Oh, it's ON now!

amerAKAn_dream

amerAKAn_dream

New Member
When was the precise moment you decided to start your HHJ? Did you experience yet another horrible setback? Did someone make a comment to you that made you want to prove them wrong?

I have a friend who wears weaves down to her butt all the time. Last night, she made a comment about how we'd both be depending on weaves for the rest of our lives.

First, I was slightly annoyed that she put me on weave blast like that in front of others. But I was also angered at the thought of being weave-dependent forever, and that made me more determined to be successful with this process, even moreso than I felt when I "officially" began last month. We'll see who's playing the role of faux-Rapunzel in a few years and who's got her own!! :yep:
 
In August 2008, I'd just removed a set of braids and my hair was broken off to a really short chin length or so. I didn't think much of it, I mean I wanted long hair but had no idea that I could achieve it or how. But when I was looking through a Black hair magazine, I saw an ad for Triple Gro products, which got me thinking about growing my hair. I bought some of their stuff, but I also did some more research about how to grow afro hair, which is how I found this site and several others. So yeah, hopefully I will be APL one day *fingers crossed* And good luck on your journey OP :)
 
CherryCherryBoomBoom said:
In August 2008, I'd just removed a set of braids and my hair was broken off to a really short chin length or so. I didn't think much of it, I mean I wanted long hair but had no idea that I could achieve it or how. But when I was looking through a Black hair magazine, I saw an ad for Triple Gro products, which got me thinking about growing my hair. I bought some of their stuff, but I also did some more research about how to grow afro hair, which is how I found this site and several others. So yeah, hopefully I will be APL one day *fingers crossed* And good luck on your journey OP :)
Click to expand...

I felt the same way. I knew what I wanted, but had no idea how to get it.

APL, here we come!! :clapping:

Good luck to us all!
 
In October 2009, I got so upset at my frayed ends, I cut 2-3 inches off and started fresh. I was researching the internet about how to grow healthy hair and I found my beloved LHCF. It's been ON AND CRACKIN ever since!:dance7:
 
This is going to sound so backwards, but I wanted to take care of my hair, when I wanted my extensions to look more natural. I always wanted to be able to add pieces in my hair, but I didn't want my hair stopping at my ears and the weave mid-back, I wanted to be able to style the way I please. I think I will always love the body and versatility of extensions.

Oddly, I feel as though you can always tell the girls who wear weaves for style and the ones who wear it for need. The ones who wear it for styles usually have healthy bouncy hair on top/crown with the extensions flowly naturally.

The ones who wear it because they NEED to, edges be all torn up and you know exactly where that hair begins and ends.
 
March 2008... My hair had been breaking off badly for months ( I mean, every time I combed my hair, hair would completely cover my sink and I had hair all over the place) and I finally had enough of it . My once thick hair had become very very very VERY thin SL hair. I began looking up breakage and it it led me to Healthy Textures and to LHCF. I have been on my HHJ since
 
First of all i remember looking at my shadows and pictures and wondering what was wrong with my hair and why it appeared to be shorter even though i had even trimmed it. Then i went to my auntie's party and my cousin said to me "your hair look eat up" cos my hair used to be collar bone length but then it was just above shoulder. So i started to look on how to grow it, but i had noticed before she had even said anything.
One of the mini factors for me going natural is my Indian friend. She keeps joking that i have no hair, she has waist length hair by the way, but she puts oil in it and when she does it looks really lank. So now i'm thinking by the time i grow out my thick bad afro, we'll see who has hair.
 
I just got tired of having breaking hair. In theory, I could had plaits, weaves etc for the rest of days, but enough is enough. Thankfully no one is anti my HHJ.
 
Between 1991 through 1993 my hair was BSL and really healthy. I used to do my own touch ups, rollersets and I never visited a salon. Between mid 1993 through 2006 I would frequent the salon faithfully every week and my hair was never consistently nice.

In 2006 I went to the salon for a relaxer after stretching (didn't know there was a word for it back then) for 4 months. My hair looked shorter, fragile, dry and flat. I was so angry that I said ENOUGH. I told a good friend that I was going to transition to natural hair and she said "yeah right, you always say that" so it was on! LOL I haven't looked back since.
 
I had thick SL hair after being pregnant and not relaxing my hair. I got cocky and starting flat ironing my hair EVERY SINGLE DAY on hellfire settings so it slowly baked my hair right off. In August 2008 I ended up having 6-7 inch hair in some places to 1 inch a spot over! I tried to remedy it w/braids (yea, dumb) but it didn’t do anything. While I was in braids, I found LHCF and knew I wanted HEALTHY LONG HAIR! I BC’D Sept 2008.

