2016 the year almost no one EVER will say damn that was a really good year

Title is crazy long and horribly accurate for a lot of folks.  This year has felt like one punch to the gut after another and it is literally not taking a break in the last four days of the year.  I know that lots of non celebrities are dying as well as the famous folks but really this year has taken everyone from treasured musicians (Prince and David Bowie among others) to actors and actresses pivotal to my early years on earth to comics and peace makers and good Lord it just seems never ending.

It started off well enough but both my energy and patience with the universe died about halfway through.  Then the insipidness of the election finally gave way to what in the same hell did you idiots just do.  My hair is still growing which is nice which is what I'm going to spend the last part of this post on but really this year.  I hope it slips from my memory like the years you date a dumbass and then fail to remember why.  That would be awesome.  Please please please I beg of someone please.

So on to the hair.  For those that don't remember, and because I haven't done a bang up job of keeping you up to date this year, I cut off my relaxed ends in February.  It was by no means planned but the relaxed ends and the natural hair kept fighting in the twists so when I took them down and detangled things it was just at a point where there was enough hair to say I wasn't bald but it was a short fro.  Tiny bit of shrinkage but not too much as there was not a whole lot of hair.  That isn't the case now but let's start with where we were 10 months ago.  Ok looking at that there was more than a little bit of shrinkage cause I remember picking out this fro lol before taking the photo the morning after I got the trim.

And here's what the various few weeks have looked like.  I took my hair down a few days before my birthday because I planned on getting my nails done, a massage and a trim on my birthday.  And I decided that since classes were over and I had no major plans I would leave my hair down for a few weeks. 

This is me immediately after taking down the twists.  Way more hair that I thought would be there given my lackluster hair care over the preceding few months.  But growth is growth so yeah.

I was super worried about the trim because I told her to go after whatever split ends were left after my wash and detangle session but not a lot was lost and I had a realization that I will share later among others.

This is me with my new doctoral tam.  We wear these during graduation ceremonies but my old tam was not fitting my puffy new hair.  For some reason my brain was slow on the uptick that when I bought the thing my hair was always bone straight.  And I didn't really need to wear it much until I was transitioning to natural and that was a snug fit.  Now with either twists or tight coils in play I needed a bigger one.  I just ordered the largest size they had because I have no idea what my hair will end up doing over the next few years.

This is me after this week's wash and during a deep conditioning session (prior to cap being put on of course) which was brought on by another realization and let me just say that even with a slight tug on the curls that relaxed a little bit with the deep conditioner my hair is evil when it comes to shrinkage and makes me think of this shirt.  You can't see it in this photo but there's another realization on tap because of this and the last few weeks.

And finally this is me yesterday after waking up from my overnight baggying to keep the hair moisturized but not wet.  A little tug to pull up the top but I left the sides alone because they spring back like a gymnast doing a tumbling pass.

So what have I learned about my hair:

1. It grows no matter what I do but I haven't been doing enough to make it grow better.  As I was deep conditioning my hair I realized that was probably the first time I had in at least three or four months.  Yes it's tucked away in the twists but it still needs some nourishment.  I need to wash and deep condition it better while protective styling.  And I'm great about daily or every other day moisturizing for a while with my twists but that has fallen off as well so I need to get back on board with that.  
2. Two that what I was fretting about in terms of split ends is really just how my hair feels when there aren't 50 million chemicals on them smoothing everything out.  As I was letting the stylist work on my hair I was on the verge of saying no more than an inch but seriously outside of a few spots to even it up a bit (back section of my hair on each side was freakishly longer than the rest) she had very little to trim.  So hey it's healthy despite of me but I need to keep working on better overall care.
3. There are at least two, potentially three, different curl patterns on my head.  From the front to my crown, probably a bit further down, my hair is super tightly curled.  When I stretch out the hair at my side burns for example it reaches down to where my chin meets my neck.  It snaps back up immediately though like why did you even bother lol.  The hair at the nape of my neck in the back is much looser and feels on the verge of going straight if I brushed it hard.  Can't tell why as there's no really good reason for it.  And then there are random bone straight pieces of hair.  Same length of the rest of my hair and not patches just stray strand here and there.  I thought it was a loose piece of braiding hair that hadn't come out at first but the stylist pulled on it and was like you can feel that right.  After I said yes we just both went wow and moved on.
4. I can wear it down and it not be a big old hot mess but it's not that the length I want it to be when it's this tightly coiled for me to rock it like kiss my afro.  I will need to do some more studying on how to stretch it and what my curls want.

So that's my year and hair revelation in 10 months natural.  What's going on with you?  Belated Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Blessed Kwanzaa and Diwali, and Happy New Year.  2017 needs to be better.