My Hair Story & Weave Addiction

Ok so those of you that don't me are probably think I'm a crazy person with the photos being revealed in this post... but I promise I'm not... it's just an afro people ;) This is my hair story/journey and my progress!

My 3rd Weave taken right after I got it installed! :)

So about 2 years ago, I went through a phase where I was trying to stop relaxing my natural hair. If you don't know what relaxers are then you are lucky because that means you probably have never had to deal with the vicious cycle of chemically straightening your hair. To describe the process in it's simplest form: it's the opposite of a perm. ANYWAY, moving right along, I went through an interesting breakup and decided that I would relax my hair, then dye it black... then once I realized I hated it black I lifted the color by myself, then dyed it brown, then lifted it AGAIN... and dyed it again... all within 3 weeks. IDIOT. This is BY FAR one of the worst beauty decisions I've ever made in my life. Needless to say with the hair being so weak from newly relaxing it in the first place, and then dying & lifting it a million times, it started to break off and fall out. Seriously.... so dumb of me...

I, from that moment on, decided that I would start babying what hair I had left and then I would start taking CARE of my hair. I deep conditioned it religiously, made sure that none of the shampoos I used were damaging, and never used heat. Ever. In fact, I started sporting lace front wigs in order to give my natural hair a break. I actually had fun wearing the wigs, but honestly they were inconvenient in many ways.... so I definitely don't miss them!

I started to experiment with colored wigs, might as well have fun, right?!

After a few months of wear, wigs would start to look old... I hated that part! :(

I definitely was able to braid etc, but the hairstyles available to you while wearing wigs is pretty limited!

I wore wigs for a good year, and my hair finally started to look good again! I didn't relax it either, and for the first time I was able to see my real curl pattern using Kinky Curly products in between washes.

Fast forward to the wonderful world of weaves in March 2012. I had never really considered a weave before since it was so expensive to buy good hair (because surely I had to invest in the best hair ever for my first weave, right!??!?! Please sense the sarcasm) and then pay to have it installed. Thank goodness for tax return season. I had an urge to get one, and like that, I booked my appointment for the next day at the best weavologist in Seattle according to yelp.com aka miss Tanesha Carter with the Doll House of Beauty. Since I am a very impulsive person, and I booked the appointment for the next day, I had to settle with overpriced beauty supply store hair.

My first weave was a 3/4 weave, meaning I left some hair out. I put in 14/16" Beauty Supply Store (BSS) hair that wasn't anything special. It was a flat pattern, so it was hard to work with and I couldn't get my natural texture to go with it so needless to say, I wasn't completely satisfied. I wanted it to be better. I did a mini post of my first weave here, but see pics & video below.



This hair was so silky & soft, but my natural hair didn't blend when flat ironed, and lord knows I wasn't going to relax my hair just for a weave! 3/2012

Without fail, these curls would fall flat in a few hours...

The curls I put in NEVER stayed, and I wanted something different for my 2nd weave. Soooo I of course made the rash decision to go ahead and make an appointment ASAP, leaving me with no choice to go with BSS hair again. This time, I chose the Bobbi Boss IndiRemi Oceanwave 16/18", and I didn't want to do leaveout, so I got a Bobbi Boss IndiRemi Curly Closure to match so that only about 1" around my forehead was left out. I loved this weave SO much more, as I could curl it and it would stay all day, flat iron it, or just wear it with the processed curl pattern it came with. Definitely a much better option for me. However, those damn edges were giving me grief... I'm extremely lazy in the morning, and was sick of dealing with them! We had put the closure about 1" back from my forehead to give a more natural look... but looking back, it seems silly.

Crazy waves! I loved the IndiRemi... at first! 5/3/12

This is the curl pattern dry! Gorgeous curl pattern!

I often would flat iron the hair as best as I could for a week & wear it like this for the week... I would try to avoid using too much heat even with extensions in!

Now, on my 3rd weave, I made sure to get a closure that could be placed closer to my regular forehead. Do to financial reasons, I went ahead and stuck with the IndiRemi Oceanwave, although I wouldn't recommend this hair AT ALL. It sheds and when I want to get it flat, it eventually reverts back to curly... But mainly it sheds a ridiculous amount to the point that there are holes of hair in the track.... Let's just say I didn't repurchase this for my 4th weave.



My natural hair after washing it! 7/1/12

Such a good sized puff! :) This is the puff when wet.

The puff when dry!

My natural hair after it's blowdried! Look at that FRO! lol

My hairstylist swears by this stuff... It smells amazing & it really is moisturizing.

As a result of weaves, I am able to grow my hair at least 1"/MONTH! It's kind of crazy how much it grows and it's because I am able to not mess with it! I don't apply heat to my natural hair, just the extensions, so I don't have to worry about damaging my real hair. My weavologist, Tanesha, doesn't braid too tight and I take care of my edges. I am officially a weave addict! I will be documenting my hair journey on this blog now every time I get a new weave and check in on the progress of bringing my natural hair to a healthy state... I am currently wearing my 4th weave, so I will be doing an updated blog post on how much it's grown since the pictures above! At least 2" in 2months!

The final result with the IndiRemi! These curls stay PUT!

This is how I usually wore it... Plain & wavy!

I usually flat ironed the bangs straight and wore the rest wavy! Super low maintenance! But for shedding reasons, I don't recommend this hair!

Anyway, I will be updating every few months! I usually get a weave taken out & reinstalled every 2 months... I haven't gone 3 months at a time (the longest recommended time of having one in!) yet because I didn't find my perfect way of how I liked it yet... but I might just have this 4th weave in for awhile!

Did you have a traumatic hair experience that forced you to change the way you take care of your hair like I did? I think honestly it was a blessing in disguise... I love being able to take my extensions out and know that I have a healthy, happy head full of hair I could rock too! ;)

Xoxo,

Carlene