Well It’s confirmed…

Posted by nappyme on February 19, 2010 · 3 Comments 

Two inches of hair have got to go. 

Now I was sad about that, but now I’m not. Screw it. My ends are so thin and whispy that they’re simply NOT worth holding on to. I could tell that last fall when I was wearing twists. I would get to a certain point and suddenly there was simply no volume and no elasticity. The last two inches would tangle so easily it was heart breaking. 

Looking back, no wonder I couldn’t retain any length when it was in twists; my hair ends were/are in just horrible shape. 

Brazen bronze first time color...wasn't feelin' it.

So what happened? I think the over lapping dye jobs finally caught up to me and just did my ends in. If you’ve been following my journey since I dyed my hair, you’ll know that in my quest to find THE perfect shade, I ended up doing three full-head applications of different colors.

The first was Brazen Bronze by Soft Sheen. Um… The word “brazen” should have been my first and biggest clue. It was brazen alright, and I wasn’t a happy camper at all.  First of all, the main reason I wanted to color my hair was to cover up my scattered gray hair, which this didn’t do. My bad…I didn’t read the label; it wasn’t formulated for gray hair. My second bad? That shade just was NOT me. Everyone but me loved it so it had to go. I researched what I needed to do for weeks, talking with the company’s customer service people and a few beauticians here in town that are friends of mine.

D & L Brown Sugar. Not happy with this either.

So, I ended up waiting like eight weeks before my next attempt with Dark and Lovely Brown Sugar 386. It was better but I still didn’t like it.  Too dark, it left my hair looking kinda dull and flat. 

Clairol's Texture and Tones Cocoa Brown is a winner!

So I went back to the drawing board and finally settled on Clairol’s Texture and Tones Cocoa Brown. I waited several months before doing my entire head again and this time…bingo! I loved it immediately. Just what I was looking for and I’ve been using it ever since. 

Although I’ve only been coloring my roots, it’s obvious to me that those first three full-head applications has had a detrimental effect on my hair. I thought it might, but I was hoping it wouldn’t but it did. So now I’ve gotta anti up and pay the piper by sacrificing two inches of lifeless hair. 

Sooo, anyhoo. Last night, I stopped by J.C. Penny and asked for an assessment of my ends. When I asked her how much needed to come off, she didn’t hesitate and said, “Two inches.” Well last night, I still wasn’t ready to part with two inches of hair. But today is a new day and all of a sudden I’ve come to terms with it. I finally decided that it’s silly to retain that much damaged hair just for the sake of length. Intellectually I know this. I personally preach it to others, and I’ve always said I was about healthy hair first as opposed to damaged length for the sake of long hair. Yeah, I know, it’s hard to practice what you preach. Length for most of us nappies is so hard to come by. 

But as I sat here looking at my “Beyond BSL” pics I guess I had my truest awakening. If I grew it beyond BSL once. I can certainly do it again. And it doesn’t have to be a painstakingly long journey either. Box braids apparently are my quickest ticket there. Shoot, when I braided it up and just let it be, I gained 2.5 inches in a little under four months. And during that time, I seemed to have about 100 percent retention. 

So what the heck… I just need to let it goooooooooo. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Tomorrow’s my big day at the salon, and I can’t wait. And if all goes as planned you all will get to see the whole thing. I’ve asked a good friend of mine to come along and take pics and shoot video of my big hair day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have some good stuff to post so stay tuned. 🙂

Filed under Random Nappy Thoughts and Experiences · Tagged with coloring nappy hair, hair cut