As some of you may know, I did my big chop on August 31, 2012. On what would be Feb 31 or March 3, I will celebrate my 18 month nappaversary. Woo hoo! So I figured I would come and do an update on how long my hair as grown as well as the new products I am using and updates to my routine since my last check-in 9 months ago. Twist-outs are still my go-to style but I’ve had to change how I do them now that my hair is longer.

My wash day products

Since I did my 9 month update, I am using a bunch of new products. I already mentioned in my January Favorites post that I have stopped using the MyHoneyChild type 4 hair creme in favor of the Camille Rose Naturals Almond Jai Twisting Butter. I mentioned then how much I love how the Camille Rose gives great hold and curl definition and makes my hair soft. Darcy’s Botanicals Avocado and Honey Twisting Cream also works well on my hair.

I no longer use the Karen’s Body Beautiful Sweet Ambrosia Leave in. Instead I am using 2 new leave ins: Oyin Handmade Honey Hair Dew and Jessicurl Too Shea Extra Moisturizing Conditioner. I like how the Hair Dew is thick and creamy just like Audrey II likes.

On wash day, I split my hair into 4 sections. (I can get my hair into 4 ponytails now!) Splitting my hair up makes detangling Audrey II a lot more manageable. I then split up each section into 2 or 3 more sections, detangling each smaller section with As I am Coconut Co-wash and then I twist it up. Detangling takes a bit longer now but it also takes me less time to do my twists.

Twists

Once I am finished detangling, I wash the co-wash out with my hair still in twists. I take an old t-shirt and squeeze out some of the excess water from the twists and then distribute coconut oil throughout my hair and then put the Hair Dew on top. Now I am ready to twist. I unravel one twist at a time, smoothing a little bit of the Jessicurl and Camille Rose. For every one twist, I make two twists. This makes my twists small enough so that I get great definition. I am not a big fan of chunky twist outs, at least not at this length. And I keep doing that until my whole head is done.

As far as length, my hair has grown a lot in the past 9 months. My hair is to my chin on the sides, the back is almost at my collarbone and the front almost touches the tip of my nose.

I still have different curl patterns throughout my head. The hair at the nape of my neck has a looser curl pattern and is very easy to detangle. Same thing with the front of my head. My problem area is the very top of my head or my crown. The hair in this section is the coarsest and most prone to breakage; I have to be extra careful when detangling.

As you can see, I am still battling shrinkage, not that I expected that it would magically go away in the past 9 months. I actually like a bit of shrinkage, especially in twistouts. You just have to embrace it and keep it moving. But no, still no wash and go’s for me.

Like I have said before, twist outs helps to stretch my hair. And keeping my hair twisted after I wash it and before I twist it for the style also helps combat shrinkage. I don’t twist my hair at night but my definition pretty much stays until the week is out and it is time to wash it again. But by the end of the week, my hair tends to frizz up a bit which I am cool with. The “18 months natural” pic above is 2nd day hair. I love my hair more and more every day. And I can’t wait until it is even longer.

TTFN,

Elayna