Welcome Sistah Girl to Sistah Curl Journey!
August will be five years since I've started the natural journey. Honestly, I had never been a fan of natural hair until I met one of my nurse practitioner students, named Kiya. Kiya wore her hair in the cutest, tiniest locs. We would talk about the pros of natural hair (because Kiya would never admit to there being any cons – LOL! I love you Kiya!)
Several months after meeting Kiya (who became a very good and what I consider a lifelong sistah-friend) I read an article in Essence magazine about the negative effects of relaxing your hair. One of them was thinning hair. This really caught my attention because my mother all her life had a head full of thick and long beautiful tresses. Somewhere around the age of 60 her hair began to thin. At 74 my mom's hair is silver, beautiful, and still long, but much thinner. And my grandmother’s hair began thinning around the same age.
Do you get where I’m going with this? Thinning hair for me is genetic! It’s in my DNA! I was blessed to inherit my mom’s thick gorgeous hair. No way was I going to allow it to become prematurely thin. The next time I saw Kiya, I made a bold proclamation. “Guess what? I’m going natural!” Of course, my dear friend was a bit skeptical. And she should have been. I was in my late 30’s and had been relaxing my hair since I was 14. She didn’t think I could do it. So I gave her this challenge, “If I go a year without relaxing you have to take me out to dinner, and if I breakdown and go back to my old ways, I owe you dinner.” It was on!
I must admit, the transition for me wasn’t all that difficult. I went to my hairstylist weekly to get my hair washed, conditioned, blow dried and curled. I also maintained my schedule of getting my ends trimmed every 6-8 weeks.
I’m happy to say I never looked back on getting my hair relaxed, Kiya lost the bet, and I am loving my natural hair. Since I’ve been natural I’ve blown dry my hair straight, two-strand twisted and wore braid-out styles.
The one thing I noticed about my natural hair is that I have three different curl patterns. The nape is curled very tight, the crown and back curled a lot looser and the top and sides are wavy in a zig-zag pattern. I love how my hair looks when I braid it wet and then take them out, giving me a very wavy-curl look. So I began to wonder if there was a way I could bring my curls out with definition so I can forgo the braiding while it’s wet routine.
I went on you tube and did a search for curly hair. I came across this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvzJsTZ1bJQ&feature=fvst. It talks about the CG – Curly Girl Method. The video suggest reading Curly Girl: The Handbook by Lorraine Massey and Michele Bender. I downloaded the book on my NookColor. And guess what? There’s a chapter dedicated to African American hair! I read the entire book in 2 days.
After reading the book I decided to take the curly girl journey! This blog will follow my journey. I hope you take the journey with me!
Gaye Suzette
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| 2 month before going natural. It was a hot, humid day! |
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| Natural hair in braid-out |
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| Natural hair in flat & two-strand twist |
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| Natural hair in blow dry & curl |
Gaye, I like the blog! I started my natural journey about 3 years ago. I was preparing to go on a cruise, and my hair was dry and shedding a lot, and it was then I decided to try something different. I wanted my hair to grow, so I went natural. I was also inspired by my dear sister and friend....YOU! Currently my hair is twisted up in a style called stuffed twist, but I am preparing to use a new product by Carol's Daughter, and put my hair in a twist. I'll check back in with the results.
ReplyDeleteLove the blog, will be following along on your hair journey. Very excited for you.
ReplyDeleteSonia
Thanks DeeLiverMyHair and Curvy Girl for checking out my blog! I'm thrilled about this journey and I hope others become inpsired to embrace what God has given us. I tell you, I wish I had accepted the way He created my hair years ago. And not giving in to what society deem as beautiful. But it's never too late to go natural and love what God has blessed us with!
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