Living the Curly Life!: Shedding the Old and Embracing the New

The above was part of my old siggy on LHCF. Now that I'm natural I would say that I've officially shed the old and embraced the new. My last relaxer was on April 2, 2010 making me exactly 26 months post today. I was planning to chop today, but I couldn't take the two textures anymore so I BC'ed a week early on May 26, 2012. I loaded my hair up with AOHSR, which I don't like, and let my Mom and brother help out with cutting off the relaxed ends.

A little about my hair history: I was natural until I turned sixteen and decided that I wanted a perm because I thought natural hair looked too childish. At that time the only naturals I knew were die-hard vegans, children or women with loosely curled/wavy hair. Anyway, my Mom started relaxing my hair at home with a kiddie perm. Sidebar: My Mom, who I love dearly, knows nothing about healthy hair care. So every 28 days (I kept track on a calendar ~~and I tracked my relaxers better than my periods~~) she relaxed my hair from root to tip (which is obviously a no-no). We left it on for about 20-25 minutes each time.

Now I thought the relaxer would allow me to wash my hair and have it air-dry bone straight. Imagine my shock when it dried straight with a little kink. After talking to some girls at school I discovered flat irons, grease and dominican blowouts. Every three days I would wash my hair (at least my scalp was clean), flat iron with grease and rollerset :O

Thankfully I left for college and got so caught up with school that I wore braids for the first two years of college. In the spring semester of my Sophomore year I was online and I googled "growing long African American hair." This pinged me around for a bit until I stumbled upon Long Hair Care Forum. This website single handedly changed the way that I cared for my hair.

Before LHCF- my hair was thin (in comparison with how thick it once was, although people always commented on my 'beautiful' hair) with three growing bald spots in the front of my head. I was able to hide it with my bang but it became harder to conceal as time went on.

After LHCF- The same day that I found LHCF (and spent hours scouring it) is when I decided to transition to natural. At that point I was about three months post but I knew I wasn't ready to begin transitioning then (especially since I previously thought I couldn't handle my hair past 28 days). So I took my braids out and relaxed for the last time.

Although I lost three months of new growth, I thought it was worth it because then I would be able to see every stage of transitioning. Unfortunately I did not document my journey as well as I wanted to but here are some of the pictures that I took.

April 30, 2010

June 2010

July 2010

October 2010, with my thin harline

November 2010

December 2010, more of my thin hairline

July 2011, before heat damage

The picture on the left is from October and the right is from November 2011. I think the left looks longer because it's a lot closer than the right one.