To My #1 Hair Fan

My #1 hair fan is my husband Reign. He has many nicknames, but Reign is the coolest one. ;-) He always takes time out to post comments on HG (although most are random, lol). As a matter of fact, he posted the very 1st comment on HG. He's always stuck by my hair decisions & supported me. I know in some case, significant others can be just as bad as the naysayers, but not my Reign.

He's watched me go through so many adventures with my hair. I've known him for almost 11 years, but I'm mostly referring to the last 4.5 years when I got more serious about my hair. At the end of the day, I'm still his K.D. After we moved to the D.C. area I (his hometown) in '07, I held on to my weave. I would get so tickled when he said my weaves looked "glamorous". He even taught me how to sew in weaves. You see, I didn't know how to sew in weave, but I knew it had to be like actual sewing. So I bought the weave, needle, and thread & he demonstrated how to sew in the hair track. That's love! LOL. Basically, I wore weaves because I'd given up trying to grow my hair very long. I was used to it getting to a certain point & then my hair breaking off. Usually somewhere around the shoulders...

Here's me w/ a weave in the summer of '06.

I would cut the weave sometimes to make it shorter....

After a month, I thought I'd try wearing my own hair out since I'd been donning a weave (half-weave really to give that illusion of "real hair") for about 3 years. I sewed the hair in faithfully every month no matter how much I missed wearing my real hair. It felt good to wear my own hair again though. And just like that my weave stage was over.

Dec. '06 w/ no weave.

Twistout!

Bored with my hair, I colored it in June '07...

...and along came the breakage. Enough to make me cut my hair into a bob in August. By the time my birthday came along (Aug. 10th), I was on a mission to obtain & maintain healthy hair after finding sites like BHM & LHCF. I started thinking "Man, I can do this!". There were so many beautiful heads of hair on both sites...They really gave me the inspiration I needed to grow my own hair.

Since then, I've been growing my hair & taking better care of it. I've stumbled along the way & made mistakes (still making them), but that's how I learned. :-) I was scraping apl by the summer of 2010...#longback  He was the 1st person to congratulate me when I reached apl.

He even submitted a hairstyle pic last year for Hairstyle Appreciation Day. :-)

Then we moved to Houston and I found out I was preggie. That's when I wondered if this was the right time to transition to natural. I decided it was. What other time would I not be relaxing my hair for this long?? I told him my plans and he was very supportive....Shocked, but supportive. He may not have agreed, but he supported me-which is the most important thing. In my defense, I did try to 'prepare' him for the day when I would go natural wayyyy back when I started taking better care of my hair. Because of my love for big, curly hair, I knew going natural was inevitable. I just didn't know when I would have the courage to do it! So last fall I started small chopping my hair....I had to do this so I knew I couldn't back out of going natural. The small chops motivated me even more. ;-)

 

And then out of the blue on a random Thursday evening (Jan 20th), I big chopped! Initially, I was going to big chop much later, but hey when I cut my hair into that wack hairstyle (remember?) I knew it was time, lol.

Yep, he must love me. :-) Through all of my hair adventures, he's encourages me, listens to me rant & rave when I didn't reach a hair goal, gives me most of the counter space for my hair products, celebrates my hair achievements with me, and is my ready listening ear when I just wanna talk hair. Thank you for all you've been to me & all you continue to be. I love you Reign.

Does your significant other support your hair decisions? 

Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I want to talk about. :-)

Update: More Hair Color Photos!

And it's pretty apparent in the these pics that I love these earrings, lol! I didn't realize just how much I wear them. #ohwell I've been taking these photos over the last few days trying to capture the real color of it. I don't think that's going to happen until I get a new color, but you can see it better in these photos. :-) I did do something bad though....remember in the other post when I said I might do something drastic......well...I colored my hair twice with the permanent color within days of each other. Bad I know, but I couldn't help myself. Please don't try this at home! My hair is pretty healthy so I kinda hoped it could handle it. I just want the color lighter (i still do). The 2nd coloring did make it lighter, but I only kept it on for 5 minutes for fear of extreme damage. I'm not going to color again for awhile, if at all. My hair hasn't been breaking or anything and I'm keeping it moisturized. My protein deep conditioning sessions have helped too. :-) My hair loves protein so I dc with it once or twice a week anyway. Remember I only colored the top front part so I'll be babying this section!

I didn't want to keep what I did from you guys....even with all of my hair knowledge I still make stupid mistakes with my hair, lol. I'm not perfect. As a matter of fact, I can be very impulsive (as you can see now!) But you live and learn. What crazy things have you done to your hair?

Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I want to talk about. :-)

So I Colored My Hair. :-)

So.....if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I took the plunge and colored my hair! :D I used Silk Elements Permanent Hair Color in Honey Blonde. :o My own mother couldn't believe I used a permanent color in my hair, lol! She knows how I am about my hair. Since I'm relaxed, I pretty much stick to temporary & semi-permanent colors. Didn't want to risk all of my progress. I just needed a change and I really, REALLY wanted to color. Moving along....I didn't really want this color, Honey Blonde per se. I wanted something a little darker like their Sante Fe Bronze color or the Cinnamon Brown. Oh and I really like the Sunrise Blonde. ;-) I've always read to go with the lighter color if you're considering coloring your hair. I'm just trying to get a Queen Latifah-ish color, lol. I don't recommend using permanent color on relaxed hair. It's just....I wanted this color SO BAD that I was willing to risk it. And to minimize damaging my whole head I only applied the color to the front section. I'd rather lose hair in the front of my head than the back!

