S2S A FAIR Asessment

I decided to write a fair assesment of the prodcts that I used from S2S. Since I LOVE my Qhemet products SO much, it was very hard to be objective. At any rate, the Lavish cleasning Phoo was very slippery and gentle. The oil moisturizer was light, nogreasy and moisturinzing. However....I had a pretty bad reaction (face and body broke out) and I have since tossed the products. I will HAVE to stick to my Qhem's. I have some Wheatgrass cleansing tea on the way. I haven't used it in a long time and I will post my reviews once it gets here.

Hair length

I measured my hair at 2 1/2 inches for the most part. There are a couple of places in the back (where it seems to grow fastest) where it is almost three inches long. I think the front is the slowest growing area overall. I am in the TWA grow out challenge on Nappturality. I originally thought the goal was to have 5 inches of hair at the end of 2009, which I thought would be easy. However, I think the goal is to have inches of growth in a year. I THINK I can do it, but it took about 6 months for me to get to this point, so I might get 4 inches in a year. I really think that my growth rate (assuming that I can retain all of the length) is 4 inches per year, which is slower than the average rate of 6 inches per year. So, if I'm lucky, I'll have a total of 6 inches at the end of 2009. We'll see. I don't think I've been there in a while. The first year that I was natural, I grew my hair out pretty well. Of course, after I started combing, etc, I lost a lot of length. Now that I am being gentle with my hair and dampen it prior to picking, I may actually get lucky. My overall gal is 8-10 inches of hair. I don't think have EVER had that much hair! I want a 2 inch shrunken fro so that I can wear cute scarves. Plus, 2 inches bulk is all that I can wear in uniform. If my hair got longer, I would actually be able to pull to back. That is something that I haven't been able to do since going natural. I think I need 10-12 inches for that. My head is pretty big, so in order for the bangs to stretch all the way to the back, it has to be pretty long. I'm trying not to get too hung up on length, but I would like to pull my hair back.

My daughter's hair looks awesome since I redid her cornrows. I LOVE it. I think I'll achieve my goals for her hair. I would like for her thin patches to be three inches long (and full) by the summer. I don't know why the same patches get thinned out. I have to look at my styling methods. No more rubber bands these days. I did a really good trim in October, I think. I cut quite a bit off to even it up. As her hair grows out, I plan to keep it trimmed to a certain length so that it can fill in. We'll see how it goes.

PICKING AGAIN!

Well, I whipped out my Widu the other day and began to pick out my hair. My concensus is that I prefer my hair picked out, so that is what I do, however, I have had to figure out a better way to get through my hair now that it is growing out. I use the Qhemet Amla and olive heavy cream daily and it works for me.

My daughter's hair fared MUCH better on wash day. I realize that the culprit for breakage is DEFINITELY rubberbands and SLS-based shampoo. Rubber bands cause breakage because her hair gets all wrapped and tangled around them and I end up ripping out her hair when I take them out. Shampoo (SLS-based) makes her hair brittle. I think her cuticles get raised. I would never have believed this until I saw the damage for myself. We have a long way to go but I think we can get there now. On wash day, I used the extra honey beer and egg shampoo bar from Chagrin Valley Soap and Crafts. It is really gentle and it actually gets her hair and scalp clean.

I scored!

I ordered three jars of Qhemet's Amla and Olive Heavy Cream during the sale today! I am so happy. It really works well for me and I was tempted to get some of the other products but decided that it would be unneccessary. I am happy with the results that I am getting, so I don't need anything else.

I rebraided my daughter's hair last night. I think I pretty much have the concept down. Armed with the heavy cream and a spray bottle of water, I was able to do a pretty good job with her hair. I am on the path of acceptance of her frizz because almost as soon as I get her hair finished it looks a couple of days old. Oh well.

I am pretty bored with my hair. Now that I don't comb/pick it I see little white balls in my hair occasionally. They are from shed hair. I'm not really sure what (if anything) I should do about this. I have read many posts on hair boards where people have stated that they clear out the shed hair with a Denman brush and whatnot, but I think that would be damaging to my hair. Hmmmm.......