Natural is Beautiful

I decided to go natural in March of this year. Going natural is when a woman stops using harmful chemicals and perms in her hair and starts to embrace the hair she was born with.

For years, I got perms because my mother made me go get them. Getting perms to straighten my hair made my hair break off a lot.

I was tired of having damaged hair and I wanted my hair to be healthier and grow longer, so this is why I decided to embrace my natural hair.

I did my research by looking at YouTube videos about natural hair, pinning pictures of women with natural hair on Pinterest, and talking to some of my friends and family members who have natural hair as well. All of that prepared me for my natural hair journey…so I thought.

Looking at videos and pictures is one aspect, but actually cutting off all of the damaged hair and getting use to my natural hair was a tough situation to grasp.

In March when my hairdresser finished cutting my hair, I was nearly bald. It took a while for me to actually like it.

I stood in front of the mirror for a while trying to embrace this new look, I came to terms with it and then headed out into the world. I wasn’t very confident about my new look, but I tried to stay positive.

Now, nine months later, my hair is the healthiest it has ever been and it is growing rapidly. I also inspired a lot of girls to go natural as well, which is pretty exciting.

My hair is very coiled and kinky, so it looks shorter than it really is. In the natural world we call that shrinkage.

I am excited to get my hair straightened with a flat iron soon to see how long it truly is. I plan on doing that in March of 2015 because it will be exactly a year since I big chopped.

It may be a lot of work to keep up with it, but I am happy that I embraced my natural hair!

*The pictures go in order from my big chop in March, to how long it currently is now 🙂