When my journey began, I didn’t know going natural would not only transition my damaged relaxed hair, but transform me COMPLETELY.
What do you mean transform you? When I decided to start this journey, my hair was chemically damaged, medications was causing my hair to fall out, I was 142 pounds (in a 5’1” frame), I was smoking cigarettes, and suffering from chronic migraines.
I went to Jamaica with my family in December 2009. When we came back, my hair was a mess! I went to the store and got a box relaxer, put it in and rolled it with rod rollers. I started doing this years ago…just because I liked the way it looked and so did everyone else. That night, I had a migraine headache so bad; I could barely lift my head up. When I woke up the next day, I still had a migraine…I suffered with chronic migraines for years. I started to read on the triggers of migraines and how it’s important to watch what we put on our bodies as well as in our bodies. This is where my journey began…
My Story….
I ran into a hairstylist, that used to do my hair when I was younger, while at the hospital getting treated for a migraine. She looked at my hair and said your hair is really damaged…you should think about cutting it off! WHAT…cut my hair? My grandfather told me a long time ago that a black woman’s hair~is her beauty! No…I’m not cutting my hair! I decided to do research to see what I could do at home to help strengthen my hair. After reading a few articles on the ingredients in relaxers and the effects it has on your hair and body…I was shocked! I started to dig further…if this stuff is so BAD, why are we putting it in our HAIR? The companies that make this stuff have to know that it’s bad? My doctor said, just because it’s in the store, doesn’t mean you should buy/use it! I started shampooing and conditioning my hair and rolling it with cold wave rods. I would wear it curly like this for a month and continued to do this every month. I started to get a lot of compliments on my hair!
One night, my family and I watched “Good Hair” by Chris Rock. I wasn’t shocked, I had already done the research and spoke to a lot of people about our hair products…What surprised me, was how many people knew that this stuff was bad and continued to use it! At some point in time, we lost the concept that our black is beautiful. Who said we needed to have straight hair…when did our natural roots become so ugly, that we needed to cover it with this crap… I never thought about why I had to use gloves to put the relaxer on my hair! Everything started to make sense!
During that research I stumbled upon articles not only about the products we put in our hair, but the foods we eat and how they affect us! I said, Oh Lord…NO! Not the food too…What's really going on! The research was so overwhelming! I had no idea what I was putting in my body! I stopped eating processed meat and I stopped eating beef/pork…It was SO hard! How can I stop eating bacon, pork chops, hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries….all that good good :o)! The more research I found, the more disgusted I became…
One of my co-workers suggested we do the Sacred Heart Soup Diet to detox our bodies. I thought to myself, how in the hell am I going to eat soup for 7 days! Only SOUP :0/…I wasn’t too sure about this but I did it anyway. I needed to lose weight, it won’t hurt to try. On the first day, we weighed in. I was 142 lbs. By the 4th day of the diet, I was SICK of soup! I wanted some real food (but I didn’t stray from the diet), we weighed in again after lunch that day…I LOST 8 lbs! 8 lbs in 4 days just eating SOUP (skim milk, fruits, and vegetables)? Wow! I lost a total of 12 lbs in 7 days. I started exercising. Feeling good~Eating healthy!
For the next couple of months, I continued to transition with my hair and weight. Going natural was not as easy as I thought it would be. Thank goodness for my cousin Megan, YouTube, and Google Search lol...I didn't do the "BIG CHOP" like must people. I was afraid of what my head would look like! So, once a month I rolled my hair with the cold wave rods.
By November of 2010, I was down to a 125 in weight and my hair was getting HUGE! I started to get frustrated! My hair was getting tangled (the relaxed hair and the natural hair)...they were having a war! Slowly but surely I started cutting the ends of my hair. I went thru a few rough spells where my hair looked like who done it and why....I can’t leave the house looking like this! At this point, rolling my hair was not as option! So what do I do? I talked to my cousin Megan. She got a blow out from the Dominican's....that was not an option for me (besides, I heard so many horror stories about the heat and the pulling). Then Megan suggested that I go on YouTube because there's a lot of video's dedicated to natural hair styling.
SO now all of the relaxer is gone! March 2011, I'm 100% natural....
I tried a few different styles from different people and of course, called Megan. Megan said she liked the prettydimples YouTube channel. I went and checked it out...Hallelujah! More things I didn't know...Co-washing, protein treatments, hair steamers~
Every day I learn something new about being natural…and my weight, looking fierce! 113 lbs
