My progress in 2 years - and first post

[Myeka]

I'm not really new to LHC because I was here before it became... "newer?" Do you know what I'm talking about? :confused: ;) I was a lurker then too, but I started applying some of the ideas I got from here. I've been no-cones for 2 years, grew out a bleach disaster that destroyed my hair, and mostly cut it myself until I had it trimmed by a pro about a month or so ago. (That's a whole other story!)

Here is my hair before I found LHC. I remember when I first came here it was to figure out what were those weird little white dots that were covering my hair. I cried for HOURS when I found out! lol (You cannot imagine how many there were! Many many many)

http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/BELB267/P1000164-1-1.jpg

The next day, with the motivation of all the beautiful heads of hair I found here, I chopped it up to about an inch or so below my chin to grow out the blonde. This is a couple months later, August 2007. There was still some blonde left but I couldn't bring myself to go any shorter.

http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/BELB267/August20072.jpg

This is July 2009. There's no blonde left, but I started going grey at 22 so I dyed it! Argh. Oh well:

http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt232/BELB267/DSC00837.jpg

It's been slow growing because I've been trimming regularly as I go. But it feels a lot better. Now if I can just stop using my curling iron and learn to love my stupid wurly hair... Seriously, nothing helps the frizz and randomness of the wurls. Not oiling, not aloe vera gel, not my leave in condish...

Anyway, hello! :cheese:

[Fractalsofhair]

Welcome! Your hair looks great. With the wurles, have you tried brushing them? It may work, though you might end up with poofy hair. Brushing them with a Boar Bristle Brush and a little bit of oil may help your hair.

[Myeka]

Thank you! When I comb my hair it puffs like a 'fro and then it requires sooo much product in order to calm it down. But I haven't tried it with a boar bristle brush yet!

[coolbreeze212]

Hello...and welcome (back) to LHC! :) Your hair looks lovely!

[Roseate]

A BBB turns me into a giant, giant puffball, way worse than combing- personally I get the best wurls when I comb it in the shower and then force myself to keep my hands off it until it dries. You can check out the fun effects brushing has on some curlies over at this thread (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=7003&highlight=curlies+brush+hair).

Your hair looks great! I love your natural color.

[ButterCup02]

Your hair looks great! Good job!!

[tommiefromva]

Looks great. Keep up the good work.

[Garnet66]

Your hair looks beautiful. You've done a great job growing it out.

[Tressie]

Congratulations on your enviable progress! Your hair is looking really lovely and you are getting longer and longer! Good work! (o:

[maskedrose]

Great progress! I'm all for putting health over length :) It looks so much healthier, and I quite like your waves. I would caution a BBB though - makes mine poof far worse than a regular brush or comb. My waves aren't predictable at all (see my album for the variety), but my best bet is CO, combing when wet, letting it air dry w/o touching, then gently combing out the waves. Otherwise they are overly piece-y.

Anyway, glad you decided to post your progress!

[LutraLutra]

Poor you when you first discovered what the white dots actually were - but your hair looks really healthy and happy now. :) Thanks for posting.

[mugglemomof3]

Well welcome "back"!! I totally hear you on the "nothing really helps us wurly heads" but then again when I follow all the standard LHC rules about babying my hair, it does indeed do better.

[Myeka]

Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful comments. :o I missed how supersweet the community at LHC is. I also missed the wide variety of fun smiliecons.

Roseate: I love the hair in your avatar! The curls are gorgeous. Thank you for the warning about the BBB and for the link. I'll have a lot of fun looking through it.

Coolbreaze212, Buttercup02 and Tommiefromva: Thank you!

Garnet66: Thanks! Good for you for growing out your greys! I wish I were so brave.

Tressie: Thanks and... wow!! Gorgeous hair! I can't wait until mine is as long as yours. Hopefully it will look as good as yours at that length.

Maskedrose: Overly piece-y hair is the problem I have, along with crazy frizz. I'll try gently combing it out today. I'll check out your album whenever I get the powers to do so. Your hair is absolutely stunning!

LutraLutra: It was quite tragic lol. By my ends I had probably a hundred white dots in only a couple inches of hair. It's funny now that I look back on it, and I am so grateful I found LHC because trying to find good haircare advice is extremely difficult. Anyways, thank you for your comment and your hair is beautiful! So shiny.

Mugglemomof3: Thanks, it's great to be "back." I'm excited to get back into babying my hair again.

[Dachsdragon]

Congratulations on your progress. Your hair looks beautiful and healthy.

[Amara]

I really like your waves. :)

[spidermom]

You have lovely hair. I get my best wurly results by combing conditioner through in the shower, finger-combing a bit of aloe vera gel and oil through my hair after the shower, then allowing to dry. Or I'll use a bit of oil topped with a nice coney serum and blow-dry on warm and cool - gorgeous results! - but it takes an hour.

I mostly wear my hair bunned or braided, though.

[DavidN]

Congrtaulations, Browneyes267, on your wonderful progress, and you are blessed with the most beautiful waves in your hair. Also, welcome to the "new" version of the LHC!

[Myeka]

Dachsdragon and Amara, thank you! :)

Spidermom... I'll definitely be giving your advice a shot! Thank you!

DavidN, :o thank you so much! I can't wait to try out some of the new features of LHC.

[InTheCity]

Your "after" hair is awesome!
Healthy, shiny, long and counting...

[LuXious]

I know what will help the wurliness! Just letting it grow and being gentle with it. Frizz comes from abuse, in my experience. If you can wean yourself off the very thing you're using to tame it (curling iron), i believe you'll see that over time it calms way down. Dying it, unfortunately is probably another contributing factor. Have you tried Cassia yet? Anyway, it looks beautiful already. It can only get better with tender lovin' care.

[Myeka]

In the City thank you so much!

LuXious, thank you and you're totally right about the curling iron. I worked in a restaurant where there was pressure to look good and I *had* to wear my hair down by their rules, so I often 'did' my hair. Now I'm trying to find a job that doesn't care so much (not just for my hair - other reasons as well). At least when I dyed my hair it was on mostly virgin hair, so it wasn't layer on top of layer on top of layer. I'm thinking of trying indigo instead but I'm worried about demarcation lines... if I wasn't greying I wouldn't have touched anything at all because I was happy with my hair colour...

[swanns]

Congrats on the growth, it's looking lovely! And hey, I'm going grey at 21, nothing to be ashamed of ;)