I've been completely natural a billion times in my life. No seriously...a BILLION. My mother only relaxed our hair for special occasions. Think Easter or Christmas. Maybe a birthday here or there. I had no idea how to care for my relaxed hair. I most certainly had no idea how to care for my hair while "stretching" my relaxer. And I definitely had no idea how to care for my natural hair---once all of the relaxed ends inevitably broke off. Ugh...it was a vicious cycle. My hair never grew past my shoulders.
When my hair was natural (unprocessed)---the last time...
I flat ironed it daily. Okay I'm lying. I flat ironed it twice a day.
I never wore it curly.
I lived for my blow dryer.
I watched my hair grow.
Then I cried as it all broke off.
This time---it's different.
This time---I've learned to love my curls.
And this time---I gotta remember not to abuse my hair for just for a style.
Because it's just not worth it.
*hand clap* This is an awesome post, KLP. I just think about the wealth of knowledge we have now about maintaining healthy hair and it just amazes me. But the first step is giving up or cutting back on the bad habits that we depend on so heavily like irons and blowdryers. I never dreamed I could ever long term transition as far as I have and still have hair on my head either. LOL! But I am here at 86ish weeks post.
ReplyDeleteThis post made me think of a post on the Long Hair Care forum. A teenage girl was asking advice about getting her hair back where it used to be. She shared a pic from when she was a child and her hair was so long and curly. It was now damaged from her constantly using heat tools and she expressed how much she hated her curly hair. She was hoping for a quick fix, but the only real advice we could give was for her to change her bad habits and to love her curls. I wished she could see what we all saw. I wonder how she is doing now.
It's really mind blowing what we can accomplish simply by shifting our perspectives! It was crazy hard for me to give up my blower and flat iron, but now, almost 3 years after my first "No Heat Detox" I honestly can not believe that I've made it almost a full year without flat ironing my hair!
DeleteHopefully, the girl stopped fighting her curls and has learned to love them!
Awww, I love this post.
ReplyDeleteI was natural until I was 15 and I tell you, all I did was find out ways to get it as flat as possible. Never flat-ironed, I had a vivid mental pic of my hair smoking and melting.
Now I am loving all the things my hair can do
Omgosh...I remember the time that I burned my hair off with a hot comb.
Delete*shudders*
Oh the things that we do just for a hair style!
When I was 8, I requested for a hair cut, the time spent in the salon was cutting into my playtime plus the fact I couldn't join my big bro to play in the rain. I consciously made that choice & my mom obliged. I was on a low cut from age 8 to 16 when I finished high school then I started relaxing my TWA, I didn't even leave my hair to grow out before I started relaxing plus the fact I don't know how to take good care of hair, my hair remained at neck length until May 2014 when I decided that the relaxer burns weren't worth it. I'm amazed at how much my hair has grown. I don't like flat irons, never been tempted to flat iron my natural hair.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lisasjournal.com/
It's crazy how much hair education can do to change your outlook on your hair! Thanks for stopping by chica!
DeleteI agree with you. I cannot remember the last time I used heat on my hair. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate for anyone to think that heat is the enemy. It's really not. It's the OVER use, misuse and abuse of heat that is murder on our hair. I didn't need to flat iron my hair twice a day. But I did because I didn't want to see one kink or curl on my head. LOL. Funny how times have changed right?!?
DeleteI decided to go natural even though I was convinced that I had "unmanageable" hair. I never said it out loud. I never allowed anyone to say it to me. But, deep inside myself, I had written my hair off as unmanageable. However, I was going to go natural because I had two good reasons: my son and daughter. One year, eight months, and countless hours of research later, I am much more confident that I can take care of my hair. And I now know that my 4C hair was never unmanageable...it was misunderstood! Thank you for your wonderful blog! ---Roz Chavda
ReplyDeleteGood for you!
ReplyDeleteWhat is your hair like now without the clips? Must have grown a lot by now?