My Fro Is One!!

Hey Bloggie!!

It's here! It's finally here! My one year natural anniversary!!

So I've been threatening promising to write about my natural hair journey. What better day to finally write about it than today? The day I cut off all my relaxed hair and decided to go natural. All along in my mind, if I ever made it to this day, I would do a length check and have tons of pictures as well as victory dances for lasting this long. But it is too cold out here so Fro needs to be protected and pictures will have to wait :(.

So I mentioned in a previous post that my hair journey helped me in other aspects of my life. Before I get there, let me take you down my hair journey lane. So I always had relaxed hair and never considered letting my hair be without relaxer. You see, I wasn't retaining length but I didn't really care. As long as my hair could get into a ponytail, I was fine. Once I moved to the States, my hair situation got worse. I had to cut my hair and start over the first year I got here. Since then, it's been battle after battle. Mind you, I couldn't be bothered to do anything about my hair. I guess I wasn't ready.

A few years ago, I decided to cut my hair again. This time, I was just going to rock short hair. That lasted about a year and I decided to grow it out again. Of course I didn't have any plan and started texturizing my hair. It wasn't long before I hated it again. But this time, I had moved to a new place and didn't have anyone to turn to for hair solutions. Then came my aha moment! Why not learn to do my own hair? How difficult could it be? And I would be saving me mucho money.

So I started learning how to braid my hair and my hair was thriving. I went to YouTube land and accidentally found  +Naptural85's earlier videos and she made natural hair seem possible and worth it. I started to consider it. But I got a sew-in and it required relaxing the hair left out. Ergo, I got relaxed again after take out. Of course, I regretted it instantly! Right when I was whining, my friend T who had been growing out her hair sent me pictures with her hair straightened. Hair envy evolved! I decided I was going to do this and would invest in my hair. I went back to YouTube and found Whit's channel and started watching her videos (at this time her earlier videos had been taken down but I went as far back as possible) again.

So this time last year, I went home after work, and cut off all my relaxed ends. That didn't seem enough so I kept cutting until I had only about an inch left. I was scared to go to the office the next day considering the drastic change. But I went in and bless my boss! He immediately complimented me and so did my professors and friends. All was going to be well! There began my journey.

I was researching products to use in my hair, I was paying attention to how my hair was reacting to products and whether or not the end was what I had in mind. I learnt how to do braids, twists, crotchet braids and roller sets. I became very patient and my hair was thanking me. I was rewarded with hair growth. Me who didn't even like touching hair creams! My mom was so impressed (I think she secretly prayed for length retention for me all this time), she let me teach her new things about hair! Best compliment ever!!!

Then it hit me. If I could invest so much time and effort in my hair and see results, why couldn't I do the same in other aspects of my life? I decided to apply the same patience to myself so I could reap the benefits also. I became interested in what I was eating, my exercise habits and so on. This is what led to all the changes I mentioned here.

This has been quite the post! I would like to say thanks to all those that have seen me through my journey and encouraged me along the way. One day, I hope to have my hair as cool as the pic my bro drew up there. Oh and mom sent me some thread so I'm also considering going back in time and doing some thread styles later. Bro was also nice enough to provide a vision (one that mostly resembles Medusa. No thank you).

Bonus: I seem to have mastered the faces people make when they do their own hair. It's ridiculous, but it's unconscious and cracks me up all the time! Watch a hair video and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks a lot Whit!!!! And Dabs (searching Naija hair can grow brought me straight to your blog which is named just that. How cool?). And my lovely T, ese!! Thanks Fro for growing :).

Thanks for reading! Are you on a hair journey? Share your stories if you are!

Adios!
Tonia