Determining my growth rate and retention

I have always been curious as to exactly what rate my hair grows. Is it a half an inch a month? A quarter? I really don't know. So this month I have decided to measure it. I was supposed to start on the 1st but I'm a little behind. Today is the 3rd. I gave myself a trim last night and my hair (with the exception of my "bangs") was between 13 and 14 inches long in every place that I measured. So at the end of the month I'm going to measure my hair again and see what kind of length I was able to grow and retain. I'm really hoping for an inch!!

One of the things that kind of prompted this was I got an email from naturallycurly.com that talked about hair supplements that are supposed to help with hair growth. Now I already take a hair vitamin, but there were a few in there that I had never heard of. So onto Amazon I went and I purchased two of the items from the list: Saw Palmetto berry and Viviscal. I honestly don't know if adding these two will have any affect what so ever, but I figure they can't hurt, right? I'm taking one of my old faithful vitamins and one Viviscal along with 2 Saw Palmetto capsules in the morning, and then I take them again in the evening, only with just 1 saw palmetto. In addition to that I've been doing scalp massages and trying REALLY hard to keep my ends from drying out so my hair doesn't break off. This week I'll be wearing

my hair in a bun, and possibly next week too and I am trying to do over night deep conditioners. Of course as my last post stated, all of this will be completely pointless if I can't keep it up. With that in mind, I really don't want to try and do TOO much and set myself up for some insane routine that I can't possibly hope to maintain. I do want to find something that not only works, but also fits my lifestyle. I mean I already know what works. I've been there, I've done it  before. I reached 18 inches (which still didn't seem long enough) so I know I can do it. But now that I don't work from home any more, I've noticed other things besides my hair are becoming a lot harder to maintain (my weight being one)

So I will post some before and after pics when the 30 days is up... hopefully I remember to take pics tonight. I had wanted to do a video, but I have just been too lazy. Blogging about it is so much easier!

Til next time.

The magic product... I FINALLY found it!

I know I can't be the only one that has searched far and wide, read review after review, watched results vid after vid trying to find the miracle hair product that will transform their hair. Well I am here to tell you that it does NOT exist!

Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of GREAT products out there. But that's just it, there are are a lot of them. More than one hair product or combination of products will potentially work wonders for your hair. Once that product is found, the search can end. I remember when I first learned that there was this whole natural hair community out there and I got caught up in this whole whirl wind of product junkyism trying to figure out which product was THE best. Come to find out there are a lot of them that I like...and sadly most of them I can't afford to purchase on a consistent basis unless they are on sale =(. So this blog post isn't a review or some product promotion it's more of a reality check. Because I know sometimes I STILL need one when I find myself getting caught up in thinking of trying new products.

On my hair journey back in 2010 and 2011 I learned that there are a multitude of things you can put in your hair from conditioners, to pre-poos and different moisturizers. There are tons of techniques and styling methods to be used to preserve length and encourage growth. But it if you don't (or in my case can't) do them on a regular basis then there is no point! As soon as you stop or break dramatically from the routine you hair eventually goes back to the way it was. Think about it. Your hair is kind of like your body. It is a reflection of your lifestyle. You can't expect to be super athletic and lean, turning cartwheels and doing hand stands if you sit on the couch all day eating potato chips. Right? The same way you can't really expect your hair to be healthy and strong if it is always parched dry, never conditioned or taken care of day to day. One deep conditioner is not going to change your hair retention just like one trip to the gym isn't going to shrink your thighs. And even your hair does change, it's more like a crash diet. You may lose a few pounds, but if nothing about your daily habits have changed, don't worry those pounds will be coming  back. And your hair will go right back too.

You have to be CONSISTENT in whatever it is that you do to your hair. And that, my friends is the magic product - consistency! Find a hair care regimen, products and styles that fit you. If you can't afford to always pay $40 a bottle for 8 oz of conditioner or moisturizer, please don't try and make that a staple product. If it takes you 3 hrs to do a style that only lasts for 2 days that might not be a good "go-to" style for you. So get to know your hair. Learn it well. Find your foundation for consistency and then go from there.