I Can't Believe I Wore My Hair Like This

Do you ever think back or look at old pictures of yourself and think "I can't believe I wore that?" Well, I was thinking of some of the many hairstyles I have worn over my lifetime and so, I went to old photos of me on facebook to see what styles I used to rock. Check them out...


HOOK-ON BUNS - I used to own about five of these buns in different designs and different sizes. I wore them religiously. We even wore them in my probate show:-) However, I have been embarrassed a many times by having these things fall off. I started to get hip and secured them with bobby pins. I don't see myself wearing these agains. And what's crazy is I still have one at my house.

HOOK-ON PONYTAILS - So, I found this pic of me and my LS's at a social. I remember getting ready for this night and I do believe that was a new ponytail I was rocking. I had these hook on ponytails in different lengths and different styles. I even had an afro puff one that I rocked briefly. I just knew I was the stuff whenever I attached these to my head. I especially liked the long and straight ones. I really don't know what the appeal was.

THE GEL AND SWIRL - Now this was the hairstyle that made me feel so fierce. I usually rocked it right after I had a fresh perm. I would part the hair, apply my black gel, and swirl the hair. I must admit this style received quite a few compliments and I even put this hairstyle in friends' hair. However, this style was so HARD. The gel in addition to the spritz was just crazy! My hair was hard, stiff, dry, and itchy. You can see that I would usually hook-on a bun or ponytail with this style. The bun in this pic was a HUGE one, kind of like a dome. lol


RUBBER BAND TWISTS - This style is just unfathomable to me! I am blessed to still have edges!! I started rocking this hairstyle in high school and wore it in college quite a few times. I usually wore this style when it was time for me to get a re-touch of my relaxer. I would part the hair in little sections and connect these sections with rubber bands. Its kind of hard to explain but, I hope the pictures give you an idea. My first college roomate loved this style and had my put it in her hair on a number of occasions. I definitely won't ever be rocking this.

MICRO BRAIDS - I used to get micro braids religiously. My sisters and my mom would travel about an hour to go to Phenix City, AL to this African shop and have them put in for $180. The thing about micro braids are they are cute initially but, the edges start to get stressed and white bulbs would appear or bumps. Also, they were the biggest pain to take out. If I want a version of micros now, I would just put some mini braids in my hair.

FALL WIGS - I had a number of fall wigs. They are really 1/2 wigs that you put in 1/2 of your head with combs and/or drawstring. For some reason, I liked the idea of only flat ironing the front section of my hair and then putting the wig on the back. Weird.

Well, that's all the past pics I could find. I've actually worn way more hairstyles than this but, I couldn't find them all.

Faking the Funk: The "Natural" Look for Relaxed Hair

So, every blue moon I do an opinion/observation post. This is just a post stating my random thought on a particular matter in the natural community.

On a number of occasions, I have noticed a number of girls with relaxed hair trying to obtain the "natural" look. Here are a few cases: (1)This past weekend, I was in Zaxby's with my sister and I noticed this pretty girl wearing her relaxed hair blown out. (2)On Facebook, a friend of mine washed her relaxed hair and let it dry and said she was going "natural" today (3)My sister's best friend washed her relaxed hair and said that she was going to go for the "natural" look today.

Honestly, when ladies with relaxed hair wear their hair in the "natural" look, it never looks natural to me. I think it looks weird. When it comes to relaxed hair, the hair is void of its natural curl so, the resulting hair are these straight pieces. So, even when the hair has not been flat ironed or straightened with heat the ends of the hair will still look straight.

Many relaxed ladies obtain that "natural" look by either doing a wash n' go or just blowing out the hair. I feel that these are the looks that turn out looking the weirdest. It would probably be best for them to wear a roller set/bantu knot out and let it gradually get thicker and fuller. Or they could wear a twist-out with the ends curled. These styles better imitate the "natural" look than the wash n' go or blow out on relaxed hair (even though the hair will still not look completely natural).

Obviously, there is an appreciation for the look of natural hair but, there is not a motivation there to simply wear the hair in its true natural state. I am happy that natural hair is being accepted more but, I just desire for more people to truly go natural. But, you never know maybe they will get tired of faking the funk and simply go for the real thing one day.

Is Natural Hair Too Much Work???

Recently, I was on Naturally Leslie's blog and she asked the question: Is natural hair too much work? The reason she posed this question is because she saw this young lady on Youtube who went natural and then she relaxed her hair. Too each its own, right?

However, I decided to go to the link of the Youtuber who decided to relax her hair after being natural. I was curious about her reason for going back to straightened hair. Some of the reasons she cited were: (1)she was tired of looking busted (2)she did not like the Buckwheat look (3)she did not like the length that it was at (4)she felt it was too much work. I felt that the reason she went back to the relaxer so quickly is because she didn't change her mindset. Being natural isn't just about changing our hair. Its about accepting the beauty that was given to us naturally from God.

The argument that natural hair is too much work is just crazy to me. Some people would rather put damaging chemicals on their hair than work with the natural hair to maintain its health. Also, I was relaxed for about 10 years and I remember the work that went into relaxed hair.

This is an idea of my regimen while relaxed:
1. Relax the hair every 4-6 weeks.
2. Do not scratch the scalp before applying a relaxer.
3. Apply petroleum around the perimeter of the hair to prevent scalp burns.
4. Scalp burns still occured and they were annoying as all get out!!
5. Blow dry the hair.
6. Flat iron the hair--section by section. Apply oil sheen generously before flat ironing.
7. Wrap the hair using a wrapping lotion. Wrap the hair every night to maintain the style.
8. After about 2-3 days, I would flat iron the hair again. I know some of my relaxed friends would flat iron the hair everyday. Even then, I couldn't fathom this much heat damage.
9. Get the hair trimmed every 4-6 weeks because split ends occured like crazy and they were very noticeable with relaxed hair.
10. After about 2 weeks my curly roots would begin to come back in. I would hide this by either flat ironing the hair to the root until I felt that singe of heat. Or I would apply gel and where it in a pony tail. Or I would roller set my hair and sit under a dryer for 1-2 hours.
11. I only washed my hair once a month because I didn't want my relaxer to wear out.
12. Despite, doing all of this I still experienced breakage. To cover this up, I would get my hair cut every now and then.

To some, this may not seem like a complex routine, but I began to loathe it. I began to dread the re-touch of the relaxer that occured every 4-6 weeks. My last years of relaxed hair, I would only get it re-touched about every 3 months. I could never obtain length while having relaxed hair. The longest my hair would get would be to my shoulders. My natural hair is this length now when I stretch it--and this has occured after a little over a year.

In the end, maybe some people don't like the idea of co-washing the hair weekly, or using oils to maintain moisture, or wearing protective styles, and other such methods. However, I will take my natural regimen any day over my relaxed regimen. I accept my natural hair because it is me. I accept my natural hair because it is healthy. I accept my natural hair because it is a gift from God. I accept my natural hair because it is beautiful. Therefore, I can't ever fathom my natural hair being too much work. My relaxed days...I am so glad I'm over this.