How I’m Growing My Natural Hair: My 6–8 Month Moisture & Length Retention Journey

My natural hair awakening. Locking in for length.

In my last blog I spoke about being in a state of being low vibrational, not feeling like my best self. What I identified is that when you're feeling stuck, maybe it's in your looks, your body, or your weight, sometimes something in you needs to break. Snap. You need to have this awakening that you actually need to change something. Then you need to lock in. So, in honor of that spirit, that energy to go after the things you want and actually get them, the current goal I’m working on is my natural hair. That is what this very blog is about.

Before we get into the hair, just a quick little story. I used to wonder why I had to go through what I went through to lose the weight, which I eventually did. But at the time, my desire to lose weight and feel great in my body was an agonizing pain, a thorn in my side. I never wore a sleeveless top in five and a half years! I would even wear long sleeves in the scorching heat during summer time when everyone else was wearing their free and flowing dresses and dainty jewelry, frolicking in the summertime fun. I was constantly in the gym and "eating healthy" but never hit the dream body I wanted, which was just to feel good in my skin. It was a rough journey, and I have an intimate relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is my friend vibes, so I'd vent to Him, cry to Him, and sometimes even get angry at Him for letting me experience this when, if He wanted, He could snap His fingers and all my body fat would disappear.

But I came to understand the struggle. The research, the habits, and the discipline I would learn from losing the weight would help me thrive in other aspects of my life. Because the truth is, the things I wanted to change in my life were about more than just my hair. The other truth is that life is about growing and evolving, so there is always going to be something we want to achieve and improve on. I am glad that I went through that difficult weight loss journey because those principles help me thrive in other areas. I can do another blog about how I lost the weight and sexy-sculpted my way into my dream body. But today, we will be discussing locking in... but when it comes to natural hair.

So for reference, I have natural hair. The history goes way back as natural hair relationships do. The catty relationship people of color can have with their natural hair can be so sneaky; you don’t even realize it is toxic. For me, growing up, there wasn't so much education on how to have your natural hair flourish, and as I got older, I always felt I needed to hide it. Have it never seen. Don’t get me started on the forehead insecurity, chile, where whatever braids or wig I got needed to part perfectly to reduce the size of my forehead. So many insecurities felt so real when I was just a young girl, so I won’t belittle that because it was real then. But looking back, I realize the thing that makes us beautiful or attractive is often the thing we fear the most. If we just work with it to enhance it and not against it to hide it, we would thrive.

nsight: We spend so much energy fighting against our natural blueprints to "fit in" that we never realize our highest beauty is actually found in the very features we try to mask.**

Anyway, back to the hair. So I'd hide it. Throw in some braids, a wig, or a scarf. Anything so that my hair was never showing until my close friends started asking me why I’ve never worn my hair out. I felt the hugest flash of embarrassment. It was difficult because I knew I had to face the giant of the lacking relationship with my natural hair. Remember in the beginning I said something in you needs to break to overcome the block before you? I had one of those awakening moments. I did a full 360. I started exploring with different herbs: chia, hibiscus, rosemary, and moringa. Different hair teas, different styles, and before you know it, in my early twenties, I wore my first pineapple hairstyle, or "fineapple" as the natural hair communities would call it. I got tons of compliments. My hair was thicker, healthier, and seen. There is something about the way the hair that grows on your head remains unchanged, not dyed or trimmed or shunned. Wearing the hair the way God gave it to you enhances your natural beauty x10000. That goes whether you are black, white, Asian, mixed race, or human. At least I think so.

Now several years down the line, my relationship with my hair has grown and I want it to thrive. Beyond being rich in color and thick in texture, I'd really love to attempt length. So I am going on a journey. Well, it has actually been 12 months already, but I am 6 months in with 6 months to go. My goal is to double my hair in length. Here are some things I will be doing.

The Routine

1. Moisturization. I always, always struggled to retain moisture and battled dry hair. I still don’t know what my porosity is because those strand tests got confusing for me. But I started learning my hair the past 6 months and I think the routine is working. I hope to double my hair in length over these remaining next 6 months... or at least get close to double. I will be focusing on two things: hair length retention and hair moisture retention.

2. Length retention is key because I want to see my hair grow longer. Moisture retention is vital because the thing that prevents retention is breakage. Hair on any human being is growing every single day. But the reason your hair may seem stuck at a certain length may be because even though it is growing, it is also breaking off even though you don’t see this happening obviously. The drier it is, the easier it is for it to snap and break off.

