I've been meaning to post some comparison pictures of my curly hair, and now I have some!  The first one is one of my initial twist-outs from July 2009. Before I started doing the curly styles last year I was straightening my hair at least once a month and had been wearing buns frequently.  I think those two things, plus experimenting with henna and other products had caused a lot of breakage in the back of my hair.

Notice the short hairs in the back. The matted looking section in the back is where my hair was maybe an inch.  In order to hide the breakage I used to clip my hair up like this.


At that point, the longest layer of my hair was above my necklace... And here is my hair now!




Notice that I have hair in the back now! In the recent pictures, it was the second day of my twist-out and I had just woken up from my nap. Lately I have just been undoing my twists and walking around with Shirley Temple like curls for the first day. I prefer the definition that it gives me and I can keep the same twist-out for 4 days. After the first day, I just wake up and un-flatten the back and sides, but I don't do much fluffing.

 I can attribute the growth to a couple of things, but I think it mainly the lack of heat styling.  I also have cut back on us using protein.  This is my current weekly regimen:

• Pre-poo overnight with oil or protein conditioner. Usually it's oil, but I will use a protein conditioner if my hair feels weak
• Shampoo 2-3 times with Dr. Bronners Castile Peppermint liquid soap while in braids
• Deep condition with Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose while in braids using heat or two plastic caps
• Apply Kinky Curly Knot Today as a leave-in and Herbal Essences Totally Twisted to twist.  This is the only time I actually comb my hair and I start with my fingers and work my way to a fine tooth comb
• Redo the twists with water as needed throughout the week

That is it folks! I definitely need to get my hair shaped. I haven't had a trim since December 31, so it's uneven at the moment. I also can't wait to see the growth when I get my hair straightened July 4th weekend!