Breakage!!!!!!!!

So I am at the stage where I am frustrated with my hair. Again. Frustrated because I seem to be sitting at the same length for the last 5-6 months. This mean I am experiencing breakage. It's harder for me to really see now that I am natural because my hair is so tightly coiled, when I loose it I am not sure if it's shedding or breakage--they all look the same to me. That is a horrible excuse to cover my lack of attention and laziness. I mean, if I took the time to analyze the strain I would have known the hair falling to the ground was smaller and missing that little white bulb on the end, which is an indication that you hair is breaking. So now I am paying the price for rushing and not properly detangling my hair.  Sometimes I just get so tired of dealing with my hair....*sigh*..... I'm not going to let this get me down though. I am going to try to get my hair back on track and begin implementing practices that I believe will help my hair thrive.  In 2011 I wrote about some of the tiny changes that one can do to improve length retention, because I had suffered a few setbacks and I was quite disappointed.  I was relaxed back then and I was losing hair for different reason, however I believe these tips can be helpful regardless of the texture of my hair. To review:

1. Re-evaluate how you HANDLE your hair.

I personally can be VERY rough with my hair. When I M & S, when I detangle and when I style, I AM rough, plain and simple. I never really stopped to think about how hard I was being on my hair. I plan to put away the combs for 4 months. That is one seasonal quarter. Enough time to see progress and develop a new habit.

2. Maintaining a DAILY journal.

Since I've been natural I didn't think I needed to do this as much as I did in the past. Partly because I had my hair hidden in extensions/protective styles for much of the time. I typically update it every wash day to see how my hair has been responding to products. I make note of what I have tried/use whenever I wash my hair or use a new product. I am going to start doing this more frequently (e.g. daily). For many women this won't be necessary, but if you are struggling like I am, it might be helpful. Record what you are doing to your hair daily and weekly.  How does it feel after using each product? How does it feel at the end of the day? At the end of the week? This will tell you if the product is a keeper or should be trashed. You will also recognize when something isn't going well with you hair sooner than later because you are forcing yourself to be more aware on a daily basis vs. weekly or monthly basis.

3. THROW AWAY (or TWEEK) products that simply don't work for your hair.

Now this is a tricky "rule" as some products need adjusting to work effectively on your hair. Not to mention no one is made of money and I know I don't have the luxury of buying and simply throwing out products because they don't work the first time around. But don't feel you must commit to a product simply because "everyone" else swears by it. Products do not work the same way on every person. You know when something is working for your hair or not. My rule of thumb is to let my hair be the true judge. It may not be you first choice, but I would suggest purchasing some testing strips. I've recently started to follow the practice of "tweeking" products based on pH balance/needs of my hair and I have noticed a difference. Now I simply test a product and if it falls within the range that will respond well on my hair, it's good to go.

4. MAKE TIME for your hair

Now this is not what you think it means. As you know I take time out to do my hair on a weekly basis. What I am talking about is giving yourself the time required to do your hair with the least amount of damage as possible. These are two different things. Sure, I would deep condition my hair every week, M&S when I could (----I know, I know see the next tip), but I use to whip through this process. Sometime I did this because I did not have enough time to do these things, so I would rush through it. However, there were times when I just didn't want to do the things I had to do to maintain my hair, so I would just do a quick job to "get it over with".  I would quickly M&S for example just ripping through my hair so I could get to bed or out the door (which highlights tip #1), yet be confused when I saw broken pieces in my hand. I think taking the time to slowly do these things will make a huge difference in your hair. Small changes like waking up earlier, M&Sing as soon as you get home before you get too tired, washing or co-washing on days when you have more time to slow the process down can all be helpful in this area.

5. MOISTURIZE more frequently (new)

It goes without saying. If your hair is dry it will break. I have neglected this because my hair has been in protective style for two weeks, so I thought, what's the big deal? Clearly I was a big deal because for all the protective styling I am doing, my hair should be APL already lol. I need to figure out hair to get moisture in my hair regardless of the style I am wearing.