The Weave Dilemma
It’s 3am. I quietly got out of bed, went to the stationery drawer,
grabbed a pair of scissors, walked into the bathroom, lights on, stood
in front of the mirror and went to work.
Oh, what is this about you wonder? Well, that was my very eventful early
morning on a Wednesday two weeks ago. I like my hair the way it is, but
sometimes I just want to do something different with it or put it away
for a little while. In those times, I turn to braids. Weave has never
been compatible with me. Kudos to women out there who rock weaves and
have it in for months. I can last no longer than two weeks with weave on
my head. I know this very much because I’ve tried it so many times and
I’m yet to survive past two weeks.
When I went to Indianapolis over Christmas break, my intention was to
get braids, but that plan fell apart rapidly so, I resorted to weave
once again knowing what was going to happen at the back of my mind. I
was so desperate to put my hair away for a little while that I convinced
myself that this time would be different. I got the weave on the 28th
of December and I actually liked it. A week into it I was getting
excited about how I might actually be getting used to wearing
extensions. I even started thinking about what styles to do next. I knew
if I could survive 2 weeks, I could not survive beyond 4 weeks. So, I
thought the hair would last at least a month. I have some extension at
home, and I was even thinking about doing some myself.
Well, all those thoughts came to an abrupt end that very early Wednesday
morning. I started itching around 12 midnight, thought I’ll rock it
out, shouldn’t be that bad right, but it only got worse. 1:00am still
itching and can’t fall asleep because that itching sensation was
overwhelming any sleepy feeling I should be feeling. 2:00am, maybe I
should take it out. No, I can handle this, just need to survive till
morning and I’ll be good. With that in mind and trying to psych myself, I
untied my head wrap to let some air in. 3:00am, at that point my scalp
was feeling tingly and the itching continues. Finally, I gave in and I
thought to myself, I lost this weave battle 3 hours ago and just didn’t
want to feel defeated again. So I got out of bed and started taking it
out which was no fun. The hair was 12 days old, the threads are still
pretty tight, my head was throbbing and the fact that I’m yet to sleep
at all knowing I’ll have to wake up in three and half hours didn’t help.
Some were pretty hard to remove and I’m sure I cut my hair in the
process. Others I left hanging on there till I could find the braids end
and started undoing the braid and just sorting through the hanging
weave as I undid the braids. 4:15am, my head was free, I felt a burst of
fresh air on my head, but I could tell my pores were open from all the
itching. Between the tingly feeling, the pulling and cutting I could use
cold water on my head. But that would be a bad idea since I didn’t want
to spend any more second on my hair. I just wanted to sleep. 4:30am got
back into bed hoping to wake up at 6:30am to start getting ready for
work. Well you want to know what time I finally opened my eyes, 7:47am.
It’s funny when I woke up I yelled Nooooo… so loud, simultaneously as I
opened my eyes and came to my senses. Mostly because I was supposed to
be at work at 8am. I had a report due at 9:30 that I’m yet to finish and
here I am. You can imagine how the rest of the day went.
Needless to say I’ve accept my fate and learnt my lesson with weaves. If
I do have to do it again, I know I’m taking it down after a week,
because just like all the others I’ve done, I never take them down when I
planned. It’s usually during some weird moment that I realize I can’t
take it anymore and start uprooting it. This has got to be the worst
timing though, leaving me to rock some crazy hair style to work that
morning.
So once again, kudos to my sisters who rock weaves for anything longer
than two weeks. I’m not even going to ask for advice on how to tolerate
weaves longer. Maybe when I fully recover from this episode, I might
consider that. But for now it’s no no to weaves and extensions.
Awww!! I can so relate! The last time I had a weave, which was in October of last year, I took it out after a week.
Usually, I leave my weave in for three weeks, since I do it myself. But, at that time, I just couldn't handle the itching and pain.
When I eventually took it out, I accidentally cut some of my hair, at the front. Lesson learned though. I haven't done any weaves since then. 🙂
I'm glad you can relate Seun. I was starting to think I'm on my one own and my scalp is just too tender and sensitive. Too bad about cutting your hair, I'm sure it grew back nicely 🙂
At least now I know and I've accepted the fact that I can only handle it for a week.