A Ripple, in time

Let me start off by saying it was a rough week and my hair was not really towards the top of my priority list, I haven’t made any new adjustment; I’ve barely been following a schedule. Still naturally there has been progress. Spoiler alert: the best part about this update is “no dandruff”. Worse thing is, I didn’t make as much progress as I could have, cause I didn’t put forth the effort.

I tried to make up for the lack of brushing my keeping my hair well to say the least “over moisturized” and that was a bad idea considering the hot summer heat wave we seem to be having up here lately. Bad for my skin and ultimately probably bad for my hair. Not to mention loss and dirty wave caps/du-rag numbers seem to be at an all time high. This has been a bad week for hair care.

So its been going on 2 weeks since I was able to get a professional haircut and that is what really saved my ass. As if to to know my own future of being a fuck up I got my hair cut so low that the first-ish week wether I brushed or not it really wasn’t hurting much. I wouldn’t say I planned to fail but a safety net is still a safety net.

Moving in to week three is when I am going to have to be on top of my brushing schedule and at the very least wrap my hair up at night and keep it clean and moisturized. But I do plan on staying on top of my brush sessions, it’s not as hard as I make it seem sometimes.

Tips for 4 weeks of growth(or 6 weeks) depending on how low you started and when your wolf begins; I strongly urge you to make sure you have a comb. Get one in the beginning of your journey just to be on the safe side. I say that from repeated experience as a coarse hair waver. Sometimes even a super hard brand new brush can’t get to that new growth at the roots.

Even with out the brush work I should have been putting in I still have a few ripples here and there. And for once I have a completely optimistic outlook on this wave journey this time around and within a month I plan on having progress I can be proud of. A month? Yes a month. In the meantime I’ll share tip and tricks I have learned and some reviews on some of the products I use. Bare with me readers. This wolf will not be in vain.

Drip, drop, drown

Why b**** and complain about something only to go back to doing the same things?

I’m not sure but I’m pretty damn guilty of it a lot, and this time isn’t much different. Y’all remember how I used to gripe and moan about my waves, well here we go again. I’ll try to complain a little less this time around.

So here we are; not yet wolfing, not yet spinning, not yet dripping but definitely not giving up. a little more than a month ago I had a growing crown struggling to keep it healthy moisturized and manageable. I was pretty determined to grow my forehead out instead of the man bun I had once before. Intent on achieving the one hairstyle I have never had. A full head of hair. I have decided now is not the time for that particular endeavor. But, it was a perfect time to cut it all off and start fresh. Which is exactly what I did. Cut it off with clippers; no guard, no grain.

So here I am right over a month after that hack job. Just starting a nice wolf session about a weekend. As soon as my waves started to connect and pump the wolf started to take over. With everything that’s going on barber shops are boarded up and I don’t know of any that are open in my area. I can either hold out a little longer and hope things start opening up again or invest in some clippers and go back to cutting my hair. either way I don’t see this first wolf session lasted more than another 3 – 4 weeks top. I would like to take my du-rag off sometimes and see the progress from all my hard work. Until then I wear 4 durags if I have to, just for the time being.

I’m sure some are wondering what products am I using or which ones I would suggest but I’m really trying to keep reviews separate from my personal blogs. I won’t leave you and other darkness however; and I’ll name some of the products I’m using to get by until I find something I want to use on a daily basis.

Sporting waves so then ripples could get some act right. Softee so my hair ain’t all dry after a fresh wash. Boar hair brushes and yes I know it’s not vegan so I’ll probably struggle to find a good brush. Hair store generic wave caps and durags because they go hand-in-hand.

I wash my hair and rags once a week but only once a month do I wash throughout and against the grain. I normally only put coconut Grease in my hair as it dries after a wash. I only do the plastic bag method on occasion (I’ll explain why eventually) . And I probably don’t do as much brushing as I should I’m slacking off in the first few months never heard before, right?

B*tchin’ bout this hair again

Yup, I’ve freaking had it with this hair. The only thing that saved it from getting chopped off was looking at old photos where I had longer hair, meaning that I had dealt with this for longer in the past. So I must carry on. But damn this ugly phase is beginning to wear on me. I don’t really know what to do with it at this point. The hair has won the battle but the war is far from over. As much as I and others would want to see it cut. I did make a goal to grow my hair out. Fully aware of the trials, struggles and consequences of that decision I chose to make that promise to myself.

Definitely have dreams of me getting it wacked off that this point, I’m talking about like no guard ball fade type of cut..

So its been a little over a month since my last hair cut and its been about 5 months since I started growing my hair. To everyone with all natural extremely coarse and thick hair more power to you, because no matter what I try to do this hair will not conform to anything; it has no act right what so ever. For a few weeks I tried the kinky twist but with my hair being in that weird lengthy stage it doesn’t do much beside serve as a protective style, meaning it ain’t much to look at and its no so easy on the eyes.

