So I decided she should spear head the challenge and I will post her progress on the blog and see if the claims about the green house effect are true! 

Hiya,
So you have seen the picture of my horrible inverted V here! Now let me tell you all about it!

Just before I started this blog I noticed the ends of my hair were thin all across;'


Not  particularly in a V shape or a U shape or a Z! literally from one end to the other so I cut it but I noticed as I took about 5 inches of my hair off that I still had a thinner spot at the back in the middle of my ends; (can you see it?)

 However I didn't think much of it and thought it will grow out in a few months. 

For a minute it looked like it had filled out,


This I am guessing was due to the pregnancy hormones! By the time I had my baby and the postpartum shedding set in, the V began to show again;

 Instead of give it the needed attention I treated that spot like every other part of my hair, and worse; I let my ends dangle quite often and still didn't notice how deep my V was getting until I took this after pic for my blog anniversary;



 I was like WHAT!!

I dabbled with the idea of cutting my hair then and probably should have but I was stuck with this idea that my hair was bra strap length finally and I didn't want to go back to APL- look at what boxing yourself in all these phrases can cause! Anyways I ignored the V, hoping it will grow out, I also saved myself the stress of stressing over it by avoiding taking pics of my back hair-ignorance is so not bliss with hair care! You have to face the problem or else it will not go away- something this inverted V taught me!

July came by, then August , September came and then I took this picture to show the back of the NHCG t-shirt I made;


and that V stared me in the face, then and there I decided enough is enough, this V has got to go!!

So I decided that rather than wait for the V to grow out which would not make a difference because the long part would just keep getting longer, I rather cut most of it out and nurture my middle back hair to prevent it from breaking off and creating that V again!

Moving Forward... I have come up with the perfect plan to combat the inverted V or any part of my hair especially the ends that tries to be weak and get in my way of healthy long hair! Since my relaxer I have taken the following ample but critical steps;

I now Bag my ends EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! I have talked about bagging a few times now,check here I used to do it occasionally but I have been doing it every night for the past week and I tell you my ends have never felt so good! They have remained moisturized and sealed with black castor oil all day and night and apart from shed hair I am yet to see any broken hairs.

I simply moisturize my ends with any moisturizer I am feeling at the moment(I am so spoilt for choice right now) and then I seal with either coconut oil, olive oil or almond oil but then I follow that with a final black castor oil seal and apply a little of the castor oil to my roots at the middle back area.

I then roll my ends in a bun, pin it down;


and cover it up with a nylon bag( which will help create steam and keep your ends from drying out), I secure the nylon bag with a hair band;

and pop on my silk scarf.

I have also started sleeping with a silk pillow made by me :) this is to ensure that just in case my silk scarf falls off(as it has many times) my hair will still be protected especially my hairline.

The final new thing I am doing is, I concocted a TEA SPRITZ!  This is by far the most exciting part of this new 'combat' because this tea spritz is  PACKED with great stuff!


The first thing I did was brew some tea bags;


 Black tea to preventing shedding; this post  tells you more and then this mint and green tea;

( I brewed it and had a cuppa- Divine!!)

 Mint is very good for cleansing, conditioning the scalp and stimulating hair follicle growth. 

I added the two tea bags because the green tea bag did not have enough caffeine in it to prevent shedding  which the black tea bag compensated for and I also wanted the effects of the green herbs and the mint.

                                    I also bought mint leaves which I added for an extra minty smell;


I used few drops of extra virgin olive oil, almond oil and grape seed oil,all light oils because I wanted the spritz to be light/watery and not oily.

Then I ground some Fenugreek seeds;


My first encounter with Fenugreek was in January, my doctor recommended it to me to help with some post partum issues I was having, so I got a bottle of fenugreek capsules from GNC, took them for a while but could not stand the maple syrup smell, YUCK!! I love maple syrup on pancakes but this was just too much, I was sweating maple syrup! so I dumped it! Few months down the line, I am reading an article on herbal hair treatments and I see Fenugreek as one of the herbs great for hair, I look for my GNC capsules everywhere and then realize I must have dumped them in Houston!! Arrghh. 

I thought I might have to import it but then yesterday as I was browsing through the indian spice/food stalls at Park n Shop where I got the mint leaves and the tea, what do I see, a pack of Fenugreek seeds for cheap!! I excitedly grabbed a pack!

