Blow Drying Natural Hair - Tension Method

I don't really blow dry my daughter's hair. It is on a rare ocassion when it is done.  But I usually stretch it out first to elongate her hair before styling.

Some people thought it took my hours to dry her hair because of the amount of it she has.  Actually, it takes me about 30 to 45 minutes.  The key to this is technique is to keep the hair parted.  From the time I wash her hair to blow drying it, I keep her hair parted in sections.  Those things help avoid tangling during each processes.  Each section is worked on at a time and results in a quick and effortless process with everything.

The tension method works well for us because I do not have to use a comb attachment to dry her hair.  Using a comb attachment adds more stress to the hair.  Pulling, possibly tangles and breakage as well.

Basically, a section of hair is held down firmly while the blow dryer is run up and down the length of the hair using low heat.  Cool setting can be used as well.

Below is the video on how I do it, products used and results.

I'm Transitioning to Natural!

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything here. Basically I have been tied up with my daughter's online schooling and preparing her for the standardized test. Those were priorities.
Now that it is over, I am back...

I am back with news too...

I am transitioning! Simple as that. Nothing out the ordinary, it is because I just want to try something different.  I have gone back and forth with it for a very long time. Wanted to cut my hair short, etc. But hey, why not do it now. And I have two of my "sisters" doing it too, Traycee of KISS and EbonyCPrincess of Longing4Length. We talked about it and had versatile reasons as to why.  For each of us, our reasons are valid, and to each of us, the other's reasons are valid because we totally understand.

I am transitioning because I want to try something new.  I am in that, "been there, done that" phase of my hair journey with relaxed hair. I am not doing this because it is "the thing" or that my hair is damaged. Natural hair, why not?
I am currently 6 weeks post relaxer, not much to show right now as far as transitioning ideas yet, but they are coming soon. And I will have some pictures of my hair texture from older photos when I did long stretches in my next post/video.
Watch my video below and also check out Traycee's and Ebony's video links listed below.

EbonyCPrincess' Video 

& 

Traycee's Video

 Thank you for your support, follow me, watch me or join the ride! Take care and God bless!

What A Hair Journey! 2013 Update

It's been 6 long years - 3 bad set backs and all, but I'm here now.

I have been on my hair journey since late October 2007.

By now, you would have thought that I should have been waist length, or even hip length.  I thought so myself too when I first started my journey.  But I was so wrong!

I can not say that my hair journey was horrible.  It could have been worse than horrible.  I will say that my hair journey was normal except for the set backs I experienced.  And those set backs did set me back where I had to let go of the idea of having long hair for a while.

Let us remind ourselves again that it happens and we must learn to accept it, understand it and learn from it.

Here are the bad set backs I had during my hair journey.

I colored my hair (slightly bleached it and then put on a rinse). My hair started to slowly break off and it was so dry and brittle. Will I color my hair again? No, I will only do color rinses. I don't even want to think about doing henna....at least not yet.

• What did I do: I decided to focus on the health of my hair, clip my ends and while staying at bra strap length. This has been over the course of three years of being bra strap length, trying to get rid of the bleached/dyed hair completely.

I suffered from post partum hair shedding. I lost all of my edges and had a bad widow's peak. My shedded hair looked like tumble weeds on my bathroom floor. 

• What did I do: I did more cowashes, protein treatments, rubbed castor oil on my scalp and styled my hair that would last a whole week.  I was also afraid to comb or even touch my hair, but mostly used my fingers to comb and conditioner to detangle before a wash.  And of course, I kept taking my prenatal vitamins.

After I stopped taking contraceptives (birth control), I went through hair shedding again, this time it was all throughout my head, I did not lose much of my edges...this was just early this year.  It has stopped shedding excessively and is pretty much back to normal again. (Side note: Contraceptive alters your hormones, so when you stop taking them, your body is trying to readjust to it's normal natural state. No baby plans here, I'm getting older and contraceptives does not agree with my body anymore.)

• What did I do: I deep conditioned, cowashed, protein treatments and massaged my scalp with castor oil at times.  And since I do not like my hair down during the summer, I had it in a bun most of the season.

Patience was been key during this whole hair journey. I would have loved to stick to getting my hair long. But you know what...health is even better.  Does not make sense for me to have long unhealthy hair.

For those of you who have been on a real long hair journey, it's okay. I am on one and look where I am now. Instead of giving up and being upset about never have long hair, I decided to shift my focus to wanting healthy hair.  And yes, I had moments of frustrations, moments where I wanted to chop my hair off and moments where I said that I did not care about this whole hair journey thing....those thoughts occupied my mind after I saw how damaging my hair started to become after the hair color. Right now, my focus is still the same to this day...HEALTHY HAIR.  Of course, a healthy diet, vitamins and water too.

I always say this, "A healthy head of hair will always turn heads no matter at what length."

Before Trim & After Trim
(My hair was not colored, the photos were taken at two different times of the day with flash.
The picture on the left is my natural hair color in the sun.)

Thanks for reading, enjoy the pics and we'll chat soon!