Abandoned...but lets talk about whats going on at 18 months.

Wow, it feels like I have abandoned my stepchild (blogging). I'm so preoccupied in my day to day life its like I'm living in my own bubble of life.

Alot of this has to do with not being preoccupied with my locks anymore. They are definitely growing and I'm not obsessed with the length and I'm just enjoying them so lets start with whats going on in my head:

COLOR
Since fall is now here I'm feeling like I should color my hair, but it hasn't even been a year since I originally colored. I'm trying to hold off for the year mark and then maybe put a rinse in, not a dye. I'm looking more towards reds and with my lighter ends I think it will be a nice color movement from the darker red at the roots to lighter at the ends. I may end up trying a rinse before my birthday just for a different look. I like the colors of Jazzing but they bleed so much and I sweat alot during working out that my clothes may be stained in the process. I don't know I have to see what else is out there. All in all, I see it happening pretty soon as I'm an spontaneous one :-)

RETIGHTENING
What more can I say about that besides I'm still doing it myself. I find that it takes me about three days now to complete. The bad part is within like a week and a half I have fuzzy roots :-/. Again this has a lot to do with the working out, but not willing to give it up. The one issue is that the clip tool is getting too small to wrap around my whole lock that has sealed and clips into the lock instead of the entire lock. I still have my NL tool and latch hook one of them I may have to start using again. This will slow down how long it takes to complete my whole head, but I don't' want to ruin my ends by continuously clipping inside of it.

SEALED ENDS
Uh!! Can you believe 18 months and I'm not fully locked. The back of my head is sealed but the front half is not. Its weird though, because I don't know what I do different in the back to the front. I find that when I use the SL shampoo the ends seem very unraveled, but I'm going to continue because that's what is recommended.

SHAMPOO/CONDITIONER

I have reverted back to using the SL shampoo. I purchased two bottles and I'm strictly using that as my shampoo. I am sticking to only using conditioner once a month and I'm using the Lustrasilk which I previously wrote about.

MOISTURIZER

Using green tea oil, that I purchased from Khamit Kinks and the Jane Carter twist and lock. I use them interchangeably. I more so use Jane Carter when my ends feel dry and I use the green tea when my scalp feels like it should be moisturized.

Ok enuff chatter, time for the comparison pictures.

Comparision Time Again

This is not one of the better comparisons over the months, because its a bit misleading. Number one the color throws the visual off and additionally the style is not the same so its hard to really tell the growth. However, I'm looking at the sides by my ears and I can tell it has grown not as much as I thought of course, but progress is progress so I will take it.

Standstill

I think my hair is there, at a standstill.  I started retightening and I feel like my hair is not growing anymore.  Ok thats not entirely right becuase if it wasn't growing I wouldn't have anything to retighten but at the same time the change isn't as apparent.  I'm at the in-between stage where my locks are just filling in now, but the overall look isn't much different from before.  Since a visual effect always proves what is truly going on I had to do a comparison. 

So here it is a month 5 and month 7, what is very apparent is that my left side is growing at a much slower pace than the right.  So it is growing, and I need to exercise more PATIENCE!!!   We can easily get discouraged in this journey so make sure you are taking pictures to remind you that things are progressing, SLOWLY, but progressing!!

Comparison for Month 6

Looking back into my pictures for the first month I noticed I don't have to many, give or take 5 as opposed to the gazillions I take now.  The one thing that stood out is the first few pictures after my installation I was not smiling so much, and in retrospect its because I was a little unsure of my look and if I made the right decision especially since its permanent. However, as the pictures go on my smile gets brighter and wider; my confidence came back and I was certain that I made the right decision for my hair. Oh, what a shame that even when you're confident in yourself and have no more self-esteem issues that actually inhibit your thoughts that you can still have one thing define your happiness!!! I'm so over it, and I know that I made the best decision for me!!!

So here are comparisons from May 19th --- yeah my 2nd month to the 6th month.  Around May is when I really stepped it up on my blogging skills and realized I should be taking shots from all types of angles...LOL!!!! Enjoy....but I'm so proud of my bang that its made it thus far.  The back shot I realized that I bent my head back in May, but you can still see that my locks have grown well.  And do you also notice the difference in width.  Ok, ok....enough, here you go and my disclaimer -- (I look a little crazy today lol)

Need I Say More

Double click on the image for a larger view.

3 month comparison

So I just learned how to do comparison shots and so here you go. As I look at my hair daily, I know that its growing, but I don't truly see the difference but now I can really document it and view it for myself!!!




Oh yeah, we are getting somewhere!!!!

3 Month Comparison

Coming back to put comparisons up!! We all need them. The first top right is Month 3 and the other two pics are from Day one!!

Back Comparison

Check it out..the back is fully, shiner and tamed!!! LOL