Re: 12 inches in 12 months - 2013
Jewell thank you for sharing your growth experiences. Your length is awesome! Were you actually striving for an inch a month before your pregnancy? How has your growth rate been after the pregnancy?
You know, until now, I had never bothered about growth rate or tried to get an inch a month. I just accepted the 0.5" a month as a given until this year when I noticed that my hair seemed to be growing faster. This was around January. I noticed because I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't longer when I BCed in October last year so I kept it tucked away and stuck to my regimen so I was able to easily see the difference in length from month to month. Of course, I started to pay more attention.
Then I started to actually measure and realised I got an inch in April and another in May. I'm not quite sure what my growth rate was between October 2012 and March 2013 but my last two inches definitely came in April and May this year. So the way I figure it, I'll just keep doing what I did in April and May and strive for an inch a month until year end. That way I'll see if the growth sustainable and how many inches I can rack up by the end of the challenge
It's an exciting experiment since I've never really paid attention to growth rate before.
Thanks
HoneyA! That is wonderful that you are Now consciously aiming for at least an inch a month. I think it can make a difference in the results (where you set your goals). I never really paid much attention to monthly growth rate either as I was too busy or lazy to be bothered with measuring. Now that I have passed wL, I am paying attention to see how long it might take to reach the next goal, and the next.
I was not really aiming for any particular growth rate...I was moreso worried about the shedding (horrendous) that some women can get even during pregnancy, and of course I was fearful of the notorious postpartum shed that has left many ladies' hair and edges on the scrap heap. Darn hormones. During pregnancy, I was just taking my necessary vitamins and trying to keep my stress low. I found I was extremely fatigued all the time, so I didn't do much to my hair during the 4-9 month period.
I did have a virgin relaxer applied at 3 mos since my natural hair had become too much work. Other than that, I mainly washed once a week and bunned my hair the entire pregnancy. I took my RX prenatals, which made me nauseated...so I bought a gummy prenatal by VitaFusion and took that instead. I also took my msm, acai, chlorella, and folic acid by RX (1.2 mg) daily.
Other than that, I ate a ton, and not particularly healthy, either. I just ate what I was craving at the time, which was often chicken noodle soup, sushi, fried chicken, potato chips, and basically a lot of high protein and high fat meals. I forgot to mention that I stopped taking fish oil and had to dramatically decrease my consumption of the usual types of fish I eat due to those types being high in mercury. But I did eat more salmon and salads as a replacement. I ate a ton of sushi first trimester (not raw), and then 2nd trimester I was craving something else and ate that all the time. I think it was Bojangle's fried chicken.
My SO and his friend went and caught some fresh white bass, fried it up in the kitchen, and I was TOO MAD I couldn't have any. And because SO loves to fish, he made sure to memorize what types I couldn't have.
I had to leave the house i was wanting to eat some so bad, chyle I went and got some fried chicken instead.
I told him he needs to go and buy me some tilapia or smthn if he is going to catch fish I can't eat and I'm walking around looking like I have a basketball under my shirt.
After pregnancy, I started to shed a little more than usual about 2 months postpartum. And I just got the shedding back down to low to very low levels in the past 2 weeks (Im almost 6.5 months postpartum, so the shedding was higher than normal for almost 4 full months) by upping my protein conditioners and cowashes. My hair can't get enough protein and it never seems to mind even if I use protein based conditioners several times a week.
I also resumed using my sulfur growth oil frequently in the last 2 weeks, which I kinda slacked on using in the past 3 mos or so. That sulfur oil helped curb shedding, no doubt. I used it during my whole pregnancy here and there. I was very hair lazy at the time of being pregnant...and physically tired...no make that exhausted since I'm anemic as it is. I had to get several blood transfusions. I'm thankful I didn't experience a terrible period of postpartum shedding, mine went from low to the so-called normal 100 or so hairs a day, which definitely looked like a lot since I was not used to that.
I'm not actually aiming for a particular growth amount a month...I so hate to be disappointed after putting in so much work and effort, so I just do the basics and sometimes a little more and see what happens. I have been pleasantly surprised at the results though. Sorry so long! I wanted to thoroughly explain. Oh, and thank God my son was born 100% healthy despite all the junk I ate and the low blood counts here and there.
) that my hair had grown. I don't know about longer but its definately thicker for sure. My afro was catching some wind this weekend. this weekend was super hot so in the end i ended up wearing a scarf to shield it from the sun anyway. after the sun frolicking i twisted it into chunky twists for the next 3.5 weeks. still taking vitamins and doing scalp massages. I need to replenish my smoothie stocks and up the ante on the salad front too. I have however been exercising much more. idk if its doing anything for my hair but it helps with mood management so i'll keep it up. 
