My Natural Hair Journey

Hey everyone.

I've literally been having writer's block for the last few weeks, and it's a miracle that I managed to put up blog posts. A lot of times, it was down to the last minute before I posted what I'd written. So please if there's anything you'd like to ask, or any topic you'd like to see discussed here, let me know in the comments below.

For today, for lack of a better topic, I've decided to share my Hairstory aka Natural Hair Journey with you. It's something I'm still on, still making mistakes at, still learning about, etc.

I decided to stop relaxing my hair in 2006. At the time, one of my cousins was natural, and her hair was nice and full. My relaxed hair wasn't being taken care of, and so I experienced little to no growth, breakage, dryness and more. I thought that if I stopped relaxing, my natural hair would be tough and wouldn't break easily. I naively thought that I could go on without taking proper care of my hair.

At the time I didn't know what transitioning was. I didn't do a lot of research into how to take care of natural hair. I simply just stopped relaxing and carried on with my life. A few months later, I went to a salon to get a trim, and somehow my whole head of hair was cut off - INADVERTENT BIG CHOP. I honestly didn't like the way I looked (like a secondary school boy, in my head) and I took to covering my hair up with weaves and braids. I don't think I did that consciously, but it was just a subconscious decision. For that reason, I don't have a lot of pictures in my TWA stage.

My natural hair was met with a lot of resistance, especially at home. I kinda blame myself a little bit, because I didn't put much effort into taking care of it or styling it. I remember whenever I had my natural hair out, I would wear my glasses or big earrings or wear ankara, and my brother would say, "Uh oh, you're in your India Arie phase again."

Fast forward to 2010/2011, when I had just started learning how to take care of my hair and buying products that were better for natural hair, I moved back to Nigeria (Port Harcourt to be precise). I didn't know where to get products from, started visiting a nearby salon where they knew absolutely nothing about natural hair (they once used up half a tub of gel because I wanted shingles), and I went back to wearing weaves and braids.

In 2012, I started blogging and found out about African Naturalistas. I started getting tips on natural hair care, and in 2013 joined the AN Team. While I'm not perfect, I think that my hair care efforts have greatly improved and my natural hair is doing much better.

My hair is reaching somewhere near APL (armpit length) - well, in my head it is.

And for the days that I want to give my hair a break, I'm now incorporating natural hair weaves (or in my case, clip ins), crochet braids and more.

I don't see myself relaxing my hair in the foreseeable future. It's been natural for almost a decade, and I'm not ready for a change that's semi-permanent.

My advice to anyone who feels stuck in a rut or like their hair isn't growing, is to just be patient. Don't agonize over length. If you're taking the best care of your hair, one day you'll look in the mirror and be shocked at how much improvement your hair has made.

Have a loverly weekend,
Berry Dakara.