Strong & Healthy: My Hair Story

Junior Year

I don't remember what age I received my first relaxer, but it was many years ago. When I was younger, my Aunt owned a beauty salon and she would do my hair. By the time I made it to high school, she had moved away and I was on my own. I wore a lot of braided styles, pony tails, and wraps.

After Senior Prom

For my senior prom, I received my first hair cut. I had my hair cut in layers and hence began my love affair with the style...

I've almost always had shoulder length hair, but when I went to college, that's when I began experimenting. I tried braids once and a few pony tails and quickly decided that weave was not for me. I've just always preferred my own hair and at that point, I was pretty comfortable styling and maintaining it on my own. I did wear a few mo-hawks and I loved to do straw curls.

Around my sophomore year, I did find a stylist that kept my hair layered and I even experimented with color. I did a red rinse twice and ended up keeping the color for quite a few months. But she kept my hair trimmed and layered and I absolutely loved to flat iron my hair and have my "look" all the time.

My "Look"

A little off...

That was UNTIL... Spring 2006, she took a little too much off one side (being rushed) and my hair looked a little off. I was working in a different city that summer and I just wanted them to "even it up"...

What resulted was traumatic and devastating... I thought I looked like a boy and I hated it. But by the end of the summer, I was making it work.

I spent the next several months trying to grow my hair out. I eventually got back to my normal length by the next summer.

May 2007

And that pretty much brings me to my starting point in 2009. I continued to grow my hair out using the same habits: relaxer every month, flat iron every day, no deep conditioning, etc..