As I mentioned before, I often get asked questions on my hair. 3 years ago this month, I finally did my "big chop" and started wearing my hair in it's natural state - the first time since I was 12! I always like to take a bit of time to reminisce and look back on my hair journey, so here we go... I was born with a full head of hair, and my Mom had me rockin' rough and tough with my afro puffs, braids, and twists for most of my childhood. However, growing up in a very White city, it was very apparent that my hair wasn't like my friends'. I'll never forget being at a sleepover, and we decided to play the game "Hairdresser". One of the girls pulled out her mom's comb, blowdryer, and other tools, and all the girls proceeded to style each other's hair. When it came to my turn, I reluctantly let them undo the braids my Mom plaited that morning, and allowed them to tangle and tear my hair into some kind of updo, all of the sake of fitting in. Let me tell you...when my Mom picked me up that morning, she took one look at my head, kissed her teeth, and thanked my friends' mother for taking care of me. That car ride home was the longest EVER...Mom painfully drilled it through my head that my hair ISN'T like theirs, couldn't DO the same things as theirs, and frankly would NEVER be like theirs. That is, until I learned about a little thing called "relaxer".
At around 10 years of age, I started asking my Mom to relax, or "perm" my hair. She finally obliged when I was 12, and that started my love affair with Just for Me. I graduated to Affirm, Motions, and Revlon as the years went on, then started dabbling with colour - highlights, full head, whatever and whenever the mood struck me. My hair stayed long, strong, and thick, because I still did a pretty good job of taking care of it...but my hair luck soon ran out.
5 years ago, my hair started getting lifeless, limp, stringy, and just blah. NO amount of deep conditioning would resuscitate it, so I began to do some online research. I read a lot about women who were or had been in the same hair struggle...and the common theme was that they all went (or were in the process of going) "Natural". I almost couldn't fathom the idea of growing out ALL of my relaxed hair and wearing my hair naturally...but I toyed with the thought, and one day, instead of scheduling my next relaxer, I booked an appointment with a braider. I thought, 'Let me ride this out for as long as I can!' and from there, I began my natural hair journey...
Baby Bee and my head of hair
Rockin' the afro puffs at 2 years old
In my relaxed hair heyday...loved the creamy crack and loved colour even more!
Starting to get thinner and thinner...had to cut off a lot of damage and tried bangs for some versatility...didn't help much.
Went to cornrows....didn't necessarily want to perm again, but didn't know exactly what to do next...
Said "eff it!" and started the transition with kinky twists...
In my next post, I'll detail a bit about my transition to natural hair. I couldn't muster the REAL big chop, so I'll explain how I did it my way...