I have been relaxing my hair since I can remember. It made my hair far more manageable for my mother. It wasn't all the time but it was often. We even tried hot Combs back in the day. As I got older I continued the tradition and every so often would relax my hair which stopped around age 10.
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| Baby Picture |
A disaster happened to my hair. A friend of a family members came over to do something to help manage my hair. She did not part or section my hair. She didn't wet it or wash it. She didn't detangle it either. She took out a pair of thinning shears and decided to just go to town on my hair even the center of my hair or the crown area where my curls are tighter and more matted. I ended up with 5 or so massive dread locks. I was in tears.
The next day my mom took me to a hair dresser. The stylist told me either I could sit through the process of trying to comb them out our I could just cut them out. At the time my hair was around 8 inches curly and 12 inches straightened. At the age of 11 I didn't want to sit there in pain while she combed them out so I choose the haircut. She cut my hair down to 3 inches long max to get rid of the dread locks.
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| Before my horrible haircut |
After moving to Florida I started getting more haircuts. My stylist cut my hair into a low curly Mohawk. I started 7th grade and was teased endlessly for looking like a boy.
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| My TWA |
I grew my hair out all through 8th grade and I was flat ironing it any time I wanted to wear it down. This is the longest I ever remember it getting.
During my freshman year I attended a military academy charter school. It was not a disciplinary school to clarify. I had to keep my hair above the collar of my shirt if I wanted to wear it down. So I kept it that length all the time. I also got a short A- symmetrical haircut towards the end of the year.
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| Military school collar length hair |
Sophomore year I continued to relax but wore it up more often. I also experimented with micro braids twice. Because of the relaxed hair they wouldn't stay in my hair once my hair became wet or slick. After a week my micro braids that took 14 hours to get in would be on the ground. I remember leaving a clothing store and having a braid fall to the ground behind me. I was horrified.
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| Sophomore year picture day |
My hair wasn't budging in length. But I was also never getting haircuts. So my hair was always hovering around the top of my shoulders. Jr year I took a break and wasn't doing the relaxers very often. I did wear my hair straight more than often. I was never using heat protectors or properly maintaining my hair at all.
Senior year came along and I started getting more haircuts. My massive amounts of breakage reduced and my hair was professionally relaxed twice. The 2nd time was for my senior prom and graduation.
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| My Prom Day |
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| My Hair Length Senior Year |
- Cosmetology school: Age 18-19
I started hair school 3 weeks after graduating. 8 weeks after my prom relaxer I participated in a class demonstration on July 27th, 2012. They did a relaxer on my hair which turned out great. I decided to go natural officially on August 3rd, 2013. I realized that it had been years since my hair was curly and my hair had been in the same chin to shoulder length bob since freshman year. I definitely needed a change. My first attempt at being natural was to get a sew in which turned out horribly even though you can't tell. That came out within a week. I then tried a twist out which seemed to work well using a french braid. I wear half wigs and do better twist outs lately but I wouldn't have gotten this far without the natural hair community, facebook, YouTube, and my hair school.
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| From Left: The results of my intro class relaxer, my sew in, my hair after the sew in removal. |
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My half wig
~ I wish you all luck in your own natural hair journey! ~ |
~"I think that the most important thing a woman can have- next to talent, of course- is her hairdresser"- Joan Crawford~
