I am eleven months post relaxer. Wow! I still haven't figured out this hair thing, but I'm still trying. Here are some pics of my wash/styling session on April 7th. They include Day 1 & Day 2 hair. The set actually lasted three days. Rain and workout sessions killed it. LOL!
Anyway... on to the point of this post. I have learned some things over the past eleven months. I walked into this do-it-yourself hair journey knowing absolutely nothing. I was a freelance worker and feared that jobs would dry up soon. The first things that needed to be cut were my expensive trips to the salon, so I had to do my hair myself.
I had been getting my hair done since I was five. I got my first relaxer at 16. I never had a problem with length. I'd probably washed my own hair five times. I have a curling iron from the 90s and I rarely used it. I don't believe in using additional heat in between visits to the shop. Simply put, caring for my hair was someone else's job. It's why I went to work... to pay them to do it.
I dove blindly into the online hair community and I wanted to become an instant expert. I've never been patient. It's not my thing. That mindset cost me and my hair. I have had some just plain awful hair days. I wanted to comb out my hair in ten minutes like the girls on YouTube and that's not possible for me. I ended up ripping out hair and causing major breakage. Plus, I purchased lots of products that I thought worked miracles.
Look at all the crap under my sink. Not a single one of those products worked a miracle. On top of that, I was putting too much stuff in my hair.
I was unrealistic in my thoughts that I could handle my hair exactly like Nina Pruitt, Kimmaytube or Naptrual85 and get the same results. I mean I KNEW this, but I kept trying to ignore it. Yes... I was ignoring common sense.
So now when I stalk my favorite heads of hair on blogs and YouTubes, I do it with a different understanding and acceptance. I can appreciate the results CurlyNikki gets and know that I'm not going to get them. We have different hair. I'm actually getting better tips from girls with relaxers, even though the hair gurus say treat your hair like it's "natural," if you're transitioning.
At this point, I am going to focus on keeping it simple and trying to figure out a way to get rid of some of that crap under my sink that I don't use. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be trolling the Internet for new ideas. I'm just over the idea of looking for miracles, although curlformers are a miracle for the styling challenged. I love those things. ha!
Anyway... on to the point of this post. I have learned some things over the past eleven months. I walked into this do-it-yourself hair journey knowing absolutely nothing. I was a freelance worker and feared that jobs would dry up soon. The first things that needed to be cut were my expensive trips to the salon, so I had to do my hair myself.
I had been getting my hair done since I was five. I got my first relaxer at 16. I never had a problem with length. I'd probably washed my own hair five times. I have a curling iron from the 90s and I rarely used it. I don't believe in using additional heat in between visits to the shop. Simply put, caring for my hair was someone else's job. It's why I went to work... to pay them to do it.
I dove blindly into the online hair community and I wanted to become an instant expert. I've never been patient. It's not my thing. That mindset cost me and my hair. I have had some just plain awful hair days. I wanted to comb out my hair in ten minutes like the girls on YouTube and that's not possible for me. I ended up ripping out hair and causing major breakage. Plus, I purchased lots of products that I thought worked miracles.
Look at all the crap under my sink. Not a single one of those products worked a miracle. On top of that, I was putting too much stuff in my hair.
I was unrealistic in my thoughts that I could handle my hair exactly like Nina Pruitt, Kimmaytube or Naptrual85 and get the same results. I mean I KNEW this, but I kept trying to ignore it. Yes... I was ignoring common sense.
So now when I stalk my favorite heads of hair on blogs and YouTubes, I do it with a different understanding and acceptance. I can appreciate the results CurlyNikki gets and know that I'm not going to get them. We have different hair. I'm actually getting better tips from girls with relaxers, even though the hair gurus say treat your hair like it's "natural," if you're transitioning.
At this point, I am going to focus on keeping it simple and trying to figure out a way to get rid of some of that crap under my sink that I don't use. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be trolling the Internet for new ideas. I'm just over the idea of looking for miracles, although curlformers are a miracle for the styling challenged. I love those things. ha!
I recently purged my closet of unwanted products, tools and perfumes. I can't believe how much money I've wasted during my pj-ism. I have a bag of products that I want to give away. I know I was a stone cold pj because I can look thorugh your cubby and tell you exactly what each product is based on it's bottle color and packaging without the labels. If it's out there I've tried it. I wish we could warn other newbies but truth is we all come looking for quick fixes and we soon learn that it take patience, simply patience.
ReplyDelete"stone cold pj" had me cracking up because I am one as well. Recovery is so hard, but my pockets are keeping me on the right track:-)
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