Hey friends!
Welcome to today’s blog post! I hope you’ve been well since the last time we were here , and i'm glad that you are back today.
As per the title, today, we will be talking about my natural hair journey. I love talking about faith, God and life issues, but I also love embracing the whole woman, and my natural hair journey has played a huge role in my life, and it’s an area I’m passionate about.
So, if you’re interesting in hearing and learning more, feel free to continue :)
So, let’s flashback to about 13 years ago. 2008, I was 9 and that was the first time I got my hair relaxed. I was super excited about it, because I had wanted to have relaxed hair for the longest time. However, thinking of it right now, I was so young!
Fast forward years later into high school, I think it was around 2014-2015, that the natural hair trend began to pick up in Kenya, and more people were choosing to ditch the relaxers and embrace the fro’.
My biggest inspiration on this journey, was definitely Tabitha of Craving yellow. If you’ve never heard of her, she’s a natural hair/lifestyle blogger, formerly based in Australia, now in Kenya and she shared her journey with natural hair. I first came across her in a true love magazine article, and I was in awe of how healthy, long and volumous her hair was, and considering it was natural?! I was in awe!
I feel us girls growing up, were conditioned to think that our hair, as curly and kinky as it is, was deemed unkempt and not neat, so relaxed hair was the way to go. In the past I would never dream of walking around with my natural hair all out, without blow-dry or plaited. But things have changed a lot since then, and I’m happy to see us African women just loving our hair in its natural state.
However, if you prefer relaxing your hair, wearing braids or whatever, that’s totally fine! To each their own. As long as you stay authentic and true to yourself!
When and why I decided to go natural
I saw the said Craving yellow magazine article, sometime in 2016. I was in my last year of high school, and I felt like I didn’t have enough time to commit to taking care of natural hair. So I finished high school and began the journey officially in March 2017.
I decided to go natural, honestly at first out of curiosity, and wanting to try something new. It was weird at first, but I was excited to embark on a new journey.
The journey.
Let's take a walk down memory lane for a second...
2016
This was my hair, pre-natural and relaxed.
It was pretty long, and I actually really liked my hair then , aaand this is one of my fave pics of myself (teehee).
2017
When beginning your natural hair journey, one of the things you should embark on is doing research. Basically educating oneself on what to expect, as well as terms you may not be familiar with like ‘big-chop’, ‘transitioning’, ‘twa’ which means ‘teeny weeny afro’. And so on.
I didn’t want to do a big chop. This basically means chopping a large amount of your hair, preferably the sections gone through a lot of heat/chemical damage, to have it start growing afresh naturally.
I chose to transition, which means, keeping your hair with the damage and all, staying away from heat and chemicals and allowing it to turn back to its natural state by itself.
As you can see, my hair was short and A lot of damage. I wish I could find pics that could clearly show the extent of it, but yea, this was my beginning :O.
A little story
I will say when I began, many people were wondering what the heck I was doing, and didn’t fully understand. Well, at times, neither did I.
I remember a particular incident, I was on my way somewhere and someone stopped me, and we had a small conversation. Of course, it transitioned to the state of my hair, and the person asked me whether I was on my way to the salon.
In my head I was like, ‘the audacity!’. lolz. I remembered how much time I had spent getting ready and fixing my hair to at least look sane despite the damage, then someone asks me whether I was going to the salon?!? It was my look for the day y’all!
Despite this and many other incidents, I kept going anyway and I’m really glad I did.
2018
I was still continuing with the journey, allowing my hair to slowly repair itself from past damage, and by the end of the year, my hair had fully transitioned to its natural state, and might I say, I liked what I saw.
Also, by this time I began to receive questions from people regarding my hair. And compliments too!
I also began protective styling my hair, with two-strand twists, now my curls were finally tight enough to hold that hairstyle.
And that’s why, as I said, I am glad I stuck with my journey :)
2019
I decided to spice things up. I dyed my hair for the first time, and I also straightened it, just to see how long it became.
It was fun and encouraging to see it that way.
Also, the dye didn’t cause damage (thank God!) my hair still remained healthy throughout. Also I don’t think I experienced heat damage from the straightening, considering the fact that I rarely and still rarely subject my hair to heat.
Then to give my hair a break (I also did this in 2018, and currently, I usually plait braids. I like crotchet or box braids, for the sake of my hairline!).
2020
I didn’t do much to my hair this year, since I was home most of the time. I didn’t plait braids at all this year.
I just continued with normal washing, conditioning, treating and twisting, at times leaving it open and styling with the classic puff :)
2021
I think this is the first time I’ve braided more than once in a year since going natural.
This was me earlier this year
Then, this is my current hairstyle
So, in a nutshell, that has been my natural hair journey people.
4 years in and going strong. I’m learning more every day, and enjoying the journey while at it.
It’s been beautiful so far.
From this journey, I’ve learnt a number of things:
Be adamant
At the beginning of my journey, many people questioned what I was doing, I did too. But I learnt, if you have a strong witness in your spirit to do something, go for it. Stay adamant despite what people might say. The same naysayers may in the future, come asking you for tips and advice.
Enjoy and stay in the process
Since Tabitha of craving yellow was my inspiration, I remember reaching out to her via e-mail, right before I began my natural hair journey for tips and advice. She responded and said that it would take an average of 6 months to a year to see significant changes. I thought to myself, ‘Gosh! That’s so long!’
And that’s the thing with natural hair. It’s gonna take time. be patient, enjoy and celebrate any growth you experience.
Nobody’s hair is the same, what works for someone else may not work for you. So get to really study and know your hair. Try different things, have fun and enjoy the journey while getting to your hair goals, whatever they may be.
It’s crazy that I’ve learnt these principles from my hair journey and have applied it to so many areas in my life. Don’t we all need to be adamant and patient at times? I do think so.
Most importantly, from this journey I have learnt to appreciate the uniqueness and beauty, that God has demonstrated in His creation, us.
Nobody's hair looks the same, feels the same, there are even different hair types and textures!
The way I've experienced God in this area, is by learning to be patient, appreciate and stay in process, then also don't compare.
Anywhoo! That’s all for me this week, I hope you've enjoyed reading this.
It's a slight diversion from most of the posts I've done so far, but I'd love to share with you guys other areas I'm passionate about, including this one.
Next time I’ll be sharing with y'all my hair care routine, products I use and some tips that could help. :)
Thanks for being here! Remember to subscribe down below if you haven’t and would like to receive my bi-monthly newsletter. (next one is coming on 1st August!).
Like and share this post if you'd like to, and I’ll see you next time!
Xoxo
BK.
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