2 Inches In 4 Months Challenge 2017 -final Session - Sept To Dec.

I trimmed my ends for the end of the year. I took off 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch. Clipping splits as I find them has really improved the condition of my ends. I have been able to successfully extend my trims from originally every 8 weeks to then 12 weeks to now 16 weeks. I will be starting 2018 in a good place.

ETA: I didn't mean to post this here but ohwell :lol: :ohwell:
 
Hi, ladies!

I went a crazy amount of time without a true trim: I'm just not that great at self-trimming (yet), and I am probably now officially afraid of professional stylists.

I could see thinning ends on my natural hair, and my twists would tangle on the ends. So I took a chance on a recommended stylist and went in and got an official trim.

It worked out! I feel relieved. My hair wasn't in "bad shape" like I was thinking it could be. I know I should brush-detangle less going forward, but my hair was not super chewed up, and my hair still looked okay despite all my SSK-battling. :smile:

My plan this upcoming year is to really work the Nutrition, Exercise, and Water thread; do vigorous scalp massaging; follow Chicoro's ends care routine; and pattern much of my hair handling after a YouTuber whose video I recently posted in the 2017 Regimen thread.

Before trim:

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After trim:

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Don’t we all...Thanks, @shortdub78
Funny you should mention my skin...I was recovering from a rash on my face which I think was caused by my crochet hair. My skin is sensitive and it think the red tone was the rash. The first two times I washed the hair within a day or two of the install but this time I waited more than a week for the first wash and the itchy rash began on my forehead and covered my entire face and ears.
 
Funny you should mention my skin...I was recovering from a rash on my face which I think was caused by my crochet hair. My skin is sensitive and it think the red tone was the rash. The first two times I washed the hair within a day or two of the install but this time I waited more than a week for the first wash and the itchy rash began on my forehead and covered my entire face and ears.
Your skin overall looks good! Neck shoulders, etc very even! Has the rash went away?
 
Your skin overall looks good! Neck shoulders, etc very even! Has the rash went away?
Thank you, and yes, it is gone. Overall, my skin tone has always been very evenly brown. With as brown as I am I will burn in the sun in a heartbeat. I have used sun protection daily since I discovered this as a teenager. It took going to high school with white girls to get a grip on sun protection...LOL. That and genes could be responsible for my skin @57.
 
Here is my end of the year photo from a rather messy wash and go:

End of 2017.jpg
As usual I have difficulty knowing when my head is in the neutral position so the position of the ends varies a bit.
On the one hand, my hair has thinned significantly and due to the thinning I have a worse case of fairy-tale ends now. On the other hand it's a consolation to see that my ends are still at or grazing BSL. I think that this is a sign for me to not give up on my hair and to continue the fight in 2018. I wonder what length challenge I should join in 2018. What do you think guys? Should I continue with the BSL challenge hoping to get more of my hair there? Or should I try for a newer length? Being stuck for long or even regressing makes one not so sure of one's hair care potential :(
 
Here is my end of the year photo from a rather messy wash and go:

View attachment 420253
As usual I have difficulty knowing when my head is in the neutral position so the position of the ends varies a bit.
On the one hand, my hair has thinned significantly and due to the thinning I have a worse case of fairy-tale ends now. On the other hand it's a consolation to see that my ends are still at or grazing BSL. I think that this is a sign for me to not give up on my hair and to continue the fight in 2018. I wonder what length challenge I should join in 2018. What do you think guys? Should I continue with the BSL challenge hoping to get more of my hair there? Or should I try for a newer length? Being stuck for long or even regressing makes one not so sure of one's hair care potential :(
Come to the WL thread and join this thread for 2018! I’m in the same boat as you! Who knows how long it will take for the lost hair to grow back. The 2 inches in 4 mos thread can be for the regrowth, and the length challenge can be for the hair you have retained!
We aren’t doing any big chops, so let’s move forward with what we have!
 
