Back in 1996 - 1997, I decided I wanted to go natural. That idea lasted for about 2-months! My hair was breaking and I had no clue what to do with it so I went back to relaxing my hair.
In 2006, I noticed that my hair was getting thinner. To combat that, I started to have it texturized instead of putting a full on relaxer. I did this once every 3-months at first then I went to once every 4-months. That helped but it wasn't a huge difference growth-wise.
In early 2011, I decided to start taking better care of my hair. I joined sites like www.hairlista.com and www.k-i-s-s.biz and did a lot of reading online. I became a "hair product junkie" for like 8-months but you could really see the difference in what it was doing to my hair. My hair was always in a bun BUT, it really truly helped my hair grow!
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| Beginning of my first hair journey...February, 2011 |
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| 8/10/2011 |
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| 10/15/2011 |
It did really well while I was pregnant. It grew and was full. Then I had JOE and post partum shedding came on strongly and I was not spared!
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| Pregnant. 6/23/2012 |
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| @ 37 weeks pregnant. 10/20/2012 |
I lost a lot of the fullness and lack of combing my hair for a few days here and there = major loss of strands!
I had to start all over again but I kept neglecting it since I just didn't have much time to focus on my hair.
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| Then this happened...almost on a daily basis |
Fast forward to last Saturday. I was 20-weeks post my last texturizer. It was time to make a decision. To texlax again or go natural? All 3 of my sisters including my mom are natural. I really never wanted to go natural. However, I noticed that my mom has had a lot of shedding in the last few years primarily due to using too many chemicals in her hair and not taking better care of it.
Its coming back nicely but she wishes she had taken better care of her hair.
I decided since I haven't seen my own natural hair since 1995 (I was not allowed to use ANY chemical treatment on my hair until I graduated high school), I might as well take the plunge.
So on Saturday 2/22/14 (20-weeks since my last texlax), I saw my stylist and she cut a few inches off my hair. My one request was that I MUST be able to put it in a ponytail. I should have stipulated that I needed to be able to put it in a bun.
I felt really happy after I left cause my hair looked great. Then I wrapped it up and woke up on Sunday to get ready for church.
And that was when I was in shock. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO MY HAIR??? It is WICKED SHORT!!! I was NOT happy. J has been subjected to my constant complaining about how short it is. I haven't had it this short in at least 8-years.
Granted, it isn't ultra short but I really was missing my hair now. Also, what was I thinking? I am the kind of person that doesn't know how to blow dry let alone flat iron my hair! Did I make the right decision? Was I too hasty in getting it chopped off?
Only time will tell. For now, I am back to having my hair in a bun full time and I am hoping that when I get pregnant again, the pregnancy hormones will help grow it out a little. I know I'll lose some due to post partum shedding. I plan on taking better care of it this time though.
I refuse to get a big chop and since I have a round face, a teeny weeny afro (TWA) won't look great on me.
This'll be a long process but I am sorta looking forward to experimenting with different styles. Something I have never really done before with my hair.
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| Work hair. Half a bun. Its too short to even go in a full bun! YIKES!!! |
Then there is my lovely daughter's hair. I also have to try to figure out what to do with hers. I tried to french braid it yesterday and this was as good as I could get it without her fussing.
So I took it out and here is how long it is!
Putting her in front of the iPAD and a computer works sometimes but not all the time. I have to figure out something cause her hair is growing longer and getting more tangled so I need to find styles that she can wear for 2-3 days at a time.
I'd love to hear about your hair transition experience if you have one OR your tips for taking care of little girls hair!
Have a fabulous week!
Email me if you want any tips! :) My last relaxer was Jan. 2012 and I stopped because my hair started falling out on my sides and in the middle. So I thought, okay I'll just have a stylist wash and straighten my hair. That lasted almost 3-4 months until I realized even my new growth was experiencing severe heat damage. At that point I had no choice but to go natural and cut almost all of it off. Like you, I did not care for having super short hair, round face or not (though your face would still look beautiful in a short do!), so I kept my hair braided for about 7 months. Now it's long enough that I feel comfortable wearing it out. I think it took a good 2 months of trying different things in my hair before my curls started feeling softer and more pliable. My hubby also got a good deal of my moans and groans, but we are all in a better place now-HAHA! Just keep trying and do what works for you!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'll definitely be reaching out via email. I need some tips on easy hairstyles that'll work. I am already 5-months into this process so really, I just need to get through another 19-months. I figured 24-months is a good estimate. What do you think?
DeleteI don't really like heat in my hair so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Sending you an email shortly. Thank you!
Totally depends on you. Ever since I started wearing my hair out I noticed I stopped keeping track of the time/weeks/months, which helps with the patience factor for me. It may take you 24, 15 or 9 months to feel like you like what you're working with- lol. But ya, definitely more than 2 months so I'm glad you're sticking with it because you'll definitely reap the benefits of your effort.
DeleteAnd I echo Pegster- your stylist was just doing her own thing. When I used to go to a stylist I noticed that they would cover up mistakes or "problem" areas with beautiful lush curls so I couldn't tell what happened until the next day or so :/ Not cool man!
Thank you! I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos and trying to see what works/doesn't work. Also learnt to do flat twists yesterday. I rocked it to work today :-). I guess I have to invest in some fancy earrings so I can make things a little more professional looking. :-).
