This is my story...

     We begin in 2008, when I was getting ready to graduate from high school and desperately wanted a new look before I started college in the fall. It was crazy how I ran across the inforamtion about natural hair on Youtube. One night I was browsing on Youtube, when something told me to scroll to the recommended videos. There I saw a young woman with big wild hair and the title of the video was something like Big Chop. I clicked on it with fascination. In the video, the young lady went from shoulder length crazy wild relaxed hair to a short curly fro. I had never heard of such a thing and soon began researching what natural hair was and how to get. I've always loved curly hair but never thought I could have it because my hair was relaxed and I wasn't mixed (insane right...I know). Later that night I decided to cut my hair to shoulder length and it actually came out GREAT! Fast forward to the end of the summer (3 days before moving to college) my hair had pretty much grown back and I wanted to get that length back. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of cutting one side of my hair too short and ended up having to go to the hair salon to get it evened out. For a long time I was not happy but I dealt with it.

#1: First cut around graduation, #2: cut before college, #3: October 2008, #4: November 2008

    Once school started and I saw that I had to stop putting heat on my hair (because of all the new growth) I became an ugly duckling...lol. I wore a ponytail everyday and I mean everyday and everywhere. I also wore hats. And wore very little makeup. By the time November came around I started getting really anxious to cut of those disgusting relaxed ends. I saw so many Youtubers doing their big chop that I knew it was time for me to do the same. December 13,2008 was the date I became all natural again. I have to say I wasn't really nervous when I was getting my hair cut off. I was a little surprised at how short it was but that didn't really matter to me because I had achieved something that I really wanted.

        It was fun being able to wet my hair whenever I wanted to. I can remember co-washing my hair, one day while on winter break, three times....don't ask me why. In the beginning I did struggle with getting my curls to define the way I wanted. I eventually was able to and boy did it make a difference. For the first three months of being natural I worn my hair pulled back with a headband all the time whether it was freshly co-washed or a small puff. But since it was winter I decided to change a couple of things. I started to twist my hair up every Sunday night while watching Frasier and in the morning I would take it out and wear a twistout for majority of the week (the weekends were puffs). I also decided to change the products I was using. I started using Cantu Shea Butter, my shea butter mixture, and Aussie Moist conditioner. The beginning was definitely a trial and error time for me and sometimes still is. 

     As time went on, I started to become a product junkie. It went so far, that for Christmas I wanted hair products. I slowly started to realize my hair was growing and that it was actually healthy. With that new growth came longer detangling time, styling time, and more maintenance. I started wearing twists, updos, ponytails, and of course the wash n go.... all of which you can find on my channel click here :) Today, I reflect a lot on when I first started my transition to now because it helps to not only save money on products but also to keep up the health of my hair. I never want to go back to those days of damaged relaxed ends.