by Adrienne of Natural Embrace

It’s August already? This challenge is almost over huh? Well let me get to it!

First, I’ll begin by saying July was an awesome month for me simply because I got engaged! My hair could have been a bird’s nest all month, but I wouldn’t have cared.

Hair
Since getting engaged my hair focus has intensified. Yes, I’ve been partaking in this challenge. But, I feel like I’ve been doing a half-hearted attempt to grow my hair. I know that protective styles work best for me, but do I do them? Nope. I like manipulating my hair and changing up styles and I knew that the length would get there eventually and I was in no hurry. Well, now that I’m engaged, I really want to have longer, bigger hair for my wedding and I’ve got about a year and a half to do it (plenty of time). I want to retain every single inch of growth I can get and for that I need … protective/low manipulation styles.

Half of June and all of July were Wash and go hair only. I loved it. I would get to wet my hair every other day, use a new product, and show off my curls. Was my hair growing? Yes it was, a little. But, at the end of July, I was feeling my hair while on vacation and noticed TONS of single strand knots. I’d been feeling them before, but it didn’t bother me But now, it felt like every other strand had a knot on it! I tried oil rinsing and deep conditioning more frequently, but still the knots appeared … so, I figured maybe it was my hair’s way of telling me to retire my wash and go.

So, I decided to put in mini twists and self-trimmed my ends to get rid of the knots I was feeling (instead of snapping them off with my fingers … shameful I know). So far the twists have been in a week and I will find the strength to make them last three weeks before taking down, washing and conditioning and putting them right back in. My goal is to keep my hair mostly twisted up until the end of the year so that I can hopefully claim full shoulder length. If I manage this, then I know I can get to APL next year and hopefully approaching BSL by the time I get married. Who knew that all it took was a pretty ring to get me focused!

On a side note, while on vacation in San Diego visiting family, I got my younger sister Kyky to Big Chop! She’s been wearing weaves for years and not taking care of her hair. She finally stopped getting weaves, but resorted to wigs because her hair was so damaged (try matted, broken off). Her hair was so broken around the perimeter, it was barely reaching an inch, but the crown/center area of her hair was longer. It was an awkward look to say the least. She told me she wanted to go natural, but she wasn’t sure what to do. I told her there was no point holding on to the longer hair with so much hair broken off around her. I offered to pay for her chop and told her she’d look cute and it’d grow out in no time. She agreed and voilà!

The cut suits her. She still wasn’t on board with the short hair, but it’s growing on her and she keeps texting me, asking what products to use. I sent her a few things, explained how I follow the curly girl method and told her she’ll have to figure out what works for her and that moisture is the key. I can’t wait to see how it looks in a month or two.

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AWWWWW!!! CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT ADRIENNE!!!

If you would like to see all of the Adrienne’s updates, just enter her name in the “Search” box on the right >>>>! The results will return all of her updates (and guest posts)!! See where it all began and how she’s progressed over the course of the challenge!