I think for the time being I will try that style again I personally don’t mind the bed head original Weekend type of look until I figure out what to do with this hair. I have found out that as much as I would like to be an ordinary guy and just go to sleep, I can’t do that with out paying for it the morning after. Putting a durag on the correct way gives my mini fro too much of a push down for me but putting it on backwards did have its pros. It keeps the back and side from rubbing against my cheap cotton pillow cases and leaves the top free so I don’t have that extra picking to do in the morning. I will admit that it does look a bit weird but it gets the job done and that is what is important now, we’ll focus on style in the middle of spring early summer.

I do believe once I have a steady product(or any product); to put in my hair because right now its either good ol vaseline or nothing, it won’t be so dry and hard to manage. Especially for a black man than washes my hair as much as I do. I have been occasionally putting a little vitamin E oil in it when my scalp gets so dry it hurts or I see flakes. I am taking vitamins for my hair with that oh so important “biotin” we seek out for hair health and growth. I haven’t seen much different in the hair on my scalp but my 5 o’clock shadow looks healthier so I can only imagine that its working.

I haven’t decided exactly when is going to be the next time I am actually going to step foot in a barber even though with the amount of split ends I should have been in one yesterday. I do plan on going some time this month but hair is not at the top of my priority list just yet. Maybe I’ll make it a half year chop and cut off all the dead ends and start the second half of the year fresh.

“I’m trying to stay strong, because this is something I told myself I was going to do… but something about summer time makes me want to grab a medium brush and a fresh du-rag..”

Thanks for stopping by readers, hopefully the next entry isn’t me discussing the pros about having a bald head..

What’s going on with that HAIR?

What’s up all my natural hair lovers!! I can guess you were patiently waiting for some type of update as far as what I’m doing with my hair lately. Here on this blog I have documented some of my hair journeys , such as my wave journey (360 beehive & 720 swirl) and the shorty story of my man bun. Now the next chapter is all natural hair growth. I’ve never had a full head of natural unlocked hair past my shoulders or really more than a few inches or so. This is a new hairstyle for me. Let’s all look back and remember how much and how often I wanted to cut my hair when I had my man bun: This damn hair -__- 9months!!!! Goodbye 360, hello 720! 2 month wolf  ; I am pretty sure in 90% of my hair blogs I mentioned cutting my hair at least once. What can I say, hair care has never been one of my favorite things to partake in.

So lets start from the beginning, last Thursday I got the 1st professional hair cut in a barbershop that I’ve had in over 8 months and the first time my hair had even seen clippers in almost 4 months. The last time my hair got a cut before this was just to clean up the edges and do some trimming to a bush that had been growing for maybe 2-3 months. Honestly, when I went into the barbershop I was almost 85% sure I that I was going to walk out with a low cut. For some strange reason I felt I wasn’t ready to give up all the growth I had been working on since the beginning of winter almost. So I ended up getting a taper and an edge up (we call it a lining where I’m from) and to my extreme surprise I got a really good $15 cut.

The way my natural hair line forms in the front of my head is like a zigzag line with a normal eddy point. Most of the time if I don’t point it out to the barber I end up with a pushed back lining because some unskilled barber tried to even out a zigzag that starts 1,2, way back. My natural line has a slight bald spot where my hair line zigs back where it should probably zag, but it looks pretty natural with the rest of my face and I much rather have that than have a lining that looks too far back.

I feel like I might have been over charged but considering that I was a new face in the shop I guess it is what it is. Random barbershop, random barber. I guess I am a bit of a risk taker because the first cut I got here in AC was by far one of the worst haircuts I have ever got, but I guess the second time is the charm. Other than the price I was exceptionally pleased with my haircut and service overall.

Since that barbershop is down the street from my house for the time being I think I will make that biweekly spot for a hair cut most likely test out some of the other barbers in there in the meantime.  I think I got a pretty clean cut.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by.

My Last Hairstyle..

So unfortunately, I’m running a little late but its getting done…

I have tried several different hairstyles since I was old enough to. Also counting the ones put in my hair as a child , so I don’t have to re-experience those outdated styles and still count them on the list i.e. box braids(plats) and the full perm (the Katt Williams).

More recently some of my newer styles were the man-bun in late 2017, my first official wave journey soon after that and my first time going bald in late 2015. I’ve had dreadlocks, mo-hawks, faux hawk, low cuts, high-n-tights, short bush. And now.. I’m just kinda letting it grow.

The extended lack of trimming from “No Shave November” and the already growing bush I had from being half committed a couple months prior is where I’m at now I would say my hair is about 2 1/2″ to 3″ approx. And already this little length as giving just under a handful of problems.

