My mum began taking me to a salon to get my hair chemically processed when I was 8 but she didn't take me for regular retouches so my hair was always breaking off. This picture was taken when I was 10 after my hair had been curly permed.
A friend relaxed my hair straight when I was 12 and my older sister began to retouch my roots. This pictures was taken in 1996 when I was 14. I used to tong my fringe all the time so I started to get heat damage.
The above picture was taken in December 1999. My hair was cut into a short style but it was over-processed. I was inspired to go natural by Peggy Dillard-Toone who had a Question and Answer section in Sophisticate's Black Hair Styles and Care Guide Magazine. Peggy would often encourage readers to use Jojoba Oil to do Twist-Outs on their natural hair so they could wear it in curly styles.
I started transitioning from relaxed to natural hair at the end of December 1999. I transitioned for 16 months wearing my hair cornrowed up into a ponytail with extensions. I would wrap the base of the cornrows with a satin scarf so I wouldn't have to worry about them looking messy when I washed my hair.
When I was ready to wear my hair naturally, I used Jojoba Oil to do a Twist-Out as Peggy suggested but the oil wasn't heavy enough to keep my hair moisturised. I went to the salon to get my hair pressed on two different occasions but my hair would revert after a day. I asked a few hair stylists if they would be able to texturise my hair and they all told me that they would only texturise short hair. As I didn't know how to prevent my natural hair from drying out I decided that it would be best to relax my hair.
I relaxed my hair in the spring of 2001 when I was 19. By that time I had been reading Sophisticates Black Hair Magazine on a regular basis so I new how to take care of my relaxed hair. I used a mild children's relaxer to help to prevent my hair from becoming overprocessed and I stayed away from curling tongs. I would wash and condition my hair on a weekly basis and I would do roller sets for volume. In this photo my hair is gelled down and the front and pinned up at the back.
On 30th June 2002 I lightly texturised my new growth and I began to use curl activator products to keep my hair moisturised. I realised that glycerin based products would prevent my natural hair from drying out so I decided to go natural again. I transitioned from relaxed to natural hair for 18 months wearing braids and weaves that I would do myself.
The above photo was taken in 2006 when I was 24. I wore my hair in an afro a few times but the style required too much combing which leads to breakage.
The afro puff is one of my favourite styles. In the above photo I set my hair in large Bantu Knots overnight using water and a homemade hair pomade. I used the pomade to smooth my hair down before wrapping it with a satin scarf.
In September 2014 I took part in a Horse Safari whilst on vacation in Turkey. At one point we stopped off at a lake so the horses could cool down. The tour guide asked us to step into the water and play some water games. The water was freezing cold so I wasn't enthusiastic about getting wet. The tour guide noticed my reluctance to immerse myself in the water so he asked the other participants to splash me. I got completely drenched. I was wearing my hair in a low bun and it quickly shrunk up and became detangled. That experience inspired me to loc my hair. Prior to getting locs I did a ton of research. After spending many hours reading and watching videos about locs I decided upon Braidlocs.
My Braidloc journey began in January 2016 when I started to install tiny microbraids in my hair. By the time that I had finished I had 620 braidlocs. The above picture is what my freshly installed braids looked like when soaking wet and the below picture is what they looked like when dry.
I love braids but because my natural hair is medium to low density I would rarely braid my hair without added extensions for thickness. I felt quite self conscious about the thinness of my hair in the above picture but I knew that my hair would thicken as the new growth came in. I interlocked the roots using the four point rotation with a yarn needle.
The above picture was taken in July 2017 and by that time my braidlocs were quite frizzy. Braid-Outs and wet sets were a great way to style my hair on special occasions as they smoothed out the frizz.
The above photo was taken on October 2017 while I was on vacation in Santorini. I loved the ease and convenience of braidlocs as I was able to jump into the sea without worrying about my hair. However, I found it difficult to find time to retighten my roots. I started un-picking my locs with a pin in January 2018 but it was taking too long so I cut off the majority of my locs in June 2018.
The above picture was taken in September 2019. I love my afro puff but I found it damaging for my edges. I started to consider getting a curly perm because I didn't want to spend too much time on my hair.
The above video was filmed on 9th April 2020. At this point I was getting tired of having to do my hair and I felt that it would be easier if I had no hair.
This picture was taken on 18th April 2020 - one week after I shaved off my hair. I loved having short hair but I missed my afro so I decided to grow it back out. The rest of my hair journey can be found throughout this blog.
