I haven't made a post here in awhile but I do still read related blogs and I wanted to mention some of my favorite fact-based hair and beauty blogs.  There's no shortage of old wive's tales circulating around black hair care so it is refreshing and interesting to get a purely scientific point of view sometimes.  These women don't just spout off made up statistics and pseudo-scientific  "facts"  they have the research to back up what they write.

The list:

Kimmaytube - YouTube Channel.  Not exactly a blog, maybe a vlog but I love Kim's no nonsense style and how she presents facts.

The Natural Haven - I love how JC explains and illustrates concepts in a way anyone can understand them.

The Beauty Brains - I haven't read as much from this blog but it is written by cosmetic chemists.  They let you know which ingredients really make a product work and which ones are there for marketing hype.

This is not a free-for-all blog host. If you want to blog about natural hair I welcome you to join and blog with me, otherwise I will be deleting your blog. There are plenty of free blog services you can use to advertise on.

Try blogger.com or wordpress.com.

I deep condition once a week. Yesterday was my deep conditioner day and I made kind of a pointless video about it. My hair didn't turn out as good as it usually does. I changed up my recipe and I used barely any of the amla/brahmi/henna powders. I also added coconut milk, honey, buttermilk powder, and coffee. It was runny so I added some whole foods grapefruit conditioner. My hair is ok but it doesn't feel as soft and strong as it does when I use the thick hair mask with more of the herbs.

I don't like the word regimen because it sounds restrictive to me.  But here's what I've been doing with my hair for the last several weeks on a weekly basis.

Daily: In the shower I start by getting my hair completely wet.  Then, I add my homemade Amla/Brahmi oil (coconut oil base), distribute it through my hair, and let the hot water run over it.  Next, I co-wash with ion Color Defense Intense Moisture Daily Hydrating Conditioner.  I rinse with cool water and then my hair is happy.  After my shower, I seal with a tiny bit of Vatika oil.

On the weekend: I take down my hair and I clarify with baking soda and/or shikakai.  Then, I deep condition with a hair mask.  Usually it is a henna/brahmi/amla mask with egg, apple cider vinegar, honey, and an oil.  After rinsing I let my hair air dry a little then I put in my protective style for the week.

Whenever I feel like it: I massage my scalp with or without oils.  I made a cayenne pepper oil to use a scalp stimulator.  I also use Vatika coconut oil or Afroveda growth oil (don't remember the name).

For the most part I am using all natural products.  The ion is definitely not natural it contains several silicones but the first few ingredients I like: "Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin..."  It is super thick and creamy though.  I am debating whether I will buy more of this when it runs out because I do want to go as natural as possible.

My hair has been loving the daily oil rinse and co-wash combination.  It has started to feel very soft and it stays moisturized.

I've been giving so much attention to my hair and it's length that I was starting to get a strange attitude toward it.  I am not newly natural, in fact perms and chemicals were the exception for most of my life.  Natural isn't new for me and short isn't new either but for some reason this time around I've been obsessing about my hair growing.

You know what's funny though?  I was approaching this hair journey as an experiment to see how my hair grows out.  As if it may not grow at all.  It just doesn't make a lot of sense.  My hair is growing just like it always has and I expect it to keep growing for some time.

I think I'm just highly impressionable.  I've been spending a lot of time looking at hair boards, blogs, and vlogs and I think this length obsession is rubbing off on me.

I already know the secret to long hair.  If you watch to women with unusually long hair many of them are doing the same thing.  They protect their ends so they don't break off.  Simple.

Anyway, my point is, I'm leaving the length watching alone.  I'm just going to enjoy the hair I am blessed with today for what it is and not worry about the length or future length.  I'm actually really happy with my hair right now.  I feel like my hair I are coming to an understanding.

My short hair is in a baby phase.  With my children, I consciously take time to appreciate what stage we are in.  Taking care of toddlers is a lot of work and keeping everyone level is a challenge but if I only focus on the hardships I will miss out on what is so special about them being this age.  I love them for everything they are today and while I may be "free" of babies in 20 years they will never be my babies again.  So just like I am embracing them I am fully embracing myself at this moment in time, including my short hair.

Does this babbling make any sense?  This is just one internal shift for me.  I will still be documenting my hair with pictures and the blog.  I will just be approaching it with a different attitude.

I was tagged by youtuber Mzsweetsmile83. So here's a quick video with a little bit about me.

I braided my hair today in small braids.  My goal is to keep it up for at least two weeks.  The braids are serving as my protective style and to deter me from messing with my hair too much.  Since it takes more of a time investment to braid and unbraid I think it will be easier for me to keep them compared to with twists.  This gallery is from the past month starting in January until today.  The last five pictures are of my hair yesterday and today.

None of this hair is styled to look cute obviously.  It's just a check point of my progress.  I cut a lot of hair off over the past month but my hair today feels healthy and thick.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

I feel the need to correct myself on something I wrote yesterday.  I said that there are few examples for those of us with kinky hair but that really isn’t true.  I have found new blogs and vlogs to follow on a daily basis.  It really is just a matter of looking out for them.

I just wanted to make that clear in case anyone ever happens to read this blog besides me.  There are a lot of women out there that I am inspired by and I look forward to seeing what they put out there.

I just want to send out a note to encourage women with short kinky hair to flaunt it, and document their hair journeys.  I’m not going to say that no one is doing it but we could use more examples out there.  Personally, I am not one to “flaunt” anything.  I am not stylish or glamorous so I don’t feel like I have much to offer in those terms but I started this blog about my hair because I know there has to be other women out there in the same place I am.  I love to see women that I have something in common with and I’m doing this in hopes that someone will reach my blog that can relate.

I have some theories about why the short haired women do not blog as much.  Before I decided to blog, I had the idea that, “No one cares about my hair now but when it’s down my back, I’ll show them.”  I think there is a perception that my type of hair is nothing special, until it’s long and literally down your back.  I think it’s worth saying again that people do care.  If no one else does, I do because I think it’s cool to see where people started and how to where they are today. 

Another idea that is kind of related is about “typical” black (afro-textured) hair.  I always had the idea that tightly coiled, kinky hair was typical or at least common to black women.  I have had to re-evaluate my idea of typical because we have so much diversity in our hair types.  It’s still hard to tell what kind of hair we have when perms are so prevalent and parents are relaxing their children’s hair from a very young age.  I’ve seen the big chop stories of women who had no idea what their natural hair texture really was because they have never seen it.

I am drifting, but what I really want to ask is is tight, kinky, AKA “nappy” hair actually common among black women?  If there were a scale from straight to the tightest kinks my hair would land somewhere near the end of the kinky side.  I ask because if I my only view of black hair came from natural hair boards and YouTube I could assume that most natural African hair is actually curly or can be with the right care and products.

Please don’t take this the wrong way.  I love curly hair and I love and appreciate the ladies who are representing their kinky hair too.  I just think we are not representing ourselves in the same numbers as the curlier ones. 

I see comments on videos like:

Your hair is beautiful, what type are you and what products do you use?

or

My daughter’s hair is so dry and kinky how can I get it to look like yours?

I’m reading a lot into these comments because I can’t see the person commenting but I get the idea that people think if they do the right things to their kinky hair or use the right products, it will jump down a notch and become curly. 

I think it’s a surprise to some of us when we cut off our hair and we don’t get ringlets when we run gel through it.  This extra kinky type of hair is hard to understand when there are unreal expectations of it and few examples of how to care for it properly.

I know we’re all different so some things we figure out on our own through trial and error.  I just wish I could see more women with hair kind of like mine.  Or am I really in the minority?  Let me know if I’m crazy or not.