So, I cut my hair !
Last time I cut my hair short I was 12-13 years old I think. I’ve let my hair grow for 15 years ever since, trimming the ends from time to time. But my hair started to get more and more damaged, to the point that I felt like I couldn’t do anything about it anymore. The ends were so thin that sometimes people didn’t even realize that I had long hair. And I guess I wanted some change in my life, to see myself with a different look. I thought for a long time that long hair was kind of a symbol of femininity and womanhood. But first that’s simply not true, and second hair grows back, so why not dare ?
I also never knew what to do with my hair, ironically. With the length I had I could literally do any hairstyle I wanted, but I just never did because I was too lazy or I didn’t take the time. So I just let my hair be, all flat and thin. When cutting it short I thought that I would save even more time in the morning, since I didn’t had to deal with detangling anymore. I’ve never been so wrong in my life.
Getting used to a completely different haircut ✂️
I cut my hair last December, so I’ve had plenty of time to get use to it. Now every morning I have to check for cowlicks and weird waves. Also, even if my hair looked silky when I came back from the hairdresser, it didn’t stay that way. This isn’t something new due to my different hairstyle though, my hair’s texture has always been weird : it balloons up like a sponge when it dries after washing it, or when it’s even a bit humid (I eventually found out that I have porous hair because of bleaching it, that’s why). So I have to find new ways of styling it and a new routine !
Here’s my hair one day after I cut it :
Here’s my hair when it starts to dry after I washed it, with my old routine :
And here’s my hair now, with no heat styling, but after applying my new routine :
As you can see the shape is very different, I’m even starting to think that I might have some type of slightly wavy hair ? Somehow not straight, but without very defined waves, I mean why not choose one of those huh ? I’ve also bleached it (obviously), it was kind of a drastic modification but a welcomed one.
I wanted to wait a little to write this because I wanted to see if I would feel less warm during summer, since my neck and back are free to breathe now. The answer is yes, it’s easier to cool off now ! There’s no length getting stuck on my back sweat anymore (worse feeling ever, we talk real life here sorry), and the “warm blanket” effect is gone.
New hair routine ✨
I know that I haven’t shared my old hair routine, but honestly I didn’t really know what the frick I was doing. All I cared for was trying to make my hair look more sleek and silky with no heat (cause ain’t nobody got time for that), so I went with every shampoo & conditioner set that said “smooth straight hair”, with no understanding of my hair texture, and just threw a random “get instant silky hair” mask here and there. And with all of this, I swear I just couldn’t understand why my hair lacked volume and looked so flat on my head (I mean, come on past me, you went to physics class right ?)
But anyway, new hair new me, new hair routine !
I’m going to explain how I proceed from when I wash my hair, but I won’t be naming any products since I make them all myself now (that’ll be for another post), however the most important thing are the ingredients you choose to use, and that’s what I’m going to talk about.
– Shampoo : I started using a sulfate free shampoo. Sulfates are irritant, they strip natural oils from the scalp and hair, and that can make it dry and brittle, or even worse if you have a sensitive scalp. I have thin & porous bleached hair, and I also have a scalp that gets oily pretty fast, so I don’t need this exterior element to mess with my hair issues. In fact, over-stripping an oily scalp can be counterproductive, as it will produce even more oil in reaction to compensate, and you’ll end up feeling like you have to wash your hair everyday. But I don’t feel like I need to wash my hair everyday anymore, and my hair texture seems to be more flexible.
– Conditioner : I use a moisturizing conditioner with silk protein which is good at coating low porosity hair, arginine which is an amino-acid to help with detangling, and broccoli oil, which works as a natural conditioner and nourishes the ends. With all that I feel like my hair is healthier and stronger, since I’m finally addressing the thin & porous texture issue.
– Detangling spray : As i said before, the knots didn’t stop when I chopped my hair unfortunately, it was due to my hair texture and not because of the length of it. So I added a raspberry vinegar spray with arginine and flax seed gel (a great alternative to aloe vera, very silky) to help detangle it after I washed it.
– Hair oil : To address the frizzy hair, I use a blend of oils on the lengths once my hair is dry. I learned that hair that gets frizzy is porous, so it absorbs the humidity in the air and that’s why it swells and frizzes. Oil can actually create a kind of shield around the hair, remember that oil and water don’t mix ? That keeps the humidity outside ! I use jojoba as the main oil in the blend because it’s a “non greasy” oil (it’s technically a fluid wax) and it’s the most similar one to the natural sebum created by our scalp and skin.
– Mask : I’m using a mask more or less once a week, with Phytokeratin which is a plant sourced alternative to animal Keratin that provides amino acids to the hair, arginine again, and Cocoa butter. I’m currently trying to make a blue mask to help reduce brassiness, but I wasn’t successful so far.
– Dry Shampoo : Now that I don’t wash my hair everyday, there are still some days that my scalp feels more greasy, so I’ll use a dry shampoo instead of washing it. The volume I get from it is nice too !
– Night Time : The final issue, I prevent cowlicks by doing a high half pony tail before going to sleep, that way when I wake up I free my tied hair and it covers up the messy under part.
And I think that all of this is enough for one post !
Have you ever drastically changed your hair ? 😊
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