My Natural Hair Journey

 I realized I've never fully shared my journey as it pertains to my hair

I've been natural, most of my life. My mom would do my hair in two ponytails, or ponytails all over with different color hair ties and barrettes. The good ol days, of getting your hair washed in the sink, with a rolled up towel under your neck for support and bracing yourself for the shock of the cold water that eventually turned warm. Whew! Im "tendered headed", so the wash would be fine, my issue was the detangling and the styling. Hell, even parting would bring so much pain lol I would literally cry, actual tears any and almost any time someone touched me hair lol

When it came to Holidays, picture days or, special occasions, my mom would pull out the "hot comb" , the blue magic grease and oil sheen. Lol countless mornings that resulted in ear burns with butter, that only made the burn worse lol I could smell the heat of the hot comb now. A memory in most black girls lives, that will go unforgotten.

It wasn't until I was in 5th grade when I asked my mom if I could get a perm. She had a perm and most of the women and black girls around me had perms. I felt like I was a baby being the only one getting me hair done, by my mom while everyone else had perms. My best friend in 5th grade, Kameshia had a perm and her hair was so thick, long and glorious, I wanted my hair to be just like hers! After begging and pleading my mom finally gave in and I got a perm. ( I was actually in 6th grade at this point.).

The perm was "okay" in the beginning, but as the months and years went by I started noticing the damage. My hair started getting thinner and started to break off drastically! I think I was in 9th grade when my cousin came to visit, and she had recently cut off all her hair (which we now call a big chop). Her and my auntie shared with me how the perm has messed up her hair, and my hair was showing signs of the same damage, and that I needed to just cut it off. Shortly after, my aunite  "big chopped" my hair. I had the smallest little boy afro an I cried!! I said "mom, I look like a little boy". Thankfully, my auntie is amazing at doing hair and I received my first set of micro braids..

For a year I wore variations of micro braids and traditional box braids until I felt comfortable wearing my hair. I will never forget the first day of my 11th grade year, My hair was straightened and pressed so perfectly. I was excited. Chile when one of my friends touched my hair and said "wow, your hair is so curly" I about died.... "Curly???? What do you mean my hair is so curly???" ... I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and my hair had completely reverted back to it's natural state... There was nothing I could do, but accept it. (There was and is no point in fighting the humidity in Florida.) After that, I primarily wore my hair in my signature two puff ponytails "minnie mouse" if you will lol. and occasional braids whenever my aunt or my sister was able to braid my hair. Most of the girls around me had perms, or had different hair textures, braids and sew-ins,

When I entered 12th grade, I'll never forget someone telling me I needed a perm. (the irony because years later this very person messaged me on facebook asking for tips on how to grow out her hair), That kinda bothered me, because I started thinking, should I get a perm? I am a senior now, and Im a little too old for the ponytails. I gave into peer pressure and asked my mom yet again for a perm. She reminded me " you know what happened last time"... I didn't care because I thought I was older and now my hair could handle it. So I got a perm right in time for homecoming. I had a standing appointment with my hair stylist and everything... After prom, I stopped getting my hair permed and let it grow out. (we now know that to be transitioning.). 

I think I transitioned for about maybe 6 months and thought it was so stupid! The two different textures in my hair was difficult to deal with, so one day I just went in the mirror and cut all the permed ends off. At this point I was a freshman in college, and my co-worker/classmate was going through the same thing so it was nice to have someone to relate to, Most of the people in my family were still permed, and couldn't understand why I would go back natural.........(plot twists baby, they're all natural now!)

The next few years I experimented with sew-ins, braids, and kinky twists. Once I got kinky twists I felt like that's how I was and have always been, "a dread headed hippie."

Around this time youtube and natural hair care had became extremely popular and such a helpful tool when it came to figuring out how to take care of your natural hair along with various ways to style it. I think I almost tried every hair style except for curlformers.  I never thought they would work for my hair so I didn't want to waste my time lol. The crazy thing about it, is I would watch a tutorial of a girl with a completely different texture than mine and expect my hair to turn out the same lol.

After experimenting with different hairstyles, I found my signature look.. But then the crochet braids and faux locs surfaced and I was in heaven lol I could protect my hair with crochet braids or faux locs all while looking exactly like my hair. I dabbled in wigs for maybe a year or two, but soon got tired of spending hundreds of dollars for human hair wigs, and making sure my lace was unclockable... girl the concept of a wig is great, but its far too much maintain for me,

 

When 2020 came and the pandemic started, I just felt like what time is better than now? Why not live out your dreams, and do the things you want to do for yourself regardless of what people think. So I loc'd my hair June 24th 2020.

I knew I wanted sister loc's since my freshman year of college. My class mate had sisterlocs and they were glorious! I knew if I got loc's I wanted them to be like that. I've always maintained my own hair (besides the sew ins and box braids) so I didn't want to go to a sisterloctition so I did them myself.

I washed my hair, let it air dry and a few days later just started to do two strand twists. It took 5 days for me to install my twists. A Month later I interloc'd the root, leaving the twists to remain twisted. I had a lot of slippage, but I did not retwist the twists that came loose. I dealt with a lot of frizziness, and still do. 

A Year later and I still deal with frizziness, I have budding, I have some loc's that have fully loc'd, a lot  of them have not yet. I wash my hair on a need basis. I spritz my hair with rose water or aloe vera juice and I oil my scalp with my mixture of oils. I put my special shea butter mix on my loose curly ends and that's about it. I haven't added loc jewelry and I don't plan on adding color any time soon.

I'm very excited to be on this loc journey and I look forward for what's to come.

I'm also documenting my hair journey via my youtube channel ( youtube.com/Naturallydes )

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