For length retention, I do protective styles. To me, that means putting my hair in a style so that I am not always touching it, combing it, or manipulating it. This also means no added hair in my real hair for the next 6-8 months because I found that the extra weight of materials, like big braids, breaks my hair. My preferred retention style is a glueless wig. That is step one to making sure I don’t have to touch my real hair often. I part my hair into four big blocks on my head. I prefer bigger braids because mini twists sound lovely, but for some reason, my hair mattes up and is hard to detangle. Four braids braided well under my wigs work perfectly for me.

Now onto moisture retention. What I do underneath the glueless wigs these next 6-8 months will either make or break my growth goal. The key will be to keep my hair as soft and moisturized as I can so it doesn’t get dry and break off. I will use the greenhouse effect (GHE) to do this. This is essentially applying your choice of products, putting a plastic cap over your head, and then putting on your scarf or bonnet. This creates natural heat from your scalp that helps create that moisture environment.

3. Products. For the GHE, I will be doing LCO: Liquid, Cream, Oil. My liquid will be water or a tea that I make (ask me in the email if you want more details on the hair tea). My cream will be Aunt Jackie’s hair butter. My oil will be good ol' regular olive oil because sometimes simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. When I get back from work and the wig goes off, I put my liquid, oil, and cream on. I throw on a plastic cap or even cling wrap, lol, put on my bonnet, and sleep in it overnight depending on how much time I have. Four hours should do if you want a range. The next morning my hair is usually super soft compared to its usual dryness. I do this throughout the week.

4. Washes. On Saturday, I do what I call my simple wash. This is when I wash my hair with a light moisturizing shampoo that doesn’t strip my hair dry. This helps clean my hair of all the LCO products I used during the week while doing my GHE. It lets me start afresh the next week so there is room for new moisture to enter. After my simple Saturday weekly wash, I moisturize daily using GHE. I do it daily because I had severely dry hair, but I have heard two to 3 times a week is good to prevent over-hydration, which is also important.

At the end of the month, I do my serious wash day. This is when I take down my four thicker natural braids, apply moisturizer or flaxseed gel, and let it sit 30 minutes to get soft. Then I detangle gently with my fingers and I snip off fairy knots with my hair shears to prevent split ends and breakage. I then wash my hair with a clarifying shampoo to get rid of any build-up properly. After that, I wash again with a moisturizing shampoo. Finally, I deep condition.

Because it is a challenge to grow my hair, I will be doing this routine for the next 6-8 months straight. After my serious bywash, I put my four braids back in again. If I still feel there are some knots, I put on heat protectant and gently blow dry my hair using the tension method. Once my hair is stretched, then I can snip off any remaining knots with my shears. Once done, I put my hair in the four braids and start again.

5. The Loop:

Protective style braids (no extensions) > GHE to moisturize daily > Simple wash once a week > Serious wash and detangle once a month. Repeat

This is my goal to see longer hair for the next 6-8 months and I’d love for you to join me. Follow my routine, do research, and create your own routine to lock in to. At the very least, I want to encourage you to find that softness in your heart again reminding you to love your hair. Your hair is your crown, queen. Feed it, nurture it, and water it with love like you would a plant. Nurture it like something delicate, like a puppy or a cute little baby. There is something so feminine about taking care of the little things.

Before I go, this safe haven is a community where we learn to grow, live, and love life as we become the best, hottest, highest version of ourselves. If you’d like a check-in every once in a while, subscribe to join the haven and hear from me a bit more.

As always on this glow-up journey, I leave you with a tool to expand your mind as you level up. I create monthly ebooks and audiobooks, pouring into them genuinely to help others with some targeted learning. Because the more you expose yourself to something, the more you become it. And eventually, you wake up one day as your highest, hottest self.

🤍 Here is the link to this week's ebook for the readers : https://safehavencornerstudio.com/crowned-a-6-month-natural-hair-growth-guide

💛 Audiobook for the listeners (coming soon if not linked already).

🧡 Chitchatting and unpacking on YouTube : https://youtu.be/DKB16VJX_Go

And now I am signing off my loves. Have a blessed rest of your day.

TTFN, ta ta for now

Haven ✨

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