A Reintroduction.

 'How many years have you been natural?', the woman quizzed. I'd seen her approaching, as I stood at a busy downtown intersection. Her stride had been so purposeful and direct, that I had already removed one earphone, in anticipation of whatever it was would have to ask.
"That's all you, right?" 
She gestured to my hair, as she neared, and I chuckled.

"Yeah, it's all mine." 
I watched as her eyes kept breaking contact with mine, drifting up to my head to survey. 

I knew what she was thinking. I'm well-trained in the mental math naturals do to approximate growth rate.

  Length of hair /Length of time

X =

If I'm natural for at least 5 years, my hair will be down my back by then.

It's really a rough calculation, since many factors affect growth rate. There's the tightness of curl,  learning curves, perhaps a sprinkle of various set backs, breakages, trims, intentional hair cuts, etc. A lot of variants influence length, so even though I always offer up an answer-

'Almost 7 years. I've been natural for almost 7 years.'
I know that the length of time doesn't always mean voluminous long hair galore.

And then there's always shrinkage that still blows my mind. In the above image, my hair is about 21 inches stretched (give or take), and about 4 inches wet. When dry, my hair looses about another half an inch. It's such a fun part of natural hair, and shrinkage comparison pictures will forever take my breath away away. Off topic, I will be updating you in full with new measurements of my hair. And as a sort of reintroduction to the characteristics of my predominantly 4c hair, allow me to run them by you guys really quickly:

*My hair is super dense.
*My curls vary from pen spring sized to straw sized.
*My hair is porous, so I'm always focused on hydration and sealing moisture into my strands.
*A purely rough estimate of my strands has the longest pieces at about 23 inches. But, stay tuned for concrete deets  on this.
*I trim twice a year, and my last trim was last July. I'm pretty excited about trimming again soon lol. 
*My routine is notorious for being very minimal.

- I don't like brushes or combs.
-I mostly finger detangle.
-I protective style.
A lot.

Hmm what else?

If I'm missing anything you wanna know about my texture, you guys, please comment below.