Natural Hair Journey Update

It has been nearly three months since I made the commitment to not heat style my hair for an entire year. It has been an absoloutely wonderful journey. My sister has even decided to go natural.













I thought I should post some updated pictures and share some of my product staples.




















6/3/2010 - Trey's 2nd Birthday Party






Style: Natural Curl






Products: Kinky Curly Pomade






Review: I don't wear this style often because as you can see my curl pattern is really tight, and my hair shrinks a lot. I like it because of how springy it is. Before I learned out to do a really good twist-out, I used to love Kinky Curly Pomade. Since I've been twisting my hair at least once a week and wearing a twist out on a regular basis, I have fallen in love with it. One thing I did notice once I had worked all of the product through my hair was that it made my hair heavy. When I was finished working the product throughout my hair, it was heavy.







P.S. Notice my niece's oh so cute twists!

6/4/2010 - Back Shot

Style: Chunky Twists

Products: Water, Carol's Daughter Healthy Hair Creme

Review: So pretty much since I returned from Baltimore, I've been wearing my hair in small twists during the week and rocking a full twist out on Sunday (or whenever I have somewhere to go). I loved this because the protective styling has been so good for my hair, but it takes me 3 hours to complete the twists. So last Friday night, I put some really chunky twists in my hair to see what the twist out would look like. The end result: I loved it!! The twist out lasted longer than my ususal twist outs from my small twists. So, I did it agai today.

Note: I don't leave home with these twists. I usually put them in at night and sleep with them then take them out in the morning.

Here's the finished twist-out!

I love quotes...yes I do.

Natural hair is a glorious movement, rapidly spreading like a sunrise. Now that it's daylight there is no excuse not to be apart of it. Naturally Obsessed blog via Camille Reed via Twitter

My First Weave!

Here are some pics of my first full weave. I'm having so much fun with it.

A Return to Self: The history of my natural hair journey

My natural hair journey actually began in 2006 when my stylist in Delaware, Ebon, encouraged me to stop relaxing my hair. He promised he would take really good care of my hair without relaxing it - so I haven't had a relaxer since September 2006.

With a stylist like Ebon, I used to get my hair done every two weeks and you couldn't even tell I wasn't relaxing it. I would drive from Baltimore to Delaware every other weekend, on a pretty regular basis to get my hair done.

Here are some pictures from that time:



In Spring 2008 when I was six months pregnant, I decided the drive every other weekend was getting to be a bit much. So, I started asking about stylists in Baltimore who knew how to handle natural hair. I didn't want to sit in somebody's chair every other week and hear that I should relax my hair. A co-worker actually introduced me to her stylist, who not only knew how to style natural hair, but had a gorgeous head of natural hair herself. So, in March 2008 I started going to Kim in Owings Mills.

Here are a few photos from that time:


After having Trey, I started wanting to wear my hair curly more often. With a new born baby, it became increasingly difficult to find time to get to the salon, and when I straightened it I just felt like I was going to end up bald headed. So, I started searching for products and ways to style my hair.

Here are some photos from that time:


I had a lot of fun during this time. Whenever I look at these photos I always see a bit of radiance in myself that I don't always see when I'm straightening my hair. I guess I'm most comfortable being in my own skin.

This past summer, I visited Kim and she said my hair was breaking a lot in the back. I'm not sure what that was attributed to, but it most likely was because my hair was lacking the needed moisture. So, I had her trim my hair and started straightening it again. I bought a Red flat-iron, some Chi silk infusion and felt like I could live like this forever.

Here are some pictures from this time:



Pretty good, huh? The reality is, I'm not a hairstylist, so while I may be able to curl it to look good, I wasn't taking good care of it in order to have healthy hair. My dream is to have a head of thick, healthy, natural hair. Every now and then, I get tired of feeding into the stereotype that in order to have pretty hair you have to have long, straight hair. When I feel like that I'll wash my hair and pull it back:



But last week I decided my hair deserves more. So, I visited Kamaria Creations near Old Town, and got two-strand twists professionally done. I love them! I'm setting out to go a year without heat-styling my hair. Protective style for me it is.

Here's a few pictures of the twists:



One week later and my hair has grown like a weed. As a friend on Twitter commented: "happy hair will do that!". Indeed it will. So, I'm so excited, because tomorrow I'm going for my first ever FULL weave. I was concerned because I know nothing about buying hair, and I wasn't sure the hair I ended up getting was going to look good. Then I found this YouTube video discussing the exact hair I bought, and it eased my worries. The only other time I've had a weave was for my wedding, and even then it was just a partial weave to make a full bun.

So, I'll let you know about the weave experience tomorrow!

Until then, I'm enjoying rocking the twist-out: