Describe your hair at the start of your journey.

[Hair Iam]

SAD
thirsty
limited
short

 

[princesslocks]

My hair and scalp was dry. I thought relaxing would take care of everything. I was WRONG ! Thank God for LHCF.

 

[Wishin4BSL]

Pretty, but short! After the braids, it got TERRIBLE, like my first pic in my fotki!

 

[OneInAMillion]

Thin and overprocessed. My hair was so see through and stringy when wet...it was embarassing. I remember being in a Dominican Salon and the lady who was doing my hair looked at it like it and was just like, "Mami this is overprocessed," why did u put color in your hair. That's when it hit me that I had to cut out weekly blowouts and relaxers at 8 weeks. My hair was way too fine for all that processing.

 

[Ariana4000]

My hair was bone-straight and see thru. My bangs would never grow out. The ends were hard and dry. I remember the hair stylest telling me to trim. I would trim all the time and it would just be an inch shorter and STILL dry. It was breaking in my hands all the time. There were little hairs all over the sink whenever I combed it. I thought that was just the texture that I had.

 

[EMJazzy]

The best way I can desribe it is a HOT MESS!! MY hair was SO damaged and DRY as the desert from the constant heat I used

Girrrrl you took the words right out of my mouth....that was an exact description of my hair at the start of my journey.

 

[Sirens_Song]

Dry and damaged, barely grazing shoulders. I used blow dryers on BLAST and then flat irons on high. I don't even know if I thought about hair health.. I just wanted it to look good and hold the style.

 

[WomanlyCharm]

It had lenght, but it was a crispy, crunchy, dry as a bone mess with thin ends. Hair falling out everytime I looked at a comb.
Thank goodness for this board!

 

[AmyInAtl]

Jan 2005, ...after a perm and 3 permanent hair colors changes in a month, black, red, blonde...bald, natural until may 2006, before lhcf, permed with optimum, now 2 inches from bra-strap at nape, goal..healthy thick bra-strap legth 2007, bunning, vitamins, protective styles 365 day challende.

 

[TINKABELLE]

Last year around this time I had APL hair due to consistent sew-ins. I had no idea about moisturizers, seals-in, vitamins, and hair health care, but my hair did grow (slowly) and was in alright conditions. I attempted to do my own sew-in knowing (back then) that I did not know how to braid After doing this twice, when I took it out I realize it was barely at SL. My hair was alright in condition, because I oiled it every three days and beicause it was not being manipulated, but I was shocked at the length difference.

 

[ohsosuzy]

Collarbone length...
trying to grow out layers i cut in 9th grade...
dry...
highlighted...
my ends looked like frayed wire...
and i thought i was too cute *smh*

 

[gloomgeisha]

Not really hair, more like a rats nest made from cat fur. I'd slather it with grease to make it lay down perfectly glued to my skull. I had a "pig tail" that I'd wrap into a psuedo-bun to make my ends look fuller.

My edges were receding and I never seemed to get past neck length.

 

[Treasure2k6]

...All I can say is....pictures speak louder than words!! I am attempting to overcome my bad hair battle as we speak! My Hair is tring to make it thru an intensified JACKED UP STAGE of breakage, damage, and everythingelse. I used to slick my hair back with dark gel, put spritz on it and then take a real "rubber band" and pull it back!! To make it so bad, I would twist that rubberband as tight as I could get it no matter how many snaps and pops I would hear, just as long if it looked good. I tell ya, the ups and downs of my hair care throughout the years would have ya rollin for dayz!!


I swear its getting better though by the minute

 

[RainbowCurls]

In my defence, I never looked at the back of my head before joining hair forums

 

[Vshanell]

I had pretty good length (just below bsl maybe) but my hair was not healthy. It was full....I mean fullll of splits and weak breaking ends from not using heat properly and using no heat protectant (I used oil to flat iron...yuck). I also had heat damage in some spots where my curls were almost straight and looked wierd. I didn't know what heat damage was until I came to hair boards. I just thought my hair was naturally like that. I have learned a lot! TGFHB= Thank God For Hair Boards .

 

[locabouthair]

thin, overprocessed, and VERY uneven.

 

[ReddTweetyB]

In the beginning my hair was shoulder length or just above and it was definately not as healthy as it is now. My hair would never grow past shoulder length either. You can't tell in my before pic how dry and brittle my hair was because my hair always looks pretty nice and healthy after a relaxer, at least for a week. My hair is now longer than it has ever been in my life and healthier as well. My before photo can be viewed at: www.myfasthairgrowth.com/photogallery.html.

 

[HoneyA]

My hair was growing out from a blunt cut I'd had the year before. I had to cut it because it was damaged from weaves. It was thick but it was still shedding and breaking like crazy. I moisturized but never sealed. Had never done a DC with heat except when I remembered to go to the salon to get it done and protein treatments were just unheard of. I never used oils like castor, olive or coconut. I'm surprised I had hair on my head at all. Thank God I all that drama is a thing of the past!

 

[Brownie518]

Dry
Cracklin'
Ends splittin'
Fryed
Frizzy
Uneven
Patchy
Thinning
Overprocessed
Just disgusting!

 

[Miss*Tress]

Dry.... very thin..... weak and brittle..... everytime I combed my hair lots of little, broken hairs on the back of my shirt and the floor....... limp....... short......

Ditto! All because of unskilled stylists who overprocessed my hair. At the time I didn't know what was wrong because I had never had any trouble with my hair before (other than it never growing past APL).

 

[FemmeCreole]

before I started my journey to natural hair my relaxed hair was fine....I was just fed up with the continuous processing and a documentary on the dangers of relaxers help me in makingmy decision to stop relaxing

pics of my hair before I started transitioning

 

[FemmeCreole]

darn.....looking at those pics makes me miss my hair

 

[poookie]

my hair was awful. the nape of my neck was pretty much bald, and ... well you can see how bad it was. i've come a long way, but still got a ways to go as far as length is concerned.

 

[Blkprincess]

constant breaking and shedding. scraggly ends. uneven. a lot of damage was self-inflicted. I never used heat, but I would detangle my hair like a bandit in shower, roughly I might add. I would wear my hair down quite often with the wrong clothes that would cause a lot of breakage on my ends. all my clothes would constantly have broken hairs on my shoulders. but, I've learned to be alot gentler with my hair, and to treat it like silk. protective styles are my friend.-

 

[ajoyfuljoy]

look at my siggy pic on the left...my hair was dry, puffy, ends were like straw, tangled and rough feeling, just a hot mess!

It took my hair a while to recover, a while...patience is a virtue!

 

[Priss Pot]

2006: My hair was very overprocessed w/ root-to-tip relaxers, numerous permanent color jobs, etc.

 

[Priss Pot]

my hair was awful. the nape of my neck was pretty much bald, and ... well you can see how bad it was. i've come a long way, but still got a ways to go as far as length is concerned.

Pookie, you've really come a long way!!!! Kudos to you! Keep up the good work.

 

[curlcomplexity]

At the beginning of my har journey, my hair was a HAM! It would not grow past shoulders for a while. It felt stringy and weak when dry and like straw when dry. In fact, the main reason why I started my journey was becuase I was tired fo seeing little pieces of hair on the back of my shirt, that was embarrassing!