Hello 2013! Goodbye Curly Girl Method.

Hello and Happy New Year!

It has been a mighty long time. Not because I haven't had anything to blog about, but because I've been a busy bee. But I have lots to share with you, and hopefully I'll get through everything this month.

First and foremost Happy New Year to all of my readers. I hope the Christmas holiday was great and I hope this year is a wonderful one for everyone.

Hair

So I missed my 18 month Post-Big chop marker (December 24th 2012). I was hoping to do a length check, video and blog post, but I was too busy running around enjoying the Christmas break. I tried something new out though...

First, I blew it out

Then...

I straightened it!

Yes, FINALLY, I decided to straighten my hair. I wanted to see what it looked like straight, and I also wanted to see the difference in length. The humidity didn't help though, and it didn't stay 'straight' for long...

Within an hour, it had begun to revert...

I went from smooth and sleek to Afro-kinky in 60 minutes. I didn't mind too much, but it was a shame because I spent about 3 hours in the salon.

Anyway, enough of that. Just thought I'd show you the effects of a little moisture in the air on straightened natural hair.

No More Curly Girl? Why?

I said goodbye to the Curly Girl Method end of November/beginning of December. Not because it wasn't working for me; my hair was soft, shiny, and rarely dry. But the hassle of finding silicone-free products when I wanted to experiment or try new things out became tedious. After my trip to Purely Natural Hair salon (Stratford, East London) and the discovery of the Curls unleashed line (which I loved, but which also contains silicones), I decided to take a break. With winter approaching, TREsemme Naturals conditioner simply wasn't going to cut it as a leave-in, and had run out of L'Oréal Eversleek conditioner, and I was having trouble finding it again ( ALWAYS sold out!).

The Shea Moisture Curl enhancing smoothie just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do, and I found that as it (the weather) got colder, keeping my hair moisturised was getting trickier. I turned to Curls unleashed, ignoring the fact that I'd have to use a sulphate shampoo to wash out the products. That was something to worry about later. Then I travelled and decided there was not point stressing about the products in my hair while I was on holiday, and that's how things continued.

I also blew out my hair (AGAIN) before the holidays, which meant I had to use a heat protectant, which happened to contain silicones. Who was I kidding; I wasn't even half a Curly Girl now. I decided take a CG break until I had re-stocked my favourite sulphate-free, silicone-free products. And since my hair is still coated in silicones, and I'll still have to use a sulphate shampoo to wash everything out, which in turn means starting the CG method all over again, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and continue my CG rebellion for a few more weeks. So it's not goodbye CG forever, just for a little while.

Protection

My ends are frazzled AGAIN. The excessive heat (blow-drying and the straightening attempt) hasn't really helped, and although my hair was trimmed back in November, and again in December, when I decided to give DIY another chance (NEVER AGAIN), the tips have remained dry, and frizzy. So I've opted for a protective style once again. Not even so much for length retention or breakage reduction; more because I just needed a break from having to worry about my hair everyday. I chose chunky braids again. They're slightly bigger than last time which also means they wont last very long. I've had them in for a week and they're already looking a little scruffy. My frizzy tips are starting to poke through. Hopefully I'll make them work for a couple more weeks. Pretend I'm going for the raster look or something. :)

Like I said, I've got a lot to write about, but not today...