I had a set back when I tried texturizing my hair on 1/1/09. Now I’ve grown that out and my hair is thick and on the grow. I hope to reach APL by Dec 2010.

Show her what you workin’ with!
 
I always wanted to have LONG hair. Lots of ladies on here say they wanted thick hair... not me! I was always harassed about how thick my hair was. It was one of the things that I was constantly cracked on for. As a kid my hair was a major flaming stankin' HAM. :crying3:

By my early 20's I had started doing a bit better and my hair was a thick CBL. I was okay with settling for that, but I would still have loved to have long hair. At least my hair wasn't looking super raggedy and chewed to the point that mobs of people gathered to clown me wherever I went. I wish I was exaggerating. :nono:

Then I saw a girl on my college campus who had thick natural healthy hair of her own hanging all the way down her back. She had also just come back from travel abroad, another long time dream of mine. It was almost like the universe sent her directly to my path to show me that I *could* have the life I imagined.

Once I saw with my own eyes that it was possible, it was ON. I BCed right away. Now, there were several roadblocks along the way, and I ended up BCing 2 more times (after going back to the creamy crack) before I took the 3 year journey that took me from a TWA an inch long all over to pic you see in my siggy.
 
I've always wanted long hair, but I'd get frustrated somewhere between APL and BSL and chop it all off. August '08, I stayed up late one night (that stumbleupon is NO joke!), and I came across a picture of this girl with this amazingly beautiful long hair. I don't want my hair that long (she's about knee length), but I realized it can be done, it's just a matter of patience. I made up my mind that I was going to do it, and I haven't looked back since :)
 
My journey started Aug.09, i took down a sew in and was devastated at how dry, thin, damaged my hair was.... i never knew about the science of hair care... i would take down a sew in, wash it and throw in another one.. i did this for years. neglect, neglect...and more neglect.... soon as a realized it was me damageing my hair.. i immedialtly went to you tube,and forums such as these.... i didnt have any major set backs cuz i just chopped of the damage hair and ran with all the knowledge i learned... so far my hair is thriving..
 
It was around August 09.... My hair had been through extreme shedding of all the longest hairs, several counts of protein overload, and severe dryness. I was so pissed at my hair cause I used to have blunt, superthick, almost mbl hair heading towards waistlength back in 08. Determined to get my hair back, I decided it was time to put my hair away indefinitely.... Now im a couple weeks shy of 7 months post for the first time in my relaxer journey. Ive decided to hold out a whole year(or longer) and just do a length check in a few weeks for my birthday. I told myself the next time I relax I wanna be waistlength:grin::yep:
 
In 2003, I had a really short cut like Halle Berry that I grew out. By the time it was
2007, my hair was the longest it's ever been - a little below my shoulders. I moved to NYC and a friend of mine recommended a hair dresser who convinced me to trim my hair to even it. I lost like three inches and ended up with an underwhelming bob. I paid $300 for that crap, and my hair looked fried, died, and laid to the side-

Exhibit A:
picture.php


I was distraught. All my progress down the drain. I wanted my SL hair back and not in four years, either. So I was listening to my girl Wendy Williams who was advertising Cathy Howses book. After getting her book, I realized, wait, just because I'm Black I am not doomed to short, damaged hair???? I wanted MORE of this clandestine knowledge, so I went on a mad dash on the internet which eventually brought me here. A year and a half later and I am striving for BSB. What- WHAT!!!!

I say all this to say- I thank the talentless hack to took all of my hair off that fateful summer. If it didn't happen, I wouldn't be thirsty to get my length back and I wouldn't have found LHCF. She really was the match that lit the bomb!
 
I had taken a shower with my then SO during which I washed my hair. As he was drying my back he asked me why I had so much (shed) hair down my back. I had kind of resigned myself to the idea that my hair shed a lot. But after he made that comment I decided to see if there was anything I could do about it. I thought about using BSS products vs drugstore products. I was researching Affirm relaxer online when I came across this site. And the rest, as they say, is history.
 
I actually bumped into this site in 2004 but my hair was pretty healthy so I never took an interest in it. When I went off to college there were no good salons (back home I was completely dependent on my stylist for everything!) and I had to do my hair myself, with no knowledge. My hair starting breaking like crazy, it was severely damaged and abused for almost four years.

...Late Feb 2009 my roomie told me about Ateeya on yt and I bought all the Aphogee products and visited this site to see if anyone was using it...and the rest is history

I regret not visiting this site sooner, but it really never crossed my mind. I thought the only way I could get my hair back on track was to find a great stylist...so sad...but I'm grateful that I know better now!
 
