The Journey to Natural Hair #teamnatural

The journey to natural hair has definitely been a process for me. I've always appreciated that my mother had my sister and I have natural hairstyles. She learned how to braid our hair and also style our hair in its natural curls. These hairstyles continued until I was 14 years old and my mom finally agreed that I could get a perm. I was so excited because I was seeing girls around me getting perms and at that time I thought that stick straight hair was the most beautiful. When my hair was first permed it was past my shoulders but over the years of perming and straightening my hair it became shorter and shorter. I remember that it would take me about two hours just to straighten my hair; I have really thick curly hair.
When I reached my sophomore year in college I got really tired of constantly straightening my hair and it was no longer the length that I wanted it to be. So, I started wearing weaves. For the next year I wore various wigs until one of my friends said to me, "Why are you wearing weaves? Your real hair is nice!" I actually took this to heart and questioned myself why? I decided to go back to my real hair. By then the weaves had actually helped my hair grow a lot because I wasn't constantly straightening it and putting chemicals in it. After the weaves I decided to go to my natural curly hair. This was a process because my natural curls were damaged because of all the chemicals and straightening. Some of my hair was curly and the other parts were straight. It was frustrating but I knew it was going to take time. It has been two years of my hair being natural and not perming or straightening my hair. My hair is naturally black and I decided to dye it blonde. This took awhile for me to do because I had never fully dyed my hair. I remember walking out of the salon thinking that it was an extreme change but after a couple days I loved it!  I love my curly hair and I don't know why I didn't embrace it sooner.

Products & Styling:  I have 3C hair so my hair has really coily curls with a lot of shrinkage. I only really do wash and gos for now. I'm still learning different styles to do in my hair. But I did try to do twists and they don't work on my hair because they actually make my hair really shrink. I do wash and gos every other day.  I can only use sulfate free shampoos because it really dries and strips my hair. I also learned that for curly hair shampooing it all the time actually isn't good I use the organix conditioners. It depends on the time of year which specific conditioner I use. I use the argon oil and the morrocan oil conditioners in the winter and spring. For the summer and fall I use the kukui conditioner because it helps with frizz and my hair is really frizzy in the summer and fall. For a leave in I use kinky curly knot today in the winter and spring and mixed chicks in the summer and fall. On day two I just wet my hair and apply the leave in. I also deep condition my hair, every two weeks or once a month. I use honey, 1 egg, and shea butter. I apply it to my hair and let it sit for an hour and then wash it out and style my hair as usual. This really helps my hair stay soft and not dry. I also use apply cider vinegar once a month to prevent buildup in my hair.

Curly Hair Gurus: I often watch youtube videos of Hey Fran Hey and SunKissAlba for different styling techniques and products. I also follow CurlyNikki via facebook.

Enjoy!