I started my natural hair journey by accident in early 2014. When I was 12 years old (2007), I stopped relaxing my hair after getting a really bad relaxer that had my hair all kids of messed up. For the next 3 years I went through a really awkward transitioning phase until my hair was finally 100% natural. I learned how straighten my own hair as a freshman in college (2012) when my mom bought me my first flat iron. Once I had started straightening my hair on my own nothing could stop me. I had mastered the flat iron and I loved it.
By the time I was halfway through my sophomore year of college (2014), I decided that I wanted to wear my hair curly more often. By this point my hair was so heat damaged that it literally did not curl. Loose frizzy waves were the most my hair could manage, even after endless crunching.
Eventually what I had started doing was french braiding my hair while wet and letting dry to achieve a more defined curl and I would rotate back and forth between this and straightening my hair.
Since I didn’t really know of any curl styling products besides gel at the time, I had been relying on my conditioner as a styling product to hold my “curls” and fight frizz. I had attempted using gel in high school but I could never find one with enough hold or one that gave my “curls” any definition so I abandoned the idea of using gel altogether. By now, it was early 2015 and at some point someone recommended that I look into Shea Moisture products because they were really good for styling curly hair, so I did.
I started off simple with their Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie and boy did I love the results. It was the best curl styling product I had ever tried. It held my “curls” like Gel was supposed to and gave them definition I had never seen on my hair before. Now that I had found my new miracle product I wore my hair curly all the time. I should probably note that what I considered curls were actually more like deep waves (which is why I’ve been putting the word in quotations) but as time went on they kept getting closer and closer to the curly side of the spectrum.
Throughout the Spring 2015 semester I only straightened my hair a handful of times and as a result my hair became so much healthier and thicker. As a child, I was always told that I had so much hair that I had enough to supply four people with a whole head’s worth of hair. Once I had begun relaxing my hair I lost a lot of the fullness I once had and I never really regained it. It was only until I had stopped applying so much heat to my hair that I finally began to see a difference in my hair’s fullness.
Towards the end of the semester into the beginning of the summer I began to experiment with different products ranging from styling jellies to styling lotions and milks. I started combining different products to see which ones worked best to achieve my desired look. Finally, towards the end of the summer, I found a product formula that worked best and it was one of the best days of my life! My hair finally developed its own curl pattern, and I was the happiest girl on the planet.
Today, my curls are healthy and bouncy and actually curly but I still feel like I have a ways to go until I can say I am 100% satisfied with my hair. Looking back my journey thus far I can say that this has been one of the most rewarding experiences. Not only do I feel accomplished when I look at how far my hair has come but I also feel more like myself.
My natural hair journey has served as so much more than just an aesthetic transformation. It has been a road to self discovery. I’ve learned so much about myself and the woman I aspire to be and I’ve gained a sense of accomplishment. For so many years, hair stylists had me under the impression that my hair was an un-tamable entity and now that I have learned not only how to “tame” it with a flat iron, but also how to properly care for it in its natural form, I feel like there is very little I can’t do if I put my mind to it. Through my natural hair journey I’ve been able to inspire and assist so many young women my age to start their own and being able to have that kind of effect on people is such a rewarding feeling. Going natural is something that I would recommend to every woman. It is not a quick or easy process, but it has such a beautiful outcome.
Forever Thugnacious 