Where do I start…oh yeah, ok. So I texturized and permed my
hair I believe in year 5, back then my hair was extremely thick and would
tangle so I rarely ever had it out, it was always braided or in some form of a style.
I decided to make that decision to get my hair permed because it was a struggle
in my eyes back then. I went to the hairdressers with my mum and I actually
never knew I was getting it done till I saw my head feeling lighter when I came
up from getting it washed, you know those ones when the water just locks in to
your fro, well on this occasion my hair was straight. I’ve always had thick
hair so that was never an issue in all honesty, but I wasn’t noticing that it
was getting thinner as I used it more and more, my hair texture obviously
changed and there would be times where it would break. Rolling on to secondary,
I was still perming my hair, I had different hairstyles, I remember wanting a
fringe and I think that’s what I liked about when I was younger is that I was a
little less hesitant with different hairstyles than I am now. I cut that fringe
up and shaped it, had a side fringe, straightened my hair damn near every day,
coloured it, mainly just lighter browns. There was a point where it was breaking off
quite badly and my said it needs to be trimmed, to my surprise my hairdresser
cut it to the nape of my neck and I was moaning all over the place to my
friends to my mum, I was mad. But ironically I like short hair now. 
Now the natural movement has always been around, but when I was
younger I hardly saw it and although my mum turned natural a couple years
before I did, I still wasn’t fazed by doing that with my hair, until I finished
my a levels. I was getting sick and tired of basically putting this sh!t in my
hair, I actually was just getting fed up to be honest, I was being a lot more conscious
of certain things and I really liked seeing these women with their hair being
curly and full of life. I always thought that natural hair almost tells a story
of each individual, you just don’t know what they’ve been through. So, University
2013, I started and had a good set of people around me, and I remember me
having weave in at that time, and I thought that’s it I’m done with perming. I
was on a new journey myself and I was excited doing this for myself, that same
night I looked under the bed and saw a perm box and I just threw it out. No
need for the unnecessariness, and I don’t want my hands to go wondering and
going back to square one, but when I do something I usually stick to it.
I watched a lot of YouTuber’s with natural hair, and I still
do. Just to try and get the basis of being a part of this movement which I’ve
been out of since the age of 9 or 10. And now I was 18 going on 19. It must
have been a couple months into being natural and I was seeing an extreme difference,
the roots obviously were reverting back and I was almost liking it, but I had
the permed tips. It was hard, a lot of people might not understand it but it’s
an of transition from something that you think you can easily fix to something
that is almost out of the unordinary even though it’s all your hair. I just
know I was a couple months in and my natural curl pattern had changed from when
I was a child, and I was now feeling like new. I stood at my sink with a pair
of scissors and I slowly but surely started to take off pretty much the
majority of the permed dead ends and left these curls. Sink full of hair and a
short hair. In a way I was semi lucky cause my hair always seemed to grow back
to the length it originally was. It probably was shorter than when I got it cut
at the hairdressers and that was all done by my hands, and I was happy about
that, cause it was a step forward.
I’ve coloured it twice since it’s been natural, which is a
risk obviously. I know I’ll end up colouring it again at some point but not for
now. But it is hard work at times because I wasn’t really committed in the
beginning to much, but more recently I’ve been a lot more nurturing towards it,
making sure I detangle it, wash it and oil treat it every week. Oil my scalp
every day, put it in a protective style or weave it, I’ve been on the ball. There’s still some things I want to learn how
to do properly with the right hair products for myself but that’s something I have
to learn for myself. Although I’d like to probably do the wash and go I live in
England London and the way the weather has been it’s just too risky, wet hair +
cold= illness. I know already I have some downfalls to my hair journey as the
water in London is harsh but that’s not gonna stop me cause my goal is waist
length.
I’d say for anyone who wants to make the change that there
is nothing wrong with doing something that is right by you, if this is the
journey that you want to take then so be it, patience is key and shrinkage is
real.
It’s my fourth year and I’m not looking back.
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