I am definitely a survivor! I've been surviving scalp trauma since I was 8 years old
When I was ilttle, I used to play around in the dirt (was a tomboy) and mistakenly scratched my head before I washed my hands. A couple of days later, my head broke out in sores and my mom took me took the doctor to find out what was going on. I had given myself a bacterial infection on my scalp and my hair had started falling out in clumps! I was given antibiotics and they went away within a couple of weeks. Thank goodness my hair grew back longer and stronger than before.
Of course that didn't last too long cause around age 12, I started relaxing my hair. I remember this one time I went to a stylist to relax my hair, I told her that my scalp was sensitive and she decided to keep the relaxer on my head for over half an hour to "make sure it came out super straight"
BTW, my mom was with me when she said this but she also believed that the relaxer wasn't working unless your scalp started burning! Anyways, 2 1/2 hours later my hair is looking like an Asian lady's short bob and all the clients are oohing and ahhing over how my hair looked and how it had that swang, my scalp was covered in open "weeping" sores that had me in tears!. It was from then on that I decided not to go back to stylists to do my hair...that I would do my relaxers at home instead. There was one sore that was so bad that it took years for any hair to grow back in that section. I really thought hair would never grow back there again.
After all of that, miraculously, my hair grew back to around shoulder length by the time I was 15. Then RIO happened. If anyone doesn't know about RIO, it was an around the clock infomercial that used to come on back in the mid 90s that talked about an alternative straightening system which claimed to have no chemicals in it that would naturally straighten your hair and give it loads of body and that swang. The infomercial was very convincing with using RIO on clients taken from the audience "live" and parting their hair on television to show they were not wearing wigs when they came from back stage with lucious straight hair swanging!
Well, I bought into the hype and followed the directions of NOT NEEDING TO NEUTRALIZE BECAUSE IT WASN'T A CHEMICAL and not putting any kind of moisturizer on it after I placed the product on my hair...Within a couple of days my thick shoulder length hair was SEE THROUGH and all of the hair in the back had broken off!
To this day, I thank the heavens that I didn't damage my scalp to the point that I wouldn't be able to grow back my thick fluffy hair that I adore! Of course that wasn't the last thing I tried....I also tried using permanent color over relaxed hair in my early 20's with ill effects. All of the color treated hair fell out within a couple of months. Finally when I reached my breaking point, I had pretty much had given up on my hair and started experimenting with wigs and sew in weaves. The shortest length was ear length with the nape GONE. people thought I had cut my hair in a Halle Berry hairstyle when the truth was that it broke off that way
In a way, those events from the past is what made me so hair obsessed!
Since then, I've been trying to grow my hair back long and strong and to understand what the chemicals actually do to the hair and scalp to either hinder or stimulate growth. That's why I decided to go natural recently as well because my hair (and scalp) was the healthiest when I kept the chemicals OUT! Thanks to LHCF, my hair is the longest it's ever been in my life! That's why I have lots of love for all my LHCF sisters...there are many others who have suffered worse hair and scalp traumas than myself and they keep going!
I can definitely sing that song loud and proud...I AM a survivor!