Curly Hair Chronicles: My Road to Recovery

So this took some guts to post but here goes my spill...

I grew up with locs of curls so tightly coiled you could stick straws in them...and I absolutely HATED them. Even with the abundance of compliments to myself and to my mom on how long and gorgeous (3 feet of long and gorgeous at that) my hair was, the maintence and lack of hair care knowledge was just overwhelming at such a young age. I began to try to switch things up after my mom finally let me get a few minor highlights my 8th grade year in school. They were very minimal and I’m sure she just did that to shut me up, but from there I was hooked to changing my hair up and in a short span of 4 years I managed to have well over 30 different hair colors from blonde to brown to blue, pink, purple, red, black....you get the point. The constant dyeing and bleaching just to dye again, and bleach again took a major toll on what was once my long beautiful curly locs.

By my junior year in high school, my hair was so long I began to sit on it. I had started straightening my hair entirely too often around my sophomore year bc the maintenance was easier. So not only was my hair becoming brittle, dry, and heat damaged, but the breakage was getting real as well. By the time I entered my senior year I had cut all of my hair off to right past my shoulders and began wearing weave to get my length back (terrible weave jobs at that, but I’m being very meek today) I had NO IDEA what I was doing even after years of my mom telling me to stop damaging my curls before I lose them and never get them back.

Boy, was she right.

My freshman year in college my breakage was so bad that I decided to wear more weave and even had a closure twice to try and grow out my badly broken edges/bangs again. I had realized how much I missed my curls and I really started to feel less pretty and more average about myself. I stopped going out. I couldn’t leave the heat alone because my natural state was broken and practically wet dog straight. My curls were ABSOLUTELY GONE. G o n e. Not nam curl in my head. There was a point when my hair situation was so depressing I would cry looking in the mirror so I started getting ready for class in my bedroom and not the bathroom, and then one day I really decided I was going to do better. 

I say all this to say that 1. Momma is always right. Always! But not exactly right about everything, because yes I may have lost my curls...but Ive got them back. My sophomore year in college I was still using lots of color but I kept blonde for pretty much the whole year. I was still using a flat iron to hide the damage of heat and bleach. By the summer of 2016, I decided I would do something fun with my hair before I got serious and stopped coloring it, so I dyed it grey and kept it in until my 21st birthday. 

By my 21st birthday I had already begun changing my eating habits to the healthy habits they are now, and I had actually begun to see an improvement in my hair texture just from eating healthily even when I was still using heat. I decided then that I would leave heat alone and focus on rejuvenating/revitalizing my curl pattern. 

Has it been easy? Hell no. At first it was a bit embarrassing bc my hair was half straight half wavy and I had no idea what to do with it so I kept it pulled back a lot of the time. Then I began experimenting with products such as Shea Moisture, Aussie, Flawless Hair by GabU, Dr.Miracle, Carols Daughter, Hairfinity, and others to name. By May I had seen tremendous improvement and since then have used heat all of twice on my head (special occasions only). 

Now, my curls are in the process of a major recovery. I use self made products (I’m a whole pro with this hair care stuff now) and I’m always looking for new hair masks or oils to promote strength and growth!

I’ve left pics for y’all to see, don’t judge me it’s a touchy spot for me to share with y’all and I blocked my chapness in nearly all of them lol. I’m so thankful God has shown me patience through my road to recovery & that I can now say I’m 100% happy with my growth and pattern (though I’m never satisfied) and am working still to achieve the tight coils I’ve missed so greatly.

WHERE THE DAMAGE BEGAN:

THE RECOVERY PROCESS:

WHERE I AM NOW ❤️

Love your self. Love your hair. Don’t be like me & mess up a good thing. Embrace what you have and be creative with it! I’ll be posting a few favorite products (self made and store bought) that helped me achieve my curl transformation soon! Xoxo Dom❤️