hi lucia....
here's my story....(gonna shorten it up nice and tidy for those that care to read through it).
on november 25th, 2005 our house was for the most part, destroyed by fire. i woke up, for no other reason that i can explain (except through God's infinite grace), @ 1:30am to the smell of smoke. at first i thought one of my kids had left a pot on the stove but after halfway falling down the steps to the kitchen, i saw there was no pot but smoke coming from our den and pouring into the kitchen (then up the stairs).
i woke up my husband who in turn told my mom our house was afire and call 911. by then the entire rear of our home was destroyed taking nearly the entire 2nd floor with it as well as the kitchen, front room, etc. What the fire didn't destroy, the fire department did while trying to put it out.
my son thank GOD had gone with my oldest (Black Friday shopping) and was not home. He loves to sleep in the rec room watching tv and as hard has he sleeps, he surely would have been killed if he were back there when it started.
i believe the fire was my fault as i had lit a candle and forgotten to make sure it was out before retiring.
we lost our cat, 2 birds, an entire aquarium filled with fish, all all our worldly possessions and nearly our lives.
fast forward to february, 2006....
my daughter and i usually do our perms together. just to try to get back some sense of normalcy and routines we decided i'd go ahead and perm my hair.
i honestly can't remember that actual day i noticed my first bald patch but i do know it was sometime before March.
it started as a tiny spot and at first i thought i'd just parted my hair weird but the spot grew from a penny size to a silver dollar size within 3 weeks - i'd comb my hair and strands would pull out, i'd shower and the bottom of the shower was filled with long strands of hair. besides the fire itself, it was one of the more horrifying things i've ever experienced and i honestly thought i'd go completely bald.
i've said it a few times here and on NP that i don't know if it was a sort of posttraumatic stress reaction that caused my hair to fall out and i don't know if the relaxer was a catalyst or not, but since the last major thing i did to my hair was to relax it..........letting it go was the easiest decision i've ever made in my life.
so, probably so much more than you asked for but that's my story of why i decided to go natural.
i haven't looked back.