Since September, I've mostly...A (not so) quick update on my hair

I’ve found myself fielding questions about my "hair cut" ever since I made a perfectly innocent comment on Geri's blog not too long ago about lopping off 5 or 6 inches. The statement sent a few people into a bit of a tizzy as I guess most imagined I'd done something really daring. Sadly, it really isn’t that exciting, as most people who were at the L'Espace launch on Saturday saw, but I guess I’d better answer.

I always think I want really long hair. I imagine myself being at waist length. It gets to around BSL or mid-back, drives me nuts, and I chop off quite a bit. I go through this phase pretty much every year.  Beyond a certain length, my hair gets more time consuming and works its way through products like no man's business. I rarely ever wear it straight- in fact can't remember the last time I flat ironed- or even blown out, and it looks almost exactly the same length, just thicker, when in its kinky-curly state, so I wonder what the point is in keeping the extra inches, and using half a bottle of conditioner at every wash.

To stop myself from doing anything drastic this time, I put my hair in loose twists for a couple of weeks to keep it out of harm’s way while I tried to decide whether to stay long or get a really cool tapered cut. 

Loose twists

Typical loose twist updo

I always spend ages agonizing over this decision, especially when I see pictures like the one below, but then always end up backing out of doing anything particularly exciting. After all, who’s Madame Kinky without hair? So for a few months at least, the hair is still long(ish).

The cut I will be getting if I ever have the guts.
(source unknown)

I will follow this up with an in-depth post on trimming (and cutting), but for a brief overview: I normally get about one professional trim a year when I’m in the States for work or on holiday, and then until I have a chance to get another one, I trim my hair myself as and when needed. I also normally get my hair cut while in its natural state (usually from a Deva-trained stylist), and this also is the method that I use when I cut my hair myself. However as I was in the UK, and haven’t had any experience with any stylists there that I trust yet, I decided to blow my hair out myself and then get it cut by someone who would be good at dealing with straight(ish) hair. Always the best option for anyone who isn’t brave enough to cut their own hair (it IS quite hard to get the back of your head evenly, since you can’t see it).

I just walked into a regular High Street Toni & Guy and asked if there was anyone trained to work with afro hair, however I was always aware that I would take any of their claims of being afro hair “experts” with a pinch of salt (and in fact almost beat the guy up at one point for the way he combed it).

I asked him to trim my hair as it was, and he took off about half an inch to an inch, concentrating mainly on getting rid of the damage, and shaping my hair up. However, as tends to be the case, I got home, looked in the mirror and decided they hadn’t taken off as much as I’d wanted, and proceeded to take off another 4-5 inches all over, and was left with this:

Blow out post-cut (from mbl to just below apl)

To illustrate how rarely I wear my hair blown out, I didn't even find it comfortable leaving it out like that, and twisted a day later. My hair pretty much remained in a variation of twist styles until last weekend when I wore it out for the first time in months.

 

I need to improve at parting my hair for flat twists

 

 

I'd wash my hair in twists for the first 3 weeks. On the fourth week, I'd untwist, wash, thoroughly detangle and then go back into twists.

To keep the twists stretched, I'd apply my leave-in and sealant after washing, and then bun to dry. 

The satin scarf was to protect my edges while I slept (on a satin pillowcase)

So there you have it. Although seemingly drastic when I mentioned it on Geri’s blog, I didn’t do anything particularly exciting. I’m pretty much back to the length I was near the end of last year. I didn’t think it was particularly noticeable, but have had people comment on it being shorter since I got back to Lagos (especially with the shrinkage, but that's another story for another time).

And who knows. Maybe 2013 will be the year I finally get that tapered cut!