DeleteThat's exactly what I did too. Lol! Totally became a product junkie for a little while. I think I'm now over it. There was one week were I was just trying out products then washing it out because it just didn't work for me. Yay flat twists! My hubby likes the look that flat twists give my hair the most. And sometimes it's the faster/easier method get-it-done-fast! Lol. For my hair, I pick a night to wash it and then I do regular twists everywhere. The next night I'm able to quickly flat twist my hair in prep for the following day. (I cannot do flat twists on freshly washed hair- it's much too curly and ends up looking like a poofy mess). I can keep up that method for as long as my hair stays clean, and when I'm too tired/busy to flat twist at night, I put it all up in a bun (knee-high method- thank you YouTube, lol). That usually gives me about 5-6 days before I need to wash my hair again because it's dry. That's my can-do routine. Now, I don't have kids, so I'm not sure how convienent this sort of schedule would be for you, but it's good to create one. It'll minimize frustration and thoughts like, this is taking too much time and energy...#hopefully ;-)
DeleteOMG, she cut off all your hair :(. I guess it can be a good place to start but dang it you've lost over 6 to 8 inches, that's like 2 years to grow for us African girls.
ReplyDeleteYour hair looks so soft so maybe going natural is not going to be so difficult. I am excited to follow along this new journey. I am a huge fan of hair journey's I always love to see what other people are doing with their hair.
I know :(. I was really sad about it too when I noticed it on Sunday. But at this point, I am committed to seeing it through. At least for the next 19-months. I figured depending on how it looks after 15-months, that'll determine if I chop off what's left of my relaxed ends or if I go back to texlaxing. I know people say it is hair and it'll grow back but you're right about how long it takes for our hair to grow!
DeleteMy hair is really fine as in "thin" so this might be a good decision afterall. Only time will tell.
Is baby boy here yet?
I've been natural since I believe 2010. I had locs and then cut them of in 2013 to start over again. I wash, twist and then couple of days later untwist.
ReplyDeleteBefore washing AOI's hair I brush it to take out the dust and fluff, then let the water dry out without towel drying it, if I can't do that because bedtime gets closer to bath time them pat dry. I use a little of baby oil or just for me moisturizer and brush then braid or let her curls loose - if I do the latter then few days later I brush and braid it.
Thank you! I practiced and was actually able to do flat twists on my hair yesterday. I have them in this morning. Glad it turned out OK cause I was nervous.
DeleteHow do you get AOI to stay still long enough for you to braid her hair?
I transitioned to natural hair in 2002 (seems like just yesterday LOL!) My hair was fairly healthy and easy to care for until I got pregnant. The hormones made it so thick that I could barely get a comb through it, and the postpartum shedding resulted in major hair loss and breakage (those shedding strands got wrapped around normal strands, and much tangling ensued). I'm just now starting to get my hair back into great shape, and my daughter will be two in April.
ReplyDeleteTo help my hair bounce back, I've been using Haitian castor oil, Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie, and tons of protective styles. The less I do to it, the better it is.
As for my daughter, I use the Curls line. I use the Coconut Curlada Conditioner to cowash her hair, and every now and then I use Curls cleanser along with the conditioner. I work the conditioner through her hair until my fingers can glide from root to tip without hitting snags and tangles. To style her hair, I separate it into pigtails and braid it, smoothing her hair with Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie and (sometimes) a little coconut oil. I'll be posting more pics and info about her hair routine on my other blog (http://cocoamommyhoneybaby.blogspot.com).
Wow! Thanks for the information. Looking back, do you think you'll do anything different if/when you are pregnant again? Is there any particular routine that really helped you while pregnant that you will try to do again?
DeleteHow do you get your daughter to sit still long enough for you to do her hair? Mine refuses and will move and fight as much as she can unless she is COMPLETELY distracted with something else.
Looking forward to seeing more pics when you post them.
When we conceive again, I'll either have my hair already loc'ed, or I'll start loc'ing while I'm pregnant. I just won't deal with trying to comb my hair, since I know that it gets super-thick from the hormones. I actually look forward to the fact that locs will help me retain some of the pregnancy growth :) I found cowashing while pregnant helped, since it saved me time and made detangling my hair easier. Keeping my hair in large braided sections while cowashing helped, too.
DeleteAs I think about it, I broke my hair styling down into two sessions. I'd detangle and cowash at night (usually Friday nights), then style on Saturday. That kept me from wearing myself out and getting too frustrated from super-long detangling sessions. That's something I'd do again, even with locs. Anything to conserve energy LOL!
As far as getting my baby to stay still, I have cheats :) I cowash and detangle in the bath, and I bring a very large cup full of warm water so that I can rinse her hair while she's in the tub. She's usually having so much fun playing with bath toys and singing that it's easy to work on her hair. If I tried to do it in a separate session, it'd be MUCH harder, since she's very active and doesn't sit for long. As far as styling her hair, I have three words for you: Yo Gabba Gabba. LOL! It's the only show that my daughter will sit through, without feeling like she has to jump up. We have DVDs, Amazon Prime (the first season is free!) and the show's available On Demand (with Verizon Fios) so we always have lots of episodes ready. I could probably do a really elaborate style on her hair so long as I have Yo Gabba Gabba on the TV. I try to choose episodes where she isn't encouraged to move too much- so the "Dance" episode is avoided LOL!
Definitely very good/useful information. Thanks so much for sharing!
DeleteSeriously the pregnancy hormone was amazing for me too...I loved my nature hair when I was pregnant...I just really don't know what to do with my hair...it's been thru it all relaxers braids weaves. Now it's in braids because I was taking too long with it at night...but that won't last too long. Hope your hair will go back to where you want it to go:-) that's what I do to Baby P too to manage his hair a little bit...in front of iPad or Skype family members. Her curls are just lovely!
ReplyDeleteHow did you manage it while pregnant? Did you wear it a certain way? I am not really big on braids cause my hair is so fine so braiding isn't very healthy for me. I plan on doing braid outs and twist outs but with a toddler, I am sure that'll make it more challenging when I am pregnant.
DeleteI pray my hair grows quickly. I have been reading as much as I can about caring for it so fingers crossed.
Thanks for the info on doing baby P's hair. Appreciate it!