2 Years Post Relaxer | The #WashDayExperience

So...I ran off to Florida for a few weeks and totally didn't tell you guys! My bad! But I'm back and excited to celebrate 2 years post relaxer!

AND this chica is BEYOND siced!

I guess that I should finally tell you why I big chopped:

You see, I've been natural before---many many times---most of them accidentally natural---but natural nonetheless. My mother only relaxed my hair for special occasions (think twice maybe 3 times a year). When I started college---I completely stopped relaxing my hair when my room mate introduced me to the flat iron! My mind was completely blown because I had no clue that you could straighten your hair WITHOUT a relaxer and I was hooked instantly! Fast forward two years, my relaxed ends completely broke off and my shoulder length natural hair was disgustingly heat damaged. But, girls,  I was oblivious. I never ever ever wore my hair curly. I'd crank my flat iron up as high as it could go slather some blue magic on my scalp and take 20 passes on each section of hair to get it bone straight. Every. Single. Day.

Everyone in my dorm knew when I was straightening my hair. It smelled like burnt hair for days...

*hangs head*

Feel free to judge me. Shoot...I'm judging me! I started relaxing again because even my heat damaged hair wasn't straight enough for me once humidity hit it. I figured that a relaxer + flat iron would keep my hair LAID!

*hangs head lower*

But my perspective on my curls today is totally different.

I'm dangerously in love with these thangs!

Like, I really really really love them. Like, I don't feel like myself without them. My curls are my boos, baes, and cuddle buddies. Y'all just don't understand. I'm utterly flabbergasted at how long it took me to get to this point!

The best part of it all---basically NOTHING has changed in my #washdayexperience, my regimen, or my styling routine. All of my relaxed/texlax fave products still do the trick (honestly---some work better now!) and I can still rock my fave protective styles.

Will I ever relax/texlax my hair again? Probably not.

Do I have anything against relaxed hair? Absolutely not.

Relaxed hair is/was just a hairstyle to me. When I relaxed my hair---my goal was only to be able to straighten my hair easier. But as I learned other ways to stretch my hair without heat and as I stretched my relaxers 4-6 months, I really questioned---what was the point of relaxing my hair to begin with.

My answer came last year on the eve of my big chop:

I was just USED to doing it. There was no purpose anymore. I didn't even like the tedious process. I was simply accustomed to going through the motions.

So there you have it. My boring, uninteresting truth. Ladies chop off their relaxed hair for dozens of intensely powerful sentimental reasons. Reasons that include the love of their children, support for friends, respect of family, bold political statements, or beautiful spiritual revelations.

I'm just not one of them. I kinda wish that there was more to the story. Maybe I should make up something...

*kanye shrug* That's too much work!

I hope that you guys still love me!

Happy #WashDayExperience Wednesday!

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