Needless to say, although neither of the pictures above seem to illustrate any kind of damage, my hair did not look like that for
more than a few months.
The more I heat styled, the drier and more split my hair got. I also began to lose my curl pattern, and eventually started
losing length:
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| Yes, people. Heat damage is real!! |
Also I found styling my hair incredibly tedious. My
washing and detangling technique (or lack thereof) made me believe my hair was
unmanageable. Washing was such a chore: I used sulphate shampoos which would cause my hair to shrink and knot, I didn't detangle properly with my conditioner, and then I would start the process of ripping through my hair with my hairdryer and pik attachment, effectively giving myself a (bad) haircut every time I washed. I never looked forward to wash day, and would delay as long as possible, meaning I would go several weeks without getting proper moisture in my hair.
I didn’t want to start braiding constantly again, and I was just looking
for a simple way to get ‘wash and wear’ hair. I somehow got it into my head (thanks
to some other clueless hairdresser) that a texturizer would be the answer. A
texturizer. On heat damaged hair!!!!
Well peeps, this stringy mess was the result:
 |
| Texturizing + continued heat styling + other bad haircare practises |
From the second I did it, I regretted it.
My hair was dull and limp, and literally broke off every time I touched it. I
had to cut inches off every couple of months. So I decided to
transition back almost straight away. Although I had BC’d the first time I'd gone
natural, this time around I couldn’t psychologically bring myself to shave it all off, and I went back to the constant braiding after all.
It was around this time
that I started doing a lot of research into natural hair care, and the internet was a complete treasure trove of information.
After finally getting rid of the last few texturized ends, my hair went
from here:
 |
| Oct '09 |
To here:
 |
| April '10 |
To here:
 |
| Dec '10 |
I was initially very focussed on length, but after a few months focussed more on health. That meant doing things like giving myself trims as and when I needed them (more often in fact, as I tried to get the front to catch up with the back), instead of hanging onto stringy damaged split ends just because I wanted to be a certain length.
And with health, the length came naturally.
And the difference in texture, softness and shine is so obvious it even shows in pictures, as illustrated in these ones of my early twistouts taken in October '09, when I was just starting off on this healthy hair journey...
 |
| This was actually about an hour before I chopped off the last bits of texturizer |
... compared to what it looks like now that I understand my hair's properties, know how to handle it, have a proper regimen, have sorted out my moisture-protein balance, figured out its likes and dislikes, pay attention to ingredients and am selective about the products I use:
 |
| The journey so far... |
Despite my numerous chops, my hair is NOW the longest it has ever been, and I have hit BSL several times. I haven't straightened in a long time, but if I ever do (taking adequate care), I will make sure I post a comparison to the flat ironed picture above.
So you see, people, although none of the earlier pictures show my hair looking particularly bad (apart from the ghastly texturizer stage which we shall block from our memories as soon as we're done reading this post), it is obvious when compared to what it looks like now that it had not reached its full potential, and it probably still hasn't.
Now that was a ramble and a half
and I'll try and keep it to a page next time, but I didn't launch into
all of this to brag. Well... maybe a little... because I really do love my hair... but my main point was that finding these pics reminded me
that there was a time that I too struggled with it, and although I never went through the phase that some people go through where they hate it, there were points when I
thought it was a lost cause. If I'm honest, the reason I was worried to
cut my hair off the second time was that I had gotten used to having
long hair, and I was under the impression that I had reached an age
where my hair would never grow back. How wrong I was.
Yes, ultimate hair length, growth rates, textures, etc are genetic. Some of us will have loose curls, some of us will have tight kinks. Some of us will have both. Some of us will end up with waist length hair, and some of us will not. All that matters is that we figure out what is best for our own hair and help it to reach its full potential. And at the end of the day, and as cliche as it might sound, all healthy hair really is beautiful!
I hope that through the series of posts that I have written, I can pass on what worked for me, and offer encouragement to anyone who might be feeling disillusioned about their journey. Hopefully you will be able to take something from them that you can make work for you.
Until next time, have a good one, my lovelies!
...
In the next post, I talk about growth and retention (here's a hint: pretty much everybody's hair grows. If you think your hair is not growing, you are probably just having issues retaining it!)
