April’s Journey
Hello,
I had natural hair until I was 12. Afterwards, I always had long, relaxed hair, but when I got pregnant with my daughter in 2009, I decided to make a change. Now, there’s an old wise tale that says that your child’s hair will be the way that your hair is when pregnant. I knew that she had a great chance of having curls due to my grandfather being mixed on both my mother and father’s side plus my husband’s mother is mixed. So after I made the decision to transition, I got my hair pressed every two weeks by a well known hairdresser. Now the story begins…
My hairdresser was pressing my roots and my ends while I still had a relaxer on my ends. I had no idea that it was a major “no no” to do that until my hair started getting shorter and shorter on one side. It had gotten so short that I was thinking about cutting it off. I didn’t do that. I went back to the relaxer one more time after about 3 months natural. I had to get my hair back to its length. My hair grew fairly quickly so that was definitely my last time getting relaxed and after that, I stopped getting it pressed. I still got my hair done every two weeks, I just got it blow dried and flat ironed until it was to a point of manageability.
I was up for a challenge. While pregnant, my hair stayed dry and nothing would keep it moisturized. Of course I was new to being natural and I wasn’t into YouTube in order to get advice so I just kept my hair in a bun. After I had my daughter, my edges started thinning and she came out bald. I thought “oh my gosh, my baby doesn’t have any hair”. I was praying every day for her and myself because of my crazy edges. Time went on and after about a year, all of my relaxed ends where gone and my hair started to retain a little more moisture. I tried different products from Carols Daughter, Miss Jessie’s, etc. it wasn’t actually until this year that I found products that work for me. In the past, I wasn’t keeping my hair moisturized with that much water but now I keep it hydrated and oiled and it’s so smooth. I use Shea butters and am sure to use leave in conditioners. I use Giovanni leave in and Mane and Tail shampoo and conditioner. I also switch my shampoo to Jason natural shampoo sometimes. When my hair was at its longest during my relaxers, I use mane and tail products. My hair is a curly 3b or 3c with a ton of shrinkage and is at my shoulders when straightened.
As for my daughter, her hair started sprouting out finally after she turned one. Her hair is a 2c/3a grade. It has a lot of shrinkage but I wont straightened it to see how long it actually is. When I pull her curl down, it’s to her tailbone. I had a problem with keeping her hair moisturized to because it sucked up everything that I put on her hair. I’ve found that her hair works best with water and Shea moisture curling milks and butters.
I apologize for the long story but I had to share. I’ve been natural for 5 years and loving it! My daughter and I share yet another trait and that is with our beautiful, curly, natural hair.
