Lurk no more.

Hey hey hey guys!

Guess who secured a new position, and has been working non-stop for weeks months on end?

Ha!  Na me o!
It feels like it's been a millennia since we were last together, doesn't it?
Keeping up on Instagram, might have offered a small window into what's been up with my hair over the recent months, 

but to catch you curl friends up- 
we hit our 1 year blog anniversary in May! 
Woo!!
In fact, in celebration of this milestone, I prepped my hair for its yearly "official" length check a day before the 4c workshop, the results of which will be in a soon to follow post.

My hairstyles have mostly been styled braidouts, but I recently recommitted my hair to seriously protectively styling it for length retention.  

Remember these?

 I've been diligently dusting my ends and doing major trims (I'm already up to my third trim) all year.  For a strict twice-a-year trimmer, it's been a lesson in letting go.  Maintaining crisp and healthy ends allow for better growth, but even I cringe when I think about how many months upon months of hair growth I'm forced to let go of whenever I trim.  Again, I'll go more into this soon, but in the meantime here's a hairstyle I wore a few months ago.

After viewing a video Naptural85 made on this style, I decided to attempt it for myself.  While our hair textures aren't the same, I try not to be controlled by what my hair isn't.  Instead, I live by what my hair can do.

My hair length obviously, lends to the draped finish, but I envision a particularly fabulous flared effect for you naturals with shoulder length hair or shorter.

The Hair

Freshly loosened loose twists

The Players

Since I wanted to maintain stretched hair, I went without moisturizing the hair with creams or water.  When my hair started feeling dry, I'd mist my hair very lightly with water, and seal with emulsified shea butter.

The Technique

For this simple style, which is so easy an explanation almost seems unnecessary, I'd untwisted my loose twists, for stretched hair, then I split it into two sections.

The front section of hair was gathered into one bundle, and the bundle itself was twisted to the left, then held with several pins.

Stray hairs were smoothed into place to neaten the look, and I encouraged the poof at top, by firmly tugging and shaping it into place.

I kept the style in for one week, receiving a flood of compliments from fellow colleagues at work. 

The simplest hair styles always seem to be fan favorites, no?  Lol.

 So guys, what's been the latest with your hair?  Let's catch up!