The Week That Was: First Week Wearing Out My TWA

I thought of re-braiding my hair after my last braid take-down but decided I should start wearing my hair out to get a feel of what my natural hair was. Now, after about a month since I big-chopped, it would be the first time my anyone except my bf and the person who braided my hair would see my hair out. Here's a run down of how my week went:

Monday.

I wore a bantu knot-out of bantu-knots I did on Sunday for Monday.  They didn't turn out how I wanted and was such a fail I didn't take any pictures of it.  I pulled the knots out and used a headband I had that covers most of my hair and wore it to work. Some co-workers didn't even know I did my big chop..and those who saw my natural hair didn't seem to mind. I put on so many fandangles (large earrings, lipstick) that most didn't even notice. As I said before, there aren't any pictures.

Tuesday. 

About 80% of the curls were gone by Tuesday and I had no idea what to do with it. I eventually combed my hair into an afro and put Monday's headband back on and when to work. I hated it. Tuesday evening I put some cornrows (we say canerows here) in and went to bed. I'm not good at doing cornrows but it actually looked better than it looked all week at that time. There are no pictures.

Wednesday. 

It was a field day for work so all I did was put a headband over the cornrows I did Tuesday evening and went to work. There are no pictures.

Sidenote: There are no pictures because I was mortified and DREADED wearing my natural hair out. My hair wasn't doing anything I thought it would've. I knew I had 4C type hair and I knew it would be naturally dry but this was something way different. I thought I had hair like my girlfriend Trudy, which, is 4C hair that shrinks but was curly and all it needed was oil and water to curl up. GOOD LORD I WASN'T READY. I have Type 4 hair yes, but this is something different. It doesn't curl up - even when water RUNS through it. There is no curl definition with any curling cream/paste/concoction/liquid I have since used, it "clumps" together and, it's dry..like desert dry. I was lost and didn't know what to do with my hair. I contemplated cutting my hair very low..mainly because I could probably pull off a low cut look and I wouldn't have any issues with that style. I also had no intention of relaxing my hair again.

Thursday.

I pulled my cornrows out and wore that 'out style' and it was the best thing that happened to my hair all week! I made a shea butter mix to see if it would give my strands some hydration and I could feel the difference in my hair. I put a little water-based liquid in, then some castor oil and the shea butter mix in brushed around the sides and used my ouchless band to do a Puff. I used my scarf to snazz it up a bit and here's how it turned out:

              

Gladbag buss!

                                              

Friday.

The curls were gone for the most part but I was okay with it. Armed with my LOCO (DIY leave in, coconut oil, shea butter mix and castor oil), I applied them to my hair, brushed around the sides and again, used my ouchless band to do a Puff and used my scarf to snazz it up a bit. Here's how it turned out:

Needless to say, I was in better spirits than the start of the week and learned a few tidbits about my hair. I've never known or taken care of my natural hair until now (almost 2 decades later) so I'm feeling my way along. Thankfully I did some research beforehand. Stay tuned for next week's run-down (I hope it gets easier!).

Be well,

Gibbie