Hi LHC! My journey that started from mid cheek to now ~ 2C/3A/F-M/ii-iii ~ UK based

[cubancurlie]

Very excited to make this introductory post! I somehow stumbled upon the Long Hair Community a few weeks ago, and spent some time, on and off, poring over the posts and forum topics. It was so nice to see a community of people who I could resonate with when it came to looking after their hair; I definitely view haircare as a hobby that I like to spend my time on, as self care and also as part of my identity. I also really like forums like this, and I was so happy to see how active the community are here as well.

This post is going to be lengthy, so apologies in advance ! This is partly therapeutic and mostly out of procrastination, I'll write about my hair history and what I'm planning to document as part of my time on this forum. My hair has already been through a lot up until now, so maybe some of you reading this will have had similar experiences.

I've been on a bit of a journey with my hair - I was scarred by a very short haircut that I got in my early teens right when my curls came in due to puberty. It was completely the wrong shape for my age, making me look so old, and brought out the worst in my curl texture. So, I vowed from that moment to never have short, curly hair again - from that haircut I grew out my hair (my longest was just above mid back length) and kept my hair brushed out in the classic triangle. It wasn't until my mid-late teens that I started to regularly straighten my hair and then got some highlights, until I eventually cut my hair back to APL in order to get rid of the highlights.

The worst decision I made during my teens was to get a fringe, which I kept for two years, without properly caring for my curls. I literally want to go back in time and smack myself, but I was regularly ( as in, on a near daily basis) blow drying my hair on high heat (much of the time without any protectant) so that my hair would be as straight as my fringe. Even when my straighteners broke and I cut my hair to neck length, after having grown out my fringe, I was every day blow drying my hair to the point that I was even asked for tips on how I managed to "get rid of my curly hair" from a fellow classmate - my hair was so damaged it literally could not even produce a ringlet. Compared to now, my hair was also really thinned out. I think I was still carrying some of that trauma from my early teen years due to that haircut, so when I decided I wanted a cute bob haircut I completely suppressed any appearance of my natural texture. I kept cutting my hair and maintained it at this time around chin length, once to around mid cheek, and carried on with my hair habits until I left school.

So, how did I manage to turn things around? The curly hair movement was gaining traction and I came across the curly girl method. After I saw some before and afters, as well as identifying common characteristics my hair and curly hair shared, I took the plunge around this time in 2018.

I did a final haircut, which took my curls to mid cheek length and swore off silicones, sulfates, committed to absolutely no heat/chemical damage, I regularly wrapped my hair up at night with silk scarfs and did occasional deep conditioning treatments to nurture my curls back to life. And so from then until now, with the exception of one haircut in December 2019 to get some layers, my hair has grown about 14-15 inches. Stretching my longest layers makes them reach BSL but my layers mean that my hair is mostly between collarbone and armpit length.

So there is one thing that I haven't mentioned yet - in Sep/Nov 2019, I maybe went a bit off track with strict CGM and... bleached my hair twice from brunette to blonde. My hair was just dusting my shoulders and I thought, why not experiment before I really commit to growing my hair out? So I have a lot of root showing right now and I had to get to grips with varying levels of porosity in my hair, as well as how it was affected by living in both hard/soft water areas. Next week I'm going to dye my hair back to brunette as I've had my fun and I'm over the blonde now

So, my hair measures now around 24inches and I hope to grow my hair another 12-14inches to WL or HL. I've just started the Brazilian cronograma capilar, translated as the capillary schedule, because I've stopped deep conditioning lately as I don't really know all the time what my hair might need or how to differentiate between hydrating, nutritious and reconstructive masks. So I also have the app, meu cronograma capilar (which is pretty much all in English, apart from the forums) which includes homemade masks. I'm going to be using Novex and Skala for hydrating masks (which are Brazilian brands), a keratin mask I bought from amazon to reconstruct, and oils (Amla and Castor) as nutritious masks. I'm going to try and up my post count so I can access the blogs and start one for my capillary programme.

My current hair routine works pretty well and I've been consistent with it over the past two years - Ecostyler or the Gionvanni curly jelly for gels, Tigi Catwalk curl creme (which isn't CGM friendly but oh well), either the Garnier ultimate blend conditioners or the Dr Palmer Coconut/ Olive Oil lines for shampoo and conditioner. For cleansing, I have a chelating shampoo for when I'm living in a hard water area and the Mane N' Tail shampoo for general cleansing.

Again, sorry that this is so long and information heavy. I'm interested in the curly/wurly topics, but I've not seen many other people doing a capillary schedule on here except for one or two threads - but it's very popular on instagram so there is lots of content out there. Hope everyone's coping okay with our current global situation <3.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Hi, welcome to the forum

[cubancurlie]

Thank you!

[lapushka]

Welcome!

[cubancurlie]

Welcome!

thank you, excited to be here!

[Ylva]

Welcome here!

[shelomit]

Howdy, nice to meet you! It sounds like you and your hair have been through a lot ( ;

[TatsuOni]

Welcome!

[cubancurlie]

Welcome here!

thank you!

[cubancurlie]

Howdy, nice to meet you! It sounds like you and your hair have been through a lot ( ;

Nice to meet you too! My hair and I have had a complicated relationship, but we're friends now