HAIR JOURNEY: FROM THE BEGINNING

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My hair has had its struggles through the years; some good, some bad, and some just ooogly (ugly). But through it all, it has been a learning experience as I continue to get a full grasp of this hair of mine. As a kid, I had a decent amount of hair and would get it pressed a few times,which would let my hair reach mid-back. That was until a friend of the family put a perm in my hair and then the process started from then - a downward spiral that I never fully recovered.

As of right now, I cannot find any pictures of my high school years, but I did find a few from those "awkward" years after high school. I used to fry, dye, blow-dry, cut, wear bonding glue to attach weaves, and everything else you could possible imagine, I did. I didn't really care about my hair because it looked cute and healthy to me. Little did I know at the time that I was damaging my hair to the extremes with perming, then blow-drying, then coloring, to only flat iron it and pin it up. YIKES!

This is from around 2005-2009

My hair was not growing anywhere, stunted for a few years. Finally I had enough and wanted long hair and started searching online for advice. That is when I discovered a hair forum called Long Hair Care Forum, it was a forum focused on black hair care/practices with members actively using the site. I became an addict after seeing other members go from nothing to waist length. I loved their progress and began my own journey. I joined that site in Feb 2010 and my last perm was May of 2010. I didn't do the big chop like most, but I did transition while slowly cutting away the permed hair. 

(This next portion comes from my other documented hair journey blog)

My journey started somewhere at the beginning of 2010. I got tired of my hair being stringy, colored, and not full of life at all. I would flat iron, perm, color my hair and all it did was damage it more. I was even using weaves (glued-in) and would rip that out instead of taking proper care of them.

Before (this is 2009)

I had enough of my other half (man), telling me that my hair was just doomed. So that's when my search began. I wanted to show him and others that I can do this. I found the hair boards in January of 2010. Found out great information on how black women take care of their hair. I seen so many gorgeous lengths that I drooled on the keyboard. I too, wanted the same.

I began documenting the start of my journey from March 2010. These were my starting pictures that I used as a staple to measure my growth. So for the first half of 2010, I stayed pretty much at the same level. I didn't find what worked yet so I had set back after set back.

BEGINNING 2010

The breakage began

So I tried what they called "PSin" which is to style your hair in ways where it is tucked and styled. Another thing I did was stop perming (started transitioning) my hair in May 29, 2010. Went natural without the big chop.

To wrap up 2010, it started to grow but hadn't figured out what works yet still so this is what the end of the year brought to me. I had to trim off all the damage AGAIN. 

NOW GET READY FOR THE YEAR OF THE BIG CHANGE 2011

So 2011, I decided this was going to be MY YEAR to do the damn thing. I started off at shoulder length, had a haircut by a stylist who was just supposed to trim things up, so in march I was right back at neck length. By the end of June, I grow everything back.

I was excited after that. So I treated my hair like it was the best in the world, with care and tenderness so from June to August and got this

That was 2 months. So for the rest of the year, I didn't really protect my hair with styling but I did low manipulation styles, wore my hair out, gave myself treatments and was in for a shock at the end of the year.

Let's review 2011

Here are the low-manipulation styles I did so I wouldn't have to touch/do my hair too much. Also since my I cut all of the perm off during the many trims. I have my natural curly hair back so i did a lot of natural styling (wash-n-go)

 Needless to say, at the end of 2011, I was here

 Huge difference right? Yaaay for me. I did it. Don't get too excited yet, 2012 is full of surprises too.

2012 THE YEAR OF THE OBSESSION

Okay, no talking/typing for this year. Pictures are work a thousand + words so just stick around and watch me grow. 

July 2012

2013 reaching new lengths. CHECK ME OUT

Now back to the recent years, in 2013 and 2014 I began back on the coloring and flat ironing regiment again and would use heat weekly. My hair continued to grow, but then started to break as it grew. My middle section was becoming so thin and brittle that it looked horrible. You could see straight through the strands. 

This is 2013: So relaxed with my hair

2014: My hair again was growing but yet it was heat damage.

I big chopped that March about half of my length.

After that, I did a 30 day no heat challenge and that following month, I got to here

Fast forward to Sept 2015: I really, I mean REALLLY big chopped to the point I had no hair hardly to do anything with.

this was the results. This was done on September 1, 2015

I wanted to literally scream with how uncomfortable I felt. I had to start all over again and didn't know how. Thank goodness that I am creative and found a few styles to hold me over like a few that I put in this post.

Now today, I have my curls back, it's healthy and thick once again, and already it is growing. 

To now this three and a half months later.

This is my curl pattern 

 And lastly...a comparison from Sept 2015 to Dec 2015. The growth continues, yaaaay. Watch out. I will be at mid back length in no time by the end of the year. Watch!

Even though I still am in the in between stages, I can still do a hell of a lot more with the length I am at now compared to three months ago, hehehe

Jan 1, 2016 Length Check

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Now we are in September 2016 and my hair has definitely made a return. I am almost back to where I started from before I chopped last year.