It was March 2008 and I had just gotten my last relaxer right before going to the Jill Scott concert. I felt so defeated after another failed attempt at transitioning.:sad:

I'd been on LHCF for a few years and my hair was still not full APL and relaxing was just not getting me the results I wanted. :nono:

I would stalk the fotkis of natural heads and that goal seemed sooo far away. That day I told myself this was my last relaxer. I haven't looked back and my hair is sooo much healthier and retaining length like never before. :yep:
 
Over a period of years...
A few problems with my hair were:

1) Breakage- Short hairs everywhere during grooming process.
2) Heat damage- when my hair was wet, it just hung with no curls, kinks or waves. I knew my hair texture was different than what I was seeing.
3) I was going to the salon every 2 weeks as most AA women were doing and as suggested by my stylist but my hair hung always between SL and APL. I knew something was up because my hair also grows at what I considered a fast pace.
4) My hair was always dry (still kind of is lol)

For the reasons mentioned above, I started doing my own research and voila!
 
I had always had long hair (by BW standards that was apl lol) but in relocating to STL my hair seemed to break off (I think it may have had something to do with the hard water). My stylist suggested I go natural.

I transitioned for a year in braids and twists in 2008 and eventually started off as a straightened natural with CBL hair. Problem was it was summer in STL (SUPER HUMID) and I was post-partum and kept sweating my hair out in spots. This lead me to flat iron those fluffy parts almost every other day. I knew this was a no-no so I decided maybe I would try a natural style until the weather changed.

I had to search tons of magazines to find natural styles I liked. So i zeroed in on comb coils, but when I went to the salon she said I had heat damage and couldnt get them. At the same time I discovered Miss Jessies and Kinky Curly and was amazed that natural nappy hair could be hiding CURLS!! I wanted to try this but realized that I would have to cut off the heat damage. So over about 8 months I cut 5 inches to get my natural coils back and during this time I did more internet research about styles, products etc. This lead me to LHCF and its been love every since!
 
I decided to start my HHJ from a simple conversation w/ my BFF about the ingredients in hair products. LOL, it was that simple... she had already decided to go natural and at the time, I was in Kinky Twists and that conversation spurred me to do some more research on the stuff that we as BW put in our hair... which led me to the hair boards... and here I am today!
 
December 2007 - My SO sister (who lived states away) came to visit for the holidays. A few years earlier I had met her and her hair was healthy but not anything to gawk over.. fast forward to 2 years later (dec 07) it was simply FLAWLESS... the length, the shine..

I needed it in my life. So I decided to get serious quest to makeover my own.

So I googled "Grow long African American hair"...
 
I don't even truly know why I started.
I got my hair braided with extensions for the first time for a friend's wedding. I hadn't had a relaxer in 2 or 3 months when I got the braids.
Some time after the wedding, (I don't even know how long after the wedding), I was thinking about when I got ready to take the braids out and the thought just popped into my head, "Why on earth should I relax my hair when I don't like doing it in the first place and I have to make myself to do it?" This was the moment when I decided to become natural and thus started my healthy hair journey because I had to learn how to take care of my natural hair and the braiders (why was I listening to them?) were giving me cruddy advice on hair care.
My relaxed hair was never anything to write home about. I always had severe or some kind of breakage from the top of my head to my neck straight down the middle and I generally wore it in a ponytail or pulled back. The sides were one length and the middle a different length but it was not until I decided no more relaxers that I took a real interest in my hair.
 
I had never in my life had "long" hair and although I had bought Cathy Howse's book and products ...something was still missing---I found this site after relaxing my hair from 2 yrs natural and it was breaking badly-- I would go to hairdresses and they would get my hair healthy but were not willing to show me how I can keep my hair healthy (I think they wanted a weekly customer) but I found LHCF in Sep of 08 I saw different textures relaxed & natural growing and retaining like nothing! BC'ed in April of 09 and it has been on like Donkey Kong! No setbacks just enjoying my hair every step of the way:yep:
 
I started my journey by accident. I joined this board and started using the info I learned here and the info on people's fotkis. Now I'm addicted to ps.:yep:
 
I always wanted mbl hair and I have dabbled in healthy hair practices off and on for 6 years, but never fully committed. In the back of my mind I wanted to be natural, but I had people in my life who said not to cut my hair. I did my bc a week ago and now there is no stopping me. Natural mbl here I come!
 
I found this site via Yahoo! search for hair care websites (African-American hair) in March 2005. I joined, was sold on the site, and uber interested. I'd been on BHM before as well. I paid my subscription within a week of lurking, and have been here ever since (though not always active for a year or 2). My hair was healthy, relaxed, BSL at the time I joined, but I wanted to learn different techniques and grow it even longer. I also wanted to retain my ends, keep them healthy, and avoid the constant trimming I was doing at the time, in order to grow it to longer lengths.
 
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