The Story Behind My Glory.

But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for [her] hair is given her for a covering.
1 Corinthians 11:15 (KJV)

Because I just made two years being natural in November, and because I have so many friends now going natural I have decided to share my journey.
My story starts out very similar to so many naturals. I had natural hair up until the 6th grade when my mom decided that it was just to much to deal with so she put a relaxer on it. I didn’t have any problems with the relaxer ,in fact I loved it. I could wear my hair DOWN…something I wasn’t able to do a lot when my hair was natural. As a natural, my mom pressed my hair…ugh…I hated getting my hair pressed, I never escaped without a burn on my scalp or my ear…PURE TORTURE, my head would be sore for days after getting my hair pressed. Can you imagine and many of you can because you went through this same process, but imagine putting Blue Magic grease on your hair then taking a hot pressing comb to your roots therefore melting the grease, and the grease running down to your scalp, causing you have third degree burns all over your head..LOL. And please don’t forget about the smell of burnt hair that stayed in your head until the next wash day, which meant you were heading for torture all over again. So again, getting a relaxer was a welcomed change. Over the years, my mom got somewhat lazy and didn’t do a great job on maintaining my new found freedom, so by the time I got to highschool I had all kind of breakage. Then by the grace of God, my aunt who is a beautician moved into town and I was able to get my hair back to a healthy state, but not without a price. I had to cut off a lot of my damaged ends but it didn’t really matter, I kept my hair , as my mother would say, “balled up” any way so no one would notice. I spent most of my teenage years walking around looking like Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez…I loved her bangs and “balled up hair..

Fast forward a few years, and I am now on my own to take care of my hair. This required me a tomboy to learn how to apply her own relaxer. This was not fun! I hated doing my own hair and at the time we couldn’t afford to send me to the shop every other week or so to keep it up so I like so many before me resorted to the old stand by..relaxer in a box. My husband and I for years applied the creamy crack to my head to give me that oh so sleek and straight look. This would continue for awhile until I finally decided enough is enough..I hated relaxers and I just wanted to get back to my roots, literally. So in October of 07 I got my last relaxer! Last relaxer

I grew my hair out or transitioned for a year. During this time, I flat ironed my hair straight until I started getting a lot of new growth, then I started wearing braids , I only did the braid thing once, I hated taking out the micros..ugh. So instead of weaves and braids, I just went to the beauty shop every two weeks and got my hair roller set, and once a month I would get a few inches of the straight hair cut off. I did this so it wouldn’t be a such a shock to my husband..LOL..going from long to short hair in one day would have messed him up Lol. I did this for a whole year and then in November 08 I cut off all the straight ends. By the way. A lot of people experience breakage during transitioning but because I went to the shop every other week and keep my hair nice and conditioned I didn’t experience a lot.




roller set

micros

Now it has been two years since I have been completely natural. I don’t count the transitioning period as being natural, I start from the day I did the big chop. My hair has grown a lot. It is longer than it was before I transitioned. I have maintained growth due to a lot protective styling. I don’t wear my hair out a whole lot. During the week, I don’t mess with my hair a lot. I keep it twisted up and pinned up to protect my ends. I usually wear it out or in a cut style on Sundays to church or on special occasions. I will talk about my regimens and the products I use in another post.