What started you on your hair journey?

[melodee]

I've always wanted longer hair as long as I can remember. I had a childhood friend with wavy buttlength hair that I admired. Like I, she had an AA mother and a Latin father. She used to tell me that she wished her hair was like mine, as it could hold a style (i.e.-bangs stay sticking up or ends curled under). But I always wanted swinging hair b/c all of my AA relatives used to talk about who had good hair and who had bad hair.

I never appreciated my hair as a child. I never celebrated what it could do. I did have good hair. But I was confused.

Anyway, I wondered why I had some friends with longer hair than I, even if their texture was similar. But I just did what my mom and hairdresser told me to do and trimmed every couple of weeks and relaxed every 6 weeks. I used my curling iron whenever I felt like it--very often. And I stayed at shoulder length.

I continued doing this as an adult, until I had my 2nd baby. I had gotten braids for the first time ever, and all that rest did my hair ALOT of good. It was really long when I took them out. But alas, about 6 months later due to supertrims of my stylist who used my shoulders as a gage, it was back to shoulder.

A light bulb went off here! Aha moment! Without the constant care of the stylist, my hair flourished. With the stylist's perms and shears, I'm back at ground zero. I started questioning, asking for no trims. I saw length retention. I did my own trims. I found LHCF not long after and started measuring my progress. I started at 17 inches.
Thus began my official journey.

I've since stopped measuring, but I am around 24 inches now.

 

[Divine_Order]

For me it started a year ago. I was at wits end trying to find a good moisturizer for my hair. I typed in "African American hair care" into the search engine and I got growafrohairlong.com. I salivated over Robin's hair like EVERYDAY! That same week I stumbled across this site along with a couple others, and after seeing so many black women with LONG, HEALTHY hair I had to give it a try myself! SHOOT!

 

[Cichelle]

My journey started when I decided that I didn't want to relax my hair anymore. I started to search on line for information about transitioning and how to take care of natural hair. I eventually found this site.

 

[StartinOvah]

i got tired of "cutting the damage" out of my hair. i figured the best thing to do was get rid of my relaxer. that, and i had no idea what my natural hair looked/felt like. i was curious more than anything. i also wanted a different look and something i didn't have to visit a salon to take care of.

 

[EbonyRose]

I started gearing up because of my deployment to Iraq. I've been here for about 4 months and I'm still creating a plan. The water here is hard and I'm the only sister that live in my compound so... I've kinda learned to braid/plait or something in between. Its hard because of my location and the shortage of information/outlets but I officially started in Dec. on my journey to get my hair healthy and longer.

 

[brownbarbie]

I used to work with a sistah with beautiful, long flowing hair down to her butt.

I heard her tell someone that ever since she was little, she went to a Dominican salon every two weeks to get her hair done.

Since I had always lusted for long hair, I thought, hmmmmm.

 

[maryj1584]

I did not even want to grow out my hair, I just wanted to take better care of it. So one day i was stumbled upon Black hair media, and I found Sistaslick's 6 month progress pics and I was stuned. This started my hair journey and I am so glad I found her album, very inspirational. She also helped me out at the begining of my hair journey.

 

[Doremie13]

I started my journey when I discovered this forum in January. I was about to cut off my hair because it was so dry and unmanageable. Since moving here in August, I've had a problem finding the right products for my hair and dealing with the hard water, dry indoor air and frigid outdoor cold. Since joining this site, I've discovered that water is my hair's best friend, and since then I've been keeping it moist and happy!

 

[Candy_C]

WELL. i had perfectly thick past shoulder length hair, used heat and washed every two weeks, wore it out or in simple styles, until i decided to folla folla fashion! i used to do these mad styles with elastic bandsand i would PULL my hair to make the band tighter. i would use PINK gel! and moisturizor? for hair?? i never knew it EXISTED!

when i left school i remember not gettin my hair relaxed for AGES like 5 months, and my hair grew pretty long (few inches about armpit) but it quickly went bad after my trip to the hairstylist at the local salon (which HAPPENED to be owned by my MONEY MAD cousin!)

my hair retained a lot of length for the months after, i even died it with Crazy Colours which is a semi permanent vegetable die, and it took VERY well, my hair was FIRE RED i look amazing. the colour didn't last tho, and turned into a permanent dry looking crap on my ends. i think grew it out and my hair suffered badly after my mum brought the GHD irons. i got my hair straight like white girls and just as flicky. my hair broke off terribley. THEN one day my mum came home with some strengthening cream, so i thought i'd giove it a try...WHY!!!! it was PURE PROTEIN i mean every kind aprotein u can think of was in there and ALCOHOL! the stylist cousin of mine told my mu mto use it every day! so i did! within 3 days of use my hair was crumbled.

i thought F*%" this, i deserve to have long hair...my mum had grown her hair 2 her booty in the past so why couldn't i? my dads family (Jamaican) all had thick strong hair, so i knew i had the weopons. i found the Cathy Howse site and was stuck to my screen. After that i found this site! since december 04 i've been hooked and earnt myself nearly 8 inches of growth and a whole new mindframe!

 

[Healthb4Length]

I decided to grow my hair out really long to prove a point to a white friend who said that black hair couldn't grow long! I did lots of searches and I first found Cathy Howse's site, I was too happy! Then I discovered Blackhaircareandbody then LHCF, saw Adrienne's hair and was in love! I stalked...I mean visited her album on an almost daily basis! Then I discovered AJD, SherryLove and many others and I knew that it was possible for black women regardless of hair texture could grow our hair to great lengths! I am no longer friends with that person for other reasons, but I've learned that healthy hair is way more important than long hair! I've learned to manage my thick hair and I've made some money along the way too from learning how to braid, twist and loc!

 

[sareca]

I was stuck in the braided hair grow/break cycle. My hair would grow to BSL and look pretty for the first few days after takedown then it would start to break. I'd cut off 3-4 inches and then gradually trim the rest of the crumbling hair and rebraid. Searching for an answer, I found Cathy Howse's website. She described almost exactly what I'd been going tho so I decided to read her book. I started using her products in August 2005 and my hair stopped crumbling. So I kept using her technique. That's when I found C&G. But I didn't think it would work so I kept looking and found this place. After reading what people said about C&G here I decided to give it a try. I'm sooo glad I did. Now I use some combination of the two but I saw the biggest changes from C&G.

Uh, I guess that's not really the start...