AfrikanLatina ☥ It's A...

My transition into being the natural me that I was intended to be began
in July of 2008. I had finally given my last excuse as to why I
couldn't stop relaxing my hair. First I had to graduate college and
then it was my sisters wedding. I couldn't possibly be transitioning or
cut all my relaxer off before these two events. That would not work
right? That was my mindset back then. Alas, it was time to transition.
Four months into my transition I found out that I was pregnant. (Insert
image of me doing a happy dance here) Not only was I excited to be
having my first child but I also knew that with pregnancy comes HAIR
and LOTS OF IT! My hair flourished during my pregnancy. I got rid of my
relaxed ends in February and loved what I was working with. With much
of my pregnancy taking place during the warm weather months my fro was
full and fluffy just how it like it. I tried my first real style at
this time. I flat twisted the sides up and set the rest of my hair on
curling rods to get a faux hawk look of sorts. My hunny, friends, and
family loved it and so did I. I didn't know that a few months later I
would have no hair around my edges to twist.

Our beautiful son
Taj Marley was born July 9, 2009 at home (with a head full of hair). I
was(and still am) enchanted with him and my hair for the first month or
so although I didn't do much to my hair during this time. Taking care
of our baby was my top priority. While pregnant with Taj I did research
on everything from carseats to vaccinations but paid little attention
to what changes my own body would go through after pregnancy. Everyone
tells you what breastfeeding will be like, how you should sleep when
the baby sleeps, what to do if baby gets a fever, how to avoid those
ugly stretch marks ( I still got them but wear them with pride), BUT
WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL ME MY HAIR WOULD FALL OUT??!? It's called
postpartum shedding and while some women are affected by it not all
will notice such a drastic difference. Babycenter.com explains:

"During pregnancy, increased levels of estrogen prolong the growing
stage. There are fewer hairs in the resting stage and fewer falling out
each day, so you have thicker, more luxuriant tresses.

After you
give birth, your estrogen levels take a tumble and a lot more hair
follicles enter the resting stage. Soon you'll have more hair coming
out in the shower or on the brush. This unusual shedding will taper off
and your hair will be back to its pre-pregnancy thickness about six to
12 months after you give birth."

My
pumpkin is almost 4 months old but who knows if I'll be in the 6 month
group of the 12 month group or somewhere in between. Having no hair
around my temples poses such a styling issue for me especially with my
hair being at the length its currently at. On a natural hair care blog
I frequent I asked the readers if any of them had experienced what I am
currently going through. I received so many responses from women
telling me how they went through the same thing and how their hair
finally grew back even if it wasn't as full and luscious as it was
before. Oh, am I ready for that day. lol One reader responded and posed
a question as well. She said that while she's ready to have children
she's also trying to reach a certain length(I believe it was mid back)
by a certain date and she wanted to know if that was a realistic goal
if she still wanted to have a child? I responded, "Yes having your hair
shed like crazy is such a pain BUT to hold, kiss,
and love your baby for the first time and then everyday thereafter is
SOOOOO WORTH IT!" While I would never wish this much hair loss on my
worst hair enemy(I don't have one lol) I wouldn't trade my baby not one
of those hairs!

So
here I am, waiting for the day when my hair will grow back and I can
finally style my hair(hopefully with the help of Miss Jessie's
products . While much of it is shedding it is still growing in length
which helps a bit. My plan is to crochet myself some satin lined tams
for the winter to shield my already vulnerable edges from the harsh
weather. My hope is that with the growth of the flowers in the Spring
will come the growth of my edges. We'll see what happens

To help in my journey I have begun documenting my hairs progress:
http://public.fotki.com/afrikanlatina/


Graduation May 2008

My Sisters Wedding

My precious Taj(If I can have a homebirth I can deal with alittle shedding right? lol)


Slowly my edges have disappeared (Sept 09)

Now they are practically gone(October 09)

Girl I feel you on the shedding! My hair fell out after both of my sons were born. Most of my hair fell out and the top, front center of my head. It's still kinda thin there. But overall my hair isn't as thick as it used to be But with me not damaging my hair with heat anymore things are looking up for me and I'm sure your hair will grow back too!

Well your hair looks great to me. Its so good to hear back from a mommy who has actually experienced it and I can put a face with a testimony. I will be soooo excited to have my hair back. I actually think I took it for granted when my edges were full and I could twist 'em and slick 'em back...whatever. Now I look forward to the day when I can take care of ALL of my hair like Im supposed to. Gotta keep the Curly Police off my back! lol Thank you Jamaicacurl...

I put some more flat twists in my hair last night and I'm going to take them out for my fathers visit tomorrow. Hopefully I can style them in a cute way that hides my edges. I'll be back with the results tomorrow. I'm off to check out some fotkis!

