what made you take your hair(care) into your own hands

[EMJazzy]

Stylist dug so many hairpins in my scalp (in the name of style) that I began to go bald on the top of my head....sores with scabs

Overlapping perms (very thin lifeless hair)

Didn't do hair on Sunday and Monday's (those were my only days off at the time)

Hair never got past SL

 

[bluevalentine]

years and years of dry hair that never grew past shoulder length

 

[chocolate01]

I went natrual and couldn't find anyone that I trusted to do my hair.

 

[tocktick]

i got tired of looking like this:

my hair was broken off, pathetic and a mess. this photo was taken while i was actually transitioning, so my hair looked worse before i made the decision to actively turn it around. when i discovered one could actually "go natural" (showing how ignorant i used to be here) it was like i saw the light .

 

[sillygirl82]

I had been natural until I was 18. My grandma took care of my hair old school and it was in good condition. Went to college, decided to get relaxer and it went downhill from there. Once I graduated and moved I actually had a decent stylist, but relaxers just aren't meant from my hair. So I transitioned (before I even know what that was) when I moved again in 2005 and I've been taking care of my own hair ever since. Plus a lot of the stylists around here don't know what to do with natural hair.

 

[Angelicus]

Even though I was going to a stylist who made my hair look healthy... my hair stayed the same length for a year. I had to take charge of my own hair.

 

[BrockStar]

I was in college and got cheap

Plus I realized (when relaxed) that I could produce salon results...now it's a different story! lol

 

[Keshieshimmer]

I bad relaxer experience.

 

[hairdrama:{]

Stylist dug so many hairpins in my scalp (in the name of style) that I began to go bald on the top of my head....sores with scabs

Overlapping perms (very thin lifeless hair)

Didn't do hair on Sunday and Monday's (those were my only days off at the time)

Hair never got past SL

Even though I was going to a stylist who made my hair look healthy... my hair stayed the same length for a year. I had to take charge of my own hair.

what they said.....

 

[RedVelvet310]

I was sick and tired of getting chemically burnt every 6-8 weeks.

 

[Lucky's Mom]

• Stylist Attitudes.
• Stylist Hours vs My Hours.
• Doing hair on my time (Early Mornings) vs. Spending hours waiting at a Salon (4hrs on Sat.)
• Inoticed that I can damage my hair just as well as the School trained folks could, and can do it for less.

- You got that right sister!!!

I really just can't deal with the drama and situations in shops or these unProfessionals....


I realised today that I am actually TERRIFIED to go to any stylist or braider. I am so afraid they will damage all of my years of hard work. I would not take it well if something happened.

They should have a mandatory "manners" class to keep licenses current.....
They would clean up their acts if they had to renew, etc.....

 

[Lucky's Mom]

I was sick and tired of getting chemically burnt every 6-8 weeks.

Totally true. I could comment on what EVERY one said.
My ministry leader has the same length of hair that she ad when I MET HER....14 years ago.

and it is as dry as the Sahara. She goes to the shop RELIGIOUSLY.

 

[MizAvalon]

There were several factors:

I was tired of being so dependent on someone else for my hair. I hated that feeling of helplessness and actually not going places because I couldn't get my hair "done".

My stylist moved an hour away. Driving 2 hours round trip just got to be too much.

Though she was ok, my stylist never "wowed" me with her skills. I figured I could do "average" work on myself for free.

I like using my own products and working at my own pace. I can't expect someone else to spend 30-40 minutes detangling my hair.

Though doing everything myself is very time consuming, I'm glad that I at least know how to now.

 

[TRYING2GROW]

Someone giving me wrong information, on how 2 take care of my hair. My hair got shorter and thinner. Despite the fact that I was getting it done every 2wks.

 

[doll-baby]

Hair stylists kept cutting my hair ! I got tired of paying money to be dissatisfied with my hairstyle when I could do it my self at home for free and have better results .

 

[BostonMaria]

This is a great thread!

For me it was a few things:
My hair looked better when I did it. I never got compliments when I got it done at the salon. Go figure!
I could NEVER retain length. My hair was SL for 26 yrs despite the fact that when I would cut it my hair would grow back quickly.
Scissor happy stylists.
Stylists would "accidentally" put a strong relaxer in and damage my hair.
I would spend hours at the salon. Appointments meant nothing.
My hard earned money got me brittle, dry, flat ass lifeless hair.
Memories of my childhood long locks...

I could write a book! Now I'm natural and am also TERRIFIED of letting anyone touch my hair! I used to go 3 x a month and now I go 3 x a year! LOL I shouldve seen the light yrs ago. When I used to stretch, self-relax and rollerset my hair back in 1990-1993 my hair was beautiful. Laziness made me visit the salon every week. Now its back to self-care and my natural hair is thriving! I'm beyond happy

 

[wonderstar]

After I figured out how dumb I was to pay for damage, literally.

