Why I’m Not Reaching My Hair Goals
Last updated on July 15th, 2020 at 06:25 pm
I have a confession. As of the writing of this post, I’ve not been reaching hair goals I set for myself.
I share a lot about ways to grow and retain length on fine natural hair. These can be lofty hair goals. Yet, I’m not exactly reaching hair goals of my own.
Does that mean I should shut this here blog down and find myself a a hobby? Surely you jest.
Nah, I KNOW what to do. Lately, I’ve just not been doing it.
Haven’t you been bombarded with messages on things like how to lose weight (if that’s one of your focuses)? Yet, you know that everything the programs tell you do, you’ve been there done that.
It’s not that you don’t know what to do. It’s that you need to implement what you actually know to do. That’s where I am in this stage of my natural hair walk.
I have been natural a really long time – over 15 years (getting close to 20). I’ve tried many techniques and products.
In the beginning when I went from relaxed hair back to natural, I was clueless. It took me many years to know learn how to care for my fine natural hair.
Yet, I was super diligent to learn. Once I put my flat iron down and started on the path of discovery, I implemented what I learned. Then, I began to see fast progress.
Fast forward to today and my know it all self has gotten…..
L-A-Z-Y
I’m lazy when it comes to staying focused on doing certain things to reach my hair goals. I know I know. Hypocritical?
I’d say yes but that would only be accurate if I continued to go down the road of “not doing.”
So, I’m committing to my best self. That includes so many things but for the purposes of hair care, I’m committed to DOING (or not doing) certain things so that I can finally reach my hair goals.
The biggest goal I have is growing my hair at least another 5 inches. In order to reach that goal, below are the things I need to do (or not do). I’m sharing them because maybe you’re doing (or not doing) them as well. Either knowingly or not, it’s time to get it together.
I. Pulling Splits Off My Ends
Such a terrible practice but it’s all about being too lazy to grab a pair of scissors. I literally would pull what feels like knots (but are actually splits) off my ends as I feel them. Pop! No, that’s not good.
Now, I may not have scissors on hand every where I go but that leads me to the next thing I need to do.
II. Keeping my hands out of my hair
Twirling and playing in my hair has become second nature. Yet, all that touching and messing in my hair is what leads me to feel the rough ends that feel like knots in the first place. The timing is not right to find those weathered ends that I in turn pull off
If I didn’t have my hands in my hair all the time, I’d not find the rough ends when I have no hair shears around. Plus, all that touching is accelerating the wear and tear on my strands instead of preserving them so they can grown to longer lengths.
I’ll go a step further and say that maybe I’m actually causing some of the split ends that feel like nots by touching my hair so much. Agh!
III. Sleeping with my hair loose
I know better. I do. I actually don’t sleep with my hair loose very often but once a week is even too often.
If you’re going to protect your hair from breakage, you can’t just do it some of the time.. It has to be an all the time thing. Sleeping with your hair loose even one day can cause tangling that in turn can cause breakage (if even a little) – breakage that could have been avoided.
Adding New Hair Practices to my Routine
While I’ve been awakened to what I need to do and need to stop doing, I’m adding some other practices to my hair care. I’ll go into them in a bit more depth in a future post but here’s the list:
- Aloe Vera + Herbal Oil Pre-Poos
- Hot Oil Treatments
- Nightly Scalp Massages
I’ve done these things in the past but again, what’s this all about? Continuity and Consistency.
Stay tuned where I’ll explain how I incorporate these hair practices into my daily and weekly routines so that I can finally tackle the causes of me not reaching hair goals.