I was just responding to a post in the Hair growth area and thought of you....have you tried taking vitamin supplements like Biotin? I'm taking Biotin to help my hair grow longer faster but also in hopes that it will help with the area with the greatest hair loss.

I just read somewhere that there is a list online of foods that promote healthy hair and growth. I think it's Tiashauntee's blog. You might find some good information there.

Happy Growing.

Im currently breastfeeding and I'm already taking Fish Oil supplements and Vitamin D supplements so I'm a little nervous about adding yet another supplement to the list. I'm going to see what the Dr. thinks because I have been hearing a lot about biotin supplements but I've never been one to take supplements anyway so I'm probably just going to lean towards topical options and edible options.

Thanks Jamaica and Sheetacular! I'm going to check out Tias blog!

I rocked my flat twist out today and I must say I kinda liked it. It turned out better than all the previous ones have. Post pics tomorrow! Goodnight Curlies!

After doing a henna treatment this past week I've noticed less shedding yet again. The difference this time is that 3 or 4 days later I'm still noticing less hair shed whereas before by day 2 I noticed that my hair was shedding like it was before(too much!) lol. Anyway, yesterday for my dads visit I wore a flat twist out. Here are the results. I was pretty pleased with the turn out.

Nice! How did the visit go? And I love the new avatar pic with the little chunky cutie pie!

AfrikanLatina wrote:After doing a henna treatment this past week I've noticed less shedding yet again. The difference this time is that 3 or 4 days later I'm still noticing less hair shed whereas before by day 2 I noticed that my hair was shedding like it was before(too much!) lol. Anyway, yesterday for my dads visit I wore a flat twist out. Here are the results. I was pretty pleased with the turn out.

cute braidout! and I like the slideshow!!! I might try!

Jamaica the visit went surprisingly better than I thought. It was a little weird at first after the initial small talk was made but once we got out of the house and to the restaurant it was a breeze. The conversation flowed smoothly. Taj(my son) was a great conversation piece so thank god for babies lol. Thank you for asking.

CocoEuro...it was actually a flat twist out but the results of course are pretty similar as a braidout. If you try it you must take pictures! I want to see

Do you add anything special into your henna treatments? I like the flat twist out it looks very crinkly!!

I actually infused some bottled water with horsetail,lemon balm, and chamomile herbs and used that to mix this particular batch of henna. In the past though I have just used regular green tea. I've also added honey and coconut oil to my mixes before. I've just been playing with it trying to see what works best. I'm about to try a new brand of henna to see how it works. I hope I don't regret it.

Do you purchase your henna online?

No Ma'am...I purchase it locally at an Indian Grocery store. They only carry two brands though so I may resort to buying online if I ever decide to use another brand. Have you henna'd before?

It's date night ladies!! I'm going to have to jazz up the do a bit because we don't get many date nights right now. If we get one once a month we are lucky! So I'll have to see what I can come up with. My edges aren't getting worse so that's a plus. Since I have started caring for my hair more this past month I've noticed a considerable decrease in the amount of hair shed. I think I used to use the excuse that I'm always in the house with my son as a reason for not doing anything to my hair because REALLY, who was going to see it? I had to let that mentality go...hubby doesn't want to see me walking around in a scarf EVERYTIME he comes home lol. Oh, he loves me regardless but a little variety never hurt anyone.

That's the spirit! Hubby & I don't get to do many date nights either but when we do it's sooo nice!
Have a great time!

Have fun!

Thank you ladies.

Thanks for the compliment on my twists! Reading your story makes me scared to have a baby. It is GUARANTEED to happen to every woman who has had a child? I don't have to worry about this for years down the road but your journey to fixing it looks hard and if I can take any preventative measures such as henna I'd like to.

And have you tried scalp massages?

Your welcome. Please don't be scared of having a baby because of your hair...be scared because of the crazy world he or she will have to grow up in lol. While it has not been fun dealing with this...I would go through it 100 times for my son. It definitely is taking lots of patience and just finding out what works for you. It is not GUARANTEED to happen to everyone...some women don't experience any shedding or not enough to notice. Henna has helped tremendously in my opinion. In addition to weekly deep conditioning as of late and leaving it alone.

I actually have been doing scalp massages with castor oil around my edges but probably not as frequently as I should.

D-Lish I didn't have any shedding after either of my children. everyone is different. Just like both my babies were born with a head full of hair(so much you could put it into a ponytail) and everybody said that it would shed or fall out and it never did. Everybody is different.

Try Rosemary Oil At least once a day. And thank you.

I have an oil with rosemary mixed it that I massage in every other dayish lol. I have to work on consistency.

Thanks for sharing a different point of view crvngmr. I mad at you though for not having had to deal with it though. Just kidding...I wouldn't wish it on anyone but its definitely not the end of the world. My son also had a head full of hair and its soooo thick and curly and super soft. I love rubbing my cheek on his hair.