Hair Today

Once upon a time I was working with this. . . Look at all of that smooth lusciousness. But right now I'm talking about my hair.


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 my escape from Arkansas. My bad, our move to Georgia. Paying sixty dollars to go to the shop to get my hair relaxed every other month or so just wasn't happening and wouldn't be happening for the forseeable future. Getting a kit and doing it at home myself is what got me into my breaking, thinning, over processed situation in the first place.

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 was mighty, mighty short. Fun fact. . . do you know what's awesome about my natural black hair? What looks like one inch of hair is actually about four to five inches.

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.