Protective Style: Two Strand Twisted Sock Bun

I think I've been deep conditioning all wrong. The other day, I had the best deep conditioning experience ever! I mixed Aussie Moist, vatika and olive oil together and literally saturated my hair with the mixture. Normally, I'm a bit light-handed on the conditioner. My DC results are usually good, but the other day, they were great! My hair seemed to soften immediately and it had amazing slip. After saturating my hair, I covered it in plastic and sat under my soft bonnet dryer for 40 minutes.

Something, I've learned since going natural is that my low porosity hair requires heat to feel deep conditioned. No matter how long I baggy, it will never be as effective as a heated, deep conditioner. #finally figuring out my hair

After my DC, I put my hair in a protective style to protect it from the elements. I wanted something elegant and classic. I've been seeing a lot of sock buns lately and really wanted to give it a try. I wasn't sure if my hair was long enough, but to my surprise, I just managed to wrap my strands around the donut. YAY for new styles!

After rinsing out the DC

What are some of your favorite protective styles?

Multi-Bunning

Previously, I posted on maintaining your styles by wearing multi-puffs/pineapples at night. This was especially recommended for short - medium lengthed curlies. Since, I wore my hair out in a puff yesterday. Last night, I decided to try multi-bunning. I divided my hair in 3 sections and created a bun for each section, being sure to fold my ends under the hair. I secured the bun with a hair tie and wrapped my hair as usual. In the morning, I found my ends were moisturized and smooth. Which is not always the case when I do multi-puffs or pineapples, as I find my ends rub against my satin scarf too much. Tucking the ends under the hair prevented this and kept them moisturized.

Change of Mind

I'm over 8 months into my transition!! As I approach my one year mark, I'm really excited for all the future holds. Not just for hair, I'm not THAT obsessed. I've been doing some side projects lately and getting back into some things I used to enjoy a lot, but somehow stopped doing. I don't know why, but around the end of every year, I get energized and motivated to take on more and learn new things. Although I hate the cold, I love how winter forces us to become more intimate and reflect more on life (or is that just me).

Speaking of winter, I've let the bun into my life and am kind of loving it (shh don't tell anyone)! I noticed that braidouts were starting to pull my hair out, the constant rebraiding routine at night, was just not doing me any good. For the moment I am wearing my hair in a bun during the week and switching it up with my flexirod set sometimes. I'll see at the end of the year if I have achieved more growth, but I can say for sure that my hair feels healthier since I've eliminated braidouts. Once I'm all natural I'll try my hands at it again, but for the time being my transitioning hair just couldn't handle it! To make the style a little more playful, I've been wearing cute headbands and also wearing a high messy bun. I even received compliments from the husband, who wasn't super crazy about buns (or any updo for that matter) before (guess he's transitioning too)!

On another note, I took a huge decision last weekend! [Drum ROLL]...

I gave my stock of relaxers to my former Dominican Salon!! Yes, the creamy crack is officially out of my life! On Saturday, after my Zumba class, I stopped by and asked if the salon owner had any use for them and she was thrilled to take it off my hands. She was really shocked that I decided to stop and wished me luck. It felt genuinely heartfelt and not like "good luck, you're gonna need it sistah!" I have to admit, I went through withdrawals after leaving the salon. That day her hair looked pretty amazing, so shiny and bouncy! But then it dawned on me, I felt pretty damn good all sweaty and glowing after my work out. And you know what felt even better? The fact that I could go home and wash my sweaty scalp, just like that and not worry about ruining my perm. Later that day I went on Curly Nikki and read some inspiring transition stories, which reinforced my belief that this decision is for the best. This is starting to sound like a bad break up "Affirm relaxer, it's not me, it's you. This is really for the best, we've experienced 18 eventful years together and that's something we can both look back on and smile about. I just really need to be on my own for now-- and by that I mean forever, no hard feelings."

XOXO

Annabel

P. S. - At the end of this month, I'll be posting new growth comparison shots.