Hello Ladies,
If feel like it is my duty to write this post because I feel like it could possibly deter you from making the same mistakes I did in my first year of being natural.
For those of you that didn't read my first post. I've been natural since April 2011 so that makes 19 months, but I have a TWA..how you ask? Well, I had to a big chop again August 2012 because of SEVERE heat damage. I thought that I rather go back to a TWA and start over than deal with damaged dry hair on my head:( Can you say setback??
Anyways after months of denial I finally became honest with myself. It was my own fault I ruined my own hair. Why would I do that?? Now that I think about I realized I was 1. uncomfortable with my shrinkage and 2. I thought blow dryed hair made me look cuter 3. I thought that the young men I was talking to at the time would accept my natural hair more in a stretched out state and 4. I wanted to show off my length.
I was fresh out of an relationship(with a person that didn't care if my hair was stretched or not) to single and ready to mingle. But also I was insecure and unsure about how these guys would react to my not so short but not so long natural hair. So anyways to get to the point every Friday I was blow drying my hair out for the weekend. I was using protectant but my techniques were all wrong ie: what direction to blow dry,what temp to have it on, how to section the hair. I just turned it on and waved it around my head while combing it out..OUCH:( i know But honestly that worked for me when I did it once every 3 months. No problem but honestly even with alll the protectant and techniques in the world blow drying every weekend was just to much for my hair.
I went for healthy curls to dry damaged half fried straight hair and half curly hair. It was a hot mess and nothing could save it, so it had to go. I was devastated and all the blow drying wasn't worth the year that I lost growing. Ladies it is not worth it. I believe that if your gonna go natural you have to learn to embrace that our most of our hair shrinks..dramatically. And I know there are so many women out there like myself that wanna show their length off at the club every weekend and want to DO these extra intricate styles every three days but ITS NOT WORTH THE HEALTH OF YOUR HAIR!!! So basically what I wanna say is what I learned from this experience that 1. you have to be on your journey for you and not worry about what others are thinking when they look at your hair 2.If a guy ain't feeling you with shrunken hair than he ain't the one for you and your wasting your time. Its important that you come to the table(relationship) just how you are naturally like when you step out the shower lol. There are so many techniques out there and youtubers that stretch their hair with no heat like my girl Naptural85. Her hair is gorgeous! So in conclusion I am in no way shape or form saying that if you use heat on your hair you hair will automatically be damaged. But what I am saying is its need to be done in moderation and if you ain't stretching with heat for you your doing it for the wrong reason.
What are you ladies thoughts on this?
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