With the initial after thought of just letting my hair and maybe just getting a lining either every other week or once a month I figured a pick would be a necessity, it wasn’t until 4-5 weeks later that I finally went out and bought one. Then my mind was made up and became fully invested. So I guess that would put me in the market for nice natural coarse hair care products. (spoiler alert).

After the first couple of weeks I felt as if my scalp was sore. I had enough hair, that greasing it probably was something I should have been doing daily especially because I’m know for washing my hair everyday. I heard could also just have been “growing pains” from my hair increasing in length and most likely weight. A month later I could even really when the last time my “hair hurt”. I cant be sure exactly why my scalp stopped being so sensitive because I didn’t really make any changes in my hair care routine.

I haven’t yet reached the length I had during my man-bun adventure but I’m sure I’ll get there some where in the early months of the new year. I haven’t made any future decisions like colors or protective styles so if you have any ideas please feel friend to share them.

In other news…

Not much cause I didn’t sleep so good last night so I missed the morning news on TV..

I did however catch up on some of the Fast & Furious saga drama. I am late I know but like a lot of people I kind of lost interest when the franchise went from actual street racing movies to more of an all action some car chases plots; Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. I haven’t seen the most recent one with backstories on Shawn & Hobbes. I saw F&F 6 & Fate of the Furious. I’m not going to spoil it in case anyone is or was behind on the story like me but I will be watching them in order when I can to give honest feedback about the story.

..other than that I got nothing.. same time tomorrow eh, thanks for coming.

 

 

First 30 days of 720

Well well, I guess I made it. Not a WHOLE lot of progress made but I can definitely see the difference 💯🙌🏾. 

I’ve got the 720 forming but the change from beehive to swirl seems a bit more challenging than first assumed. I’ve never been a beast with my angles but trying to master the “hook” angle on both upper right and lower left side of my crown is a pain in the ass.

I’ll admit I was that guy that would see fellas rocking 540 or 720 waves and scoff like “this fool brushing his hair to the damn side” but now I see that that is a legit angle and a major key difference between having 360 waves and those of a higher degree.

There’s pros and cons for 720 but over all I am happy with the transition and after this two month wolf session and this awesome new barber(since the greatest barber stays in Philly SHOUTOUTS TO MARLEY THE BARBER!!) I can’t wait to see the gains.

My advice to novice wavers striving for the wet 720 with the flawless spiral… If it’s one thing I learned you can do during a 360 wolf and NOT a 720 wolf it’s DONT GO TO SLEEP WITH OUT RAGGING YOUR HAIR UP!!! Since I’m wolfing I’m not sure if I lost progress but my hair definitely looks a fucking mess. I’m assuming it’s because the forward up angle on my left side and the nearly complete horizontal angle on my back of my hair that sleeping on it naked is possible the worse thing you could do especially during a wolf (corse hair wavers*).

Another annoying con is finding a experienced barber , which was somewhat of a con with 360s as well. With a beehive 360 or even 360 with a swirl you find a bad haircut will kill process but normally just in your crown area. A bad haircut with 720s, especially with the swirl; can be completely devastation. Let’s not even talk about the barbers that try to comb against the grain before a cut. 

Getting a crisp taper with 720s is also a challenge (so I’ve heard haven’t tried it yet) because of your brushing angles. Normally a barber would brush down into your side burn then fade up and down. Since your angles are usually up and left* (depending on which rotation you are doing) on one side and down and back on the other. It takes even a skilled barber extra time to give you a taper. But in my opinion a haircut under 45 minutes is trash.

Because of my work schedule and my addiction to video games and marijuana I haven’t been putting as much time and dedication to waves. I know I know I said I was going to do better. I think the only thing that is keeping me from losing complete progress is the awesome new products I’ve been using. **Check out my “Wavy Wednesday” episodes to find out what products I’m using now.

Well wavers…. I have to admit this is a challenge but I’m pretty sure y’all already knew this. 😂

Stay waves my friends! 🌊

Easier than expected

I honestly thought that it was over. Maybe it just wasn’t meant for me to be a “waver”.

But around a month in and things are looking wavey 🌊.

At first the top part of my hair was determined to stay in the pattern of my hehive 360 waves. But nearing the beginning of month 2 the top part and my top crown seems to be cooperating. Also found a comfortable angle to meet my waves halfway in that area. Basically brushing horizontal straight across with a clockwise hook angle at top left. The exact opposite of the angle for my back and bottom crown. Hooking close to the crown and crown left while horizontal straight angles across on the back.

