Natural Hair Journey

This Feature Friday I want to highlight my natural hair journey. My memory is a little foggy but I don't believe I had a perm pass the 8th grade. I used to love them though. Not the burning of my scalp of course lol, but I loved how soft and manageable my hair was afterwards. I was not the little girl who enjoyed getting her hair done. In fact, I hated it. Managing my own hair was a job of its own, and not necessarily one we had time for. I got braids a lot and I honestly still do. I love the versatility and ease, but I really could do without sitting down for 6+ hours straight. Even longer since I've learned how to braid my own hair. But overall, going natural has been the best decision ever. On January 7, 2017, I went to my momma and had her chop off EVERYTHING. I wanted to start fresh and embrace my hair at every stage. Below I am going to show you LOTS of pictures from "Pre Big Chop" to "Post Big Chop". One thing that is interesting about our hair is that it is ever evolving. My texture and curl pattern have been totalllly different since I cut my hair off but I realized it is my natural and pure God given hair. No chemicals, no dyes, very little heat. It takes a lot of loving and getting used to but when I think about appreciating myself and the way the Lord made me, loving my hair comes along with it. I encourage everyone to embark on a natural hair journey. Trust and believe, with my thick and kinky hair I thought this would be the death of me. I didn't think it was possible. But with a little work, and Jesus, everything is possible. Loving yourself naturally is possible. Take the leap. And take lots of pictures!!!

PRE BIG CHOP

My hair was accustomed to low manipulation so it was softer and had a looser curl to it. I got braids and sew ins ever so often, I used to flat iron my hair and as you can see I did experiment with a pop of color at one point! I didn't really start to wear any natural hair styles until my first year of college. I have a slightttt regret in cutting it all off, only because it grew back to be 10x thicker and kinkier than before! But it was my natural texture and curl pattern and now I wouldn't change a thing!

POST BIG CHOP

I wanted something new. I wanted to see my real texture. I had always felt like my growth was stunted and stayed the same length forever. So big chop seemed like the way to go! Thankfully my BFF embarked on this journey around the same time and we were short hair chics together! Lowkey I miss my short hair at times, it was definitely easier than the fro it's grown out to be almost 2 years later. My goal for all of this was to love my hair and myself at all stages. I've done my best to put all these pictures in sequential order so you can see the growth!

Unfortunately I don't have a set regimen of anything I do specifically or products I use for my hair. I just kinda let it do what it does. What is important for my hair is to keep it moisturized because it is super thick and tends to get dry if it isn't kept maintained correctly. If you're a "hair type" kinda person I'd say mine is a 4C. Twists and braids outs are my best friend, wash n go's look great too but my shrinkage is soooo real! Wigs and box braids are also super helpful for low manipulation and quick styling. All in all, I love my hair. It's mine. It's my crown of glory and I will continue to embrace it forever.