Anyway...the color didn't come out as light as I wanted it too. That' my fault though. I didn't leave it in as long as I was supposed to. I was afraid of it getting too light. I mean...it's lighter outdoors, but not inside. I want it to be able to show up inside too. Here's a bootleg shot...with the top down. The color is actually lighter than this. #cameraphone

See.I was in my car with the top up.... : \

The quality of the photos are horrible. :-( I miss my camera! Hopefully, I will be getting a new one soon. While looking for some information about the Silk Elements Permanent Color, I stumbled across a post Tracy from Keep It Simple Sista did about it. She used the color on her hair and it looked really pretty! :-) She was absolutely right. My hair was so soft after rinsing the color out. :-)If you're a regular reader of HG, you know I love Silk Elements! I still want a lighter color though! : \ What do I do??? I'm thinking of doing something drastic.....

I'm just trying to get back to something like my old color.......*sigh*

Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I want to talk about. :-)

The Color Bug Is Still Biting Me

.....This has been tempting me for awhile now. The Anti-Hair Slave suggested I use color showers. Her brown hair is beautiful! Instead, I went the cheap $5 route & attempted a color on the day I relaxed & that was an #epicfail. : \. The color didn't really take as well as I thought it would. I used Clairol's Beautiful Collection Semi-Permanent in Light Reddish Brown. I don't know if I want my whole head to be this certain color. I do know I want some hi-lights....Permanent color is out of the question. Don't need the damage & I change my mind way too much for a long-term committment like that....I just wanna add some omph to my hair for the summer.

Gabrielle Union is rocking almost the exact color I'm trying to get! It looks so pretty on her. When I saw this color, I was like "that's it!" :D

Ya'll can't tell me this is color is not haute! This is just gorgeous!

Queen Latifah's color is close to what I used to have......before it grew out. I like this one too! I was oogling her hair hard as the hubs and I watched Just Wright. lol

So I will pose the question again....Do any of you ladies use hair color? Hi-lights? Color Showers? Help! I need some advice. Because the next time I spend some money, I want the color to work. I want Gabrielle's color, but I don't want to do a permanent color. Products please. :-) Thanks ladies!

Pics from Essence, Necole Bitchie, & Brown Girl Gumbo. Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I want to talk about. :-)

7 Month Blown Out Comparison

My hair is blown out in these photos. It's right before I flat iron...

Okay....so it's growing. I did this comparison because sometimes it seems like my hair isn't growing at all. Or maybe it just grows SUPER SLOW. : \ That's why it's always good to take photos. :-) This comparison really cheered me up ya'll. And yes that's toothpaste on my cheek. I put them on my pimples at night. It really works! I've been doing this since I was 11.... ;-)

I think I'm gonna do some more comparison shots. It's good motivation for me and hopefully others. Nite ya'll.

Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I want to talk about. :-)

My Braid Out is Growing!

Last Friday, my husband and I went to check out our favorite hip hop group, Little Brother. They were perfoming in D.C. at the Black Cat. :-) So, the night before I did my usual braid out. Btw, I'm 10 weeks post today! I'll be relaxing in about 1-2 weeks hopefully. Anyway....Ya'll! The braid out came out perfect! My hair was so BIG. I'm finally getting to the Tracee Ellis Ross-ish hair (which is my goal). I want my hair to be that big when I do a braid out. Man, I was feeling my hair on Friday. It was a great hair day. :D These pics definitely don't it any justice. I wish I'd taken more outside.....

Look! :D

And I came from this....back in '07 I rocked twist outs mostly. My hair was shorter and the twist out seemed to create better curls for my hair. Now the braid outs are the business for my hair. ;-)

This is still one of my favorite hairstyles. Scratch that. This IS my favorite hairstyle. :-)

Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I want to talk about. :-)

Check Out My Rollerset Hair!

Last night, I was feeling a bit "blah" about my hair so I decided to do a rollerset. If you follow HG, you know I don't do rollersets...ever because in the past they never looked right on my hair. I think it was the layers that kinda threw the look off......since my hair has gotten longer & the layers are almost gone, I decided to give it a go.

So here I am right before bed...with random rollers everywhere.(lol) Hey as long as they get the job done right?

The finished product! I was shocked because I thought it was going to look like a hot mess. Surprisingly, I LOVED the way it came out! :D

(BTW, these pics were taken right after I woke up. I was so excited that I just started snapping away!)

This look may just be my new spring/summer signature look. :-) I used smaller rollers at the crown & bigger rollers on the bottom. I wanted that "Joan Clayton" bounce at the crown. Ha! Make sure you are following me on Twitter & Facebook for more of my ramblings about hair and anything else I feel like talking about. :-)

My Detangled Hair

I took this photo awhile ago...as a matter of fact, we were still living in our other apartment. I thought it was goofy & funny. I took it the day I flat ironed my hair in February. (before I flat ironed of course, lol) My hair was a complete mess!

It's good to have a sense of humor on your hair care journey. You will definitely go through some "crazy" hair days! Enjoy them.... :-) Hair is not perfect, but neither are we.