Progress, marches on.

This is why I love taking pictures - it's the only way for me to keep a 'trustworthy' record. Even after DH took the picture, and I saw where my hair was, it wasn't until I looked at the previous picture did I even realize - holy crap, it actually grew!

Mind, my 'normative' growth rate is about 1/4 inch a month - I gathered that from how my bleached/dyed hair grew out at the roots (so skipping the retention question you can have when measuring from the ends) as well as how my locs grew out (again, from the roots) between tightenings. Since I latched my locs when I had them, there was no chance of slippage. So, I can say with some certainty that without any 'nudges', my hair grows 1/4 inch a month.




And yet, between Oct and Jan, I got an easy inch and a half. That's - I know, I know, that's the 'average' hair growth rate - but it's not average for me. And definitely not in the winter. And double definitely not considering the split ends I'm now starting to see dealing me out some breakage. :( I think I was doing too much combing. Just because my hair can be combed, doesn't mean it should be, ya know? And - I've been REALLY lazy with the MT - I'd say that over the 12 week period, I used it maybe 7 weeks, total? Maybe?

So, I'm happy - thrilled - excited over the growth I've gotten. I also checked with a towel, and APL is around 8/8.5 - If things keep growing as they are now, I should definitely be there by the end of this year.

I'm thinking I might do MT every other week. *sigh* I don't know! I'm really enjoy the updos that I'm doing on my loose hair, even though I've broken one of the end tines off of one of my new combs already - *rollseyes* - I actually think I might be able to pull off an updo with no combs at all - which is my preferred state. I figure that even combs will do some damage as they tug and rub and pull against my hair - but hair against hair is the most 'gentle' holder there is, I think.
If I do go back to the twists, though, I'm going to have to drop the rattail comb from the rotation, I think. I'm seeing a lot of splits - multiples, even - on the last 1/2 - 3/4 inch of several sheds, as well as seeing breakage about the same length, and gah! That's the only thing that I've been doing recently that's been putting extra stress on my ends. *sigh*

Interestingly enough, my hair seems to stay less tangled when I wear it secured, but loose, than it does when I wear it in two strand twists. It makes an odd kind of sense, when you think that each twist is a separate 'field of potential tangles' whereas with the loose secured styles, really only the very tips of the sections actually being twisted are tanglefields.

And then, of course, using MT during the week also demands that I DC midweek, and while I could DC on loose hair midweek (assuming I found a non-stressful way to access my scalp with loose hair), that would increase my detangling sessions to twice a week instead of once a week, and that's just too too much for my hair. Hurmph.

I'll figure something out.........

I'm actually going to put a little MT into my steam treatment today - give my ends a wee bit more of a fighting chance - at least the ones that haven't split yet. I'm planning on doing a lunar trim on Feb 26, so it's just a matter of getting to then, and I'll most likely take a good 1/2 - 3/4 inch off all around. That would make it almost exactly two years since my last trim - which was really a BC - and I'm perfectly content with that.

Hrm. I think that's it. Yes, I think I'll do twists tomorrow. Hrmph.