I'm Back (UpDaTe)

Hi,

So, I've been away for some time. I actually just got back on Saturday (but I was just away from the 18th till then to be honest. Before then, I just kept forgetting to put on here what I wanted to).
Okay! So, right now, I'm in school and well, okay! so I don't care what some of the people on here think about me having a natural hair blog so I'll just continue typing right now.
First, please, please pray for one of my natural hair role models. She's WAY younger than me, but still one of my hair role models and she needs all your prayers. Here's an article to let you know what I want you to pray about: http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/03/half-up-half-down-banded-natural-hair.html

Now....what have I done with my hair so far...
I couldn't redo my minitwists and because my mum put off going to the salon for a while, she got my hair done for me (she did it). There's something about a certain hairstyle or braiding style that my hair and scalp doesn't like. Whenever I have it in for 2 weeks or a week, then redo it during the second week, I get some crazy sharp pain on my scalp. I mean, I've never felt pain like that before. It's terrible. So, on he 18th, I finally went to a hair salon again just to find out that the one person who was good with my hair there left and I hadn't gotten her number yet so I can't even call her to find out where she works now or whatever.Okay! So, I got my hair braided to a certain extent then twisted and I had two-strand twists everywhere else at the back. I held it up to protect the ends (as usual :)). I had that in all through bootcamp (yup! that's the reason I was away for a while :) ).
Bootcamp:
Bootcamp was stressful, I got sand in my hair during the activities and drills, I was sweating like crazy, it was SO SO humid and hot. Gaaah! Okay, so the day I was packing, I slipped my jar of shea butter into my bag (hehe :) ) On the first day whene I got my hair sanded-out, I rinsed it out thoroughly in the shower then rubbed some shea butter between my palms then applied it to my hair. Also, I took my satin hair wrap stuff with me (I am so into this!). People wear like, "what is that?" "you sleep with that on every night?" and I didn't care. Luckily, my roommates got used to seeing it quickly. So, I had the shea butter on my hair that day and till my Friday, I never really had the time to get shea butter on my hair again (even after showering).  However, my hair did get sanded-out everyday and I was always sweating so much from all the work so I always rinsed my hair thoroughly when I showered and I always let it air dry (in my room! Outside was WAY too dusty and I didn't want dust clinging to my hair). Okay! SOoooo, on Friday, I took my hair down and finger detangled it out then I got wet hands into my hair, got some shea butter with a lil water and rubbed it in between my palms then got them into my hair and thoroughly detangled (fingers only! :)). I had my hair all out and big and I left it like that till I had to get some sleep. The thing is, some girls had an issue with their room door and I didn't feel comfortable going to bed knowing that they were locked out of their room. I walked down the hallway and all with BIG hair and people were just staring at it, it shrunk, not so much, but it was obvious and when I held my hair a bit and pulled it down at some point, my roommate was like, "yeah, your hair shrunk." Okay! So, one of the girls (room, locked out) looked at my hair and was like, "you're so crazy," I was like, "what do you mean?" and she was like, "have you seen your hair?" I wasn't sure how exactly my hair looked then, but I didn't really care. Later on, I went to my room (when their door had been broken down and they could get their stuff and get some sleep) and yeah, I looked in the mirror and my  hair was perfectly fine. Well, I guess it was just that "image of beauty" that was going through her mind when she thought I was crazy because of my hair (she's got a relaxer).
Okay! so, this girl couldn't sleep with her hair out like that. I started puffy twisting (big twists) my hair, but I had a bit of a problem at the back of my hair (couldn't do it). Luckily, my last roommate walked into the room just then and she helped me twist up the untwisted bits at the back. I then got a bit more shea butter on my hair (with a bit of water in the sheaB) and then put a shower cap on and tied a scarf over my hair. By the next morning, wait! rewind! Okay! so when I took my hair down and detangled it did I tell you that it felt SO gorgeous!! Gaaah! okay! fastforward! When I took of the shower cap and did whatever I needed to do, my hair felt GOR-GE-OUS! It also had a soft wave to it that didn't go even after my hair got wet. I loved it. Someone touched part of my hair, I'm guessing because he asked, "why do you have such cotton-y extensions in your hair," while we were on the bus ride back to civilisation.
One more thing! I drank more water, craved more water than I ever have/had at the bootcamp. AND the only thing I used on my hair while I was there was water and shea butter. Worked wonders for me, I guess.

Okay! So, now, yeah, I didn't have the time to make a quickie conditioner and quickly condition my hair when I got home so I just tried rinsing it out thoroughly before my mum braided my hair in 10 cornrows (which I'm rocking right now :) )

I'm going to make a pet peeve post after this (I need to mention something having to do with cornrows and school)

I think I might try mini braiding my hair some time soon. I know I have been against braids for some time now, but well, I'll go get this done at a salon (even though I don't like the only lady that would agree to touch my hair there. She always brings out her rat tail combs to comb my hair with and she always argues with my when I say my hair's fully detangled and slide my finger through it and they come out easily and well, she's like, "nothing would happen to your hair!" and tries combing it from the roots TO THE ENDS!!!! GAAH! Next time she argues with me, I'll go find someone else to get my hair done. I know I'm just a teen, but my hair means so much to me and I don't joke around with how my hair's managed and taken care of).

Okay! So here's what I'm going to do with my hair when I get my mini/box braids done:

Gotten from BeadsBraidsandBeyond (pic from someone named Aisha). I do not in any way own this picture.

So, what do you think?

Sorry, for the really long post, it's just been too too long and well, I'm in school, FUN, right?

Talk to you guys later.

~Sam :)

Sick (don't let your hair be sick too)

Okay!
So, once I got a whiff of getting sick, I told my hair, "you're so not getting sick too!" Okay! so I came down with a cold and like I know that whenever I get sick, my hair is in bad shape so I chose to keep my hair healthy even though I'm sick. I got meds for the cold and I started taking my vitamins again. For my hair, once I took out my flat braids and African threadings, I deep conditioned my hair overnight then I co-washed this morning. After co-washing and detangling, I got some oils into my hair then I twisted my hair (in large bits). I had my hair in the twists for a couple of hours, but then my mum said it was starting to make me look crazy because well, it started like standing and it was hot here so, well, I took out the twists and my grandmother, who's over said she'll help work on my hair, just give me a manageable hair style she calls 'Calabar' (it's an African hair style). I'll look up a pic now:
It looks something like this (and this looks a bit like large box braids, right?):

So, that's what grandmother's doing for me. On Sunday, hopefully, I'll get my flat braids and African threading done again. Then I'll keep that in for another week.

I'm the kind of person who doesn't drink water unless I get this weird feeling which shows that I'm dehydrated or my body needs water. Since I got sick, I've been buying a bottle of water when I'm out and like I try to finish it even though most of the time, I don't. Anyways, I got a bottle that can hold up to 1.5litres of water in it. I then filled the bottle with water and I forced myself to drink it all at night, yesterday. A few hours ago, I filled that bottle with water again and I forced myself to down it all again.

Also, I'm not much of an "eater" which isn't helping and like my mum's like, "Sam, eat! you have to eat something! You know you're on meds!" but my reply is, "I'm not hungry." I'm actually, not hungry, but the thing is, I never get hungry actually, but one thing that's putting me off even trying to eat is that my mum made something I don't like to eat (and there are MANY things I don't like to eat). Anyways...

Apart from the last paragraph, that's how I'm trying to keep my hair healthy while I'm sick. My hair's not going to suffer.

I hope I get better soon!

~Sam :)