Please Refer to My Instagram!!!

Hello, and Happy MLK Day!!! Days like this makes me proud to be an African American even more. We as a race has evolved so much, and I embace beautiful, celebrated days such as these. Happy Birthday, Dr. King!!!

Well, ladies. I want to give you a small update. I will be covering a few topics in short detail so please excuse me. 

-First of all, I am unable to upload pictures to my BLOG anymore. :( It is so sad. I have so many pending blogs that have been awaiting pictures so that it can finalized. Now, I cannot add them. Blogger refuses to let me do it. So, with that said, I am adding my HHJ photos up there. So, if you are not following me, please follow me @ enduring_ego1920. I do follow back, especially HHJ sisters!!! So, I will continue to blog here, but my pictures will be placed there for now on. Please excuse the inconvience. I will not post pix of my mother's hair on my IG, because I am friends with alot of hometown people and they do not know that my mother struggle with extreme problem areas, thin areas, extreme breakage, etc. So, for her privacy, I am refraining from putting any of pictures up. I will only speak of her journey on here.

-I relaxed my mother's hair yesterday, 1/20/2013 @ 7 weeks post. I am so proud of my mother because that is the absolute longest she has been without a relaxer. I have decided once again not to relax her problem area. She will be going the entire year without a relaxer there. My mother's hair is also growing. The middle nape is filling in very nice. I am going to keep my mother on a castor oil regimen. I measured my mother's problem area, it was five inches by four inches. I am pleased to announce that my mother's problem area is growing in, its about 3 3/4 inches by 3 3/4 inches. So exciting!!! My mother is starting to slip back to sleeping around with no bonnet. She is becoming less motivated about getting up and getting it. But tomorrow I am going to explain to her the great changes I have seen in her hair from seven weeks ago, and maybe that will be the swift kick that she needs.

-I took my bun out from one of my protective styles and started to signs of my ends trying to thin. So, I quickly got some braid hair. My hair is officially in individual plaits (pix on IG). I plan to stay in them for about 3 weeks, but I would love to stay in for six. My hair is soft from my leave in where my hair is trying to slip out of my braids already. So, 3 weeks is the goal. After 3 weeks, I will wear my hair in a loose bun for a week and I plan to put my hair back into braids until a week before my relaxer.

These are my current updates. Despite my picture inconvience on Blogger, I encourage you to continue to follow my journey here. My blog is more of a personal journey. You see me here at my most vulnerable. Nothing here is censored; I talk about all of my hair ups and downs. What I am trying to say is that A HHJ IS NOT PERFECT, ITS NOT SCHEDULED AND ITS NOT EASY. I hope that you continue to follow me and now on IG, too. I plan to post a hair pic every day if not every other day. I appreciate all of the love and support. Continue to be apart of my mother's and my struggle to grow our hair PERIOD.

Thanks again, and remember - Instagram : enduring_ego1920

Operation: Wedding Hair Post #1

I woke up this morning not feeling that hot, and my hair is proof. Lol.

I got to vent, fellow bloggers. So, my friend's wedding is in 3 months. I am so hyped and ready for it because I love weddings and events such as this. AND she is a close friend, so that makes it even more special. But, I am so ready for this to be over with because she was trying to find the most expensive bridesmaid dresses. 300 dollars and more. She already confided in me that she was stressing over the wedding, but I am starting to stress, too. I live four hours away. I have to drive to her hometown three times. I have to buy that gas for three roundtrips and rent a hotel each time. I have to buy this dress and the shoes. Plus, I have to come up with a bridal gift. Boy, I knew bridesmaids have this kind of work to do, but it didn't hit me until last week, lol. So, as happy and honored I am to be in the wedding, I am SO ready for this to be over, lol.

Thankfully, the final price of the dress ended up being 160 dollars plus tax. I could have jumped for joy!!! So, I will be getting fitted for the dress Saturday. I will post pictures of the dress this weekend.

What is going on with my hair? Well, I am still in the Protective Styling Challenge, surprisingly. I am so happy that I am still going through with; although, it has only been one week. Lol. I am currently 5 weeks post relaxer. I still have my relaxer planned for March 29th, which will be a total of 16 weeks. I decided to make my relaxer day two weeks before the wedding because I do not want that flat hair for the wedding. I would have washed my hair a few times, allowing my true thickness and texture to show. So, I have 11 weeks before I relax. Ugh, that is going to be a long time. But I believe that having my hair in buns will help me a tad bit. Next weekend, I believe that I am going to put my hair in individual braids for the rest of this month and all of February. That will be a big help. I am also going three months without heat. OH! How will I make it?! But I believe that I can. I have been using my castor oil at least 6 days out of the week since the new year. I have also paid alot more attention to my ends. I oil my ends everytime I put them up in a bun. I have been reading a few blogs and watching a few youtube videos, and I took a great piece of advice from one of them: do to your roots exactly what you would do to your ends. It makes alot of sense. Why not? Your hair does grow from the roots, why not? I have been drinking alot of water and DCing with every wash. I am doing everything I possibly can to ensure maximum growth. To be honest, I just cannot wait until the roller setting challenge. I am alittle more versatile with roller sets than I am with buns. I have about 13 more weeks to get better, so we will see what else I can do. Lol.

I won't ramble any longer, so have a great day.

Oh, I have couple of reviews coming up in the next couple of weeks. So be on the lookout for them.

