My Natural Hair Journey to hydrated hair

MY NATURAL HAIR JOURNEY TO HYDRATED HAIR

This is my natural hair journey that I’ve experienced from beginning to present.  Through my journey, I wasn't always a licensed stylist so at one point in time I was browsing these Internet streets just like you.  Well in August of 2010 was the last time I received a relaxer.  

I transition to July 2011, I could no longer deal with the two textures so I decided to chop off the rest of my relaxed hair. 

​At the beginning of my journey, I followed "The Curly Girl Method"  but I still used shampoo but made sure I was using water based products.  When it was time for my trims I was getting a Dominican Blow-out, Oh my that was a bad choice.  The blowouts used so much excessive heat that at the time I didn't know it was doing any damage but my hair was becoming thin on the ends.  Here's a picture of my two-strand twist from 2012 when I was using excessive heat to when I went heat-less in 2014 so you can see the comparison. 

Curls were hydrated

Excessive heat vs No-Heat

During my journey, I kind of dabbled in wearing my hair trying different styles I've seen on youtube.  After a while, I end up wearing a lot of weave protective styles from braids, sew-ins, wigs, crochet braids.  I felt these styles were convenient and they lasted longer so I will wear them until my hair gets to a certain length (my hair goal length was bra-strap).

In 2013, I decided to enroll in hair school for Natural hair to get a better understanding of hair care.  I've tried some of these crazy methods that are on these internet streets from Castor oil challenge, Bentonite Clay masks all those things left my hair extremely dry I still wasn't seeing my curls pop like they were at the beginning of my journey.  Once I obtain my licensed in 2014 I wanted to take more classes on natural hair it wasn't many that were offered.  The one academy I took for a year was Rare Essence Academy were Iearned a lot of braiding, twist updo styles.

So from then on, I was still rocking my weave styles faithfully. By this time I'm an Eco styler, Shea Moisture, and oils were very heavily apart of my regimen olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil you name it I had my little oil mix I used three times a week.  

In 2016 I came across this challenge "30-day hair detox" where they wanted you to not use any oils, shea butter or Eco styler gel.  I'm like this should be interesting challenge, cause I'm always up for a challenge LOL.  I've tried challenge before so why not.  So I purchased the products off the list and begin the challenge and I loved my hair was getting on the right path but I still was wearing weave so I was only shampooing my hair every 3-4 weeks.  My hair was'nt getting quite hydrated as it could be.​

Day 1 of 30 day hair detox this is how my hair looked

Hair after getting straight cuts didn't transition into natural style at all

In 2016 I've reached my goal of bra strap length hair.  But then in 2017, I experience some heat damage from getting my hair flat iron to get my trims done.  It was horrible in the front I have a loose wavy pattern & I had some damage that was all the way to the root.  From then on I opted to take direct heat out my regimen.  I was getting the damaged trimmed off every time I got my maintenance trims.  In September of 2017 was the last time I wore weave I was just ready to rock my own hair.  But know we have a major problem since I was getting my hair cut straight and when I wore my hair in its natural state the cut looked horrible.  My top crown area shrinks up a lot and too much was cut off in the straight state.  So now I can wear my natural hair cause it looked messed up.  So I started doing updo styles until I can get this cut right. 

​This is the longest my hair got before it got heat damaged

So the Ladies Aeleise and Aishia that started the "30-day hair detox", start teaching professional who specializes in natural hair.  In March of 2018 while attending the Cut it Kinky class I end up getting my hair cut in a curly cut cutting off a lot of damage.  Now I would have to be doing corrective cutting until my heat damage was all gone basically transitioning all over again. From then I was only wearing my hair in a wash & go styles some times I may do a twist out.  Sticking to a strict hydrating regimen, no more oils, butter or direct heat.  I've got ever trim/cut needed every 10-12 weeks not skipping an appointment.

Before Cut

After Cut

April 2018 

August 2018

October 2018

December 2018

April 2019

June 2019

As of today with me writing this post I've seen my hair transform in so many ways since last year when I got my curly cut.  The damage didn't happen in one night so I knew it will be a journey to get my hair back healthy & hydrated.  I know you may get a curly cut & feel like my hair isn't quite what I thought it would be after this visit.  Hydration doesn't happen in one visit you have to be patient and listen to my instructions, use the products I recommended, follow the hair regimen given, and keep up on getting regular trims/cuts.

It's really not any magic oil to speed up hair growth, wearing all those weaves styles constantly and not cleaning my hair regularly left my hair dehydrated.  If your ready to take this journey to healthy hydrated hair I'm here to assist you.

Stay the course it will be well worth it in the end.