I cannot believe we are nearly halfway through the year. Just a week ago it was 2025—lol! But seriously, where has the time gone?
Since we have reached the mid-year mark, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my natural hair goals for 2026: the vision for my hair, how I intend to achieve it, and how I plan to measure my success. I have actually been consistent with some of these practices since the start of the year, but I wanted to share this entry today in hopes that this encourages you in your own journey, especially if you have fallen away from the goals you set back in January.
A word of encouragement: It is never too late to reflect, reevaluate, or reset to reach your desired goals!
With that in mind, here is what I am personally aiming for.
Vision
Now that I have finally mastered a routine and found products that work for me, the focus this year is length retention and attaining my hair’s full density potential.
Intent
To retain length, my main priority is keeping my ends from breaking—the ends are the oldest and most fragile part of your hair. Therefore, I will achieve this by:
• Consistent hydration & moisture:
Ensuring my hair stays hydrated and moisturized throughout the week or until my next scheduled wash day.
• Protective styling:
Continuing with my go-to protective style options—cornrows and wigs—to keep my ends tucked away.
• Low manipulation:
Minimizing how much I touch and style my hair. Straight-back cornrows are great for this to preserve your hair!
• Trims:
Paying close attention to my hair’s behavior and trimming when necessary to eliminate and or minimize split ends and knots, to allow my hair to reveal its growth over time.
• Strengthening:
Incorporating protein treatments every 4–6 weeks to combat damaged hair and keep my strands strong and healthy.
Since using the SheaMoisture Manuka Honey & Yogurt Hydrate & Repair Protein Power Treatment, I have noticed that my breakage has reduced significantly! I don’t see nearly as much snapped or broken hair in the sink bowl as I have noticed in the past, which confirms to me that this product has truly contributed to the strength and health of my strands.
• Stretching:
Blow drying my hair using the tension method after every wash day to safely elongate my hair, reducing knots, and preventing breakage.
To maximize my density—having a high number of healthy hair strands on the scalp—my focus is entirely on scalp health and internal wellness. I intend to achieve this by:
• Scalp care:
Staying consistent with wash days to keep my scalp clean, oiling, and doing scalp massages to stimulate follicles.
• Scalp detox:
Being consistent with clay masks (i.e., the bentonite clay mask, which I have documented on this platform explaining exactly how I use it) to purge my scalp of heavy oils, product buildup, and dead skin. This ensures my hair follicles and scalp are completely clean for optimal hair growth.
• Internal wellness:
Nourishing hair growth from the inside out with vitamins, high-protein balanced meals, and regular workouts to boost blood circulation.
Measurement
To determine if progress is being made and to measure my success, my plan is to try to commit to taking pictures of my progress. I say try with emphasis, because documenting my hair progress is something that I have failed to do on this platform in the past—so I guess this is another goal I am going to aim to achieve this year, lol!
For the next six months, I will take monthly pictures of blow-dried, stretched hair to check if I retained length and to see if my hair looks visibly denser and thicker.
As for tracking my daily habits, if anything, I plan to upload pins periodically to my Pinterest, sharing the steps of what I am doing for retention, scalp health, and internal wellness.
Stay tuned!
In the Comment Below
If you’re open, I’d love to hear one goal you are focusing on for the rest of the year—it doesn’t need to be hair related. Feel free to drop a comment below.
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