I have had my hair texturized or straightend for over 20 years and dont know what my real hair looks like. Thouhgt it was about time i found out . I have now 17 months of new groth but havent cut the texturized ends of yet. Will do that in january i think.

I couldn’t be arsed straightening, seriously soooooo boring and it takes to long. Plus it’s far too predictable. Also yawn.

Julia - 20 June 2011 07:19 PM

I couldn’t be arsed straightening, seriously soooooo boring and it takes to long. Plus it’s far too predictable. Also yawn.

<3 So much love for this.

I got sick of sizzling my hair so just left it alone and then realised it looked pretty awesome. When people start saying how much them love your hair when you have literally rolled out of bed it can only be a good thing so have went with it ever since!!!!

I had moved to a new area for a work placement and just couldn’t be bothered to locate another hair salon, to pay for a relaxer that I dreaded and to be disappointed with the results . My hair was also in bad shape to say the least and I came to the decision to stop relaxing and try to tackle the forbidden and mysterious natural hair from the depths of my scalp . I’ve had my hair relaxed from the age of 4 and had my last relaxer when I was 20 so I was curious about what my hair looked like natural. After transitioning for 11 months I felt immediate emancipation after my spontaneous big chop! My hair has much more health and life now; I’m very glad that I went natural .

I look at old photos of me with straight hair and it just doesn’t look like me (if you know what I mean!) I had it relaxed in 2005 and thought it looked great at the time, but after a while I yearned for my lovely curls back. The growing out process was horrible, my hair was in terrible condition,  and through the tears I vowed never to do it again. If anything good came out of that period of time, it was that I finally learned to love my natural hair and not to take it for granted.

I got tired of having funny looking hair that did nothing but puff out and look silly.  I was tired of going through litres of conditioner and still having dry/greasy hair.  I was tired of having my hair fall out when I straightened it (and not feeling like myself while straightened - though it was a cool feeling at first, like wearing a mask).  The first time I did a co-wash and plop it was like a revelation: I had cool hair that did something amazing and wonderful when it was treated correctly.

I had children .

When I was a lot younger it was always curly, when I met my now husband it was curly, I only started straightening it in my 20s but it was a constant battle and involved some terrible haircuts.  Then, when I was on maternity leave with my oldest child I stopped straightening, partly because I couldn’t be bothered but also because I felt I didn’t need to (shallow, I know).  Anyway, I gradually fell back in love with my curls again after nearly a decade of denying them! 

I genuinely don’t mind my hair now, and love the fact that my hair is nothing like anyone else’s.  And most of the people I’ve met since becoming a mother think I’m a bit of a crunchy hippy anyway and the lack of GHDed hair just adds to it

...curly is who I am and I am not going to deny something which is a piece of my self-expression as a human.

Whoever don’t like it, highway.

My transition was more gradual.  I knew I wanted to go natural for years and I had terrible ‘curl envy’ when I was back home in the States, but didn’t have the patience/courage to stop straightening my hair completely.  After major hair mishap, I was forced to do protective styling by my very caring and sensible hair dresser.  One step led to another and after another chemical process gone wrong (see my curl diary)... I decided I would never chemically straighten/loosen/texturize my curls again… The curls looked lovely when I had them freshly done and once I finally thought it was long enough for a proper curly cut, there has been no turning back!

Julia - 20 June 2011 07:19 PM

I couldn’t be arsed straightening, seriously soooooo boring and it takes to long. Plus it’s far too predictable. Also yawn.

I know what you mean, especially with all the prep you have to do for it as well…yawn.
I went natural because after texturising my hair for 3 years, and not managing to gain any growth - I went the other way and chopped it short before relaxing it for a year. But I saw growing out the relaxer as a challenge - and now want to see if I can gain any growth without my mum’s hands in it (The eye-watering childhood of having a comb yanked through it is all too familiar…)
That, and I have a special someone who I intend on marrying in the next few years, and having natural, healthy curls for it is now my aim.

I embarked on a hair journey to start to look after my relaxed hair - and it began to grow (or not break!) to bra strap length.  I learnt more about hair and the damage that a relaxer causes…

I decided to stop relaxing my hair and instead continued to ‘press’ the new growth straight using straighteners/flat irons….and was as smooth as the relaxed ends.

