by Miss Fizzy of Leave in the Kinks
March 2009 July 2012
So the last time I did any kind of documented length check, I was still in the TWA stage. My hair has grown quite a bit since then but not at a rate I’m happy with. I do get pretty annoyed when I see natural hair interviews where the girls are like “oh I went natural 5 minutes ago,” and their hair is down their backs already (I’m exaggerating of course lol).I big chopped in 2009 with maybe a couple of inches of hair and now, 4 years, numerous trims and some poor hair care practices later, my hair is probably just past BSL. I will do a proper documented length check soon.
Now I know that my hair is growing but I wasn’t retaining much length due to my lazy hair care regimen. Another thing I realized is that my hair doesn’t grow half an inch a month. True story! It’s somewhere between a quarter and half an inch, with some parts growing faster and some slower. I dyed my hair about a year ago and measured the new growth under the dye recently and it wasn’t near the length it would be if it was growing at half an inch every month. Bear in mind that I have been eating healthy, exercising and taking hair, skin and nail vitamins and this is my growth rate even with all these factors.
This discovery definitely took some pressure off me and allowed me to stop obsessing so much over the length of my hair and just take things as they come. I did feel that as a hair blogger, there were standards I needed to adhere to and I guess the reason you haven’t seen much of my hair is because I didn’t feel it was up to par. But at the end of the day I’m human and some things are beyond my control.
Anyway, in the process of my healthy hair journey, I’ve discovered a few things:
1. My hair likes to be left completely alone. I tend to see more benefits from protective styles if I leave them in for at least 6 weeks AND take care of my hair while it is hidden away.
2. Sealing is my hair’s best friend. Especially with raw shea butter.
3. Finger detangling and washing in braided sections are the shiznit.
4. Washing my hair while in braided or twisted protective styles will lead to matting, tangling and breakage on take down. No bueno. Best thing to do is try to keep the scalp clean.
5. Styling on stretched hair is the only way.
6. Comparing my hair to other people’s will only drive me crazy.
7. Protective styling constantly drives me nuts because I miss my hair and I want to play with it.
8. I love loose twists.
The reason I’m currently interested in retaining as much length as possible is because I want waist length hair by my wedding. Is this possible? Absolutely! But it will take a lot of dedication on my part. So my game plan is this:
1. Continue with my healthy lifestyle
2. Protective styles that mimic my hair or give me easy access to my hair (e.g kinky hair wigs and weaves)
3. Seal and moisturize regularly and not as an after thought
4. Don’t obsess over the length by checking every day
5. Trim as needed.
I know a lot of people are in the same boat as me (feeling that their hair just isn’t growing), but it really does help to take a step back and let it do what it do.
Now say it with me… WOOOOSSSAAAHHHHH…. 🙂
Miss Fizzy is a Nigerian natural who’s lived everywhere. She co-founded Leave in the Kinks with Z at the start of her natural journey to track her progress, mistakes and lessons learned. You can find her on her other blog Chaotic Order, YouTube and also visit her inspirational tumblr for 4b/c hair at hairlikeme.tumblr.com.
Links: Chaotic Order: http://fizzychaoticorder.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/
Leave in the kinks: www.leaveinthekinks.com
