Shrinkage, tangles and fairy knots suck.

Omg! That is a lot of hair in my hand (because of tangles, you will see shortly) and yes, that is what I get for not washing my hair for over 4 weeks. For some of you, you say what is the big deal, I only wash my hair once a month anyway, well I don’t. I usually, if I am on my regular schedule, which is being off Mondays would wash my hair once a week, but for the past 4-5 weeks I have been working 5 days a week and doing things every day after work and on weekends, so instead of taking the time to wash my hair I would refresh my hair and it would turn out like this:

For about 4 weeks, I have been putting Protective Mist Bodifier in my hair every couple of days just so it did not get dry. Some would ask why don’t you just do a wash and go? I have to do a wash, brush and go. The wonderful thing about my hair texture is that it can just about take anything, but doing a wash and go is not one of them. I can wash my hair like any other human, but as soon as it starts to dry there comes the shrinkage, tangles and fairy knots. It shrinks and to the point that it looks like have of my length is gone and if it was straightened it would look twice as long. That is a curse of having 4b/c hair, but I do not like the word curse so I will say that is the challenge with having 4b/c hair. As soon as it dries it shrinks and becomes slightly tangled and okay that was an under-exaggeration, it tangles very badly to the point in which it sometimes causes fairy knots where before I wash my hair I have to detangle my hair first with conditioner, oil and water then twist it and then wash it with twists. Before when I first became natural it was easy to do a wash and literally go without anything the use of a brush or comb, just my fingers hitting my hair working the product through my hair and the beautiful curls would appear and yes shrink, but now that it is much thicker, healthier and stronger it is almost impossible to get your hand through.

I decided to wash my hair Thanksgiving morning because after putting the mist (mentioned above) in my hair that long it started to get a little sticky and that was the last straw. Below is the end result along with why I said shrinkage, tangles and fairy knots suck is found in the collage below. As you can see there is a picture with me looking crazy after I saw how much of my hair was lost (breakage and shedding) and I was not a happy camper. In another picture there are these lovely little balls, I would like to call, fairy knots, but there is nothing fairytalish about it. They are REAL!!!We (my hair and I) are relieved now that it is clean and back to a protective hair style. On wash day, I would twist or braid my hair and keep it protected like that for 5 days and take my hair a loose for 2 and then it goes right back into twist after washing. I want my hair to continue to grow and remain healthy so it will require me to drink water regularly, use the loc method, refresh my hair as needed, clean it regularly and keep it in protective styles.

What is the longest amount of time you went without washing your hair? How did your hair respond?