After a while, transitioning with the new growth and the relaxed hair became too hard to manage, and I loved the feel of my ‘real’ natural hair so ended up chopping it off.  Nobody could believe it as I had always had straight longish hair and now had a curly round afro!!

I must admit, sometimes I miss having longer hair and can’t wait for it to grow, but love being natural. 
Much easier to look after, so much to learn and its me!

x

I went back to natural because I was sick of having a sore scalp and weak, broken hair.  Within a week of my relaxer, I would get sores that were so painful that I couldn’t sleep on whichever side of my head I had a sore on.

I first had my hair relaxed at the age of ten because my mum and I got tired of the thick hard to manage hair fight.  From there I spent 28 years in a vicious circle.  My hair was relaxed, natural,  wave nouveau then back to the battle between natural and relaxed more times than I care to remember. No matter how I had my hair, it broke as I had no idea how to look after it properly anyway but it was most embarrassing when my hair was relaxed as I constantly had strands caught in my clothes on my shoulders and nape.  In amongst all of this, I had canerow and plaits extensions as well as weave.

During my longest natural phase which lasted 8 years, lack of moisture left it dry and breaking so I kept it in extensions, two strand twists or my own hair canerowed.  My last relaxer was May 2010 and I only did that because my extensions needed re-doing but there was no time to do so and I had a party to go to, hence the relaxer.  My scalp did its usual breakout and my hair started breaking so I had my hair cut short and decided I’d had enough. It still took me 18 months to fully embrace them though as I went back to plaits/canerow extensions.  I have now been getting to know my curls for two months and although I still have moments of frustration, every day I learn and am glad I went back to natural.

I went through a phase about 6 or 7 years ago of being fed up with my natural hair and thinking that the ‘grass would be greener on the other side’ and that straight hair would be so much easier to deal with, I had it straightened - chemically - permanently - what a mistake!  Even in the salon, I wondered if I was doing the right thing, but once the various solutions were applied, I knew there was no going back. For a while I loved the different look, but after a while, it gradually dawned on me that my curls weren’t going to spring back, they would have to grow back. The growing out process was horrendous. Because I didn’t want to BC, I had to wait for the curls to grow through and the damaged straw-like excuse for hair that I now grew to hate, to gradually be chopped off. Every trim I had and the curls began to fight back felt like a small victory and the very last cut I had to chop off the nasty damaged hair, I cried with relief, such was the feeling that I had missed my curls and it was like welcoming an old friend who I hadn’t seen for a long time.

If it’s taught me any lesson, it’s that I now love my curls and I’ll never ever do anything to compromise them again.

I’ve been chemical free since summer of 2006 and I’ve been natural since November ‘11. Prior to 2004, I did the BC in June/July 2004 and wore my hair with synthetic braids constantly until I had a relaxer just before I went back for my last year of university (2006). That was my last relaxer (yay). I can’t really remember when my first relaxer was but I must’ve been quite young because I can’t really remember ever seeing my natural texture until now.

I did the BC because I’d started transistioning without even realising it! I’ve had depression most of my life and during 2004 it was particularly bad. I wasn’t looking after myself and my hair was suffering majorly. Because of the relaxers, it hadn’t been particularly healthy anyway so you can imagine how it must’ve looked…. I went on holiday and it was like a wake-up call. It sounds weird but it’s as I had been blind and suddenly I could see! My hair was beyond repair and needed to go! Chopped it off the following day. Then a couple of days later, had braids put in lol.

Last November I finally decided to get rid of the braids because I was fed up of giving hairdressers all my hard-earned cash, and cringing every time they blow-dried my hair (you could see my poor strands flying off in every direction imaginable). Also, I was curious to see if I could take care of my hair myself and I wanted to see my curls! I decided this the night before my scheduled appointment at the hairdressers lol, I had no clue what I was letting myself in for

I’m SO glad I decided to do it. I saw a photo of myself yesterday at a friend’s wedding in Nov ‘10, wearing *those* braids, and I thought to myself “I’m so glad I don’t have that hair anymore”.

I can finally see my curls and coils now!!!