Our hair journey

I suppose a lot of ladies going natural have a story about their hair and why they decided to go natural in the first place or maybe not. But I do have a story.
I haven't been one to have the greatest of hair, all through my child hood. I envied those who had either jet black hair, full hair and also long hair. my hair remained  stunted all through primary school, secondary school and the university. I even remember once when someone told me my hair looked dead. well looking back it wasn't looking dead it just was not gaining length and looking as luscious as those with the 'good' hair gene.
literally, that is what I thought, that people with long full hair have good hair genes and I was just stuck with my terrible hair even though my mom and dad had this so called 'good' hair gene.

I had relaxers at a very early age, and that was all I knew. I just imagined everyone who wanted sleek hair just had to get a relaxer once the new growth creeps up with its stubborn annoying self. Plus, once my hair was due for a retouch it would look so dull and messy with a funny brownish colour and once I had a retouch along side a silk press a magical black sleek appearance fell upon my hair. How was I supposed to know there was a life outside monthly relaxer touchups? Plus it made hair manageable.

Well, well, well… I was plagued with dandruff at age ten. Serious dandruff that had no mercy on my delicate scalp. I managed the situation until I decided to stop getting relaxer touch ups every now and then. I reduced it to twice a year. Naturally, my hair is not so stubborn, coarse it is but not stubborn especially since I had weaves to the rescue, I will just bundle it away under a weave every month until its time for a retouch. This did not stop the dandruff still and still hasn't but it kind of made way for me going natural. Every retouch day was a hell of a kind because I always had injuries from tearing up my scalp due to dandruff and forever having weaves on. I would get a rotten head every single time which takes weeks to heal because almost immediately after I get on  a weave.

Then came the natural hair revolution that swept the entire nation, lool. But truly it did. in my Uni back then everyone was going natural, emphasis on  *transitioning* and *big chopping* Every where on Instagram was flooded with pictures of natural haired girls, full mane and popping curls. I just thought wow! Good for them, this isn't for me. Then I had a few close friends go natural. I envied the styles they flaunted that my relaxed wimpy hair couldn't take. I still didn't have a change of mind because truthfully it seemed stressful and expensive to even go through with. Eventually my hair started to turn to a very horrible looking brown colour. It looked sick and limp even relaxing and getting a silk press did not give me the black look anymore. There it was I decided I was going to go natural. The initial plan was for me to transition for a year, cut off the relaxed ends, keep it for another year and finally start relaxing.

I am still so grateful I started out with that plan because I am never putting a relaxer on my hair again. no single way! I am free from those scalp tortures. I still do have dandruff which I now know is caused by my dry scalp but generally it is much better than my relaxed days. So I made up my mind to transition my hair. it didn't start out easy but I did my research and I documented my experiences through monitoring my hair. eventually it was not stressful anymore.

My little sister does not have so much of a story, she has always been in the category of 'good' haired people. Full beautiful hair and  that grew long despite harsh treatments. She was intrigued by the trend and decided to join months  after I had already started transitioning. we made promises to keep away from relaxers and promised to stick  by each other and there it begun for the both of us. Truly it has been awesome. I do have my down moments when I hate my hair but in general I'm happy to be going through this journey plus seeing growths and thickness is always so encouraging.
Right now my sister and I are still in the first year. She is roughly one year and five months natural and I on the other hand is about one and eight months natural.
Since I am not in my hometown all the time I would say as of the last time I saw my sister which is almost two months ago she was on eight inch and I was a little above eight inch, now I am have a nine inch growth on most part of my hair.

I just hope we make the most of this journey. May all our skin pop and glow and all our fros flourish in moisture, volume and length.