Terri's Hair Journey- Please Read!

Hiiiiii ! My name is Terri and hmmmmm there’s no big story or revelation that heralded my decision to cut my hair all off (or maybe there is :D). One day, I just decided I had had ENOUGH of relaxers. I was sick of having to mentally remind myself not to scratch my hair a day before I have an appointment at the salon; I was sick of having to endure the pain of relaxers (forget the fact that all those kit relaxers are not supposed to hurt. They HURT) and most of all I was sick of having my hair start to look ‘unrelaxed’ just a week and a half after getting it relaxed. Don’t get me wrong, I had nice enough hair when it was relaxed; in fact, some people were of the opinion I had really lovely hair and they didn’t understand why I always had it covered (ha! If only they knew I was covering it all up because the stubborn hair refused to stay sleek and straight and flat). 

So just after my birthday in May 2012, I decided to stop relaxing my hair and transition to natural hair.
I didn’t do much to my hair during my transitioning days; I mainly braided for weeks and fixed weaves and THENNNNN..... (drumroll please)....  on the 22nd of October, 2012, I took my lovely self to the salon and announced to my stylist that  I was ready to chop off my hair. Long story short, let’s say he was almost in tears and I had to spend the first few minutes of my arrival in the salon comforting him. Haha! The poor man kept saying ‘I’ve lost a customer ohhh,’ (you know how we can be soooo dramatic in Nigeria). I cut my hair that day… four days later, I went back to cut it some more because I felt I could still see some really straight ends… and finally went back one more time to cut off some more till I was satisfied.  

Fast forward to my first day back at work, (I was off for a week) and OMG, questions everywhere! ‘Terri! You
really did it! You really cut your hair!’ and ‘Nooooooooo, you cut off all your hair!!’. I remember one person in particular telling me I didn’t look ‘nice’ with my hair low,  (in other words she felt I wasn’t as pretty with my short hair as I was when I had my longer hair).One male colleague even asked me if someone died and I had to cut my hair in mourning. I knew he was joking but really?? I got so many mixed reactions from both male and female colleagues and to be honest, I started feeling really unpretty… I bought products and experimented and experimented and experimented. I kept wondering why the products I bought didn’t make my hair soft instantly and curly like all those akata babes I see on Youtube and on blogs. I even started asking myself why on earth I cut off my hair??? Don’t get me wrong, there were some days I’d loooooooove my short hair, or Teeny Weeny Afro (TWA) as it’s called, and then other days I’d feel the ugliest of ugliest.

 I decided eventually that I was going to just look for products that work for MY hair and go to Youtube solely for demonstrations of how to use products and the likes (plus I also went to Youtube and google to search for and drool over beautiful, beautiful natural sisters).

Now, 9 months later, I am IN LOVE with my hair. Like seriously, you can’t tell me nothing about my hair. Truth be told, I get the most ‘toasters’ *cough, sneeze, bless me* when I have my hair out. I feel
soooo confident and kind of, you know, POWERFUL when I have my hair out. :D.  I go out and people are just looking and some are smiling and others are probably debating in their heads if I’m SU or
something. Hahahahaha! When I don’t have my hair out, I braid mostly and I have been known to
fix a weave too. When I have my normal, Expressions braids in (thekanekalon treated one), I don’t really do much to my hair. I wash once in two weeks (bad, I know *covers eyes*) and when I have a weave in, I
don’t do anything to my hair. (Very, very bad!) But when I have my kinky twists in, I co-wash every week and moisturize. On days I have my hair out, I co-wash midweek and then every weekend, I do a shampoo,
conditioner, deep-condition and then finally moisturize. 

My favourite shampoo so far is Crème of Nature Moisture & Shine Sulfate-free Shampoo with Argan Oil, my conditioner for my co-wash is the Tresemme Naturals Conditioner and for my leave-in conditioner, I use the Kinky Curly Knot Today Detangler and then I use my Extra Virgin Coconut Oil and finally whatever moisturizer on hand. It could be raw shea butter, it could be 4 Naturals Afro Stretch Curl Cream. I’ve found that EVOO
doesn’t do as much for my hair as EVCO does so though I used to use,EVOO when I first started my journey, I don’t any more. I’ve also found that my hair is so much healthier now than it ever was when it was relaxed. Everytime I do a length check, I’m amazed at the growth. I experience crazy shrinkage but I have come to embrace it because if you worry about how much your hair shrinks when it is wet, you’d just give yourself unnecessary high BP. 

Ok, I think I have rambled on long enough but I just want to say one last thing, even though you may feel like your hair is just not responding to whatever product you’re trying, or you feel this ‘wahala’ wasn’t what you
envisioned when you decided to go natural, please JUST EXERCISE PATIENCE. Also, try to listen to your hair so you know what it needs. Don’t go trying product after product just because your best friend or some female on the internet used such and such and got amazing results; find what works for your hair and stick with it. Ok, that’s two things I said but I think it’s allowed. 
To those of you embarking on your natural hair journey, I wish you all the best!