hey hey, I hope all is well! Today’s my 6 month healthy hair check in. Technically I’m a little past the 6 months mark lol but I still wanted to share my thoughts on my hair so far.

So, a quick summary, this year is my healthy hair year and I committed to improve the condition of my hair from last year. I had really dry, excessive breakage & shedding 4c hair. I also wanted to wear my hair out more and try new things. I also started my journey to waist length hair. I’ve written all about it here

Before we get to this check in, my last check in was at 3 months, you can read that here. So 8 months in, what’s the condition of my hair? I have to mention I had a texture release back in June. Read my thoughts on that here its now 2 months since my TR.

So honestly, how has it been?

Well, 4 weeks after my TR, I decided to get braids. 1 because I had some trips and wanted freedom from daily styling & maintenance and 2 because I wanted to see if human hair extensions would be safer/gentler on my hair. Whilst I loved how lightweight my hair felt with the human hair, it wasn’t really any gentler on my hairline! my hairline is already fragile and I’m desperately trying to regrow it. I was so saddened by this because I feel like its a huge set back on the progress made using the ordinary peptide serum :(. but now I know for sure my hairline just cant take braids-human or synthetic and its just not worth it anymore now

I had my hair in for exactly 5 weeks 5 days. My moisturing routine whilst I had them in was non existent I wont lie lool so the shedding/breakage that I got when I took them out was ALOT. Again I was saddened by this because I worked so hard to get my shedding/breakage down this year! Just compare these pictures from March to now :(.

its now been more than 2 weeks since I took out the braids and I’ve had a 2nd wash day, my shedding/breakage is back to the my usual amount but it just made me think, any growth I had whilst I had the braids in probably wasn’t retained with that amount of shedding/breakage

So is protective styling , in particular braids, is it really worth it for me?

I have super fine hair and weak temples and they seem to get thinner every time after braids, no matter how careful I am. my braider doesn’t braid them too tight either. I also now keep them in the same hairstyle/position to prevent excessive pulling and tugging. It always takes me a few months for them to recover which is why I don’t leave my braids in too long and cant do them back to back. But if I’m on a growth journey I need to try to retain as much growth as I can so having this much shedding just isn’t on par. Wigs are much safer as I don’t glue them on but I don’t want to depend on them either.

Final thoughts

Guys, I just have to leave braids alone for a long time. My initial idea was that I do them twice a year at least 5 months apart however I dont even think I should do that. My hair simply cant take it. It’s like taking 5 steps forward then 3 back. I’ve bought a few hair pieces- half up & downs & ponytails to help me wear my hair out more and experiment. I just want to be able to enjoy my own hair more.

So 8 months down the line, my hair feels great, the condition is better than last year, shedding/breakage back to my usual amount and the TR has softened my hair. On the other hand, progress on re growing my hairline has taken a few steps back. I really wanted to wear my own hair out more this year and I have tbh so Im very happy with that. I just need to learn more hairstyles lol.

I need to do an official length check and I will be right back with that.

I will be sharing my fav hair products so far- in addition to new techniques, the products I now use have made such a big difference.

Catch you later