Hair Diaries

by | Jul 17, 2011 | Haircare | 25 comments

Me, Myself and I Hair Diaries

2 plus years transitioning to natural hair showing texture

My hair journey has been a journey. I really don’t know why I had not included it on my blog. I changed my mind because hair is a part of my beauty and my fashion. I will do one or two posts a month on my transition journey, hair care and some of my hair product favs. I must admit I am doing this for me also because so many times I have to remember that regime or figure out how I use that alternate product.

I have been transitioning for 2 years and a month and I am going strong. My last relaxer was in June 2009. I am so happy that I have been able to take good care of my hair in the process of trying different products to see what works best for me.  I am about 75% natural, which means natural hair coming from the scalp and chemical relaxed ends. I consider it all my head of hair natural and relaxed and it came from my scalp so for me to deal with two textures is a given.  I will not say that dealing with two textures has been easy from the beginning because I have to see what works on my hair.  Nine times out of ten I have had to tweak a hair care regime or detangle differently because all of our textures are different so I realized very early that I couldn’t compare.

May 2010

I got my first relaxer when I was in my early twenties. My mother had already went to be with the Lord so I had no one to get advice from. My mother had always styled my hair every since I was a little munchkin. My late aunt said to me, “you would never have that flowing hair that the white girls have unless you get a relaxer.”  She said what she did because that is what she knew. I realized that statement was totally not true.  Sorry Auntie! But at the time when she said that, it made me feel that my hair was not good enough or capable enough to have multiple styles.  Well I did not succumb to the ‘creamy crack’ as the ladies on the hair boards call it. I continually had my hair pressed or styled in sister curls when I went to the salon.

I might have gone to the mall or to the salon and I saw this one girl and her hair looked so long and pretty. I wanted my hair to look like that so I decided to get a relaxer.  I loved it!  I took good care of it but I decided after some years that I would not get any more relaxers. My stylist was great with hair; but unreliable when it came to time.  Sometimes she would show for my appointments, sometimes not, sometimes very late. I did not relax for five years because I was fed up with salons that did not respect the clients’ time. I went out and bought myself a hair dryer and flat iron.  I was on a mission to do my hair myself. Well, I had to throw out the flat iron because it would not get hot enough and it broke so I went back to pressing my hair after only a week. My hair was still very thick and manageable, but not at the length I would of like it be.  I was wondering, “what am I doing wrong?”

After five years, I went to another stylist recommended to me by a colleague/friend and started relaxing again because being natural at the time seemed like a lot of work.  One thing, I didn’t know what I was doing and I was going from how my mother styled my hair back in the day with grease and straightening my hair every week. Being natural is actually not a hard process at all.

June 2010

My hair is the longest it has ever been. I am not knocking relaxed sisters at all.  If you have a good stylist, take care of your relaxed tresses and your hair is looking fly, more power to you. Now that I look back it was more like I was getting texturizers then full blown out relaxers. The stylist could only have the chemicals on my head no more than five minutes.  I could not keep relaxers on my head for very long at all. I would prep my scalp before I go to the salon to get my relaxer so that I wouldn’t feel the burn so bad. I was getting relaxers and happy. I started doing research that it’s a good thing to stretch relaxers so I went from getting relaxers six times a year to four times a year and then seeing how far I could go.  I saw my stylist last July. She said that if I ever needed her she would be there for me.  I appreciate that and she is so good with giving awesome information.  Thank the Lord for giving me wisdom to search for better ways to achieve healthy hair whether being relaxed or natural. I don’t have all the answers but I have learned a few things that I will share in future posts.

I had to ask myself why I wanted to be free of chemical relaxers? I had to be true to myself.

Embracing my curls and being able to flat iron my hair the healthy way.

I like the fullness in my hair, I like big hair and with a relaxer I had to use products to add body back in.

September 2010 starting to get thickness in hair

Whether you are relaxed, natural or transitioning you want a healthy scalp and hair.

Next post:

Detangling: Finding my own technique.

Healthy Hair Journey!

This post is linked to

Sunday Stalker blog hop