Most of my life, I have struggled with my hair. As a biracial girl, my curly, thick and sometimes kinky locks were often times more than my mom and I could handle. Every morning was a vicious fight that involved me, her, a hairbrush, and a cup of water. Naturally, my mother relaxed my hair at 7 years old. I mean, look below. How could you blame her? (That's a ponytail by the way):
 |
| My pre-teen and teenage years consisted of overly-processed, damaged hair. A lot of braids, up-dos, spritz, dollar store hair gel, and slick back ponytails- all which destroyed my hair one strand at a time. By the time I got to college, I met a new hair stylist and now great friend, and she convinced me to go "natural". At the time, I dreaded the idea of not having perfectly straight roots, but seeing how she was a goddess with that damn flat iron, my hair looked relaxed! I was ecstatic. Fast forward 3 years, I did all kinds of fun things to my "natural hair"- lots of sew-ins, went blonde, went back to brown. I did everything but....wear it in it's natural state. |
Recently, I tried to wear a natural style, and realized that my hair was crazy heat and color damaged. My once pretty curls were no longer there. The front of my hair was bone straight due to constant straightening and the color. After doing some intense research on how to fix it, I kept getting the same response:
You have to cut the damaged pieces, and start over.
*music stops*
At first, I was sad. My hair had never been shorter than shoulder length. Then I started thinking:
" I've never really seen what my real hair looked like since I was 7. I always dream of having big, curly hair. If the hair growing from my scalp isn't straight, why do I keep straightening it? I'm cutting it."
And that's exactly what I did.
I kept some of my blonde at the top for some length and shape, but plan to snip it as my hair grows. I can't wait to see how it grows, how my texture changes, and to experiment with new products and styling techniques!
Cutting my hair forces me to embrace who I am. Confidence is something that I have been needing to work on for years, and my new do pushes me to embrace my hair texture for what it is. It's frizzy. It's curly. It's tangly. It's poofy. But most importantly, it's MINE. And I love it.
xoxo
