Hair: you say 4C i say Cotton Candy!

I have been in braids or some kind of "protective style" since January with very few chunks of days where my hair was out in between. For me yes protective styles are protective and what not, but more than that they help with my laziness over hair. For most of the last 4 years I wore my hair very short (barber for a trim, fade and shape up every 2 weeks type) for the most part because it's way easier. Less time consuming and therefore allows for me to focus on keeping my skin baby smooth and maintaining an active lifestyle (occasional swims and runs).

Taking care of my hair is a labor of love - I often compare it to having a baby (not literally of course, but just go with it). I hate accumulating products because I tend to like products that double for multiple purposes. Admittedly, I got into the youtube videos for tips when I stopped cutting my hair and there is a LOT out there. I didn't take ALL the advice, I picked and chose what was practical for me.

With that said, last week I took my braids I got done in Zim out after almost 3 months and my hair had grown a lot. Anyone who has ever had braids knows the struggle that is taking them out and getting your hair to where you want it. I cheated on one step and went to the salon to take them out. They sprayed a whole lotta detangler in it and I scarfed it up and came home. Next day scarfed it up again, went to work and came home to REALLY put in work on this hair.

Natural hair rules say don't use shampoo and I totally understand why, but I did just because that buildup post braiding is real and NEEDS the strength of shampoo. I used these from Ulta:

Conditioned overnight plastic bagged, shower capped and scarfed up.

Once done I applied some whipped shea butter my cousin made and blow dried the hair. The curl was still tight and although I knew my hair had grown, I couldn't see it what with tight curl patterns and all. So I looked around and found a hot comb:

Watch what happens:

Fully extended it's a little over 6 inches long. A whole week, temperatures in the 150s and drowning in humidity (I also did not comb it), my hair looked like this:

From what I know/have learnt about my hair, but I concluded this week that in the summer my hair will act like cotton candy. Throughout the week it will shrink slowly as it absorbs humidity around it speak less of what happens when it gets wet.

*googles fairs in the DMV*

Anywhoo, from the picture below can you guess what time of the week it is?

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*@afropolitaine*