Protective Styling Challenge Post 1 - Spray Moisturizer

I have two moisturizers that I am dying to get rid of. I have found better moisturizers for the same price. I hate wasting money, so I would hate to throw away this whole bottle of Africa's Pride Moisturizer (the other one is Dark and Love moisturizer). HOWEVER, I have came up with a solution. I am only 3 days into this Protective Styling Challenge. I know that there are days where I am not going to want to take down my protective style so that I can make sure that my ends are moisturized. That is why I bought this huge spray bottle.

Where am I going with this? I took some of my moisturizer, some water and some oils and mixed it into this bottle (not in this order). When I tried it out, I realized that it was extremely watery and that a couple of squirts goes a long way. That is great news to me. I have made this "bun moisturizer", and it can stretch maybe this entire challenge. ***fingers crossed*** It really made a substantial amount. Well, after I sprayed my hair and my ends with it, my hair was very shiny. It was very moisturized. And the best part, IT WAS NOT GREASY. Nothing throws me off a ponytail/bun faster than a greaseball head. Lol. Back to this, I am so happy with this new mixture. I cannot wait to continue to use this during this challenge. I believe this will really help me wake up dull/dulling buns.

OAN: I have switched up the position of my bun to avoid tension breakage. I have seen alot of young ladies have breakage right where that ponytail holder lies. That usual area is where my most shorter pieces are due to my long bangs. I am trying to grow that entire area out because I am trying to avoid cutting my hair to the length of that area, which would put me at full neck length. I mean, my hair would look so gorgeously thick if I cut it back, but I am hoping that it will eventually grow out. So, I am going to have to stop cutting me a bang and letting it all grow out. I am ready for the challenge.

Thanks for reading.

Protective Styling Challenge - Post 1

Hello, ladies. I am participating in the Protective Styling Challenge. I am super excited. I am ready to achieve some serious growth and thickness. I have already posted my starting pic in my previous post. You can find that post by clicking here.

At first, I was wrecking my brain thinking about how in the world am I going to pull of buns. I am not a great bun stylist. I do not think that I look rather good buns; I tend to lose my girlie looks. LOL. But, I find that weave helps me achieve nice buns. So, I will probably be weaving my buns up through the month of January.

I having issues posting pictures on my blog. BUT I do have an Instagram, so come follow me:

enduring_ego1920

Come follow my HHJ on IG, and I do follow back. I am posting a pic right now. I moisturized my hair with some moisturizer that I am trying to get rid of. I sealed my hair with argan oil and castor oil. I have my hair in braid bun, thanks to some synthetic braid weave. I will probably rock this bun until Thursday. On Thursday, I will probably wash my hair and switch up bun styles.

Thanks for reading and follow me. I follow back because I love reading about HHJs.

New Year, New Hair (My mother's and my starting pix)

Happy New Year...again, lol. I promised that I was going to post the starting photos of my mother's and my hair. I am excitedly expecting wonderful results from us both.

Let me start with my photo:

I will be bunning and protective styling for the first part of the year. I will also be using a couple of growth aides later on this year. My main goals of 2013:

-reach APL

-achieve more thickness

-grow out shorter pieces

-reach BSL

 

Here is my mother's pix:

This first set of pictures is of my mother's hair before her setback. Her hair was growing in nicely with the castor oil and using the bonnet. My mother stopped using her bonnet and lost ALL of her progress.

 

This picture was taken 1/1/13. As you can see, my mother's hair is alot thinner than what she started out with in August. However, this is actually progress from her setback. It was alot worse and she wouldn't let me take a picture of it. So this pic is alot better than a month ago. This is mother's problem area. it is four inches long and five inches wide. It is extremely big, plus she has two thinning sides. The picture to the right is of my mother's total length. As you can see, she has very thin hair. HOWEVER, since her ''intervention" and setback, my mother has been doing well with wearing her bonnet. I have gotten her up of the couch twice to get her bonnet on will napping, but other than that, its been going pretty well. My mother's main goals of 2013:

-grow in her problem area where no scalp is shown
-grow more length
-achieve thickness
-by June, we are hoping that her problem area will be halfway covered

Due to my mother's short, thin hair, she is unable to bun. My mother does not wear weave, so she does not have much help, but we are optimistic.

Thanks for reading. I could really use some advice regarding my mother's hair. All comments are welcomed. Thanks again, wish us well and Happy New Year!





Longing4Length's Protective Styling Challenge (ENTRY POST)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Today is the 2nd day of the new year and I hope everyone is doing well and is in great health. I am so excited because it is 5 days until Longing4Length's Protective Styling Challenge !!! This challenge is under my mini goals to complete this challenge, because I can be so lazy at times. I want to prove to myself that I can complete tasks and such. So, this is more than just a protective styling challenge. This is the opportunity for me to quick laziness and self doubt to the curb! I am ready!!! This is my starting pic-slash-post. I have been Full SL and borderline APL for too long. I am trying to get some ridiculous length this year. I am not cutting any corners or taking any short cuts. Another reason why this challenge is such a huge challenge to me is because I am so ANTI-BUNNING. I do not believe that buns flatter me. With my large forehead and lack of bun styles, I tend to look boring and homely. Even though I know the benefits of bunning, it is like I still refuse to do any. Well, that is going to have to change if I want to be in this challenge.

Without further blah, blah, blah, here is my starting photo:

This photo is of my airdired hair. I am not quite APL, but I am hoping that the Protective Styling Challenge will help me tremendously.
So, here is my post and my starting pic. Only five more days and I will bunning up a storm!!! Good luck to everyone!!!!! Happy Growing and Happy New Year!!!