Transitioning

(Left, kinky twist and senegalese twist far left)

I was scared out of my mind. I'd never been without hair. I kept my 3 textured hair in buns for about 5 months. Remember I had the weave for over 10 years. Everyone who knew me thought that 'that hair' was mine. To make matters worse the hair of my now past was straight, 'dead straight'. I had no idea what my real hair texture looked like. But I knew that it was far from straight.

So I decided to wear a 'kinky' braided (with extension) style while I figured out what to do with my hair. The girl who did the style had me waiting for over 3 hours. When she did show up it was the most unprofessional place. Her teen aged children where asleep in their 1 room apartment and they remained asleep through the 7 hour braiding ordeal.

The best part of the entire process was that she cut my chemically treated hair which left me with the shortest hair I've ever seen on my head! In addition she used natural products like apple cider vinegar and Shea butter before braiding my hair.

Unfortunately the hair she used to braid into my hair made me itch like the 'dickens'! In about 3 weeks I took the braids out and when to a traditional African braider. The African braider was fabulous! She did a Senegalese twist style, with hair extensions. I wore this style for about 3 months before I conjured up enough courage to 'rock the natural'!!

My Natural Life So Far (Before the Transition)

(No more weave pic bottom left. Tex-lax pics above and upper left)

Can you believe that for about 14 years I hid my natural hair with weaves?!! My routine was to go to the stylist, have them take my weave off (i.e. take the tracks down, un-braid my hair) and put it right back in. In addition I would have the stylist 'touch up' the edges of my hair (i.e relax the edges). I would be there for hours! I hated salons. I remember going into one stylist who happened to have a major 'god complex'. My appointment was at 4pm. I arrived at 3:30pm. I did not leave the salon until 1am the next morning!!! I went from stylist to stylist and continued to have horrible experiences yet I felt that I needed the weave.
After my son was born in March 2005 I thought about getting away from the time, expense and dependence of weaves. I decided to have the weave taken off and this time relax all of my hair!
In retrospect I would never have done this. Oh well, for awhile I loved my long relaxed hair. My new stylist (Shelley) was very professional and did a great job. I still had the her t add 2 tracks for fullness.

For some reason I was not satisfied. My relaxed hair was never as straight as the weaved hair. I would flat iron and blow dry my hair DAILY (can you believe the insanity?) As one would expect, my hair began breaking off.
Well back to the weaves I went. I wore the weave for another 2 years. A year after having my daughter (she was born 7/7/7) I had this overwhelming need to get the weave off of my head once and for all. I didn't want her to grow up believing that there was something wrong with her hair. I wanted her to love and accept who she was. I began to do research on-line. My plan was to take the weave off and tex-lax my hair.

So I'm sure you know what happened. On August 20, 2008 I went to a very upscale salon for the tex. The stylist did a TERRIBLE job! During the consultation she assured me that they do this "all the time" in their salon. However during my tex process, every stylist in the place came up to her and asked her what she was doing. I should have left after the first query but I endured.
I left the salon with about 3 different hair textures on my head. Some dead straight, some wavy, and some kinky curly. I was in tears for about 2 days. After the tears subsided I said to myself THAT'S IT! NO MORE OF THIS!!! I began the transition.