So I figured I'd do a post about my hair, and background. I am currently natural, no relaxer. I have been natural this time around since about Jan/Feb. I've always loved natural hair. I LOVE big hair. In my world the bigger the hair the better :)
When I was younger my hair was a big too much for my mom to handle it was sooo thick and curly, even getting a relaxer at a young age didnt help it just tamed it down a little bit.
Once I got to about 5/6th grade I went for a trim and had the lady cut my hair to my ears :) My mom almost killed me! From that point on my hair only got to about my shoulders at its longest it would start to break off at my shoulders so I'd cut it again. Through my teen years I'd color it from blonde to black and just about each shade in between (on accident) I remember once trying to color it blonde and it came out a big bird yellowish and partly orange! HOTMESS! Its a good thing I was homeschooled because I would of been the target of laughs in school.
In my teens I started wearing wash n gos only still with relaxed hair. girls around me with long flowing pretty hair and thought, “They don’t do all this mess to their hair and it grows! So maybe I need to chill out with all of that (constant flat irons, blow dryers, coloring, manipulation)”. My friends at the time didn’t flat iron or blow dry often, if at all. One of them said she never even used a brush or comb in her hair. She just finger combed it when it had conditioner in it. That made a big impact on my techniques.
It’s ironic but the good traits I learned for my hair, didn’t even come from women with my type of hair. Those techniques were the start though.
I just trimmed my hair little by little till all the relaxed stuff was gone. Since I always wore it short it didnt take long. I didnt really wear wash n gos at that point though, I was constantly straightening my hair. The flat iron became my best friend. Id flat iron my hair sometimes 2 times a day to keep it bone straight and flying in the wind.
On top of the constant flat irons I was coloring my hair a lot. I wanted it to look like victoria beckhams when she had her hair short and blonde. Thats actually the picture I took to the salon. The first time they were too scared to take me as light as I wanted, the kept looking at my hair then walking away and talking about it as if they were scared of my hair! I was like what in the world....hahaha
It wasnt the color I wanted, so I went to a dif salon for more...
It was so damaged. My hair was soooo damaged! I liked it that color but it was just too much, when it grew out my hair was literally two completely dif colors. I finally colored it back to black..
and added weave :) again super fake!! I took the weave out, added more highlights...
Then I got pregnant and my hair grew and grew and stayed away from color except for in the begining I colored it black and left it alone, I wore wash n gos my whole pregnancy up until my 39th week. I straightened it for giving birth
I flat ironed it one more time for our wedding the next month..
I usually wore it in a wash n go though...
I loved my hair at this point in my life. This was about april 2010. In june 2010 trying to blow dry and flat iron for an event going on, it was taking FOREVER because my hair was so thick...I caved in and got a relaxer that night. I instantly regretted it. My hair felt so different. Even before with all the color it didnt feel like this, I knew I had made a mistake. It didnt really break off it just felt completely different. Heres my hair relaxed..
Even relaxed I tried to stay away from heat, I usually just wore braid outs..I really missed having natural hair so in Jan/Feb 2011 I chopped it all off :)
My hair seems to be growing at a decent rate, I lately have been playing around with roller sets and braid outs. I use majority all natural products from online shops. Oyin handmade, and Hairveda are two of my favorites. I take vitamins and drink tons of water, try to exercise regularly. Its been quite the hair journey thats for sure. Im determined now to take better care of my hair than I did in the past. Even when it was natural it wasnt all the way healthy because of heat and color. Now I try to stay away from heat. I've colored some (as youll see in the next two pics) but I'm done with that for now also. Well thats basically it :)
