hello hello, welcome to Spring! and the best month of the year, my birthday month April! I have a hair check in today and I’m so excited to share my updates with you.

As I shared at the start of this year here, 2024 is dedicated to taking better care of my hair. I have gained a lot of more information and implemented new techniques and routines and I’m happy to see some progress that I can share.

Hair type/ Strand thickness & porosity– 4b/4c natural hair with fine strands. Low to medium porosity & a low to medium density. Hair focuses– Improve moisture, reduce breakage and length retention( journey to waist length eek!)

Firstly, my hair challenge this year is no braids no wigs. I’m happy to report that since I took down my dec braids in January, I haven’t braided or worn a wig! I haven’t even been tempted to get these done in the last few months and I know its because my focus is to repair my hair but how can I do that if my hair is hidden? Compared to the years past, whenever my hair was out, I would want to get it ‘done’ after 2-3 weeks. The only extensions I have used are drawstring ponytails however these are ok in this challenge because the point of it was not to put any stress/tension on my fragile edges which braids/wigs do but ponytails are gentler on my edges. I don’t pull my hair into tight ponytails too so my edges have not been impacted.

Secondly, I wanted to address the condition of my hair. I shared the mistakes that I was making last year, one of these was lack of a proper moisturizing routine. I’m happy to report that from the 20 of Jan ( when I took down my braids) to now, I have been washing, deep conditioning & moisturizing my hair (LCO method) on a weekly basis! I have also been re moisturizing my hair in between wash days and keeping it stretched and tucked away! The condition of my hair has improved vastly! It doesn’t feel as dry & rough like last year! My moisture & hydration levels are also improving and I don’t have the scalp pains that came with trying to stretch shrunken hair! I’m really happy with this. My hair feels conditioned and soft. It just feels much better!

Thirdly, excess shedding & breakage. I believe Im still working on this but I have seen a reduction! I’ve had some difficulties telling these two apart & defining what ‘excess’ actually means for my hair type. I know the main differences between shed & broken hair are, shed hairs are longer & have a white bulb attached at the ends and broken hairs are shorter, smaller pieces with no white bulbs attached. Shedding is also a natural process. My difficulty is in quantifying the excess shed/broken hair. Its difficult to count the exact shed/broken hairs especially on wash days but I will keep an eye on this. I have been inspecting some of the hairs that come out when I’m handling my hair and most of them have a white bulb attached. In the last 3 weeks, I have been taking pictures of my shed/broken hair at each stage of the wash day process ( pre shampoo, shampoo & deep condition), I can see a reduction from the 11th to the 27th of March. Ive been working on my finger detangling techniques and also changed my pre poo treatment! I will keep this as a baseline for comparison at my next check in but so happy with this progress too!

At the beginning of March, I felt like I hadn’t retained any length from Jan-March because I was over manipulating my hair. I felt this way because I was washing & detangling weekly plus re moisturizing my hair 2-3 times in between wash days. Even though my hair style was low manipulation, I was constantly handling my hair and for 4c hair that is naturally prone to breakage because of the bends & kinks in the hair, I believe it lead to more breakage than necessary. I also believe my finger detangling technique could be better. So I felt like whilst last year’s breakage was was due to chronic dryness & brittleness, this time its due to over handling the hair. I think this is what is happening. I decided to switch to washing, detangling & deep conditioning 3x a month ( every 10-12 days approx) with re moisturizing my hair once in between wash days. I started this last month and I hope it makes a difference by next check in. Weirdly I also felt like my hair was thicker which is strange because I hadn’t retained length. I had a light bulb moment a few days after this realization when I was reading my Science of Black hair book (btw you need this book!) She says ‘ on frequent hair hydration, in most healthy hair regimes, the first change one sees is a change in the hair’s thickness. Changes in thickness often always precede visual changes in length. This increase in thickness is primarily due to a restoration of hair’s preferred moisture balance and the inability of shaft coating hair products to negatively affect the hair’s natural volume & body’ This was such a big AHA moment because I didn’t understand why my hair felt thicker but I had no length! This made me very happy too because it means I’m on the right track! This book has been an amazing resource so far. Its the type of book you read in slowly: taking notes and reevaluating your current situation.

Another area of focus was my thinning temples. I’m on my 2nd treatment bottle and so far I have hope. I would like to share the journey once I have successfully grown them back in.

I’m really happy with the progress of my hair over the last 3 months. One thing I need to do more of is take pictures of my hair because its the only way I can be 100% sure of my progress. I’m learning to be more flexible with my hair regime, making sure I change techniques and products when needed. I’ve been making use of my conditioning caps( my hot head thermal cap review is coming soon) and the science of black hair book has been insightful. Its a long way to go but I’m hopeful. Im just waiting for the day I wake up with long healthy hair !(sigh)

From Jan till now, I have been following these types of wash days and they have been extremely helpful: 1.Clarify+ Olapex treatment OR Clarify/Chelate+ Keratin treatment– I alternate between these 2 every 13 weeks. 2– Cleanse(hydrating)+Moisture treatment- main wash day I repeat every 10ish days.(alternating between deep conditioning with a moisturizing rinse out conditioner & a moisture mask because Yasmin(hey girl hey) gifted me Shea Moisture conditioners and I got some more on sale for £2 lol. Once I finish these( 6 bottles in total) I will be using the moisture masks only) 3– Clarify/Chelate + Strengthening + Moisture treatment- once a month

Since I have my texture release in a few weeks, it is likely I will change it or change the frequency of my wash days, but I will be asking the stylist and sharing with my next check in.

see you in July for my next check in! catch you later!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter!