But I always envied people with naturally curly hair and wondered if that could ever be me. I’d seen photographs of myself as a child with my natural hair but it was too far back to remember knowing it for myself. Then in 2009 I travelled across the water to the UK for college.
It was my first time being away from home and everything I knew, including my hairdresser. Becoming a student again at 22-years-old was a huge shift for me, and a big hit to my wallet, so I would have to start caring for it myself. But I couldn’t wait to get back home at Christmas for a touch-up and a blowout. When I sat in my stylist’s chair she asked what products I was now using and I responded, “Whatever is in the £1 sale bin.”
I’ll never forget the look on her face! I returned to school and knew I was in for the long haul. It would be summer before I would be home again for another touch up. Lonely, boring nights in my dorm room eventually led me to YouTube where my fascination for natural hair was ignited. There was a world of beautiful black curly headed women who not only embraced their hair, but knew exactly what to do with it.
I started spending hours on end watching tutorials about styling and moisturizing, things I didn’t currently practice with my own hair. After contemplating for ages I decided to give it a try. I mean what did I really have to lose? On my next visit home, I decided I would switch to texturizers instead of perms, thinking it would give me the “best of both worlds” between natural and straight hair.
With this came a new experimental phase of protective styling, clip-in weaves and an obsession with wand curls to give me a desirable curly look, and of course to back straightening when I just couldn’t be bothered to do anything else. It worked for me for a while but as time went on I started to realize just how damaged my hair really was from the years of chemical processing and heat.
If I truly wanted to embrace my natural hair I couldn’t straddle the fence with it.
On January 8, 2014, I started on my journey to becoming fully natural. I started a six-month no heat challenge, the longest time I had ever gone. I visited a hair shop in London and spent more than I’d wish to admit on a slew of hair products. It only took me a few days to realize this was not going to be easy.