 

[lilsparkle825]

the only stylist i ever trusted was too expensive for me to go to on a regular basis (i was a teenager) and my mom couldnt justify spending more on my hair than hers.

i would have an "is this ok for my hair?" question and the answer was always WRONG..."can i use this dark and lovely to go blonde?" YES! "i dont have to wash this weave do i?" NO! so i started researching.

that sew-in that gave me long (well, CBL) hair and i went back to ear/neck length during the takedown cause neither my cousin nor i had a clue what to do.

and the new beginning...the dominican salon was the only one open so i went there and left determined to go natural. a few months later i opted for a low-to-no-heat routine so that was it for them.

 

[The Princess]

My hair looked like this:

Even after paying 70 dollars every 2 weeks at the salon.

I don't care if I never grow long hair in my life. AT LEAST I don't have to walk around not able to do anything at all with my HORRIBLY damaged hair.

I think that hairstyle is cute

 

[Ganjababy]

I started going bald at the top of my head 4 years ago. I got a relaxer burn which left a 3cm bald spot. After a year the top of my head became extremely thin. At first I thought it was my imagination because my overall hair did not look very thin. I kept asking my hairdresser if she had noticed any difference and she kept saying no.This is the same one that burnt me. I kept asking my husband and he also kept saying it looked fine. It was not fine, and I still cant figure out why the hell he said it was ok, maybe he was scared I would get hysterical or somethinng. He kept saying I was overreacting until I was almost bald on top! Then he admitted it did not look right.

I went on holiday to Jamaica and had my hair done by a really great hairdresser and she said my crown was unusually thin and told me to go to my Dr. I was diagnosed with anemia. Eventually, I had to do comb overs. It was soooooooooooooo depressing. I guess I became obsessed with my hair since then. By the way my Dr. did not help much, other than diagnosing me and prescribing some iron. I basically did loads of research (which I am still doing) and took matters into my own hands. That is how I stumbled upon this site.

My crown is still not as dense as the rest of my head but I can now part my hair in the middle if I want and it looks fine. I check my blood at work myself every 2 weeks and take my iron tabs accordingly. I have to do this religiously or else it goes nearly bald again.

Can you believe I only stopped going to that stylist earlier this year? We had become friends and I felt obligated (even though my husband kept telling my she was not a good hairdresser and I wont have any hair left if I continue with her). She never apologised for that burn. I got the burn because she left the relaxer on too long. The last straw happened when she was detangling my hair and the brush was so full with hair that she had to remove the hair from the brush before she could continue detangling -twice. When she finished there was a pile of hair bigger than my fist- and I was only shoulder length!

My hair has been 100% better sinece I started doing everything myself.

 

[shereda]

I decided to go natural after almost two years of being a single, working, college mother of two. The stress was too much on my hair and I was starting to get patches of bald spots. I figured the only thing I could do was keep it braided and didn't see the point in putting a perm in it at the same time. Then after about six months I notice my hair had grown significantly minus the chemicals and haven't turned back.

 

[Sunshine0801]

I realized I could handle and style my hair better than the stylists who I visited.

I figured why waste money for something that I could do BETTER myself...

 

[Cien]

1. I got sick of my stylist relaxing my hair bone straight.

2. I had a bad weave experience at the salon.
I decided to get a weave for my birthday 3 years ago, just to give myself a different look.

It was my first AND LAST weave!

 

[ChocalateDiva]

Sick and tired of paying my hard earned money to-

• rude
• overbearing
• non-listening
• scirror happy
• overpaid
• stopping in the middle of my appointment to eat a fish sandwich.....

stylist!!!!!!!!

ugh..........i havent looked back.

 

[SW2011]

I was going to a pretty pricey salon here in Atlanta, and it was staying at one length (and had breakage in some areas - which I suspect is from the blowdryer). So, I figured if it was going to stay at one length, I could do it myself and save some money.

 

[lovenharmony]

I was just tired and frustrated with my hair breaking off every time I got it into a decent pony tail! I decided to learn more about kinky curly textured hair, learned more about the "science" of hair and started getting more proactive in reading books about kinky curly hair and Black women who were able to grow their hair to great lengths. I first discovered Cathy Howse's web site, then read her book, and shortly thereafter I found LHCF.

 

[nappysunflowers]

It was more like taking responsibility for my hair. I was leaving it in the hands of people that didn't know what they were doing. I wasn't eating right, taking care of myself, and combine that with a psycho stylist=bad hair. I am now taking care of and responsibility for my hair. It may not be down my shoulders, but it's not breaking off in clumps either, or the edges aren't fried, and both sides (L and R) are growing at the same rate...