Straight Front(ing)

Hi Everyone!

Leah here... Just wanted to show a few pics of my straight front that I have described in previous posts.  The front right section of my hair has been straight for a while. I honestly think it was due to wrapping or pulling my hair. There are a few reasons i believe this is the main cause. Firstly, if the heat was the main reason my hair was straight, i believe more sections of my hair would have had this same issue. While I do believe heat has a factor in the health of your hair, I do not believe this was the sole reason for my hair to become so straight in this one section.  Secondly, the direction I wrapped my hair in led me to believe that i was pulling this one side more than the other. Because i wrapped my hair counter clockwise, the front right side was being pulled the most. During January i decided i would no longer wrap my hair to see if this would have an effect on that section.  Here is a picture of my hair as of July 2010.

In the first picture you can see how the right side is much straighter than the left.  In the second picture, you can see that I have at least 3 inches of growth that is curly, while the rest remains straight. 

So from the looks of it, it will take me a least two years to re-transition this portion of my hair. I'm willing to wait, but what do I do in the mean time??  This brings me back to an earlier post, where I stated that I usually wear my hair pinned back for this very reason.  Here is what it looks like then:

You can probably see the straight piece in the middle, because you know its there. But i think by pulling the front back, it camouflages its lack of curl.  It also is pulled up to the length of the rest of my hair, instead of one long strand sticking out like a sore thumb.

So for now, I will be "straight fronting" and hiding my non-curly hair, until it returns to it's natural state.  I don't have any other solutions at the time, but if you know of any, I may be willing to try it out.  I also will continue to study this section and possibly post new theories as I generate them.

Lastly, before i go, this week I straightened my hair for the first time in six months. I had tuns of growth, and my hair looks better than ever. So if you want to grow long strong and healthy hair, i suggest a six month experiment. I'll post pics of it soon.

~ Leah

Weekend Hair - Lauren

So...I went to New Orleans this past weekend for Delta Sigma Theta's national convention (Ooo-oop!) and was quite concerned with how I should wear my hair. I started last week with a really nice blowout, but it did NOT last.  And with finals, papers, and presentations (oh yeah, and work) filling my days, there was no time to wash and start a new style from scratch.  I could have tried to make it with the blowout, but 80% humidity quickly changed my mind!  After very short consideration, I decided to do a braid out from the dry straightened hair.

Products

• Ultra Sheen setting lotion
• Shea butter/gel mixture

Process


I did about 12 plaits all over, dampening them with the setting lotion and smoothing the gel-butter mixture on each section before plaiting.  I only braided the sections about 3/4 of the way down, and then rolled the ends with red flexi-rods.  The next morning, I took it all down and here are the results:

Did I love it?  Yep, I sure did!  It only took about 40 minutes to do and the products used are simple and inexpensive.  I think I may have found a new signature style.