Going Natural: Early Transition

Once upon a time, there lived a girl with a lush head of relaxed hair..

I started my journey as a natural very reluctantly; I loved having a relaxer!

Then I got married and moved to a land far far away with no black people as far as the eye could see. Worse still, nothing was in English, and I spent months trying to use Google Translate to find shampoo and conditioner. By this time, my wedding weave was hanging on by the skin of its teeth and I had no choice but to undo it. Myself. The evening we were going for a function. There were tears. We were late. And everyone wondered why i'd cut my hair.. :|

My hair was still relaxed at this point but was in a sorry state of neglect and the new growth was hard and dry.  I lived in kamatano hidden under head wraps for ages while I tried to find a hairdresser, then one day it sunk in. Help. Wasn't. Coming. I was going to have to go it alone.  Luckily, I had carried some braid hair with me and although my early attempts at braiding were, ahem, terrible ambitious, I was so proud of myself!

Kamatano

First ever braids..

I slowly got better, but it would take two full days to put the braids in, by the end of which I would be walking around with claw hands, a stiff neck and in a very bad mood. My husband called those 'The Dark Days' and spent them avoiding me at the pub.

Getting better..

..and better!

I saw my hair out so rarely in those two years that I had no clue what it was doing but despite the poor treatment, my relaxed ends grew out without my realising. I knew so little about natural hair then I thought my relaxer just reverted back to natural!

I actually shudder when I think of how ill-treated my hair was and how much length I could have retained if I had known even just the basics of caring for natural hair. Sigh. I cant imagine how dry my hair must have been. It basically went two years without moisture!  Poor thing. How we made it out the other end goodness knows. Just goes to show, the power of protective styling.