Come to the WL thread and join this thread for 2018! I’m in the same boat as you! Who knows how long it will take for the lost hair to grow back. The 2 inches in 4 mos thread can be for the regrowth, and the length challenge can be for the hair you have retained!
We aren’t doing any big chops, so let’s move forward with what we have!

I am so glad to have you around @shortdub78 you are so supportive and encouraging :kiss:

I love your idea and I will join you guys in the WL challenge as well. As they say: aim high! I hope that 2018 is going to be much better for my hair. I definitely won't be doing any more big chops and I have never trimmed in my life so my hair is safe in that regard. You should keep you scissors hidden as well.
 
Here is my end of the year photo from a rather messy wash and go:

View attachment 420253
As usual I have difficulty knowing when my head is in the neutral position so the position of the ends varies a bit.
On the one hand, my hair has thinned significantly and due to the thinning I have a worse case of fairy-tale ends now. On the other hand it's a consolation to see that my ends are still at or grazing BSL. I think that this is a sign for me to not give up on my hair and to continue the fight in 2018. I wonder what length challenge I should join in 2018. What do you think guys? Should I continue with the BSL challenge hoping to get more of my hair there? Or should I try for a newer length? Being stuck for long or even regressing makes one not so sure of one's hair care potential :(
Your coils are so pretty. Keep up the fight, the struggle is real. I just want to get where you are.
 
Here is my end of the year photo from a rather messy wash and go:

View attachment 420253
As usual I have difficulty knowing when my head is in the neutral position so the position of the ends varies a bit.
On the one hand, my hair has thinned significantly and due to the thinning I have a worse case of fairy-tale ends now. On the other hand it's a consolation to see that my ends are still at or grazing BSL. I think that this is a sign for me to not give up on my hair and to continue the fight in 2018. I wonder what length challenge I should join in 2018. What do you think guys? Should I continue with the BSL challenge hoping to get more of my hair there? Or should I try for a newer length? Being stuck for long or even regressing makes one not so sure of one's hair care potential :(

@Alma Petra, first your coils are beautiful! How much shrinkage do you get? I ask because your hair is BSL curly if straight I assume your hair is already WL or longer depending on the degree of your shrinkage? My hair is WL and my WnG's are between SL and APL. I think you should be in the WL and HL/TBL challenge. Are your goals specifically for your curly hair only? Whatever you decide don't give up...hair loss and thinning can be very discouraging but you have the tools and knowledge to overcome these challenges. I'm so grateful for this site and the ladies here, I've learned so much in the 2 years I've been on here.
 
@Alma Petra, first your coils are beautiful! How much shrinkage do you get? I ask because your hair is BSL curly if straight I assume your hair is already WL or longer depending on the degree of your shrinkage? My hair is WL and my WnG's are between SL and APL. I think you should be in the WL and HL/TBL challenge. Are your goals specifically for your curly hair only? Whatever you decide don't give up...hair loss and thinning can be very discouraging but you have the tools and knowledge to overcome these challenges. I'm so grateful for this site and the ladies here, I've learned so much in the 2 years I've been on here.

Thanks dear I hope that my natural coils will be as nice as my texlaxed coils. The length is texlaxed so it does not shrink a lot. When I do the pull down test it does not stretch much longer. But yes I am tired of being in the BSL challenge; I will move on to the WL challenge this year I guess.
But you give me a lot of hope. If your WnG hangs down to SL/APL, this means that there is hope for me. I am transitioning and I am worried about shrinkage, but maybe if I grow my natural hair to WL I will still have some good hang time! Yay!
 
Thanks dear I hope that my natural coils will be as nice as my texlaxed coils. The length is texlaxed so it does not shrink a lot. When I do the pull down test it does not stretch much longer. But yes I am tired of being in the BSL challenge; I will move on to the WL challenge this year I guess.
But you give me a lot of hope. If your WnG hangs down to SL/APL, this means that there is hope for me. I am transitioning and I am worried about shrinkage, but maybe if I grow my natural hair to WL I will still have some good hang time! Yay!

What's making you decide to transition from texlaxed to natural?

