When I was younger I was known as the girl with the pretty hair. From my parents’ friends to people in the streets to the kids I went to school with. People always took notice of my hair before anything else. They wanted to touch it, they gave suggestions and sometimes they just stared. For a while it just seemed as though people were more interested in my hair than I was. Maybe because I lived with it I just wasn’t too concerned, as other’s were, with the way my hair looked.
This mind set lead to laziness when taking hair of my natural locks. I always left it to my mom and older sister to care for my hair instead of myself. However, this wasn’t fair to either one for my mixed hair of African American and Puerto Rican decent was not familiar to either one. So one day my mother decided that it was time that I start being responsible for my appearance. I tried my best to treat my hair but the lazy one in me prevailed. Watching my actions my mom made another decision to make my hair more manageable and introduced me to my first relaxer at the age of eleven.
At this point hair care became such an easy task for me. A little Blue Magic and a flat iron and I was good to go. I still received the comments that I had before so I just felt that I had the best of both worlds. I continued to receive relaxers until my senior prom. As I approached college, I desired a new look and announced that I would be going natural. Knowing that it was what I really wanted and that I was capable to do so, my mom supported me.
For the next three years I washed and conditioned once a week and began looking for a beautician that would support my decision. I was successful in finding one, but found that she was rude and disrespectful at times so I just never returned to her salon again. It wasn’t until two years into my journey that I felt comfortable with wearing my hair natural. I received mix reviews and just decided to wait until I found a product that would allow my mane to look the way I had imagined it would look. So I continued to straighten my hair with a flat iron and eventually began to use a hot comb. I know. What a big no no.
Since I was straightening my hair more than wearing it natural, I chose to go back to the relaxer. Again I thought it was easier and the best choice to make. The only difference this time was that I was older and my hair wasn’t as strong as it used to be and couldn’t take the use of chemicals anymore. So for a second attempt I went natural. I saw less shedding and I became excited when I saw my little coils return. After two years of success, my beautician convinced me to get a texturizer. It seemed like exactly what I was looking for, but as we all know, it’s still a relaxer. Noticing the different textures that were in my hair, I knew it was time to make that decision, again.
After seeing advertisements for the Synergi Salon, I found encouragement to give it another go. Finally here was the help that I needed and knowing that there were others going through the same thing allowed me to feel more comfortable with my journey. Now that I have helpful tools and guidance to go down this road, I know that this will be a successful third try.
