Today I want to share the evolution of my hair, and what I've learn about caring for my hair over the years. When I was a young babe I had golden locks, that was usually a silky bunch of knots.
Around seven my grandmom gave me a haircut. It turn out to be a mullet. Then we permed it. With an at home perm. My mom had this theory that perming my hair would make it thicker. As a result I hated brushing my hair, and my brothers would call me dreads.
For special occasions my mom would curl my hair with rag curlers or small foam curlers. She would divide my hair up into little sections, and then twist the individual sections and wrap them around a rag. Then tie it in a knot. It worked best if done on a wet head of hair, and let set for at least 12 hours.
Then we started professionally perming my hair. It took hours, but the result was bigger, and lasted longer. I still wish I had curly hair, but I don't think I'll be perming my hair anytime soon.
I'm not sure if my hair got thick enough, or if we realized perming my hair dried it out, but we stopped. My hair straighten out for the most part. I don't have thin hair, but I don't have thick hair. It frizzes in high humidity. It takes really well to curling, and looks great straightened. Though I don't own a straightener or a blow drier.
Through out middle school and high school I let my hair grow, and do it's own thing. I didn't do much with it ever. In eleventh grade my hair got the longest it had ever been, and hasn't been that long until recently.
Before my senior portraits I cut off twelve inches of hair and donated it to Locks for Love. My hair stayed above my shoulders up until the last couple years.
During my first year of college someone convinced me to go for a 'pixie' haircut, and everyone told me it looked great. Now that I have long hair, I'm having second thoughts about how good that style looked on me.
Then I got cheap, and stopped paying for hair cuts, and I spent my money on hair dye. I dyed my hair in all sorts of crazy fashions. My fave was when the left front side of my hair was black, and the rest would be anything from blonde to bright red.
After college I stopped using conditioner, and my hair became a mess of dreadlocks. I was kind of amazed by how easily my hair became this tangled mess. Though eventually my scalp got too itchy, because I was still washing my hair everyday, and it was beyond impossible to get all the shampoo out. So the dreads had to go.
I let my hair grow out after I chopped it off, and quickly went for the asymmetrical cut. This is the best photo I have of the best haircut I've had since I started rocking the super asymmetrical look.
Now a days I've let the left side grow out to shoulder length, and the right side is more than half way down my back. In order to keep my hair looking good every day I have to wash it, or else it gets too greasy looking. Yet if I don't condition on a daily basis those dreads will be back. I can save on shampoo and use whatever I want, but I have to spend on thick conditioner. I also make sure to wash first off in the shower, so that when I condition next I pin my hair up with the conditioner in, and let it set while I shower. The last thing I do before getting out of the shower is wash off the conditioner. This is the only way I have found that deals with my knots without damaging my hair.
Well I hope my hair story has been a fun adventure, and maybe you learned something interesting. :) Happy DIYing, chris!a
