Braided Bun

Side view of braided bun

Today’s attempt at a random hairstyle is the braided bun.

I chose this one for simplicity really. I needed a style that would protect my hair and keep it out of the way but was having a bad day health-wise and knew I wouldn’t have much energy to mess about with my hair. This style looks much more complicated than it actually is, which is always a bonus!

Put your hair into a ponytail at the point where you want the centre of the bun to end up. Braid your hair into a standard 3 strand plait. Wrap around into a bun beginning at the base of the plait and tuck the ends of the plait under the bun. Add hair pins to secure the plait.

Done!

Rear view of braided bun

 

Initial Hair Length

As I have mentioned previously, my hair is already rather long. The concept of a hair journal is totally new to me and it had never really occurred to me to actually measure my hair before.

There is an agreed standard measurement procedure among people growing their hair. The measurement starts at the point where your hairline begins, continues over the top of your head and ends at the longest point of your hair. This is in truth a measurement of your head and hair rather than true hair length but it is done this way for consistency. Its difficult to ensure that you are starting from the same point at the top of your head each time you measure and using the hairline as a start point ensures that each person is taking the same measurement. The measurement article at the LHC forums can be found here.

While having a measurement  of length can help you to judge hair growth, the measurement will vary for each person’s height and body shape. Twenty inches of hair on one person will look different to twenty inches of hair on another. For this reason people also describe their length in relation to specific points on their body (for example, shoulder-length, waist-length, etc).

My hair is currently 33 1/4 inches (84.5cm) which on me is past waist-length, almost hip-length hair. I am measuring while the hair is wet to try to keep a bit of consistency in the measurements as my hair has a natural wave which gives me varying lengths when dry.

Measuring wet hair

 

A Fresh Start

I have decided to follow the advice of Ursula’s Newbie Guide over at the LHC Forums. It seemed a sensible place to start. However before I begin, I want to give my hair a thoroughly good deep down clean to get rid of all the build-up from other hair products and to have a good idea of the baseline I am working from. I also plan on letting my hair air dry as undisturbed as possible in order to get a few photographs that I can try to determine my natural hair type from. That bit I’ll leave to a different post though.

Time to clean! I have been quite excited about this for the past few days actually. Yes, I am aware of how pathetic that sounds, but then you are reading a journal of what I am doing to my hair so maybe it doesn’t sound as pathetic to you. After a few days waiting for my body to be well enough to let me go shopping, I headed to buy a nice new clarifying shampoo. The choice was incredibly poor. A choice of one brand or nothing. I decided that it didn’t matter too much as it wasn’t going to be used very regularly so Pantene Clarifying Shampoo it is!

Nothing exciting about this part really. I carefully washed the entire length of my hair taking plenty of time to rub the scalp with the pads of my fingers. After this I applied TRESemmé Naturals Nourishing Moisture Conditioner (a silicone-free conditioner with avocado oil and aloe vera) to try to prevent the clarifying shampoo from drying my hair out too much.

So far its going well. The aromas of the products are pleasant but not overpowering and my hair felt really clean while I was applying the conditioner. I can’t examine the hair too closely until its dried because of the hair typing but I am feeling rather positive about it all. On the downside, I am now struggling to stand in the shower for any useful length of time and my hair is getting too long to wash by leaning over the bath so we’ve had to send off for a bath board to enable me to be seated in the shower. That makes me feel a bit old and useless but it should let me have more freedom over washing my own hair.

 

Damage Control!

Today I am focussing on minimising any further damage to my hair. There will be no point in trying to repair my hair or grow more if I am going to continue to damage it. I have carefully thought about everything I put my hair through each day and tried to assess where damage will occur. Some of these dangers were obvious, but others I would never have thought about without suggestions on the Long Hair Community Forums.

We all know that using heated tools on our hair can make the hair more vulnerable, so I will begin here. This part will be surprisingly easy for me as I do not usually style my hair on a typical day. When washing it I will leave it to air dry rather than use a hair-dryer, although if I have an occasion where this is impractical I will allow myself to occasionally blow dry on the coolest setting. I will avoid using heated rollers, curling tongs and hair straighteners at least until my hair is in better condition.

I plan to avoid commercial chemical dyes and instead switch to Henna mixes as they do a lot less damage. I need to leave at least 3 months after my last commercial dye before I start experimenting with Henna, so this will have to wait a while.

Another source of damage to my hair is breakage and splitting due to brushing. I plan to reduce this by changing my routine to groom with a wide-toothed comb beginning at the ends of the hair to gently remove tangles, working slowly up to the roots a few inches at a time until the length is tangle-free. After this I can then switch to a fine-toothed comb and lastly a natural bristle brush to help distribute the natural oils at the scalp along the length of the hair.

I have trimmed the very ends of my hair using a sharp pair of hairdressing scissors and I will be trying to gradually weed out the split ends as I spot them. I realise this will take a while, but I really don’t want to lose too much of the length of my hair just yet as it is my inspiration.

Another source of regular damage to my hair is from getting it caught in things. I am forever catching strands of hair in my headphones which are then torn loose or broken. To help prevent this, I intend to find a good headscarf to prevent the hair from becoming entangled in the headphones. I will also need to find a method of containing my hair whilst I am in bed that is still comfortable enough to allow me to sleep. It would probably be a good plan to put my hair in a braid or bun if I do not need to have it down as this will hopefully reduce tangles and damage as well.

Phew! That’s a lot of changes. I know I’ll forget things at times or may have a day with not enough energy or too much pain to wear a braid, but the more I practice, the easier and more natural it will get. Here’s to better hair!