Hello,

I started growing my hair again after getting out of a really abusive relationship. I started out by completely shaving my head.

Now, I know that sounds extreem...but I wanted to get rid  of any reminders of him and I had dreads in my hair at the time.

Now I feel I am fighting for my life against Polycystic Kidney Disease (which caused me to have two massive pulmonary emboli this past March), Fybromyalgia and Bipolar disorder.

Along with growing my hair which I am getting pleasure from while I transform my look also have to lose at least 100 pounds for medical reasons.

here is a picture from my photoblog--

Right  now I am 280 pounds and my hair is 29 inches measured from my forhead across the top and down my
back

Right now my hair rutine is to oil it with olive oil and coca butter. I wash it twice a week (just the scalp) and try to avoid it getting into the pool water...

which brings me to what I am doing physically right now.. I am going to warm water pool therepy 3 times a week and on the other days doing physical therepy on land with my ball and with a 2 pound dumb bell.

I've improved a lot. When I first came home from the hospital this last time I needed a walker to stand up on and walk.

AAAA!!!! It’s been a crazy week. The hot water heater went out and then…in response to that we took to the hills.
When we returned my hair just seemed like a sweaty mess and the hot water heater still was not fixed since Monday was a holiday… never mind that I needed a long long soak.

Well today we got the hot water heater fixed and I was able to shampoo my hair.. what a mistake I made using cocoa butter twice a day to control the smell and help protect the hair in the humid outdoor conditions... it had built up to the point that it feels like I have beeswax on my hair or something.

Right now I m guessing that I need to do some kind of deep cleaning and start over with my conditioning… or even just give it an outright break from conditioning for a while?

Thanx for the tips.. I am going to try the apple cider vinigar tonight.. I have used it in the past for... of all things... oder controle in the humidity here.. it has mild anti biotic properties.

btw-- here is somethinmg funny from this weekend....

Good to see you back Rosa! 

Therapy can take a lot out of you.  Sounds like you are working hard at it - good for you.

For ideas about handling your hair with your pool therapy, check out this topic on Swimming Solutions.

Good going on the PT - it is tough and can make you tired.

That lady sounds like a hair admirers dream  ...g

You're edgy geisha look sounds cute :-D

I hope recovery comes quickly for you - it sounds like you've made some good progress so far.

Cynde

Hmmm...Maybe its because the pictures are small...Is your hair blue? Or is that just something holding up your hair? Definitely cute though.

Can you actually sleep in that bonnet? I bought myself a satin sleeping thingie and couldnt stand it, I ended up pulling it off within five minutes of lying down! 

ACK! My hair and I just went through a horrible ordeal of trying to find what works best for me with the warm water therepy classes.

What I have settled on is this == cocoa butter and lose braids pinned up before class and a warm then cold rinse out after class then gently finger combing my hair to let it dry naturally. If there are any really dry ends then I add a little more butter.

The hardest part has been getting used to having a slightly greasy feeling but it does make my hair awfully shiny

The butter does seem to make a protective coating over the hair and I can get away with conditioning every 3 to 5 days with 'motions'.

I've also found that hair care products aimed at the african american communities work better on my hair -- I have two possible theories on that -- 1)my mom is mixed, thats true = the whole french, indian and black thing and that.. quite simply African American hair is more fragile therefore the products are desighned with strengthining and hair growth in mind.

The last thing is the thing that I think is the most significant because it REALLY is hard to get those wonderfully tightly curled hair to grow out without doing it a lot of dammage (I love dreads but I didnt get my moms hair so when I have tried to do them they just slither out).

Great thing about locks is that you dont have a terminal length because the individual strands of hair stay bound up in the structure of the lock even after the particlar strand has become disconnected from the scalp at the end of its lifecycle. You can grow them as long as whatever number of years you have left to live.

Downside of locks is that growth is slow and you have to learn how to keep them nice and tight or you will end up with  one big 'nap' as my mom calls it. ...and of course there is anti dread prejudice. I thought my mom was going to choke me when I put my son's hair in neat lil dreads when he was 5 because its a stressor to have to try to get a comb through a hyperactive lil guys hair and i dont like to see tears of pain with hair care.

The products are not as greasy as they were during my childhood if you pick up something like the conditioner and nutralizing shampoo in the motions line.

There is a new olive oil line but I havent tried it on my hair.. i forget what its called.