Hola Chicas y Chicos!!
In case you didn't get the memo, I am now 100% natural!! Natural hair that is!!! I no longer get my hair processed with relaxers anymore. My last relaxer was on October 27, 2010. In January, my husband had the "Good Hair" movie playing on the t.v, and I just happened to glimpse it. I'd heard of the movie before, but I never thought about going to see it. Anyways, as I watching the movie, I became very upset, shocked, appalled, disgusted, scared, angry all at the same time. The movie depicted an industry that I never really thought about before. It highlighted the chemical dangers of getting your chemically straightened. Now, I've been getting "perms" since I was about six or seven years old. I'm now 28 years old, and all this time, I never knew about the dangers or effects of putting that "creamy crack in my hair. All I thought about was getting my roots as bone straight as possible. There were many times I would let the relaxer penetrate my hair and scalp to the point of me getting really bad burns. Again, I never made the connection with the chemical burns and the detrimental effects that it was having on me. All I knew was that my hair was gonna be "straight" no matter what! When I saw the movie, it didn't take a whole lot to convince me to take a different route in caring for my hair. I knew at that point that I was never going to get a relaxer EVER AGAIN!
The hard part was getting my husband on board with the idea. This was not only going to be a transition for, but a transition for him as well because throughout our relationship, all he knew was my permed hair. At first, it was a difficult idea to sell to him. He was against the idea, he didn't know how I was going to look and he just really didn't think it was something I should be doing at this point and time in my life. I tried to convince him that it was a good idea because not only would I be doing my hair some justice, but I'd also be saving a whopping $3000 annually because my salon visits would no longer be a factor. That sorta made a dent into his rebellion to the idea, but he still wasn't on board. But me being who I am, I began my transition phase anyways. He saw me get enthralled with youtube videos, hair forums and more youtube videos, each with more and more excitement. He saw how excited I was and slowly but surely he came around to the idea of me being natural. So much so that he actually was the one who did my BC. One night I just decided it was time to get it over with and I asked him if he would the honors, and he obliged. Cutting off my permed ends was the best thing that I have done since I started my natural hair journey. I feel a lot more liberated and the maintainanc is awesome! I'm looking forward to continuing my natural journey and I'm very excited to share it with you all. Please stay tuned for more posts!
Last Relaxer: October 27, 2010
BC'ed: March 27, 2011
Transition Length: 5 months
Love,
~~Natural Curly Empress~~ NCE
