My hair was neck length to shoulder length and back again for as long as I could remember. My husband kept telling me that the reason for this was that I kept cutting my hair so often. To that I would say, “I have to cut it. Look at all these split ends!”.
My hair was relaxed and had been since I was 11 years old. I never even considered that there was any other way. Once I saw new growth, I went out for another relaxer. Of, course I was doing it all on my own; Haircolor, trims and applying the relaxer myself. My hair was in a state but I always knew how to mask the damage so that it looked presentable.
I never thought about the exact cause for my lack of hair growth. I honestly thought that having long hair was not possible because of my ethnicity (ridiculous, I know, but it was how I thought then). I didn’t start to question it until I watched my husbands hair grow to nearly Mid Back Length in as little as a year and a half. I asked myself what does he do? The answer? Nothing! He washed and conditioned each day (his hair is straight and will get greasy if he doesn’t) then applies a leave-in. Then he would put on a hat or put it in a ponytail. That’s it! Then I thought, “What do I do to my hair?”. Let’s see there were relaxers, haircolor, blowdrying and using heat daily. No wonder why my hair was so damaged!Then, out of nowhere, my flatiron broke. I am still not sure what was wrong with it but it just quit working. My first thought was to replace it, but then I thought that it was some kind of sign (I’m funny like that). I decided to hold off and began searching for an alternative. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of my natural hair journey.
Next time…Stay relaxed or go natural?