As a child my mother kept by hair very short, until an aunt suggested she start growing it. So began the routine of getting it braided by my tete (auntie) week after week. She would use twine to braid the buns and I was always excited to see how long my hair was each time we took them down. And it did grow. However, as I got older I fell for the lure of relaxers. By the time I was 13 I was relaxing my hair religiously with a Dark and Lovely kit picked up from the flea market. You see, t was no longer ‘cool’ to be seen out with natural hair-gasp!
When my hair wasn’t relaxed it was braided in the tightest braids you could imagine. Occasionally, when I remembered or felt like it, I would grease my scalp with whatever product I could find. I would say my hair got washed a maximum of 10 times a year back in that era. And slowly my hair began to deteriorate in condition.
I kept up that routine of braiding and relaxing all throughout high school and into university. My hair got thinner and thinner. And my hairline began to recede.
I moved to the
I was shocked seeing the videos on youtube of other women who had badly damaged hair like mine but had managed to turn around the condition of their hair. Page after page, and video after video of long luscious healthy locks. I was gobsmacked. Black women just like me whose hair was beautiful. I made the decision to start taking care of my relaxed hair.
I washed and conditioned and moisturized, and although I was retaining length my hair was still damaged.
That was my lesson number 1.
If your hair is damaged, begin your hair journey by focusing on getting it back to health. Health first, and the length will follow.
In my case, my relaxed hair was badly damaged. It was now past shoulder length with my new routine, and I went for months without relaxing it but could not retouch it because it was still unhealthy. That was lesson number two, never relax badly damaged hair!
So what was I to do? My hair was now getting length BUT it was two very different textures, the ends were thin and relaxed damaged hair. And the roots were luscious kinky, coily, thick and soft.
So I cut them off.
It took me a while, but one day I just grabbed a pair of scissors and chopped off my hair to a length I last had as a child
That was 18 months ago and I haven’t looked back! This blog is for the woman who loves her hair and sees it as her crowning glory. I LOVE HAIR! Natural hair, relaxed hair….weaves, locs,braids,….any type of black hair is good for me. What I care about is HEALTHY hair. I cringe when I think back to how I have treated my hair over the years. I know now better and would love to share my knowledge with you. At this stage, me experience is with natural hair because that’s how I wear it these days but I also know what it takes to have beautiful relaxed hair too.
So let’s share what we know and grow our hair beautiful and healthy together…..
God Bless!
