I Did It! (My Hair That is)

          Yes, I did do it, my hair that is and all by myself I might add :).  I've been natural for 4 years now.  The last time I got a perm was the August of my freshman year in college.  I haven't documented my "journey" like many other women have because it wasn't really a conscious decision that I made, it kind of just happened. 

          I never got a perm after that August because I didn't have a the money or patience to find good hair dresser that I trusted to keep up with it.  Slowly my hair began to break off and I wasn't sure if it was due to the stress of college or the perm finally taking its toll on my hair after having it religiously for 11 years.  Sophomore year I had joined the swim team and by then my hair was an unruly mess.  I decided to get single braids and from then on that's what I stuck with.

 

         About a year later I grew tired of the braided look and the countless hours I would spend taking them out and waiting in the hair salon to put them back in (one time it took 18 hours total) that I went back to my child hood hair dresser and got my hair colored and straightened (with heat) for the first time since I had the braids in.  It was the middle of my Junior year and I LOVED it.  I eventually found a hair dresser in Worcester who was able to get my hair straighter than it had even been even with a perm and I was amazed at the fact that I could achieve the same results as a perm without having all the damaging effects from the chemicals.

          I decided to rock the straight look in the winter and then put my braids in for the summer.  For my 22n'd birthday this past May, I decided to switch it up again.  I sat down in my dresser's chair and told her to give me a natural style.  I had tried a twist out before wasn't too fond of it because I had major shrinkage, but my dresser did a flat twist out and I adored it.  It lasted for about a week and then I was back to the heat with straight hair. 




          Its been a few months since then and I'm still tired of the braids (though very convenient) and not fond of the extra work and fear of water and sweat that comes with having a press and curl.  I've been researching websites like Naturally Curly, reading up on blogs like Curly Nikki, and watching countless YouTube videos (my favorites come from Naptural85) for a while on techniques, products and everything else in between and finally was ready.  So I got my wide tooth comb and bottle of Tea Tree Wen, sectioned out my hair and went to work. 

          This was the end result of a Wash-n-Go braid out style I did.

          Soooooo proud of myself :)!  Finally I can cross "Doing my own Hair" off of my DIM list!  Next up: learning to flat iron it well by myself.