The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

I absolutely love this series. If you haven't seen it, check it out

Sealing

For the longest time, I've been reading about sealing in moisture. I never really understood what this meant until I read about it on this thread. It's basically using oil or pomade to seal in the water moisture from washing your hair. I'm sooo sloooowwww. I do this with my skin, put oil on immediately after washing whilst my skin is damp. Why my brain didn't compute that this same logic could apply to my hair I don't know.

Anyway, after co-washing with Porosity control and the last of my mekatek which I have ceased to use as a growth aid (only because I forgot I had it) I sealed in the water moisture with my mango butter. I also tried the Wave Nouveau moisturizer mist only because the shop I went into didn't carry the curl free curl instant moituriser. I'm making a point of purchasing my hair products from black businesses. The cost is often a little higher, usually 10-50p more but I feel it's worth it if it helps one of my sisters out.

Anyway, I digress. My hair did feel more moiturised but felt hard at the same time. I'll try a different combination over the week to see which works better. Sealing without the Wave nouveau or just sealing with mango butter.

Cycling to work

I've put on weight to the point that I have back fat. I realised then that something had to change. On a Saturday, I got my bike from the balcony where it had been exposed to the elements and was rusty and unused. I changed the tyers and the inner tube, spent ages scrubbing the rust off the chain oiled it and took it for a spin. I nearly died. I only rode for 15 or so minutes and was ready to pass out.

On Monday I was determined that I would cycle to work. It was nothing but long windey roads which were up hill most of the way. I had to get off the bike 3 times, it was like I was doing the tour de France! At one point, I felt like throwing the bike under a truck and letting it get mangled and destroyed! Anyway, I made it after an hour and half of hard slogging.

I didn't wear a helmet the first time as I wasn't sure what I was going to do with helmet head once I got to work.

Today I rode in again and wore my helmet. My hair was soaked with sweat when I arrived. I wore my hair like this as it was the only thing I could do with it once it was wet.

It means I'll be forced to wear up dos. I never worn a braid out to work, but judging from the experience with the helmet, it looks like I'll have to wear up dos

Wearing my real hair to work

I was totally fed up of the wig last week, so i wore my real hair to work. No one said anything except one stupid fool who more or less implied it was too "ethnic" for him. I've been wearing up dos which I thought would be considered less "non conformist". I've rediscovered my love for mango butter which makes my hair feel so soft and moisturised. Yesterday, I wore a braid out, got caught in the rain and the braid out just fell apart. The trouble with this texlaxed hair is that once any humidity hits it, whatever style I had just falls apart, which is really annoying. Anyway, some pics of my styles below.

Meanwhile in other news, I gave myself a 1 inch trim. I needed it badly.

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I'm getting fatter

I've been on a bender for the last 2 weeeks. I'm not unhappy so I'm not eating for comfort.

I feel terrible the next day and then tell myself I'm detoxing but once I get home, I'm in free fall. My clothes don't fit and I feel tired all the time. I'm going jogging today. I need to find a way of getting through this horrible period.

Thickening hair

So, you guys know I have low density hair. I've seen lots of YT videos promoting all sorts of things to increase thickness. I personally think it's bollocks. I can't see how you can increase the number of strands coming out of your head. Either you have lots of strands or you don't.

Looking back at the few childhood photos I had, I can see that I had few hair strands. It's just the way my hair is and whilst I'm not happy about it, I can do something to give the appearance of thickness.

I haven't jumped onto any bandwagons to try and increase my hair strands. Funny, it's the only bandwagon I haven't jumped onto.

I following a youtuber called nunaavane who has thin hair. I've watched her hair journey and whilst her hair is long it's thin. She tries all sorts of things to thicken her hair and frankly I can't see any thickness. I think this video is perhaps a demonstration of what I mean.

Speaking of brandwagons...I decided to try out neem oil and it STANK like death. When I first put it on my hair, I thought the smell was coming from outside somewhere. Turned out it was me. I washed that mess out immediately. I tried it because my scalp has been itching again. Neem has antibacterial qualities and since my peppermint wasn't working like it used to I thought I'd try the neem oil. After this experience, I won't be rushing to use it again.

Tempted to relax

I've been really tempted to relax my hair bone straight. I undid my cornrows washed and conditioned on Saturday. I got distracted by someone and ended up not managing my hair, so it dried a tangled mess.

I had a lot of trouble detangling my hair and in the end broke off what seems like loads of hair. At that point, I thought I should relax thinking that straight hair will be easier to manage.

I'm just confused. I want to be natural, but at the same time want straight hair. It seems like my hair is too thin in terms of density to carry off straight hair and if i do relax at this point, it would mean a major hair cut to get a decent level of thickness and it would probably mean I can't get my hair in a pony tail which would be my default style.

I think I'll flat iron over the weekend and decide whether a relaxer would be a good option.