[Hair] Conflicting Hair Goals, Be Gone!

Today I had more hair breakage! Phew! (Pictures of today’s hair are at the end of this post). I was able to stay calmer than usual, for reasons discussed below. My hair care and styling today did inspire thoughts and this post, though! 🙂

So, Are You a Thriver, Maintainer, Striver, or Neither?

Kim Love (of Kimmaytube and Luv Naturals) has a thought-provoking categorization system for describing hair care paths. Have you seen it? At this page, she discusses the personalities and regimens of folks on these three paths: the Thriver Path, the Maintainer Path, and the Striver Path.

So which would you consider yourself?

I think in the past I’ve tried to hold conflicting, incompatible hair goals: I wanted to wear my hair loose in its natural state, I wanted my hair to be fast and easy to take care of, I wanted my hair to grow fast and hardly tangle . . . And I wanted my hair to look long.

🙂 So much of that is incompatible. The truth is, for some of us 4a hair is not “easy” to take care of, whether people feel it is politically incorrect to say so or not. It’s a little work for some of us, if we’re being honest, right? And for some of us, wearing 4a hair loose is a recipe for tangles and thus hair loss. Finally, if I want my hair to look/wear long, wearing it curly is all about shrinkage and not maximal length.

Toward Thriving Hair

So, I have to make a decision: What is the priority at the moment? I feel that in the past I was trying to be a Thriver and a Maintainer and neither, all at once. Today as I deep conditioned my hair and experienced more breakage, it hit me strongly (again) that I desire to put my length goals above all else. (Of course, health goes along with that.)

At this point, it shouldn’t be that hard to stop holding conflicting hair goals: My natural/healthy hair journey is no longer new, so I don’t need to have hair that is free, loose, fun-to-play-with, etc. Right now, I need hair that is retaining every centimeter of growth it can, so that it sooner-than-not becomes easier to do. (I have an easier time doing and styling longer hair than shorter hair).

Intense Hair-Related Gratitude

Keeping with my goal of staying in gratitude: I am grateful for my gorgeous 4a spirals. I am thankful that my hair grows relatively fast. I am grateful that I know about the protective style of crochet braids and that I know an amazing crochet braid installer who charges a super fair price and braids the cornrows beneath in a very healthy way. I am ESPECIALLY grateful for ALL of this because it makes my current challenge with breakage and tangling so much less anxiety-producing. Imagine if I didn’t have/know some of these things! I’d be a bucket of stress!

Crochet Braid Preparation

This week I will continue comparing crochet hair. I want crochet hair that doesn’t tangle easily, because I plan to leave the hair in for 8 weeks, take 1 week off, then get another crochet install for 8 weeks, and so on. Then next week, I’ll call Camille (stylist) and schedule my appointment. My plan is to detangle my hair before the appointment, and go in with my hair completely detangled, wet, in about 16 twists, and saturated with Soultanicals Hair Glide and oil so that I don’t lose a lot of hair when she combs through it in the process of cornrowing it. Fingers crossed that she doesn’t take one look at my head and rinse the product out. I’ll ask her to try combing through and cornrowing it with the product in and see what she says. I hope to take pictures of the cornrow pattern she does, the amount of hair I lose when I detangle, and the amount of hair I lose as she combs and cornrows. I also hope to upload pictures of the final result with the crochet braids installed.

Lavishly Natural’s DIY Fenugreek Smoothie

Before I get the crochet braids, I’m going to try Lavishly Natural’s DIY Fenugreek Smoothie to see if it will help some with the breakage. (I’ll need to purchase some fenugreek powder or seeds, coconut cream, distilled water, and slippery elm bark.) I’ll report back about how that fares. In the meanwhile, please feel more than welcome to discuss your thoughts about Luv Naturals three hair care paths, about conflicting hair goals, about how to address hair breakage, or anything else (wholesome 😉 ) that comes to mind!

Many blessings!

Today’s Hair