Confessions of a saleaholic: New beginnings

My hair and I continue our love-hate relationship, and over the past few months it's been hate all the way. I've been struggling with my thin, fine strands; anguishing over whether or not to trim, cut or chop it all away. The new year has given me the sense of a clean slate and I've taken a massive deep breath. The journey starts anew...

Today as I shampooed I mentally resolved to nourish and protect my hair, to give it what it needs to flourish and to let it do so on its schedule. I promised to be patient, to understand that my hair needs time and special care to thrive. So I clarified, deep conditioned, applied leave-in and braided to dry. I trimmed the 1/4" off the ends of each braid (4 more trims to go). Here's my New Year's length check, taken today (post-trim).

Back

Front

Side

So - collarbone length. My goal for the end of this year is to get to armpit length stretched. Shrinkage being the bitch that it is, whatever that translates to un-stretched will be good enough for me. But length is secondary to the main, most important thing for 2011:

OPERATION REPAIR ENDS!

I couldn't bear to chop off the whole inch of trashed ends that needed cutting, so instead I will do a 1/4" trim every 3 months. By the end of the year, all the damaged ends should be gone, and I will re-assess at that time. I hope that if I'm faithful with my regimen then my hair will be in much better shape.

When my hair was dry, I'll put in some mini-twists. Hopefully I will be able to get two weeks out of these. I plan to follow this regimen:

Spritz twice a day, morning and evening (Water, jojoba, leave-in)

Oil ends every evening with jojoba or coconut oil

Oil twists & scalp twice a week with castor oil

I won't be able to co-wash because that destroys my twists. I'm hoping that they will get enough moisture from the spritzing to last two weeks in this hell weather we've been experiencing lately. The sun is so hot! I may even keep a small spritz bottle in my bag for on-the-go moisture. Hot & dry weather plays havoc with my hair.

I had planned on putting in some kinky twists or crochet braids, but I decided I don't want to hide behind extensions. I need to be as comfortable and as proud of my hair in protective styles as I am of it in 'out' styles. My unruly hair is part of me and my personality, and for 2011 I am going to learn how to rock it.

Edit: The mini-twists turned into micros and it took me 6 HOURS to do them! They turned out pretty great though. I'm lucky!