Since I made the decision to wear my hair natural, I have been asked countless questions about my hair and about my natural hair journey and I figured that now was a good time to share my experience on how I learned to love my curls!
Before I go into my long spiel about kinks and coils, let me start off by telling you about my life before I decided to embrace it. When I was younger, I never liked my hair in its natural state. I believed that my hair was too “nappy” and I always wanted it to be straight. All of my friends had long straight hair and I wanted to have hair just like them. When I was about 10-years-old, I remember asking my mom if I could get a perm. I instantly fell in love with perming my hair because it made me have the straight hair that I’ve always longed for.
Every 2-3 months, I would be in the hair salon getting my hair permed. I didn’t even care that the perms would burn or that they smelled weird, I was just happy my hair was straight. By the time I entered high school, I got too involved with extracurriculars and school work that I couldn’t get my hair permed as much as I used to. I went for without getting a perm and I started to realize that I had more and more “new-growth.” However, I was still straightening my hair frequently so I still had tons of damage.
Fast forward to my freshman year of college and there was no trace of relaxer left in my hair. I started to think about wearing my hair natural, but was too afraid to do so because of all the heat damage my hair suffered from. My hair was extremely short and damaged, but I didn’t know what I could do to help it grow. Finally, during sophomore year, I made the big chop. My big chop wasn’t as drastic as most mainly because I let my hair grow out so only my ends were damaged.
At first, I tried twist outs and bantu knots, but those made my hair even shorter and I felt extremely self-conscious. Then I learned about the wash-and-go method and I finally found something that made me feel pretty. I would go for months with my natural hair and would get so many compliments from friends and people I passed on the street. I would even get asked if I was Spanish or mixed because my hair was so curly!
I absolutely love my hair now. Don’t get me wrong, I still straighten it every once in awhile, but I don’t have a problem walking around with my curly hair for all to see. I still have a long way to go, but for right now, I’m going to continue taking care of my hair and hopefully in a few years I’ll have even more hair to show off!
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