Alessandra06
New Member
Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for a while (about a month or so) and decided it was time to get my butt into gear and officially join the board.
Here's a little background on my hair: In April 2007 I decided that I was going to start treating my hair with the love it deserves. At the time I was abusing it in just about every way imaginable. I was relaxed (although I had almost no knowledge on how to properly care for relaxed hair, and the little amount of "knowledge" that I did receive from seemingly well-meaning individuals, I know now, was complete garbage, I mean c'mon: "You don't need to wash out all of the relaxer, that way your hair will stay straight longer" I'm surprised I wasn't completly bald
), and I bleached it on top of that. Growing up I'd always had about BSL natural hair that was pretty healthy, no real damage or breakage to complain about, but once I started double-processing I received the shock of my life.
One day while forcing a cheap plastic brush through my already traumatized hair, I lifted up the back of my hair and noticed that my nape had completly broken off and was only about 1.5-2.0 inches long! The sides of my hair weren't doing much better, I'd been using more and more "shine serum" and extra strong Let's Jam (nevermind the fact that this greenish gel would turn my bleached hair the nastiest shade of orange) to try and force the sides to lay flat, but the frayed, broken off hairs would always stick out no matter what I did.
Never having experienced this I was on he verge of tears, when a "friend" of mine suggested that I just glue in a few tracks to cover the damage while my hair grew back. I gave that dumb idea a shot, and needless to say my hair was in even worse condition after I painstakingly peeled to glue from my scalp.
After that I decided that enough was enough already and I was going back to what I knew best, my natural hair. At this point I was so eager to start over that I ran (okay actually I drove), to the nearest JC Penny salon, where a pleasant older white woman asked me what kind of service I'd like today. I simply stated that I would like to have my hair cut, not mentioning to her that I wanted all of it gone. After about 5 minutes of waiting, a Jamaican lady with a TWA came out to greet me and asked me how much i was looking to cut off today. I smiled at her and said: "I want it shorter than yours! Just cut it all, I'm so sick of it!"
After asking me for the sevenhundreth time if I was certain that this is what I wanted, she pulled out her scissors and got to work. A mother and daughter with beautiful relaxed hair on the other side of the salon watched with anticipation as the stylist snipped of all of the damaged, ragged, hair, and then finished the job with her clippers.
So after all of that I drove home and took a good look in the mirror, at first I hardly recognized myself, I had never had short hair before. Anyway time for me to shut up, I had no intentions of dragging this out so long lol. Here are the pics:
I've been lurking for a while (about a month or so) and decided it was time to get my butt into gear and officially join the board.
Here's a little background on my hair: In April 2007 I decided that I was going to start treating my hair with the love it deserves. At the time I was abusing it in just about every way imaginable. I was relaxed (although I had almost no knowledge on how to properly care for relaxed hair, and the little amount of "knowledge" that I did receive from seemingly well-meaning individuals, I know now, was complete garbage, I mean c'mon: "You don't need to wash out all of the relaxer, that way your hair will stay straight longer" I'm surprised I wasn't completly bald
), and I bleached it on top of that. Growing up I'd always had about BSL natural hair that was pretty healthy, no real damage or breakage to complain about, but once I started double-processing I received the shock of my life. One day while forcing a cheap plastic brush through my already traumatized hair, I lifted up the back of my hair and noticed that my nape had completly broken off and was only about 1.5-2.0 inches long! The sides of my hair weren't doing much better, I'd been using more and more "shine serum" and extra strong Let's Jam (nevermind the fact that this greenish gel would turn my bleached hair the nastiest shade of orange) to try and force the sides to lay flat, but the frayed, broken off hairs would always stick out no matter what I did.
Never having experienced this I was on he verge of tears, when a "friend" of mine suggested that I just glue in a few tracks to cover the damage while my hair grew back. I gave that dumb idea a shot, and needless to say my hair was in even worse condition after I painstakingly peeled to glue from my scalp.
After that I decided that enough was enough already and I was going back to what I knew best, my natural hair. At this point I was so eager to start over that I ran (okay actually I drove), to the nearest JC Penny salon, where a pleasant older white woman asked me what kind of service I'd like today. I simply stated that I would like to have my hair cut, not mentioning to her that I wanted all of it gone. After about 5 minutes of waiting, a Jamaican lady with a TWA came out to greet me and asked me how much i was looking to cut off today. I smiled at her and said: "I want it shorter than yours! Just cut it all, I'm so sick of it!"
After asking me for the sevenhundreth time if I was certain that this is what I wanted, she pulled out her scissors and got to work. A mother and daughter with beautiful relaxed hair on the other side of the salon watched with anticipation as the stylist snipped of all of the damaged, ragged, hair, and then finished the job with her clippers.
So after all of that I drove home and took a good look in the mirror, at first I hardly recognized myself, I had never had short hair before. Anyway time for me to shut up, I had no intentions of dragging this out so long lol. Here are the pics:
Before: I apologize, these are extra crappy, and don't show the extend of the damage I had, but at the time I wasn't about to take pics of my broken-off nape
After BC:
One Year Later:
Umm..please excuse the doppy expression on my face 
...
...Thanks everybody I look forward to learning more about my hair, and meeting everyone
-Alessa
Hi there! Welcome!
I'm one as well!!
...you all are making me feel welcome already. I'm glad I left "lurkdom" (or would that be "lurkhood"? lol) behind. 
erplexed.......keep it up.