I will have a separate post on Fenugreek in a few days but in summary this seed contains nicotine acid, protein and lecithin which are all great for hair because they help stimulate growth, strengthen the roots and bring back moisture and luster to hair from root to tip! Fenugreek  is used to prevent balding or thinning in men and women!

I decided to grind mine and sprinkle the ground seeds into my brewed tea;


 There are other ways to use it which I will share in a future post..
 

Then I added drinking water(because it is sterilized and less likely to create mold) and shook the living daylight out of the mixture (which will remain in the fridge for added preservation). 


I will use this mixture on the scalp of my middle back hair from now on every morning, I decided day time is better than night time because I don't want my bedding smelling of mint/syrup/black/green tea all at once before my hubby chases me from the bed!LOL 

As for styling, I had my hair down today and regretted it, my hair just has to stay up and off my shoulders for a majority of the time from now on!

In December the verdict will be in and I will let you know how successful (fingers crossed) this combat was!!

I have come to the end of this long post! If you are suffering from a set back or you have a thin spot, you can decide to nurture it and see if it will recover using these tips and many others I have on this blog under the HAIR CARE CATEGORY  or you can decide to skip the wait and give that spot a reasonable cut so you have a good starting point like I am doing!

Please whatever you do, do what is best for your hair! Do not hold on to 5 strands of hair that go past your shoulders so that people can say you have long hair; most of the compliments I get about my hair being long always follow with 'and it's so full and healthy to the tips' so you can imagine how I started feeling when I saw what the V was doing to my ends!

My dear friends take Health over Length because when you focus on health, length follows! Simple!!

Stay tuned for my next post, maybe tomoz seeing that I will be free because it's  a 4 day weekend,  Whoop Whoop!!

Xxx
Dabs

Hiya,
Can you believe it, the year is almost over!!!Welcome to Sweet November Y'all!! Wishing you all things sweet!!!Well I hope all my hair tips and tricks have been helpful to you my dear readers, I will keep coming back here as often as I can to let you in on simple hair secrets to keep your hair growing longer and stronger cuz believe it or not, Naija hair can grow o!!!

This time around I have come up with a post focused on getting the ends of your hair healthy and strong. As you all should know, the ends of your hair are the oldest part of your hair, if you have long hair your ends sometimes can be over three years old that is why you must look after them and prevent them from breaking off and getting limp and weak if you are to record any kind of hair growth progress. The BAGGING method is a great way to focus on your hair ends, infusing them with the needed oil and conditioning treatments they might be lacking due to their age. Look at your ends like you look at your grandma, if you are travelling with her and wanna get off the plane, do you shove right past her and leave her to wobble down the plane stairs not caring if she falls down or gets hurt? I'm guessing not, rather you would hold her hand and make sure you carefully usher her down the plane step by step, going at her own pace. That's the same way you should treat your ends! you should give them the most attention in whatever treatment you do to your hair. Work your way up gently till you get to your young and agile roots!!

Ok Ok enough rambling already, let me show you how to bag your ends!!
WHAT YOU WILL NEED;
A Cellophane Bag(Roll down the mouth)
AND  Your collection of hair oils and conditioner (optional);
Simply pour your oils and conditioner if you want in the cellophane bag;
Mix the oils in the bag or you could apply the oils directly to the ends of your hair which should be held in a ponytail. Bag your ends with the cellophane bag and its contents(if you choose to pour them in the bag) and MASSAGE your ends!!
Secure the Cellophane bag round the ponytail with a clip if you have to;
Leave your bagged up ends over night, this will allow your ends soak up all the oil and conditioner giving it the needed attention and strength to withstand breakage and split ends. This method will NOT mend split ends but if done regularly, it can prevent you from having more split ends!

Why the Cellophane bag? The cellophane bag serves the same purpose as your shower cap in hair treatments, it prevents air from getting into your ends and drying them out but rather creates heat at the ends of your hair thereby allowing your hair shaft to open up and absorb all the oils. You can Bag your ends as a Preepoo treatment Step and then Co-Wash after you take em out. Either way, your ends will thank you for bagging them!!

Hope this post is helpful!! I do not want to believe I and my sisters are the only Naija girls with growing hair oh!! so please if you have before and after pics of your hair since you started your hair journey please send them to the facebook page 'Naija hair can grow' and lets send a message to all those Naija gals who have given up on their natural hair abilities. I'm expecting your feed back. Thanks for stopping by!!


xoxo
Dabs!!