When your healing journey butts into your hair growth journey.

Left was taken 9/28/25, Right was taken today, 12/12/25. Both show my hair stretched but not straightened, and freshly cut using the Manes by Mell Pigtail Cut. I took about 4” off in September, and 1” off today. That’s just 2 1/2 months of growth 🥳🥳🥳

Introducing my hair: 3a/b, ringlet curls about the diameter of a boba straw (it took me a minute to think of a comparison that wasn’t “middle-sized vaginal dialator,” guys), highly, HIGHLY porous, medium thickness but super fine. And I have about 8” of shrink, no shit, especially at the nape of my neck.

My hair has been a real rollercoaster ride over the years. First of all, this is not a “biracial with a white mom” thing, I got the hair from my mom, and she didn’t know what the hell to do with her own hair as a French/Cherokee person in a white neighborhood, so when she gave it to me she basically kept me shorn like a sheep. I “grew my hair out” at 12, but in the age of covering up sulfate damage with silicones, and with a mother who just noped out of hair altogether, I had a rat’s nest. It was severely damaged from the hair products I blindly used, the sun damage from spending the entire summer in the pool, and the hair dye I used to cover up the damage… it was bad.

I found the Natural Hair Movement around 2012 or so, and while I was able to rehab my hair into a healthy curl pattern through early LOC methods, I was still coloring my hair, and therefore still damaging it, not to mention while there were Naturalistias using scalp oiling techniques at the time, I didn’t get into it. It seemed “extra.” So, my hair was growing at around 1/2” per month, and the ends weren’t surviving much longer than my collar. I assumed I simply wasn’t able to grow long hair.

I stopped dyeing my hair in 2021, and I cut the last of the colored hair off at the beginning of 2024… it took me three years to grow roughly the amount of hair I just grew in the last 2 1/2 months 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

It was having to get my allergens out of my personal care products that led me to finally scalp oiling, and then properly cleaning my scalp regularly to remove the oil, not just shampooing my hair… all of a sudden, my hair grows like nothing else.

But I wasn’t working on length retention, I was working against it with some habits. I went from being well on my way to having bra strap length hair by now, to yet another “big chop” and start over at the end of September.

That start-over included scalp cleansing with kojic acid soap, scalp oiling with coffee-infused oils, a leave-in conditioner, and a chebe (apparently pronounced “SHEE-bay,” but please correct me if I’m saying it wrong) butter for length retention. I also put a heat hood on over all of this as it’s fresh, to melt the oils and butters down, and lock it into the hair follicle. Otherwise, I find the chebe butter just kinda sits on top of the hair, being needlessly greasy.

I also started wearing silk/satin bonnets to bed every night, with silk scrunchies if needed. Another thing that I thought was “a lot” (like, really, I have to wear them over my ears, and that legit kept me from wearing them for years. It’s a dumb neurodivergent thing), but makes a huge difference in length retention.

So, how am I planning on maintaining my hair growth while I’m healing a titanium hip joint implant?

I make the scalp oil and chebe butter, and I’ll make a triple batch of both within the next couple of days. I’ll keep up my usual every 2-3 days routine with my hair up until the night before surgery.

There’s also an internal component to my hair growth - I take daily collagen peptides, electrolytes, iron, buffered vitamin c, and omega 3-6-9 supplements to support a lot of things, hair growth and health included. I can do that until one week before surgery, so I’ll be diligent about taking them until I can’t anymore, and get back to them as soon as I can.

I’ll give my scalp and hair a good cleaning as I’m taking that pre-surgery shower, and use a light leave-in and vegetable glycerine to seal it in (my summertime humectant go-to). After it’s dry, I’ll put it up in “boxer braids,” the easiest way to get it under a surgical bonnet. Once I’m out of surgery, I’ll switch to a satin bonnet.

For upkeep in the days immediately following surgery, my friend Elfie came in so clutch buying me a Tangle Teezer and spray in detangler/conditioner 🙏🏼🙏🏼 That and a water spray bottle will keep my hair from turning into the Gordian Knot in the back, and I can do it all from bed 🫶🏼

Once I can get back into the shower (which really depends on my post-op pain levels, I have a transport shower chair, so I can sit in the shower all day), I’ll start up the scalp maintenance and chebe length maintenance again… and likely make it my post-op hobby.

Right now, my hair is shoulder length, which is where I’m used to it being. I realize that makes me look like the girl from Encanto:

When the first trailers came out for Encanto, everyone who ever met me said “why is Katrina in a Disney movie??”

I’m hoping to be cleared from post-op with armpit-length hair, have it bra-strap length by by my birthday in early June, and celebrate my big chop anniversary with waist-length hair 🤞🏼🤞🏼🧿🧿

Mind blowing, seriously.