My Natural Hair Journey: The Beginning!

I started my natural hair journey about a year and a half ago and I’m honestly so glad I did. I talked about it for a couple of years before actually deciding it was what I wanted. I loved my hair, but needed a change after I used a terrible hair care line that completely ruined it. The product line was Wen Hair Care.  After a couple of months of using this, my hair was damaged and I got a lot of breakage. It was just a horrible line that thinned out my hair. At first I thought it was because of my hair type, but then I read some reviews and saw there were many people of different hair textures who were also going through this. I wish I realized it sooner. So after that I tried to get my hair back to its healthy state and it was taking a while to produce the results that I wanted and it really got me thinking about going natural. This was the start of my journey. I knew it was going to take a really long time before it got to the point that I was happy enough to wear it out and actually style it.

I never planned on doing the “Big Chop” because I just didn’t think it would look good on me, so I decided to just transition slowly. For those of you who don’t know what that means, it is basically just growing out your natural hair until it reaches a long enough length that you are comfortable with and then just cutting off the relaxed ends. I started relaxing my hair when I was 13 years old and prior to that my mom would always do my hair.  So for basically all of my own hair-styling life it has been chemically straightened. Now that I have come full circle I am learning how to take care of my hair and pretty much just learning how to maintain it and keep it healthy. 

* I should note that in the pictures with the top knot I added some Kanekalon hair to thicken my bun.

**These pictures with my sweet babe show my fro in all of its glory, they were taken a couple of  weeks ago on wash day! ( I’m so happy because I feel like people will finally start saying Asher looks like me instead of just his dad LOL.. true motive revealed)

When I first decided to go natural and actually start the process, I was telling all of my family and friends that I was finally going through with it. When I told my cousin Annick that I was doing it and going through the transitional route, she laughed and told me that at one point it would drive me crazy enough and I would just cut it all off… boy, was she right! My cousins have gone natural long before I have, so I was crazy not to listen lol. Months into going through the transition I was so frustrated because I couldn’t style it in the ways that I wanted. I could not wear it down because it just looked crazy since so much of my roots had grown out. I didn’t want to straighten the roots because I didn’t want the heat to damage my hair either.  I couldn’t wear it in the natural hair styles I wanted because of the two different textures. So one day after washing my hair I had ENOUGH! I just remember standing in front of the mirror with scissors and just cutting it all off.  Yes, I looked like a total mad women by the end of it, but I really felt so relieved. I finally felt like I was really starting my journey. By no means am I recommending anyone cut their own hair, I definitely should have gone to a stylist to cut my hair haha. It was a bit uneven as you can imagine and I did not get all of the relaxed ends, but it was truly liberating nonetheless. I started wearing protective hair styles after that point to focus on maintaining this new healthy hair. It was a short afro so I was pretty limited with what I could do with it at that point.

 I still have A LOT to learn but I wanted to share my journey in hopes that one day in the future if my daughters decide to also do what I did, they will have a guide about what works best for their hair. I figure I have about a decade before that so hopefully I figure it out by then lol.

In this journey I will be sharing my favorite products that work best for my 4C high porosity hair, as well as what I am learning about Asher’s hair. I will also be focusing on the methods I incorporate in our everyday routine that are quick and effective. I plan on doing posts about my hair style choices (whether protective or not), and I will also be sharing my wash day routines as well. I am so happy with every length check and the overall progress of my hair! I will also be finishing up a post about what I have done to achieve such growth!

If anyone has any recommendations, tips or tricks, I would really love to hear them. I love trying new things and could use all the help I can get!