Going Natural: My M.I.A hairdresser

I have been going to the same hairdresser since I was about 15. It was about a year after I had my first relaxer that my mum decided to switch to a new salon. I don't know if she knew of her before we made the change but there was a young hairdresser there who started doing our hair regularly.

We began to follow her around from salon to salon until she finally set up her own tiny place in Madaraka. Stalker much?

She had magic hands. I really didn't appreciate it at the time until I went away to uni and had to use other hairdressers. I realised that she gave my hair shine,  bounce and movement. Yup, my hair moved. And not just in strong wind. If you live in Kenya and have seen some of the relaxers out there, you will know that is quite a feat! Seriously. You could slice bread with it, it's so stiff. 

So when I returned to Kenya, the first thing I planned to do was make a trip to Lynette and get my creamy crack on. 

I can not describe the HORROR I felt when my sister told me, 'Oh, she went to the US a while back and hasn't been back since'. What??!! I actually felt panicked. What do you mean? When will she be back? But nobody knew, not even the employees at her salon. 

Bah humbug! I do not like change. I probably need to see somebody about that. But I was totally stuck. And there was no point asking my sister as she was very adventurous and had since tried out lots of new hairdressers. 

My hair by this point was almost completely natural. You can see in the picture below that I had quite a bit of new growth but still some relaxed ends. I also see my hairline was pretty good at that time. Although i had already been braiding my own hair consistently for almost a year, I wasn't very good at installing the braids and they were always loose, which I hated then but, I now realise, spared my hairline. 

I'm smiling on the outside but screaming on the inside

So I decided to go back to braiding while I formulated a game plan. And so began my relationship with a damaged hairline.