My Natural Hair Journey
While I’ve been natural for quite literally my entire life, my “natural hair journey” didn’t begin until I was in high school. Since I started doing my own hair, it has become a central part of my identity and often something that I’ve been able to connect with others on.
When I first started, the natural hair movement was new and fresh, curly typing had us all in a chokehold, and none of us could quite figure out how to do a Wash and Go. A LOT has changed since then, both in the natural hair community at large and in my own experience with my crown. Keep reading to find out more about my ~15 year journey with my hair.
Warning: Some of the upcoming pictures are highly embarrassing and borderline cringey.
2009-2012: Elizabeth, the Twist Out Queen
These were the core years of my high school experience and also the exact time that the natural hair movement really started to pop off! YouTubers like Naptural85, and bloggers like CurlyNikki and Afrobella were just starting to hit their stride, and everyone was ditching the creamy crack. Since I had never had a relaxer, it felt good to be perceived as a “pro” in the natural hair space. Spoiler alert: I was not.
Since most women at the time were transitioning to being natural, the preferred styling methods were twist outs, braid outs, and rod sets. I became a twist out girlie, and nobody could tell me that I wasn’t cute! I would faithfully twist my hair EVERY night and untwist it the next morning every day before school. I really thought I was doing something because I carried on doing this for three ENTIRE years.
2012-2016: Poetic Justice
By 2012, it was time for something new, and I definitely got tired of the twist/retwist every night situation. I had also started to save money here and there from a variety of summer jobs and internships, so I began to experiment with Box Braids and Senegalese twists at my local African braiding shop. The freedom! I didn’t have to re-twist my hair every night! I could just wake up and go! I could have a polished look every day!
After a year or so of alternating between braids, twists, and my natural fro, I was getting ready to leave for college and had to figure out what my long term plan for my hair was. My toxic trait is that I believe I can do anything myself, so I took to YouTube for tutorials on how to braid my own hair. (Mind you, I can barely cornrow my own hair on a good day). Baybeeeee, if I told you how many packs of Xpressions braiding hair I wasted I would be so embarrassed. I quickly found out that Marley hair had a much lower learning curve and I basically lived in Marley twists for the bulk of undergrad. I even did braids for a couple of roommates once or twice during those years. Ladies, I am so sorry for what I did to you.
2016-2018: Stiff Where!?
This is when I really started FEELING MYSELF. This is also, of course, when things started to get dicey. I was a few years into the game, I had some hang time, hair was getting fuller, and so what do we do when we have nice things? Mess it up. I started playing with some of the BIGGEST natural hair no-nos: Sew Ins, Heat, and Color.
Phew chile it was as if I was on a mission to damage my hair. The craziest part was that it was longer than it had been before, so I thought I was doing something right! While I still wore braids here and there throughout this time period, I mostly wore sew ins because someone was able to convince me that they counted as a “protective style”. When I didn’t have a sew in, I tended to blow my hair out before doing chunky twists or braids for a more voluminous fro look. My leave out was crusty, but my colored hair underneath was even worse.
2018-2020: It’s Giving, SCALP
Literally.
The last couple of years of acting a fool with my hair caught up with me, so I started the year off by shaving majority of my hair off and went to a local barber who gave me the OG Caribbean auntie haircut. You know exactly which one I’m talking about too.
I lasted about four months of being a bald-headed baddie before I decided that having short hair was too high maintenance, but my hair was still way too short for braids or really anything else. At that time, lace fronts started to become way more mainstream, and affordable, so I decided to experiment with wigs. Now, remember that I said that my toxic trait is that I believe I can do anything myself. Yup, you guessed it. I started buying some beginner lace fronts, stocking caps, Got2B Glued, and whatever else the YouTube girlies said we needed and got right to it.
The easy part was that since my hair was still so short I didn’t have to do much prep before hand. The hard part was how high maintenance the frontals were. I found myself avoiding getting my edges wet so the lace wouldn’t lift, reapplying Got2Be Glued every couple of days, and holding a dryer up to my forehead until my arms cramped. Something had to give.
2020-2021: The Panoramic
2020 came, and I found myself in yet another phase of my hair story. My hair was juuuuuust long enough for a ponytail again, which honestly was more like an oxtail, so I started to have more options besides wigs. I started to wear my hair out again here and there when I didn’t feel like doing the whole wig routine, and I started to notice that my natural curl pattern was way more visible than it had been when I was just starting out with my curly hair journey.
My curiosity about my changes in my hair led me to Instagram where I booked a Hair Detox with a curly hair specialist who I thought could help me with nurturing my hair again. I went for an appointment in early March 2020 and she thoroughly cleansed my hair of the last couple of years of build up, ineffective hair products, and started me on my journey to hydration. While I didn’t get my hair cut into any sort of shape, I was pleasantly surprised with how she was able to successfully style my hair in a Wash and Go, something I was NEVER able to do myself before.
Armed with some new knowledge and some new tips and tricks, I was ready to tackle my hair on my own! That excitement was short lived because lockdown began and we had nowhere to go. I wasn’t getting cute for ANYONE or ANYTHING. I also never saw that stylist again because I moved a few months later. I basically spent the first three months of lockdown in two hair styles: two puffs, or two braids. That’s it. When the new school year began and we moved to the next phase of virtual teaching, I upgraded to what was my signature style for basically a year: one high puff.
While it was easy, quick, and reliable, my edges were screaming at me. I have since learned that I have VERY fragile and fine edges, so slick backs, ponytails, and dramatically swooped baby hairs are not for me. But at that point it was too late, and the damage was done.
2021-present:
We’ve finally reached the upswing in this dramatic story! After 12 years of just kind of winging it with my hair, I finally decided to take my haircare journey more seriously and find someone who could help me learn how to style and wear my hair the way that I really wanted to. I wanted to focus on health and hydration above all else, and I stalked my current stylist Rebekah on instagram for about two months before I finally just booked an appointment.
At my first appointment, I told her my frustrations with my hair, my hair routine at the time, and some inspiration pics for how I wanted to wear my hair in the future. She shared some product recommendations with me, and we decided to do a curly cut that would help me preserve some length but leave room for the front of my hair to catch up with the back.
We kept things going for about six months and I went back about every 10-ish weeks for maintenance haircuts until February when I decided to go blonde! However, this time I decided that I wanted to do it RIGHT and keep up with the health of my hair while growing it out.
I now visit the salon every 2-3 months for maintenance cuts and to touch up my color, and I can honestly say that finding her was the BEST decision I have made for myself and for my curly hair journey so far. My wash days no longer take an entire day, my weekly hair routine is much more predictable, and I am the happiest that I have been with my hair in a LONG time. I even have plans to wear my hair curly on my upcoming wedding day! While I don’t know what’s next in my hair story, if where I’ve been is any indication, it’s only up from here!
Let me know in the comments what your natural hair journey has been like!
