rayray19

Hello my fellow transitioners and natural ladies!!!

First I must say I absolutely love this Curly Nikki..omg I'm on this site more than face book now lol. She has sooo many great tips, articles, and tutorials. This is my favorite forum!!!

But a little about myself:

My name is Raven. I'm from Charleston SC, but right now I live in Florence where i attend Francis Marion University..I will be a sophomore this year majoring in NURSING..Nursing is a field I loved since I was little..my mom is a nurse and I use to always tag along with her to work visit with the patients, and to help out..

My hair journey:

I have been getting relaxers ever since I was 6!! yes at a very young age..see my dad is in the military and when we were stationed in Japan my mom couldn't find products to help manage me and my sisters natural hair so she decided it would be easier to just relax our hair. My sister and I had real loooong hair growing up, it was thick, long, and very straight..We always got compliants on our long relaxed hair, and i ate it all up lol.

When we moved back to SC I was now 12 yrs old and was around more African American kids..overseas I was usually the only black person in my class, but in SC I was now apart of the majority in my class. I remember the girls in my class loved my hair, and would always say they never saw " a black girls hair this long"..I loved the praised I received from the girls and boys and made sure my hair always look good..This is when my hair started to become damage..If i saw 1/2 cm of new growth I would beg my mom over and over to perm my hair..I had to have STRAIGHT hair because that's what was getting my attention..my mama use to always warn me about how over processing my hair with relaxers would damage my hair but I didn't care I wanted STRAIGHT hair...

Slowly throughtout middle school my hair started too become severly damage..it was still long but it was real thin and brittle..slowly my praise stated to go away and i felt horrible..I hated my hair and what I did to it...so when I entered highschool I decided to cut all my hair off into a short cut..I LOVED IT!!! omg i use to rock so many short styles in highschool..I cut it real short like halle berry once, I had a rihanna cut, I had the a-symetical cut, I had it all..My hair was sooo much healthier while it was short too..it was thick and many people thought it was a wig..I was gettin my complaints back about my hair!!!

I went into my first year of college with my short cut and all of a sudden grew bored of it!!! I had it for almost 5 years and wanted something new..so all year I rock my short cut but deep inside I wanted a change a BIG change..I no longer cared about the complaints people gave me and the attention my relaxed hair received..I wanted to be different i wanted to please myself instead of others, and that's why I WANT TO GO NATURAL!!!!!!

I've always LOVED natural hair. There was this girl on my hall who had a head full of natural hair and I always found myself admiring her hair..sooo May 21st of 2010 was my last perm..no longer will I be afraid of water and addicted to that "creamy crack".

I am now 2 months in my transition to natural hair and I am already loving this journey yall!!! I'm constantly on you tube, currlynikki, and other websites to find more information. i love reading and seeing other ladies hair stories and cant wait too BC!! I am going to try to transition for a year..hopefully i can make it that long..short hair doesn't bother me but I'm not sure how i can handle a short TWA..

Welcome to my curl street journey..please chime in at any time with advice and support


THANK YOU LADIES!!!

oh yea right now i have senegales twist in as a protective style and I love them!! I have been keeping them moitureze daily with leave in conditioner, water, and oils..this is my 2nd week with them in and my hair already feels like it growing..or i might just be over excited and really want new growth..I co-wash them every friday and plan on taking them out in september. these are some pics with me and twist

Welcome to Curl Street! Great story and cant wait to follow your journey!

Welcome to the block. Very pretty twists!

Welcome!! Your twists are pretty!

welcome

thanks ladies they took like 9 hours to get done!!! but it was worth it..most of the twiist in the back slipped out now cause my hair was tapered and my braided tried to grab it but guess it wasn't tight enough..but i don't mind tho since the back was tapered its growing out natural!!! i like playing with my Lil Afro back there and feeling lil curlies

ok so I'm transitioning to natural hair, I'm about 2 1/2 months post
relaxer and my parents aren't giving me any type of support!!!

1. They don't believe I'm going to go through with it! my mom keeps
saying "after she takes out her braids she's going to see how nappy her
hair is a run to the salon to get a relaxer"..she tells everybody this
and its soooo annoying..

2. My dad thinks natural hair is "too hard to manage" and take "too much
time"

3. and both of them think the only style natural hair can achieve is an
Afro.."all you can do with natural hair is wear an Afro..you cant do
anything else"

I have no support from them two..I don't even like bringing it up!!! I do
have one strong support system and that is my wonderful sister...she doesn't want to go natural but always sits down with me to watch you tube
videos

oh yea and of course my ladies on curly nikki THANKS!!! I can already tell this is going to be a tough journey

Oh yea and my mama also thinks natural hair wont "suite" me!!!!lol

Welcome to curl street, I enjoyed reading your story.

Maybe you can sit them down, or at least one of them, and get them to watch a few youtube videos with you. Nobody in my family, except my sister really understood what I mean't when I said I was going natural until I chopped it all off. They just thought i would stop getting relaxers and just keep my long hair. And many people believe natural hair isn't versatile because they are not used to seeing people embrace their natural hair and actually take care of it. You just have to be patient with them and ignore some of their comments sometimes....lol

welcome to CS.......and do what's good for you and what you are comfortable with . sometimes I find that people are afraid of change and they can't always accept something they don't understand or is different from the norm . Just don't let anyone sway from your goal cause when it's reached it will be all worth it in the end .
Have fun on your journey !