My Natural Hair Journey: The First Year

I went natural the last month of my freshman year in high school. This decision was spurred on by issues with breakage, dry scalp, and bumps appearing in patches throughout my head. At the time, I had perm in my hair and after a visit to the dermatologist’s office, I was advised to discontinue using perm and begin using a medicated shampoo to clear up all the bumps.

For around five years, I had been relaxing my hair, and at first I really liked it. I didn’t like the burning sensation the relaxer left on my scalp, or the chemical burns that I sometimes would get from the relaxer being left on my scalp for too long, but I liked having my hair straight, and after a while it became the only style I knew for my hair. Initially, when I straightened my hair, I did not get a relaxer, my mom took me to get blowouts at the Dominican hair salons. Once I reached the sixth grade my mother took me for my first relaxer. Relaxing my hair proved much easier because my hair was thick and it kept my hair straight for a longer period of time. However, as I continued to perm my hair, my hair began thinning and breaking. When the breakage got out of control, and a beautician made me aware of the fact that I had bumps throughout my scalp, my mom made an appointment with my dermatologist.

The beginning of freshman year, as you can see, the right side of my hair was where majority of the damage was happening.

Many are unaware of the fact that if they are having scalp problems such as constant dandruff, peeling or any other scalp related issues, they should go to their dermatologist. Dermatologists are trained to deal with all the skin on your body, including your scalp. Going to my dermatologist proved very helpful and became the first step I took to going natural. Honestly, I am glad that my hair began breaking to detrimental amounts and I developed the bumps, because otherwise I do not think that I would have ever gone natural. You grow through what you go through. Literally and metaphorically I grew. Accepting my natural hair helped me to accept myself, how I looked, who I was, and even learn to love myself through taking care of myself. Even more, my hair actually grew much more, especially when I first went natural.

I ended up having to get my hair cut to be even because the right side was so short, but you can see where the damage has ravished one side of my hair. This picture was taken shortly before I went to see my dermatologist.

Once we worked out the scalp issue, my dermatologist recommended to me Ketaconazole to get rid of all the bumps. She felt that it was possible I was having an allergic reaction to the chemicals in the relaxer, and due to my hair being relaxed I also wasn’t washing my hair as frequently. Now for people with kinkier hair, washing your hair too much can cause the hair to dry up and break off because it is much more difficult for the sebum (natural oil created by your scalp) to reach the tips of your hair. So while many of my Caucasian and Asian friends have hair that is more prone to being oily, my hair is prone to dryness, which can be damaging if I continually shampoo and remove the oils from it. Nonetheless, I was washing my hair very infrequently due to the relaxer and needed to set myself up to be shampooing at least once a week, and perhaps a conditioner-wash halfway through the week since I was active and did activities that made me sweat frequently.

Cue the braids. I have a love-hate relationship with braids, especially the kind I was doing, which were the synthetic twists. They were a key part in me growing out all of the relaxer in my hair without doing a big chop. In conjunction with the medicated shampoo, it got me down to very little relaxed hair and mostly new-growth and virgin, unrelaxed hair. Yet, they also contributed to me having very dry hair and horrible split ends when I finally took them out. My suggestion is that you educate yourself before you put braids in your hair, especially if using synthetic hair. I have heard of people doing them successfully to where it is safe and not so harmful for their hair, so it's definitely good to find what's good for you and be ok with incurring maybe a little bit of damage due to dryness. Of course, for me and my natural hair, everything I learned was by trial and error. I tried something on my hair, endured a little damage, and then I figured out where I went wrong and re-directed. First of all, my natural hair stylist informed me that the fibers which the synthetic hair used for braids and twists leaches the moisture out of your hair, and if you cannot tell by now, that is a big “no-no” in terms of natural hair, and just any kind of hair. It is very difficult to maintain moisture for your hair underneath the braiding hair, so it is best not to keep in braids for too long. This, I did not know, and my mom and I proceeded to braid up my hair for several months at a time shortly after my dermatologist visit. The braid phase didn’t last long though, but I had braids in for the majority of around nine months, and when I took them out, I had to get a good bit of split ends chopped off. Not a trim, but an actual cut from all the damaged ends. The braids were nice though in the fact that I liked how they looked and made my summer pretty easy because I did a lot of travelling to the beach, which meant a lot of swimming. I had fun and enjoyed them while they lasted, and I have to say that box braids and Havana twists are a very cute style.

I loved my braids!

Like I really, really loved them!!

Essentially, this was how my first year being natural went. It was a lot of learning. Other than the changes I mentioned before, I did have to find a natural hair stylist. One disappointing part about the damage I underwent was that in all the time the damage was occurring, I was going to a professional stylist. I rarely, if ever, did my hair myself at home, and any straightening or relaxing was done by a professional. I managed to consistently stay with a stylist, which can be very hard to do, and I trusted that my parents were paying good money not only to get a style that was satisfactory, but also that my hair was actually being taken care of. It is disheartening to know that all that was money wasted on just getting my hair styled and damaged. In all honesty, I really just didn’t know. My parents and I were doing what we knew, and thought was right, and due to our lack of in-depth knowledge pertaining to certain aspects of caring for my hair, we went to a professional. Our lack of knowledge is not an excuse, but it definitely shows that it is good to know about what’s going on in your body and on your body, including your hair. Not every professional is going to be forthcoming with you and say that they think that relaxing your hair is causing damage.

Unfortunately, it seems that we have a wealth of stylists that style the hair, but do not care for the hair, and they leave that up to the clients to figure out. So, it pays to know, and if you don’t know, definitely ask questions. If they can’t answer your questions, maybe they shouldn’t be receiving your money to care for your hair. I went natural at a time when most of the hair tutorials were done by girls that had hair that was nothing like mine. I stubbornly ignored my mom’s cautions that some of the styles may not work on me because my hair was not their hair, and spent a significant amount of time trying to emulate white girl hairstyles that were never really very successful for me. So definitely embrace yourself and who you are. Eventually I did find YouTubers with my hair type, but it took a while. Thankfully, now there is an abundance of resources to learn about your hair, hair type, and how to keep it healthy and growing. A lot of the things out there can get confusing, and when I first went natural, my mother worked to find a professional we could trust and that would inform us properly. This was a BIG step in my natural journey, and the beginning of what I like to refer to as the "second phase" of my journey.

Thanks for keeping up with me,

Kaylah