Growing Out an Undercut: The Changing of the Parts

Rihanna-Undercut

It’s time for another natural hair update! Last November I started documenting my natural hair journey in relation to growing out my undercut (read Part 1 here and Part 2 here). It’s almost been a year and I am still chugging along on the old grow out process. Last month I got to the official awkward/ impatient stage where I just want to rip all of my hair out. Dramatic much? But seriously, it’s been tough. While my hair is definitely growing I really want it to be grown all the way out.

The biggest issue for me has been asymmetrical nature of my cut – one side of my head was FULL of hair and the other side not so much. Of course I was able to make it look cute but I felt trapped in this style. I wanted to change up my part but I was scared to death that I’d end up looking like Sideshow Bob or the dude from The Counting Crows. I went to my hair dresser and told him my dilemma. Here is the advice/actions he took …

Continue to Taper the Back

The biggest challenge with growing out a natural hair undercut is keeping the back of your head in check. You have to continue to shape up/taper the back in order to look presentable. It does slow down the growing out process a bit but it keeps you from looking like a hot mess.

Changing the Part

Phillip (that’s my hair guy) was able to give me a center part without me looking like a cartoon character! He parted it in the middle, cornrowed each side, and set me the under dryer. This help train the curls to set in a different direction. Once everything was set and dry; he moved a few strategic curls so it wasn’t such an obvious middle part.

growing out undercut

Other Suggestions

He also suggested that at home I give the old foam rollers another go. Back story, the last time I used the bendy foam rollers my curls came out so tight they stuck to my head. The rollers are easier than trying to cornrow your own hair (for me anyways) and they form some pretty curls.

What I Do (When I’m Lazy)

When I don’t have time to play with rows or rollers, I just let that shit go! Some days I just give up and let my hair do what it wants to and people actually seem to love it more that way. Maybe it’s that age old “embracing what you’ve got/ confidence” thing.

That’s all I have this go round. I’m sure I’ll more updates soon.

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