My Top 5 Natural Hair Mistakes In 2015

2015 has been a great year for me from learning how to be the best mother to my one year old son, learning more of my husband’s swag, and just coming into my own as a dancer. But I will say I have really accomplished with learning and appreciating my natural hair even more in 2015 than the years before.

I have learned about my hair fully, done numerous natural and extension styles, stayed with my hair care regimen, and even did Big Chop Number #2! However, with all of my accomplishments there have also mistakes and failures.

That is what a healthy hair journey is about! If you do not make the mistakes or go through the failures, there would be no way to make yourself better at caring for your own hair. With that said here are my top 5 natural hair mistakes of 2015:

Not knowing my hair was heat damaged

Getting my hair flat ironed November 2014 left a huge impression on my hair during this entire year (2015). For most of the year, I really thought my heat damaged hair was my fine and wavy/coily natural hair pattern.

From 3-10 months I found that my twist outs were looking thin, my hair was shedding like crazy, my ends kept splitting, and even my protective styles didn’t look right.

Then I decided to do some tests…lo and behold! My hair was damaged and more so, the damage dated back to when I got my hair flat ironed (I had 5.5 inches of ‘new growth’).

I even went further to do the porosity test (with a cup of water) and found that the heat damaged hair sank to the bottom of the cup in less than a millisecond. Even though I was doing healthy hair practices and techniques, I was doing them on damaged hair.

Getting a sew-In weave*

In July 2015, I decided to get a full sew-in weave. I wanted something different for my hair and thought that straight hair would be easier to care for with this humidity. Well, I found out that I was completed wrong.

My last weave* install taught me a valuable lesson and I realized the grass is not always greener on the other side. I only had that install for about 3 weeks and that experience helped me discover what I really want for my healthy hair journey: my own kinks and coils.

Wearing Too Many ‘Out’ Styles

One of my goals for coming into 2015 was to try more styles. So I thought that I would do perm rod sets, twist outs, and other ‘out’ styles…wrong! Not only was I not retaining as I could have, I found out that I hate wearing my hair down! I really do.

I don’t have HIHS (hand in hair syndrome) hair and don’t pick out my hair often when it is out, but I just hate that my hair is along my neck. I know it is crazy for me to say that since I’m on a healthy hair and growth journey. Needless to say I am back to protective styles.

Going overboard on Henna*

Yep, I definitely found this out the hard way…henna* straighten your hair over time (depending on your own curls). My curls were beginning to loosen from doing monthly, full strength, and whole head applications. I would keep the henna treatment in overnight (about 10 hours).

I noticed that my hair strands were getting stronger, thicker, and a more maroon-violet color, but my curl pattern was loosening way too much. So I decided to trim those parts off (along with the heat damage) and start fresh. I will continue to do henna treatments, but only every 6 months (April and October) and as a henna gloss instead of full strength.

Not eating healthy nor getting daily water

At the beginning of the year I was eating lots of green foods (collards, broccoli, spinach, etc.) and getting over and abundance of water (bottled, Propel, Vitamin, etc.).

Around June, I slid off from my strict diet and began eating chicken sandwiches from Burger King and wrapping my lips around a glass of Cherry Koolaid (lots of sugar, I might add).

I noticed that my hair, nails, and skin were becoming brittle and taking a toll on my bad diet habits. Around October, I began eating healthy again and purchasing more healthy snack foods (peanuts, apple slices, mangos, etc.) to persuade me to stay on my healthy diet. It is definitely important to be healthy on the inside to show healthy hair, skin, and nails on the outside.

Setting goals for your hair journey are based on knowing your mistakes and failures of the past. That’s is how you are able to have a successful healthy hair journey. What were your mistakes this year and how will you learn from them for next year?