Lita
Well-Known Member
This is officially my sixth time attempting to post this so I’ll make it much shorter than intended
HELLO EVERYBODY! I’m a newbie!!!Been lurking round here since June but only just got my subscription today, still quite excited! Anyway, I thought I’d just use this thread to say hi, introduce myself and give a *brief*
hair history, and include a few pics to make the thread pretty!
So here goes: I’m Nigerian by nature, born in the UK, bred in Nigeria, and buttered in the UKI've loved big, long hair since I was what- three? four? and I put on this wig which belonged to my mum:
I was texlaxed from about the age of five/ six, but my mum took quite good care of our hair considering. My hair was never really long, it was always past shoulder length but never quite APL. I was quite alright with it though.
And then at the age of 10, I passed the exam into the more or less best secondary school in Nigeria. Everyone in my family was extremely happy (one of my sisters, a year older and pictured with me above, was already there). I, on the other hand, was devastated as it was a school rule that we would have to cut off all our hair, and I mean about/less than an inch! I cried so much my parents got a family friend who was a pastor to come pray for meI told him "I'm not cutting my hair! Even Jesus had long hair!"
Needless to say, in a couple of months, this was the back of my head:
And I stayed in that school the full six years! Two months before my graduation in 2007, believe it or not, this young man here was me at the age of 16:
I graduated in July 2007 and have been growing my hair since then, with little or no knowledge about caring for it. I kept it constantly under weaves and in braids without proper care or attention.
Three months after my graduation, this was my little afro:
Still in October 2007, one random day, I wet my hair and let it airdry! My curls were so well defined, I loved being natural!
I remained natural because I knew instinctively that excessive relaxers without proper care would be damaging, and I thought the best way to grow my hair would be to let it do what it wanted for about two years when hopefully I will be satisfied with the length and start texturising again. This was my hair in April 2008, nearly a year since I'de began to grow it:
As you can tell, I'm just a little too dramatic
Anyways, my plan to stay natural for two full years at least was curbed when I gave into pressure from family and friends. I had gone back to Nigeria for Christmas in 2008 and everywhere i went, people were like, "Ah Ah! Your hair is so due! Won't you do it? Your hair is due for a relaxer!"
So in February, 2009, this was my last picture natural. I had just taken out a weave as well so it was a sorta braidout. there is a little tuft of straight hair in front though which had been out of the weave and which I tirelessly straightened
And a couple of days later, I was texturised, steamed and ferociously straightened (i'm the one sitting, obviously. the standing one is another of my sisters---we are very many, we are eleven children) :
so it took me about 19 months to grow from an inch of hair to shoulder length. but the day i texlaxed, i hated it! my head felt so empty, light and....hairless! i missed my big hairbut in a few days, it began to fluff up again, and it was then i decided to stretch my texturisers to about once a year so i could enjoy less thin hair most of the time.
I did enjoy taking pictures of my straight hair:
I put another set of braids in my hair, and it was towards the end of the life of those braids that I found growafrohairlong.com, BGLH and consequently LHCF. I then made up my mind to stick with braids so that I could care for my hair better! When I took out those braids in June, I was pleased to see my hair had puffed up:
And with lots of new knowledge, thanks to ALL OF YOUI began to take proper care of my hair in June this year.
Some pics of my hair between June and July:
I got it straightened here for my leavers ball (just finished A-levels in the UK) but it poofed right back!
And the last pic before I put my hair back in braids- I actually got it straightened at a salon in Nigeria that day, and this was the state of it when I got home. Not sure whether to blame the humid weather, the hairdresser or the hair
SO that's TWO years worth of growth right there!
Right now, I'm still rocking the braids I got at the beginning of August, and thanks to you guys, they still looking acceptable!
So thanks again for all your help for me and my fellow lurkers!!!!! Before I go, remember the sister I wrote about ages ago, in the first picture who went to the same school and cut off all her hair just like me? She finished from the school a year before me, and three years after near-baldness, this is her hair- i just took out her braids: (note, she doesn't know ANYTHING about haircare and she's texlaxed like me
Sorry for the extremely long post!!! I love y'all!
Welcome & I like your hair at all lengths...
Happy Hair Growing!
I've taken a similar one of myself.
