Causes of Setbacks on a Hair Journey

• Bleach highlights
• Repeated flat ironing in a week with or without heat protectant
• Using wrong relaxer
• Doing a protective style that causes too much stress on hair
• Weave take down gone wrong
• Scissor happy stylist
• Not trimming damaged hair when needed
• Glue from weave or braid
• Matted hair
• Stretching relaxer without caring for regrowth
• Applying chemical processes on the same day or too close together

The list goes on and on. I pray any setback never occur to me. I'm using miconazole nitrate as a growth aide in the hopes of getting an inch a month, I take Super Biotin, and have made my own variation of a popular growth aide from YouTube but I'm not willing to go to the extreme for length. Where my hair is at the moment stretching past 6-8 weeks in not beneficial for me. Continuing with a solid regimen will help to prevent setbacks in the long run. A recent realization for me is that doing what everyone else says 'grows hair' doesn't work for me. Air drying...no, relaxer stretching for months and months at a time...no, M/S nightly...no, sulfates and silicones are my friends because not all are as bad as 'they' say. None of this is edged in stone. For example, I didn't deep condition each week and now I do. My hair is low porous so closing an already closed cuticle with a cold water rinse is not going to help me hold moisture or create shine and now I use twist outs as my protective style. Once a setback occurs its best to learn from it and figure out how to correct the damage.

I won't make APL for 2013 (which was a goal even if it was a stretch) like I'd hope so having a healthy head of hair is best. Once I obtain APL, which will for sure happen in 2014, retaining length will be neck and neck with health.