was in the picture I first
took in 2001. But my records, recording the longest length of my
hair (which would be the end of the V portion) shows the
following:
Grown length by January 2001- 28-7/8 inches - hair trimmed, plus
long resting phase.
Grown length by January 2002 - 30 inches
Current length 32.75, with several trimmings off of lower V.
Looking at the chart you would think I've only grown 2.75 inches,
but this year so far I've grown about 5 inches already, which is
great for me!
Damage can truly slow the growing process as far as the numbers
go. My progress when you look at the numbers, seems slow. The look
and progress of my hair seems better and bigger than the numbers
reflect, at least to me. I am sure this is also due to the sides
growing out while keeping the lower length in check.
It is certainly hard to cover every bit of knowledge gleaned over
the last few years. For those of you who have been with me on this
journey, you have heard of my learning experiences along the way.
You've helped me change my thinking in hair care. You've helped me
achieve a length I've never had before; for this and for your
friendship as well, I thank you! For others, some of this story
is new to you, and what I've missed, I'm sure I'll be posting
about again in the future!
I wanted to take another picture to show the changes that took
place in my hair over the last couple of years. I tried to style
my hair in the same way as before, no brushing, just scrunching,
with some of the front section pulled back and secured. I've put
the pictures side by side so you can compare. I'm also showing a
bangs, no bangs comparison for you as well. While I'm not the
fastest grower, making average to slow progress, hampered more by
needed trims, progress was still made. My hair is not perfect. It
looks better in pictures than it does in person. It has its
weaknesses and it's good points. It is not model hair. It is my
hair. I've loved it in all its stages, even when it was bugging
me! I've enjoyed the hair journey every step of the way! One of
the most important things I can tell you is, "don't let your
desire for long hair keep you from enjoying your hair at the
length it is!" There's something wonderful about your hair the way
it is right now. Enjoy it, take care of it, and you'll reap the
rewards in the days ahead! Thanks for sharing my journey!
This is 2001
This is 2002
-Fox
17/32.75/35+ Type 2ABMii (3B underneath layer)
Somewhat fine, slightly wavy (with curls on the underneath layer),
light brown with gold and red
highlights. img src="/images/happy.gif
For pictures, click on
http://www.longhairlovers.com/at/fox
And... click
on the store to give me points!
Products Used:
Aubrey Organics S&C
Vinegar/herbal rinses
Oils: Jojoba, Sweet Almond, Coconut & essential oils
MP Popular Mix Brush
Wood and Horn combs
Vitamins/Minerals/Herbal supplements