Of course my problems areas are my top right and left and my crown right. Most likely due to my novice brushing skills trying to hook my crown right to the back of my crown. Suprisingly, my crown left and top left basic pattern is forming smoothly even tho that’s a thinner area. Once I found my brushing angles with both hands the gains were consistent. Horizontal brushing seemed to work the best.

Working on finding a good brand to affiliate with for brushes and caps. So far monsoon caps have your waves wet. 💯 Torino Pro brushes are def a go to if your still building angles or retraining your pattern.

I’ve also dabbled in a few new methods wash and style seems to put the want of my waves to curl up to good use.
This is a brand new journey y’all, so bare with me. 

Stay wavy.

The big….. Scalp?

Yes yes I’ve done something outrageous again. This time scalping my waves, destroying progress and basically starting all over, again, again.

It didn’t take much consideration before I knew this was the right thing to do. I was unsteady with my methods and my sessions and just plain not treating my waves right.

I couldn’t bare to cut my hair against the grain like I had originally planned. It just seemed like something I didn’t want to do. I do however go with a 1 on my crown and a .5 wtg and a very low taper.

I refuse to be caught dead with out my rag because when I look in the mirror I see a recovering cancer patient no pun intended. But in about 2 weeks I will be making my returning debuted to the 360 wave community. Hopefully sporting nice connections and a spinning wet 360s.
Brush, Comb & Stay Waves 💯🌊

Me and my waves broke up.

Still love them tho…

So apparently I was less of a waver than I originally thought. I was half stepping and didn’t even know it. I knew it was a tad bit more to 360waves then just brushing. But it was so much more than what I originally thought.

“It wasn’t my fault. I was brushing and combing my hair. I didn’t know I wasnt doing shit.”

From the type of brushes you use. The way you tie your rag. The angles to train your crown. There was soooo much I was missing.

Not to mention I didn’t have as much dedication and motivation as a probably should have. And to be honest my routine could have used a few pointers. 

Enough about the bad. Out with the old and in with the new. I have decided to scalp myself. Yes I am going to do it myself. I figured why not. If I am going to try and start this journey over I might as well start it myself.

“I used to cut my own hair on the regular, for almost a year(2014). I’m not a stranger to clippers,… Or taking an L by my own hands.”

Worse comes to worse it’s still pretty cold out so a beanie is the back up plan 😂

Now when I say scalped. I mean scalp. Completely going against the grain trying to undo as much progress as possible. So I guess this would be 360waves v3.0. I haven’t given up yet.

There was a few key factors on why I am starting over:

• Change the angles I want my pattern
• Different products and methods
• Finding a good, knowable barber

I’ve figured out what works best for my hair to get a closed 360spin crown. So know that me and my waves have solved our differences we have decided to give it another chance with a fresh start.

Going back to the fundamentals on this one coach. As I progressed in this journey my dedication started to lack simply because I have good full textured hair; I didn’t have to do much, for the bare minimum. So I’ve agreed to go back to the basics. Keep it simple. Slow and steady.

Most importantly finding a GOOD barber. Not one that is going to knick my crown or give me a regular run of the mill haircut. My pattern is unique and an ordinary haircut slows progress. Sometimes when you want something done right you have to do it yourself. 

Enough of the chit chat see for yourself:

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Thanks for stopping by 👍🏾

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2 month wolf

🙄🐺…

Hey wavers, I know I’ve quiet about my waves for a minute now. 🤔

I’ve been wolfing to the max. If you read and recall last time I chemically burned my scalp, intensely damaged my hair and almost completely annihilated my wave pattern. What made the recovery even more difficult I had to go to an unknown barber who scalped my crown and on top of that a misplaced brushes and rags.

Some how I stuck to my guns almost the entire wolf, up until the last 2 of the 8 weeks. My corse hair of course, loves to curl up and be pretty rebellious after reaching a certain length. We all know I have zero to no type of patience when it comes to my hair not cooperating. So I basically stopped brushing my hair for a week. Amazing how you don’t notice when you always have a rag on.

This extra long wolf session was not planned or really wanted , but being optimistic about it all. I’ve never wolfed for more than 4-5 weeks. Also really got some good comb sessions in before everything went to complete shits. So I’m extremely curious to see what’s underneath and what does my wave pattern look like now. Plus the best part is I get a fresh cut. 

This time I will be going to a different baber (again) , fingers crossed I get a cut that I am pleased with. Especially since I’m going super low to a 1wtg no taper. Going low so I can really stick to the gains I got from this winter wolf. Even though I can’t see them, I know they’re there. Skipping the bald taper this time because I want to build my waves on the outer edges of my hair. During this wolf I found out that my edges get wavey too. So of course, let’s make this journey more complicated than it already is.

Be on the look out for my next Wavey YouTube video feature a spoiler alert for this coming spring!!!😎

Thanks for stopping by