#Natural Hair ~ Summertime, feeling fine: The #3LRChallenge

Hello beautiful people,

It has been a while. I'm back from my holiday and I'm rocking a new protective style.

Just in time too, because I signed up for the 3LR (3 length retention) challenge at the beginning of the month. As you might have guessed from the name, it's a 3 month length retention challenge. It started 8 days ago but it's not too late to join in and sign up!

To sign up or for more information visit: http://socialhermit.me/the-3-length-retention-challenge/ you can also follow/stay updated via instagram: http://instagram.com/3lrchallenge

About my protective style

Before I heard about the challenge I'd already decided I wanted braids. I do braids twice a year, normally for a month in the summer, and a month in the winter. They're normally chunky braids, but I thought I'd try something different. I did a deep condition and a co-wash about a week before. Then I shampooed again and blew out my hair a few days prior to installation.

I opted for large Senegalese Twists. The twists took about 3 hours to install. My normal hairdresser did them in Lagos. She used 4 and a half packs of Amingo braiding hair. I used 3 and a half packs of Colour 1B and 1 packs of colour 305 (which is a rusty, coppery colour) for my dyed hair at the front. Each twist is roughly the same size as my little finger.

Style maintenance

In terms of maintenance I have kept things pretty simple; refreshing with water in a spray bottle and using a mixture of castor, olive, coconut oil and shea butter on my scalp and edges. Despite this, I've found that my scalp is still a little itchy already. I think this may be because I haven't done a hot oil treatment in almost 2 months. Weekly hot oil treatments were helping with my dry scalp. When the twists come out I'll start doing them again. For now, mixing an essential oil into my mix may help. I'll try that and see how it works out for me. I use a silk scarf at night to keep my edges smooth and to reduce dryness and friction from my cotton pillow case.

The challenge so far

I must admit I haven't really been sticking as strictly to the 3LR challenge as I should be. I'm trying to get my 5-a-day but I've been a bit lazy. I also left my gym shoes in Lagos so that has been my excuse for not working out. To make up for that I'm trying to take a walk everyday. The 2 litres of water hasn't been an issue. The weather is so warm at the moment that staying hydrated is a must. I think green smoothies may be the easiest way to make sure I do get the fruit and veg I need. I guess when the twists come out I'll create a regimen.

I forgot to take a clear 'before' photo. By the time I remembered it was late, so the lighting isn't great, but here's a rough idea of the current length of my hair at the front: