What's Gibbie Been Up to? Part Deux

So.. what do you say to the person that last had a blog post titled "What's Gibbie Been Up To" months later doing another "What's Gibbie Been Up To"? Don't say much about that. I beg of you. I'm super sorry that I haven't been around in a bit. I thought about doing a post last month ..but after a trim (I often call it a chop) of about 1"-1.5" off due to breakage, I wasn't feeling it. I was so upset with myself for having to hack off that much hair. I'm still not over it to be honest, because I was gaining some length and now it's like I have a twa feeling all over again :(. 

I saw Rosemary Godwin on YouTube discussing her Water Only method update and I decided to "man up" and do this hair update.

Anyway, here are some updates on my hair:

1 year post BC

I big chopped (BC) my hair on June 2014 and my "hair anniversary" was in June 2015. I did a little collage on Instagram of where I started from to where I was on that day. Here's a picture of a length check of it:

..and the trim thereafter..

After a bad taking to the Water Only Washing method and just not listening to my hair, my hair suffered some breakage all over and I had to do a 1"-1.5"trim/chop/hack. The ends were rough, brittle and dry. They just could not stay. I don't have a set way to trim my hair and I basically cut to the point where my hair felt "normal" and where it felt rough. This was a little to my detriment because I'm certain I cut off more than I wanted. Also, my hair shrinkage level has increased..which freaked me out more that I cut off too much of my hair. It's when I did a length check after the trim that I realised that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Here's a picture grid of my length check after my trim:

Water Only Washing Update

As I eluded to above, I was doing the Water Only Washing method. It was a easy peasy method for using water to wash your hair. The idea is to initially clarify your hair, do a little massage, then do a daily wash of your hair by scratching/scritching your scalp and moving sebum (our hair's natural oil) down the hair shaft. I did this method for about 6 weeks and it was going great. My hair was the best it's been for a while, I had sebum coming down my hair shaft, I had BOMB ass twistouts etc. etc. etc...

..and then the niceness stopped. I figured my hair needed clarifying - I did an aloe juice wash. I figured my ends needed to be sealed because the sebum didn't reach down the ends as yet - then I started using shea butter after every wash. Then coconut oil, then I used olive oil - nothing worked. And I went on for about another 3 weeks trying to fix it. Then I said NO. 

And I started cowashing like crazy. 

But by then, it was too late.

I eventually had to cut off what seemed to me like quite a bit off my growth - up to 1.5" and immediately felt like a failure. 

What I've been doing presently is just leaving my hair alone. It's been in crochet braids for the past 2 weeks ..with two failed DIY marley hair installations (I just take the marley hair out and crochet in new hair), and it will continue to be in for at least another 2 weeks with some new synthetic hair.

I'm avoiding combing/touching my hair like the plague. I moisturise then leave it alone.And I'm sticking to that.

Hopefully time will pass by quickly and my hair would've grown back or longer. I'm protective styling and moisturising like crazy.

Otherwise I'm keeping cool. I'll do some updates on protective hairstyles if they turn out well lol.

Be well
Gibbie