My Story: The Reason I Went a la Natural

A little over a year ago, a friend of mine asked me, “why do you put relaxer in your hair and burn your hair?” Of course at the time, my reaction was like “Why not!? Don’t you like my hair straight, I look pretty don’t I? And plus, it doesn’t burn that much.” His reaction was simply, “go read about what your actually putting in your hair, to make it ‘straight’, then I’m going to ask you again “why do you do it.”

My last relaxer. Circa August 2008

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So with that, I kind of brushed it off, and got a bone straight relaxer the following week! But one day, soon after, I decided to actually look up what was in relaxer and how it makes your hair ‘straight’ and needless to say, I was shocked, actually more than shocked!! I couldn’t believe for 10+ plus years I had been putting my hair through that chemical abuse!! No wonder why my hair was thin! No wonder why I had to oil it ALL the time! No wonder it was constantly splitting and damaged!

I found out that relaxers chemically breakdown your hair’s natural curl pattern and rob your hair of ALL its moisture! The relaxer leaves a sheen over your hair shaft, giving the appearance that your hair is hydrated but in reality your hair is starving for moisture!! And to add insult to injury, I was flat ironing my hair nearly everyday!! I also did not realize that heat also damages the natural curl pattern of your hair and even with constant use can cause your hair’s curl pattern to straighten! Whoa, I thought, that was alot to take in!!!

But from that point forward, there would be NO more “cremecrack” in my hair, and I began my transition! In the midst of transitioning is when I stumbled upon a lot of natural hair care forums, blogs, and articles in which I would read all about black hair and how to nurture it…but i’ll save that view point for a whole other post!