Stalking my YouTube and Instagram page you may assume that I have always had a beautiful head of hair. Unfortunately, that is not the case. My healthy hair journey started when all my hair fell out. The picture below pretty much sums up my hair before I started my healthy hair journey.
I went from a not so successful relaxed hair journey to the flourishing head of natural kinks and curls. Just like you, I have had my struggles trying to obtain healthy hair that often times bled into my self-esteem.
Childhood Hair Story
Like most young black girls, I remember having a head full of hair all throughout my childhood. Once I was in charge of doing my own hair that is when all hell broke loose. My hair has always been super thick. Which is why I vividly remember my mother taking me to get my hair relaxed when I was in kindergarten.
At that time, I was also super uneducated about black women and hair and just believed that I did not have “good hair” and that my hair would never be healthy and I would just have to live with it. When I look back, I think it had a lot to do with my self-esteem. When I got into high school I started to wear my hair down more often, but it never really fell below chin length.
College Years
When I entered college that is when things started to take a turn for the worse. I started doing my own relaxers and flat ironing my own hair. For some odd reason, I thought my hair could withstand excessive amounts of heat like the other races of women on my tennis team.
Surpisely, that was not the events that led me to start a hair journey. One day I decided to relax my hair not realizing that I should not get into the pool. Shortly after, I did and within a week pretty much all my hair fell out and I was left with the picture you saw above. From that day on I did not wear my hair down for months.
Relaxed Hair Journey
The second semester of my first year in college is when I beginning my hair journey. I remember it was during Christmas break and I did not go home for Christmas. During that time I learned about Youtube and found ulovemegz youtube channel. I binged watched all of her videos and followed her hair regimen down to the tee.
Within the first few months of my hair journey, my hair started to do a complete 180 that even my family members took notice. So I continued my relaxed hair journey. I signed up for sites like Keep it Simple Sista and Hairlista and soaked in every bit of information I could about relaxed hair. Very slowly, my hair got a little longer, however, my hair would get to collarbone length and then break off in the back and the crown of my head. It was a never-ending cycle. Overall, I was very content with the progress of my relaxed hair journey. I knew if I continued to be patient my hair will eventually reach armpit length.
ROAD TO MY HEALTHY HAIR JOURNEY
When I decided to go natural it was by accident. I was doing a six-month protective style challenge when started to notice how fast my new growth actually came in. That was the first time I started to notice the curls, coils, and kinks. I did not remember what my hair looked like before my mother started relaxing it so for me this was the first time I was truly starting to see my hair for the first time.
TRANSITIONING HAIR JOURNEY
It was then I decided that I was not going to relaxed my hair anymore. I felt as though I had already made it six months and if I relaxed it and then later made the decision to go natural I would regret it. I transitioned to natural for about 10 months before I big chop.
During that time I wore a lot of protective styles: wigs, weaves, braids, and updos. Actually, I learned how to do my own box braids and Senegalese twist during that time because I was broke law student and did not want to pay anyone to do my hair.
I have a FULL PLAYLIST OF MY TRANSITIONING JOURNEY ON MY CHANNEL.
NATURAL HAIR JOURNEY
I big chopped on October 8th, 2014. You can check out my big chop video at this link. Once I became fully natural, I knew I had made the right decision. My hair started to flourish. It was growing faster than I ever seen my hair grow before. I even experimented with color and my hair continued to grow better than it ever did relaxed.
Around my third natural hair anniversary decided to straighten my hair. Looking at where my hair started and where it is now I know I made the right decision and I am glad that I decided to go on that protective style challenge when I did. I absolutely love everything about being natural and would not change it for the world.
Leave a Reply