Hey Ladies! I came across this beautiful woman and her gorgeous head FULL of curls on Twitter the other day. Of course I had to ask if she was interested in being featured and she said YES! Her hair story is great, read it below.
Tell me about YOU
I'm a working mother of three, an aspiring writer and a natural hair enthusiast. I decided to stop relaxing my hair at a time when I was sad and confused and desperately wanting to reconnect with the basics of who I am. The journey of transitioning brought me a new level self-awareness and confidence, and I see it as a definitive turning point in my life.
Tell me your hair care regimen (do you use heat, natural products, ect...)
Since I have three kids, I try to keep my regimen as simple as possible! My goal is to reach waist length in 2011, so I've been doing protective styling about 90% of the time since September 2010. Currently, when stretched my hair is about an inch past BSL. Typically, I shampoo my hair once or twice a month (as needed). Everytime I wash, I either pre-poo, deep condition with heat, and/or oil rinse. I've just started using henna and plan to do treatments once a month or atleast every other month as my schedule allows. Lately, I've been bunning most of the time, so after washing/conditioning, etc. I'll braid or twist my hair and let it set over night. In the morning, I'll take it down and put it in a bun. No finger combing and very little manipulation. Alternatively, after washing/conditioning, I'll stretch it by banding or blowdrying and then wear rock a bun for days and days. I'm beginning to loooove buns and I try to make them as big and bodacious as possible!
Tell me your texture and what works best on your hair type
Others have told me that my hair is 3C/4A, but I don't know for sure. I can tell you that some parts are curly, others are wavy and others don't have much definition at all. My strands are rather fine, but I have a lot of hair in terms of volume. My porosity is low (just learned that!) so at times it seems that I can't moisturize my hair enough EVER, but other times it seems that one heavy handed move just completely oversaturates my hair and makes it greasy. I get single strand knots very easily, so I have to keep wash and goes and even my beloved twist outs at a minimum. If I didn't have a hair length goal, I wouldn't mind so much about the knots. For now, protective styles and stretched braid outs work the best to help me retain length.
Tell me the reaction you got when first going natural
My natural hair got a warm reception amongst my friends and family. Most of them felt that I never really "needed" a perm anyway. I did get a few weird comments at work on days when my hair was particularly big. I also had a lady with bad micros and bald spots in her hair at Target tell me that I needed to go comb my hair O_O! The best part though (aside from me being happy with it of course) is that my daughter loves it. That means so much to me because I want her to love her natural hair too and know that it's part of what makes her unique and beautiful.
Did you BC or transition, if so when or for how long?
I transitioned for three years. I think at the beginning, I wasn't so sure that this thing would work out. I even kept a kiddie perm in my closet for a long time as a security blanket. After a year, I finally threw it away and realized that I could stop fighting it because I'd fallen in love with my new growth. I remember looking at it in the mirror and feeling like I just couldn't wait for it to all be natural.
What makes you love your kinks, curls and coils?
When I was a little girl, I LOVED big hair. I was a late 70's baby and was always drawn to the freedom and wild abandon of big hair. I remember watching Diana Ross and Donna Summer concerts on TV with my mom and begging her to make my hair look like theirs. As I got older, I tried to fit in with the flatter, more frozen styles of the 80's and 90's but my hair never truly conformed. Even when my hair was relaxed, it would get fuzzy and poofy very easily. It was like a wild animal that had been tamed, but was easily triggered to revert back to its natural ways. I think that my love of big hair has to do with some part of me recognizing it as a way to let who I am come out. I'm free spirited, open-minded, sensitive, rebellious, contradictory and goofy - like my hair. It was only a matter of time before I stopped trying to tame myself and learned to embrace these qualities on the inside and eventually on the outside. So, I love my kinks, curls and coils because they symbolize the complexity of who I am as a woman.
Where can we find you on the web?
I have a personal blog and a blog that I co-author with my best friend:
Anything EXTRA you want us to know?
Anything worth doing requires patience and mindfulness. This is true whether you're talking about hair or life. We live in an impatient world and we are programmed by our environment to expect immediate gratification. Life itself is an experiment in faith and patience. The true gift is not the result but the journey of discovery.
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