Strengthening My Strands

One thing that I absolutely love is how versatile hair is. There are so many different styles, cuts, shapes, and techniques you can do to have fun with your hair. I also enjoy the fact that it can always be changed and you don’t have to permanently stick with a style that you don’t like. It’s one of the easiest, yet often slept on ways to accessorize different outfits for certain occasions. 

For many women, it’s the most important thing in their beauty and hygiene maintenance. It’s also one of the most expensive investments, and there’s typically no amount of money that can deter a woman from getting certain treatments done. Going to a hair salon is a pastime enjoyed by women around the globe. It’s not only a great way to catch up with your favorite stylist and get some much needed girl time, but it also helps guarantee your hair stays as healthy as possible. 

How our hair looks often has a huge influence on our confidence and self esteem. Because of this, some women spend hours upon hours moisturizing, styling, trimming, and manipulating their hair to satisfaction. Others prefer to have low maintenance styles that are a little easier to keep up and less time consuming. Waist length hair is definitely a dream for many, but it requires a lot of work and upkeep to make sure it’s healthy and retains length. 

On the flip side however, hair can be rather controversial. The styles you choose, the products you use, your washing frequency, and even societal norms can all influence how we’re perceived and judged by strangers. Your hair can be the healthiest in the world, but if it’s analyzed against a marker that doesn’t take your specific curl pattern or texture into account, you could be unfairly judged. 

I recently experienced a little hiccup in my hair health journey that made me change up my daily routine that I shared in Growth Cycle. I started a new medication that temporarily made my hair shed at an alarming rate for about a month and a half. I struggled to keep it from tangling and when I tried combing through it, I would get clumps of hair coming out. 

I was truly baffled because nothing in my routine changed other than starting that medicine. After a quick Google search, I found it was common to experience temporary shedding and that it would rebound on its own without any medical intervention. I switched my Biotin supplement to a more natural Peppermint Oil supplement and decided to try a Castor Oil with Rosemary and Peppermint to try and give my struggling hair and scalp some extra help. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the shedding finally tapered off. 

Since this whole ordeal, I’ve incorporated washing my hair at night again after buying a blow dryer and some heat protectant spray. I would always struggle with my pillow getting soaked when I was hand drying my hair. This purchase alone has given me more time to actually detangle, moisturize, and ensure my hair is looking its best week in and week out. 

It’s also given me the flexibility to wash my hair more frequently throughout the week since I know I can actually dry it now. I try to only allow 3 to 4 days in between a good wash, but sometimes if I feel like my hair is particularly grimy, I’ll co-wash it just to freshen it up a little bit. 

I made a conscious decision to stop pulling and manually breaking the tangles out of my hair and instead started reaching for my hair shears to cut off any tangled ends every time I noticed any. I also committed to detangling my hair at least once a week. 

Now that my hair has stopped unraveling right before my eyes, I can focus on repairing the damage and strengthening my strands. My tight ringlet coils are back and seem to be flourishing. If I had to spotlight one particular product or step that really helped my hair rebound, I would have to say it was incorporating the oil into my daily routine. I use it every time I wet my hair and I make sure to coat my ends really well. I’m currently on my second bottle and I can honestly say it’s drastically helped to not only stop the shedding, but bring new life into my hair. 

You might be asking, so what’s next in my hair care and health journey? Well, I plan on loccing my hair soon so stay tuned for my loc journey. I’m excited to start that process and I think it’ll be well worth going out of my comfort zone to try a new style. Thankfully, if I don’t like it, I can always do something different. At the end of the day, the hair will eventually grow back.

Fortunately, I don’t hold too much of my self confidence in my hair, so I’m able to do drastic things like cut it off completely or commit to locs pretty easily. As a Black American woman, I’ve known from a very young age the fine line between your hair being natural and feeling the need to conform to be “accepted” in popular society’s western view of hair. Straight hair is praised while coily, “nappy” hair is usually frowned upon. It takes courage to go against the ideals of society to be confident and comfortable rocking your own hair. 

While many things have changed since I last wrote about my hair, my ultimate goal of growing, protecting, and nourishing healthy hair hasn’t. Even though my hair is definitely shorter than it’s been in a while, I can honestly say I prefer to have the health over the length. 

If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by giving this video a thumbs up, leaving a comment, and subscribing to my channel. I’ll see you in the next episode! 

Signed, 

Jessica Marie