
It looked good, but looks, as we have established, aren't everything. Everywhere I went I was hounded by a trail of broken hairs. I couldn't get dressed and out the door in the morning without brushing hair off of my shoulders. Couldn't run my fingers through it because it would break off. I hesitated to wear white shirts and sweeping up hair in the bathroom became my job because I was the one with the problem.
My hair was seriously weak. And the final disgrace? It was starting to thin!
I don't know if I can express how horrified this made me. I was the girl with the thick hair. It was never, ever, long-but it was thick. That was my claim to fame and to suddenly become the chick with the limp, lifeless hair was heartbreaking.
I wish that those reasons were behind my decision to "go natural."* Unfortunately, it was nothing so health conscious and sane as that. What was my motivation?
Money. Filthy lucre.
I couldn't afford the straight look. At the time I made the decision I was aggressively saving and paying down debt to finance
What was a girl to do?
In my case? "Neutral jing, Aang."** Nothing.
Clearly NOT dumping hazardous chemicals on my head could only bring about improvement right? I stopped relaxing my hair in March of 2010. After a disastrous microbraiding incident in August, I decided to give up the ghost, i.e., my relaxed ends. Wes cut my hair for me and I went from that pseudo glorius before to this. . .
It has been five months since we chopped off my hair loose it looks a little more like this, all stretched out.
Broken hairs are few and far between and shed hair only comes out when I detangle. It's a lot to wrangle with on a daily basis and I'm just not that great at it yet but it is thickening up nicely.
I did learn how to do my own twist extensions though and I did my second set over the holidays to give myself a break from the hair. My hair today . . . .

*I have issues with the phrase. It makes it sound like I'm about to go on some weird ass vegan safari or something. No one else? Just me? Maybe I just have issues.
**Avatar: the Last Airbender. Shut up, the cartoon is awesome. Shyamalan's travesty on the other hand . . . there are no words.