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When I decided to embark on my natural hair journey 3 years ago, I didn’t know what to expect. I was really anxious but excited to begin learning about how to take care of my own hair, something I honestly had never been quite invested in up until that point. My natural hair journey thus far has taught me so much about my hair and myself, and has also introduced me to this new community I never knew existed. This blog was actually started to document my hair journey, and although I’m really happy with the current direction of my blog, I am so upset that I have been neglecting to consistently post about what’s going on with my hair. Now that I’m posting stuff on stuf on stuff (if you have no idea what I’m talking about you should watch this vid I just uploaded.) I have literally NO EXCUSE to not be more consistent with sharing. Also, 11/1 was my big chop anniversary! Woo hoo! Hooray! Cue the loud obnoxious DJ airhorn sound effect! Reflecting on my journey for the past three years, I’ve seen a lot of growth and also a lot of breakage (*cries*) but I actually really love my length at the moment and I feel like the tapered look has sort of become my signature style…but you guysss…The Texas girl in me wants hair that is as big as possible, so I’m still on a mission to attain that. I recently went to the Miss Jessie’s Salon in Soho (#treatyoself) and I will be doing a separate post on that and my experience, but I got my ends trimmed and bought some new products and I am excited to see what happens! I recently made a commitment to myself to actually learn how to do some protective styles that don’t involve wigs or weave or crochet so I can bond with my hair and understand it better. Y’all pray for me because I don’t know how this will go, but I’m feeling some similar excitement that I felt when I first went natural. It just seems like another phase or layer within the process that will teach me new ways to love myself and I am ALWAYS down for that. SO. Since I haven’t posted update pictures since 4 months after my big chop a.k.a. an eternity ago, here are some new updated pictures below so you can see where I’m at. You should also take a peek at my hair story here, and I’m pretty sure you can see me fresh after my big chop! So much progress since then wow! Without further ado…

 

 

 

If anyone reading this has some good progress pictures, please share them below!! I would so love to see them and talk about your hair journey!

 

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Guys.  Please ignore the fact that I look like a homeless hunchback lumberjack and CHECK OUT THAT GROWTH!!!  Only 4 months after my big chop!!  I was super faithful to my regimen to get this far (which means a lot of moisture and faithful deep conditioning) and I think I owe a lot of this new growth to my protective style!  It was an extremely harsh winter and I was determined to keep my hair safe and tucked away so it was braided with a little bit left out so I could wear my Big Chop U-Part wig, which I absolutely LOVED.

 

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so fierce right?  I don’t think I will ever not love big dramatic hair.  So this was an extremely exciting time for me because I could really see how much progress I had made in such a short amount of time!  My edges were filled in and thick and I was getting length on the top which was sooo unbelievably exciting.  It’s always nice to see progress after you put a lot of hard work (and TLC) into something, but I think especially for women of color who have believed the lie that your hair doesn’t grow for so long..this is proof..it grows!!  I’m going to keep this post fairly short, because this is already 2 months old and I am officially at my 6 month mark!!  I just wanted to catch you guys up from when I was being a bad blogger.  In addition to posting my 6 month length check update pictures, I will also be posting a piece about my choice/use of protective styles so stay tuned for that!  As always, I’d love to see pictures of you on your journey and hear about the things you’ve experienced along the way so please share in the comments below!  Stay encouraged, stay moisturizing, and remember that shrinkage is too real y’all.

 

 

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Hi guys!

So my initial plan was to post monthly pictures to show any progress or new growth that I was experiencing and so far I have only done it for the first month after my big chop (whoops).  Granted, I’m only two months out, so it’s not like my plan is completely foiled but now it’s protective style season so my hair isn’t really out as often to take pictures.  I think what I’m going to do is take pictures after I get my braids out in a week, which will then be almost 3 months post B.C., and then maybe do an odd number series like 5 months out, 7 months out, etc. I also need to be more consistent with how I’m taking the pictures, so I’m going to work on doing that for you guys.  SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO..

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So for those of you who missed it, or maybe just forgot, you can see what my hair looked like immediately after I took my tracks out as well as immediately after my big chop here.  It might be hard for y’all to tell, but I already had a lot of growth after only one month.  The sides of my hair had already filled in a lot and the top had grown a bit as well.  I plan on eventually writing a post about the big chop experience, but for now I’ll just say that it’s super difficult but so worth it.  My hair felt so much better immediately after and it just looked a million times healthier.  It’s like I could hear it cheering “hooray!” and thanking me for getting rid of all the dead stuff that had been holding it back.  The big chop was the step I needed to take to prepare my hair for all the amazing, new TLC that was coming its way, and it really responded as a result.

The first month was also like a trial period for me to see if I enjoyed the products that I was using and if I thought the regimen I had created was working. I can now say that for the most part, I only made a couple of changes (It’s in my nature to be a product junkie, but I’m too scared that I’m going to mess up my hard work to play around too much yet!!) and I really found something that worked for me! That regimen and the products I used in the first month are explained here.

I must also say that I had a couple of rough patches, where I would have moments of insecurity or doubt in what I was doing or feelings of being unattractive or boyish.  I found though, that after reminding myself that society’s view of what’s “beautiful” is not necessarily true and that I had my own different, original kind of beauty, my negative feelings would subside a little.  I also really relied heavily on the support of my loved ones and the fact that the people who really cared about me would support me and treat me the same, no matter what my hair looked like.  I feel like all of these things I’m saying are so cliché, but it’s so easy to forget them.  Just saying these statements to myself out loud was a good and necessary reminder that I was on a beautiful journey of self-discovery and I wasn’t alone!

Overall, the first month was incredibly exciting for me and I was embracing all of the new challenges and experiences that accompanied being natural for the first time in a really long time.  It was crazy to see how much had changed since I was last natural (which was years ago, when I was like..12) and see all of the new developments and cool, yummy smelling products!  It was also amazing to really delve into the natural community that I had no idea existed and find solidarity in beautiful women going through exactly what I was going through.

What were some of your biggest struggles in your first month? How did you over come these struggles?  Comment below, I’d love to hear about it!

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