Why I went natural

Let me just begin by saying that for as long as I could remember, my hair had always been relaxed...like when I look at photos of me when I was about one or two years old...I always saw relaxed hair. 


It got to a point where I believed my hair was naturally straight, and everytime I got a touch up and I would ask the hairdresser what she was doing to my hair, both her and my mum would reply 'Oh this is just going to make your hair softer' and I'd be like 'ok'. Some people would have said 'No!' straight away and refused to having relaxer put in their hair...but if you know anything about African/Carribbean parents...especially mothers..you'd know that 'No' is never an option.


So lots of people know that once you get a relaxer, you have to keep getting touch ups unless you wanna look like a hot mess. Lots of people go natural for different reasons....relaxed hair breakage, hair damage, wanting healthier hair, wanting thicker/longer hair...e-t-c. But me?....I just couldn't be bothered!!!
Call me lazy but everytime my mother told me 'Its time to touch up your relaxer', I would just stand there and cry for about 5 minutes. I HATED...no...I DESPISED the whole process. plus..every now and again I'd be SCREAMING in pain because of the relaxer BURNING my scalp and my hair dresser would be like 'Honey that just means its working...5 more minutes' and then when she washed out the relaxer, all the hair would stick to my scalp...it was just horrible!!! maybe I have a super sensitive scalp...I dunno.
My hair never grew past my shoulders when it was relaxed...it looked a bit like this...

So when I hit 13 (INDEPENDENCE/REBELLIOUS TEENAGE PHASE) I was like 'Mum..STOP the relaxer'. Ok..maybe not literally like that but i remember literally having to argue with my mother about going natural and i remember the argument ending with 'Do what you want!!' 


I didnt want to do the big chop so I just left it to grow out whilst watching MILLIONS of youtube videos to learn how to take care of my natural hair....and I guess it started from there really...
Its been about 29 months now and my hair has grown well past my shoulders (even though you cant see it thanks to SHRINKAGE!!) I'm not really focusing on growing my hair to a certain length, I'm just focusing on keeping my hair healthy...and whatever happens..happens. Apologies for my dry hair picture but it was the only recent one I could find where I had a full fro, i'd just taken down my crochet braids (if you don't know what crochet braids are, check out my post on it )

this was about 3-4 months ago

As you cannot really see the length..I thought i'd stretch out a few strands so you can kinda see how long it is. I have a lot more shrinkage in the back than in the front...but its all good (:

As these photos were taken months ago..my hair is probably about an inch longer..maybe slightly more, I'm not sure but I will check later.


This post is not intended to put down those with relaxed hair...infact both of my sisters have relaxed hair. I believe that people should be able to do whatever they want with their hair. As long as they take good care of it. Relaxed hair suits many people...i just found that it wasn't for me (: