Ever since I was 12 years old I’ve been getting perms. My mom was fully against it and I wish I would of listened to her, till this day I keep telling her “Mom, you were right! Perms mess up your hair.” At the time I had an obsession with having silky straight hair, and begged my mom for two years straight before she gave in. Now as an adult I wish I would of never. But it happens I was young and didn’t know I should embrace my big hair. I kept getting perms religiously up until 20010-2011, when my hair was in SHAMBLES!!! I wish I had my old desktop so you all can see how THIN, dry and poor my hair looked once it was straightened. It was so bad to the point that the salon owner (who has bee doing my hair since the age of 5) stopped what she was doing and went of on the stylists whom she trusted at the time to do my hair. That stylist was basically damaging my hair slowly but surely and it showed, since my hair was long. By that point I had enough and started getting perms once a year instead of every 3 years. The first picture will be how my hair was when I first permed it, long, thick and healthy.

I was sick of perms leaving my hair lifeless, so I told myself no more perms. My last one was December 2014, before leaving to the Dominican Republic for vacation. This is because it’ll be way easier to manage and it was but that was my last last last and LAST perm i’ll ever get in my life.

 After that point by no means did I ever stop using heat etc. I just stopped with the perms. I was still hitting the salon every two weeks for a wash & set. After a few months of being on a hair treatment I instantly started seeing changed in my hair as far as thickness. The curl patterns were barely there but I was still happy with the changes my hair was doing. By this point I wasn’t even thinking about restoring my curls, I just wanted my hair to not feel lifeless anymore and at least have some bounce to it when it was straightened, but it even lacked that as well. Let’s just say my hair was a hot mess but not as bad as before. Instead of being bone straight when it got wet it started getting puffier and puffier practically being a mix of an afro / straight ends. (Yeah, not cute what so ever.)

By the end of 2015/ early 2016 I moved out. I went from being in New York where there are Dominican hair salons at every corner to Kansas where it was impossible to find one (let’s just say I still haven’t found one). This alone meant big changes for my hair, I would always get it done every two weeks and now that I moved to Kansas and I had to just suck it up and do it myself. At first this was a huge head ache because I have a lot of hair and didn’t know what to do with it after I finished washing it. So I would go to Walmart spend money on Shea moisture (because I thought this was the only thing that worked for my hair type), and would let it air dry and slick it up. Four months in (April to be exact) I was frustrated and wanted my hair done, so I did some research and stumbled upon one hair place near by. I went in got my hair done by a young Caucasian female (whom was the sweetest and we talked non stop). Let me say I was NERVOUS, SHOOK, CONFUSED that she wanted to do my hair, she then assured me she had done my hair type in Atlanta for some years which calmed me down a bit. Once finished it didn’t look too bad but it was still puffy and I wasn’t thrilled but wasn’t disappointed either (sign). Then it was time to pay. They charged me $85!!!!! Holy crap I died a little inside paid and never went back. In New York I only paid $20 and it was done great. This is where I sucked it up again, and continued to do it myself and do nonsense to my hair.

Time passed on and I decided I need to straighten my hair, because I was tired of how the roots were curly and the rest was bone straight when it air dried. So in October of 2016 I bought a flat iron. And went for it (first time me using a flat iron on myself). This was the final product, not to shabby but boy my ends needed to be cut ASAP. But I knew I would be going to New York soon and would do it there.

December came around and I went to New York and cut more than just the ends. After that I kept washing it and then blow dry and flat iron straight after that every two weeks, then I slowed it down to once a month because my hair was thicker and getting longer and it took me literally hours to do.

During the summer of last year 2017, I just started to see more and more of my curl pattern since I slowly put the flat iron down and a lot of the dead hair was cut off. In the next few pictures people will go ahead and do something called “big chop” but I didn’t want that because personally I still want to straighten my hair when I wanted. But also have the curls I was starting to get.

Once 2018 was around the corner I told myself I would not straighten my hair for the whole year. From October on I didn’t straighten it up until late december. But can I just say um that no straightening thing … that ain’t happen  (lol) because in February I straightened it to see the length and wow I was shook at how long it was getting. The next few pics are comparisons. It’s crazy the difference no heat for a bit can do.

My hair has grown out significantly. I still have heat damage and that is okay. By this point I won’t be like the naturals that are petrified of heat because I like to straighten my hair regardless and my sole purpose of stopping the perms was to restore my hair to get it back to the length it was and thicker again. Over the past two years I’ve used so many products but there are some that have helped out my hair starting from the shampoo and conditioner. Aussie Mega Moist Conditioner and the Renpure Conditioner have been key and using the Renpure Shampoo. As for styling I use the pink EcoStyle Gel, Cantu Leave-in Conditioner and Cantu Curl Creme. For me, the less heat the more the curls.

CURRENT APRIL 2018