If someone would have told me 5 years ago that I would be a born again natural in a few years, I would not have believed them. At that time and even years before, I took so much pride in my relaxed, medium-long hair, that I was blinded by the damage I was doing to it, and not open to the beauty and potential of going back to it’s natural state. (Disclaimer: Just because I am now natural does not mean that I now have anything against any type of chemically treated hair. I just want to share my views, experiences, and journey. Thank You!) Now prior to my transition, I had been getting regular relaxers for about 14 years. So if we do the math I was getting regular relaxers every 2-2.5 months, so that’s about 6 relaxers a year for about 14 years; so that’s about 84 relaxers (possibly less due to me stretching my relaxer on and off from 2013-2018). I know that number may or may not seem like a lot, but when you think about that constant processing and honestly over processing of my hair, that is a lot, and it takes a toll! Not only was I relaxing my hair, but I was getting frequent doobies (wash, set, blowout, and wrap/pincurls) every two weeks separate from my relaxer. You can only imagine how much stress my hair was going through from the regular relaxers to the heat damage I was exposing my hair to from hooded dryers to handheld blowdryers. (We’re not going to do the math on that lol).
Moreover, my decision to go natural was due to a few things such as: thinning/breakage (from over processing), lack in growth, being over the routine processing of my hair, and just wanting to see overall good hair health. In addition, the turning point which added on to making the decision to go natural was an incident I had during my then routine relaxer service where I got badly burned. The burning sensation was so bad, it felt like my scalp was melting. I’m not exactly sure how I survived that day under the dryer and additional styling, but I did. That evening though when I went to bed, I had a dry pillowcase, but by the next morning, I woke up with a saturated pillowcase. I thought to myself did I just drool that bad or is my scalp leaking? I touched my silk scarf and the evidence was there. My scarf was damp in areas, and to make a long story short, my burns (there were multiple) were so bad that my scalp began to ooze out a wet sticky substance. It was scary and messy, but overtime cleared up and further sparked my transition process.
In continuation, I began my transitioning process on June of 2018. Instead of doing an immediate big chop, I intentionally made the decision to transition by growing out as much of my natural hair as possible for a year in order to retain some length for when I would big chop. So as you can imagine, I had two textures (natural and relaxed) that were very fragile over the course of a year. It wasn’t easy and I thought about cutting my hair so many times prior to the year mark, but I reminded myself of my goal which kept me going. During the transitioning process to help reduce hair manipulation, I opted for several protective styles (braids, locks, ponytails, and wigs). Once June of 2019 rolled around I got incredibly excited and proud because I reached my goal and it was time to BIG CHOP! Moreover, I performed my own big chop and don’t regret it. After cutting the relaxer out, I was just in awe of the beauty of my teeny weeny afro (TWA). There was a peace that came with letting it all go. I still can’t believe that I am now natural, but I love it and don’t regret my decision! Stay tuned for more from my natural hair journey and feel free to recommend any tips or advice.
