NaturalJoyanne: My Hair Journey

Short Hair History As A Kid

My grandmother and my mom would straighten my hair with the hot comb and then braid it and that would be my style for how ever long it lasted. I remember not having long hair it was always very short and I don't know why. I don't remember if combing my hair use to hurt because that was so long ago. I think braiding it and the hot comb kept my hair stretched so it was easy to comb. I also had my hair in the Jerry Curly for awhile so that was really easy to maintain. After I stopped getting the Jerry Curl process done, I would straighten my hair with the hot comb myself. My style would usually be a bang in the front and ponytail in the back.

Short Hair History As a Teenager

After awhile I got my hair relaxed at the salon and would wear it in curls, ponytails. After awhile I started experimenting with different hairstyles. I had a hot comb, barrel curling iron, and small curling iron. I also always had shampoo, conditioner, box of relaxer, Pump It Up Spritz and Ampro Pro Style Gel. I never had moisturizing leave in and occasionally bought hair treatments. I use to create a lot of different hair styles with my hair as I saw it was a natural ability or gift from God. I did pins ups mostly with my own hair, buns and applied hair extensions and created different up do's. Creating these hairstyles where convenient and lasted me sometimes 1 to 2 weeks. Every time I took out a style I'd put another one in. At around 11 I got my first hair weave, because I was in a model show and had it installed at least 3 times after.

Short Hair History As a Adult

Before I graduated high school in 1999 I wasn't doing the creative hairstyles that much. I would straighten my hair with the hot comb a lot and just where it straight. After graduating I started working in a office I would relax my hair, apply semi permanent hair dye and just blow dry, flat iron and curl it. My hair wasn't long, but it was always thick I had Oprah Winfrey hair. Sometimes I would weave my hair or get it rowed back with braids from a beautician, but I did my hair mostly myself.

Beginning of My Hair Journey

After awhile I didn't feel like doing my hair and started going to a hair stylist regularly. I would have my hair relaxed every month or month and a half. I would have it set with rollers and dried it under the dryer, the curls would last me 2 weeks. After 2 weeks I would go back to the salon. Late 2007 I wanted to eat more organic and use more organic product's, so I decided to stop relaxing my hair. I didn't know anything about big chop or twists and twist outs. I was transitioning and had my hair weaved. The weave protected my new growth and was easy to maintain. I also braided my hair a few times. After awhile in 2008 I decided to cut of my relaxed ends and wore my hair in a low Afro, which I spotted proudly. I still braided my hair, but no weaves.

Check out my first hair journey video below:

Protective hairstyle while I transitioned.

My first big chop.

Protective style while my afro grew out.

The Journey Continues

After awhile I would flat iron my hair with the Remington Wet to Straight Flat Iron and wear my hair in ponytails with a puff in the back. Then I started watching more YouTube videos and in 2009 after my son was born, I learnt I could twist my hair and leave it like that. As my hair got longer I would twist it and then twist it out and wear it like that. I wore my hair twisted out for either a total of 2 weeks or 3 weeks at a time. Detangling was the biggest problem for me because I learnt that I had Type 4 hair. Which is brittle, dry and shrinks, and tangles a lot. Sometime around 2008 my health became a issue and doing my hair was a problem. I tried going to at least 3 different hairstylist, but they only ended up pulling out some of my hair. So I decided I'd continue doing my hair myself. By 2011 around April I'd had enough and decided to give relaxing another go. Only this time I wouldn't apply it as often and use the least harmful one I could find. I found my hair was still difficult to deal with because of how long and thick it had gotten. November 2011 I decided that after growing my hair to about 18 inches at it's longest it had ever been to do the big chop again.

My flat ironed hair after using the Remington Wet to Straight flat iron.

My hair in twists after growing my hair out for about 2 to 3 years.

How I wore my hair in Twist Outs.

My hair before I decided to Texlax it, in a braid out.

My Texlaxed hair, blowdryed and flatironed.

My big chop for the second time.

My hair starting to grow back.

How my hair looks blown out.

Some of the protective styles I've worn through my second big chop.

How I Feel About My Hair Now

This time around I hope to try more products, use moisture more in my routine. Find a way to cut down on my detangling time which would sometimes take 3 to 4 hours when I was natural because of the technique I used. I'm still obsessed with hair, but I'm not sure how long I want it to grow this time. Or if I'll have the patience to do it, it's easy to do other people hair, but after awhile you'll get tired putting your hand up in your hair. For now I just want it to grow to a length where I can twist it and do twist outs with out all the time. I found that relaxing required more upkeep than when it was natural, my only problem being natural is I didn't shampoo my hair often enough because I didn't want to deal with the tangles. My goal is to help other's who have problem with their Type 4 hair, because I feel it is the most difficult to deal with. This time I'll be documenting my whole journey wherever it takes me, because let's face it, I'm still crazy obsessed about hair.