I think your hair is VERY, VERY beautiful. My hair has never been that long. When it gets that long, I'm going to have to try not to make my family sick of me and my hair. :smile:

What do you like about your hair? I have to ask myself that frequently, because if I don't then I end up focusing on my edges or the shrinkage or the tangling and styling challenges, and I forget to enjoy the growth and health.
 
What's making you decide to transition from texlaxed to natural?

I think your hair is VERY, VERY beautiful. My hair has never been that long. When it gets that long, I'm going to have to try not to make my family sick of me and my hair. :smile:

What do you like about your hair? I have to ask myself that frequently, because if I don't then I end up focusing on my edges or the shrinkage or the tangling and styling challenges, and I forget to enjoy the growth and health.

Thank you dear :kiss:

I have to confess that I really love my texlaxed curls. They are much more defined and less frizzy. I cannot completely rule out going back to texlaxing in the future but I want to give my natural hair a chance. Even though I was natural for most of my life, I never let it curl. It was always stretched. I didn't even know I had curls.
From observing my roots and my twa I know that my natural curls are very tight and frizzy but I still hope that there will be a breakthrough and I will learn how to wear them defined and juicy. I have occasionally had good results in the past but they were not consistent. Also Design Essentials changed the formula of their Creme Gel :crybaby:

Anyways I also want to walk away from texlaxing because it is easy to accidentally get straight results by overlapping the relaxer, specially at my crown which is already less curly, and I don't want straight hair. Also I hate the multiple demarcation lines. My hair tends to snag at them and tangle up or break. My natural hair used to be very easy to detangle and to deal with in general. My natural strands are also stronger and more resilient than my relaxed hair.

At this moment I don't know what I like about my hair. I try to think about the positive things but all that comes to mind is that it's very thin, very frizzy and the curl pattern is a mess. I think what I like the most is the hope. The hope that I will be able to keep this level of density and avoid further thinning, that I will be able to grow it long (to hang at waist level) with a reasonable hem line, and that I will be able to find the correct products to control my natural coils. My dream coils look like those of @OhTall1 :love: and @Sharpened :love:
 
Thank you dear :kiss:

I have to confess that I really love my texlaxed curls. They are much more defined and less frizzy. I cannot completely rule out going back to texlaxing in the future but I want to give my natural hair a chance. Even though I was natural for most of my life, I never let it curl. It was always stretched. I didn't even know I had curls.
From observing my roots and my twa I know that my natural curls are very tight and frizzy but I still hope that there will be a breakthrough and I will learn how to wear them defined and juicy. I have occasionally had good results in the past but they were not consistent. Also Design Essentials changed the formula of their Creme Gel :crybaby:

Anyways I also want to walk away from texlaxing because it is easy to accidentally get straight results by overlapping the relaxer, specially at my crown which is already less curly, and I don't want straight hair. Also I hate the multiple demarcation lines. My hair tends to snag at them and tangle up or break. My natural hair used to be very easy to detangle and to deal with in general. My natural strands are also stronger and more resilient than my relaxed hair.

At this moment I don't know what I like about my hair. I try to think about the positive things but all that comes to mind is that it's very thin, very frizzy and the curl pattern is a mess. I think what I like the most is the hope. The hope that I will be able to keep this level of density and avoid further thinning, that I will be able to grow it long (to hang at waist level) with a reasonable hem line, and that I will be able to find the correct products to control my natural coils. My dream coils look like those of @OhTall1 :love: and @Sharpened :love:

Gotcha! :smile: :up:

When you give your natural hair a chance, you might need to give it a long chance to really know what it is truly like.

At first I had a lovely-feeling TWA. Then I had what some people call scab hair. Hair behaving very differently than how it does now. It eventually grew out. I wish I could say more, but I don't really quite know what I'm talking about. I just know that my hair has changed over time. Your current description of your natural hair may not always apply, is all I mean to say. :smile:
 
I will be back with my regimen and photos this weekend. I'll be doing new braids this weekend that will last until Feb.
 
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