Natural hair mistakes of 2013

I am have been a big believer of learning from your mistakes.  I feel the best way to keep from repeating my mistakes is owning them and then moving on. I did not have many Natural hair mistakes in 2013 but the ones I had were doosies and worth mentioning and I am vowing to never do them again.  Learn from your mistakes so that you may not repeat them, right?  Right!

Trimming hair with any old scissors lying around the house

Blasphemy, I know, but I am admitting I would grab whatever I could find and that was usually ones my son was using for his for school projects or ones I keep in the kitchen.  BIG MISTAKE and an even bigger mistake is to keep quiet and assume all scissors are the same.  

The right scissors are key to a great curly cut…scissors made for fabric or paper won’t give hair a precise cut.  In fact, these and other inferior scissors can actually fray the ends because they tend to be duller than hairdressing scissors.  Dull scissors will make a gnawing or grinding sound when you cut, and can require that you cut your curls a couple of times to get through the hair because they latch and pull.  curly girl, the Handbook

The tools for your hair matters and even though I knew this I wasn’t using that logic and suffered as a result with frayed or raggedy ends.  I broke down and headed over to Sally’s and spent about $30 on a good pair of shears and used a 15% coupon so the price would not make me keel over.  

Trimming hair when wet

Wet hair

Dry hair

Yea, see how my hair looks wet compared to dry?  There is a difference and that difference counts especially if you want to cut it and allow the curls to fall as they may when they are dry.  Cutting our hair while wet is a bad idea.

“With curly hair, the curl range is much higher from wet to dry,” explained Ana, meaning the difference between how the curls lay wet versus how they lay dry is so vast. But when hair is wet, Arturo told us, “you’re stretching the hair and you’re cutting it all to one length. And when the curls find their way in to their own pattern, some curls are curlier than others.” The result? An uneven, imprecise cut. http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Lorraine Massey stresses this in her book, curly girl, the handbook as well so this is not anything new or unheard of.  If a stylist cannot cut your hair while dry then find another!  I now place my hair in twists and cut after it has completely dried.  I’ve been seeing much better ends and hair this way.

Wetting my hair without adding anything

Stupid, stupid, STUPID!!!  I don’t know what crawled up my butt in early part of 2013 and told me I could do that but I regretted it the next time I got in the shower and tried to get through that mess!  I must have read some article from a straight haired woman because I just jumped in the shower, wet my hair thoroughly and got out like I was grown.  

I was almost in tears as I fought (as gently as I could) through the tangles.  I know I used an entire bottle of conditioner to get through my hair and I know I ripped many hairs out of my head that day.  I ended up frustrated and beaten all because I was lazy or just plain gullible into believing I could do that and survive.  All I can say is know your hair, your limitations and your reality.  Conditioner is your friend!

I am a big believer in mistakes being gateways to learning.  Nothing or no one is a waste of time if you learned something from it.  Take my mistakes and laugh and learn.  They are silly and downright stupid but I know they have made me wiser in the end.

So Naturals, let’s share. What were your biggest Natural hair mistakes of 2013?

Take care Naturals,

Sabrina