May Reflections: Hair and Running

HAIR

Another updo with two daisies.

Last month was my 1-year HHCJ anniversary. It's strange but I didn't celebrate it with any bells and whistles. In fact I didn't really celebrate it at all! Last year when I started this journey I felt like a year was a long way off. Now that it's been a year I'm wondering where the time went.

In general I'm content with the progress that I've made. My continuing goal is to maintain healthy hair. I'm not obsessed with length, although I do want to continue to retain length. However, I doubt I'll do any further length checks.

I'm still figuring out what my hair likes and how to cope with my hair given my schedule restraints. I mentioned in the post Henna Application 2, that I wanted to try washing my hair every 2 weeks to cut down on manipulation. I don't like it. A clean scalp is important to me especially with all the exercising I do and 2 weeks is simply too long.

Now I want to try washing my hair with my twists in. (Check out Week 50 hair for more info) So this weekend I will wash and deep condition my hair with my twists in. When I apply my kimmaytube leave-in I will unravel each one individually, detangle, and then apply product.

On Tuesday of this week I did a "quick fix" because my hair needed some attention. I rinsed my scalp with a cheap conditioner really well and then applied my Aussie quick fix deep conditioner while I showered. My twists were still in the whole time. I rinsed it out and then applied my kimmaytube leave in, my Qhemet Biologics moisturizer and some coconut oil.

Since my hair gets very frizzy, I retwisted the perimeter of my head just so I would look presentable. I loved the results, my hair felt and looked great.

Overall, I'm trying to spend less time on my hair without sacrificing the health or appearance of it. I've learned to love my hair and how to manage it so that it's not only healthy, but also looks great too. I'm so happy I had the courage to embark on this journey because it's given me much more confidence in rocking my natural hair.

RUNNING

The conditioning program I started back in March has been going well. While I don't always get every, single, run in during the week and weekends I feel good. I feel like I'm still in shape, taking care of my body and am ready to start training on July 1st.

I've also already signed up for my second marathon in October! (more on that later!)

I've learned so much from when I started running in 2009 until now. I've gone through injuries, life-changes, and everything in-between, but I've stuck with it. I'm still running and still enjoying myself.

My goals for the future are to try trail running and ultramarathons! I plan to run my second marathon in October and the Seville marathon again in February of 2013. After that I want to concentrate on trying some trail running (smaller races at first) and then some ultramarathon training.

My over-arching goals are to stay fit, stay healthy, stay injury free and to continue to enjoy running! For the blog there's much more updates, thoughts and goals to come!

Week 50 Hair Part 2

In my haste to post my hair update this week I completely forgot to share one of my new hair purchases: butterfly clips! This is one above that I bought and I also bought three other smaller ones in different colors.

I'm really into hair accessories for the summer as well as head wraps. Tons of scarves have just been collecting dust in my drawers with no real use. 

They are too thin to wear during the winter and some are too small to wear around my neck at all! However they are perfect to be used as hair accessories. 

Youtubers have really inspired me by showing me how to tie and rock them in cute ways. I've already tried a bunch of different styles that I hope to share in the upcoming weeks.

Also, my puff that I showed in Week 37 Hair is going to be my primary protective style over the summer. As I've stated before, Córdoba weather is incredible drying and I'm already noticing that I have to apply more product to my hair.

So to protect my ends from excessive drying I've decided that when the real heat arrives I will tuck my hair away. The headbands that I showed in Week 46 Hair I plan to rock to spice up the puff along with any further hair accessories I buy.

My goal this summer is to retain moisture so that I don't experience any unnecessary shedding or breakage. I will definitely come back with pics of my scarf styles and once I finally start rocking my puff.