In late 2009, my hair was in the worst condition it’s ever been in. I had a relaxer at the time, and my hair was thinning from the long-term damage of the chemicals.
I also had a thyroid problem so that was making the problem even worse.
If you are having trouble finding the source of your hair woes, always check with your doctor and get a blood test. It could be anemia, a thyroid condition or something other than your regular hair maintenance.
Yes, my tresses were shiny as you can see in the pic above, but it was becoming lifeless and breaking off like crazy. I missed the thickness I used to have.
I knew I had to either find a stylist to get my hair healthy again or go natural.
Oh The Fear!
I was terrified to go natural because I knew my texture was more kinky instead of curly. So because I was not confident wearing my kinky hair, I decided to try tex-laxing my hair.
This is the process of using a relaxer or texturizer to slightly alter/loosen your curl pattern. So your texture is not as straight as a relaxer, but less kinky than fully natural hair.
What a mess!
First of all, I shouldn’t have tried to do it myself. I already had two textures on my head (natural hair at the roots and relaxed hair on the ends.)
Trying to ONLY texturize my roots without affecting the relaxed hair was a nightmare.
As you can imagine I ended up with even more damage, and my hair was now worse off than it was before.
I Gave Up and Went Natural
So in 2010, I decided to go natural instead.
I honestly was not comfortable with my hair texture, but anything was better than what I was dealing with. I was determined to learn to embrace what God gave me.
So here’s my product-free hair after I transitioned for 18 months and trimmed off the remaining relaxed ends in 2011.
And here’s my hair with a twist out in 2014.
I have no regrets about my decision to go natural. It’s so great to be chemical free and I don’t miss the burns, stressing out over new growth and the thinning hair.
You don’t have to cut all your hair off if you want to go natural. You can transition without a big chop the way I did.
I would just like to encourage you to try natural hair. No, it’s not for everyone, but you’ll be surprised at what you’ll learn about your hair, styling, etc.
If you do decide to texturize, please go to a professional stylist so it can be done right. It’s a very delicate process and the touch ups are tricky too because you can end up accidentally straightening parts of your hair if you overlap the product on hair that’s already texturized.
