Slump

Slumps.

Every now and again we all fall into one, right?

I fell into one by accident, really. At my retightening, my consultant commented that my hair seemed unnaturally dull; that is, although African-American hair doesn't naturally shine as much as other hair types, I still was missing even the little bit of shine that my hair should have.

I've heard this before, so I wasn't surprised. (I may need to stop shampooing it as much.) My consultant then suggested that I put a rinse on my hair, just to even out the color (my hair is a little bit of a lot of colors), and bring some "pop" and shine to the hair and/or at least deep condition my hair. I thought I would try both suggestions, but I was especially excited about the rinse because I am always admiring women with Sisterlocks that have beautiful colors (my consultant has some beautiful ones herself!).

Now, I should say that I have never, ever colored my hair. Ever. Not even when my hair was relaxed. That being said, I did the rinse, not expecting it to come out some dramatically light color because 1. I did research and knew a rinse was not as strong, and if you want "real" color, you have to actually color your hair for that and 2. I had read up on others who have colored their hair and knew the color on the box would probably be 10 shades LIGHTER than what my hair would actually come out to by the time it was all finished.

It did take.....

a little.

Well, very little. It looks like the tips MAY have lightened....a little. (See the pictures.) It is hardly enough for anyone who knows me to stop and say, "Did you do something to your hair?" I didn't even bother to probe people by asking, "I put a rinse on my hair. Can you tell?" I just didn't want to see the disappointment in their eyes when they would probably have told me, "You did? I can't tell."

But the disappointment lasted only a few seconds. I wanted color, but I didn't get it. No biggie. BUT, what I didn't expect, which completely irritated me, was the dry hair. My hair was SO dry, I almost couldn't believe it. If my hair was going to be that dry, the color could have at LEAST taken, right? Instead, I ended up with no color and dry hair. How does that happen?


I actually skipped a week's washing (I normally wash every Saturday) just because I thought my hair was so dry that shampoo would only strip it even more. I was trying to give my sebum time to build up again. This was May 6.


Now, today, my hair isn't as dry, but still not to my liking. I can't pinpoint it, but somehow I just think that my hair was better before the rinse.


And that's how I ended up in the slump I'm in. I wasn't even thinking about color, and then when it was brought to my attention, I wanted it, and now I don't have it. And the past few months have been rough for me because I feel like it is one thing after another. First, I had a hard time finding a consultant. When I found one, I found out I hadn't been rinsing my scalp well, and I am still, right now, having issues trying to get shampoo completely out of my hair and keeping my scalp dandruff-free. And now I get to add dry, dull hair to all of that.


However, I am still optimistic. I've decided to take it all the way back to what I know works: healthy eating and healthy living. I think this is something a lot of us, me included, miss because we are hoping some product will "fix" the "problem." Products target symptoms, but they don't cure anything. Instead of focusing on the symptoms, I am going to work on focusing on the root of the problems, and then working to heal those.