BeautifulEyez

Hi, I'm BeautifulEyez and this is My Story:

I started my natural journey almost 5 years ago (June 2005) and somehow that seems like so long ago. Back then, I wanted to find a way to express myself and break free of the mold that I felt trapped in. From the age of twelve, when I got my first relaxer, my hairstyle had remained pretty much the same. I wore a wrapped BSL style.... the funny thing is all my closest friends wore similar styles, too. We tried to change it up by cutting in layers and adding highlights and such, but I still felt like we were cookie cutter versions of one another.

So after finishing up college, and ending a long term relationship, I was in search of a way to identify myself, express my unique and individual style, and yes, break free! So, my journey began. Let me say the journey to naturally glamorous was not easy for me (I know a lot of curly tops have struggled through transition as well)! I tried it three times before it took. In this case, three times was a charm for me! I attribute my curiosity about becoming a curly top, to my Mom and my Big Sis. My Mom, decided to go natural about 6 or 7 years before me. I was still in high school when she did it and I still remember being mortified that my Mom decided to cut all her hair off into a boy cut and switched from our stylist to a barber! All in all, I guess her ability to go against the grain awakened a desire in me to abandon conformity and try something new myself….even if it was years later.

Let me say, I started my natural journey while living in Mississippi. I moved there the summer before I turned fifteen with my Mom and Dad. Mississippi is my Dad’s home and he wanted to move back when he retired and my Mom and I went along for the ride. I’m telling you that I started my transition in MS because to me this is a very important in understanding how I completed my journey. I was met with a lot of adversity and I am sure that this could’ve happened anywhere, but in my mind my opposition was rather extreme! As I said earlier, I made three attempts before I was successful and I am so glad that I didn’t give in.

My aunt, who was my hairstylist at the time, talked me out me out of going through with it the first two times. I know now that she was thinking of all the extra time she would be required to devote to my ‘nappy ‘natural hair versus my relaxed hair. I finally discovered Miss Jessie’s products from an editor’s pick in Essence Magazine and checked out there website. I was so amazed and ecstatic to find there were women actually embracing their curly hair, no relaxers, no press n’ curls, no weaves….I was infatuated with the transition pics, and the before and afters!

And so I began, with one jar on curly butter crème and one jar of curly pudding. I finally found a natural braiding salon about 30 miles from my house and went and talked with them about options for natural hair. Believe it of not, we actually traded a lot of information since I had done all the research I could about natural hair and natural hair styling online. I started by doing a 6 inch commitment cut (this was my insurance that I would follow through) and I proceeded to transition for nine months. My original goal was to transition longer, but dealing with relaxed ends and curly roots is no joke. I finally just went for it and cut off all evidence of my relaxer.

I was in awe of my new texture, as I had never had the opportunity to really know it before. My mother, like many black mothers relaxed my hair before she relinquished the comb and brush to me. She now says, with regret, that she relaxed my hair out of fear that I would not be able to handle my thick and sometimes unruly tresses. I have no doubt that is a very true statement! It has taken me almost five years to really know what works best for my hair and I am still learning. I have had many positive and negative experiences with my hair on this journey, none of which I would trade because they were all learning experiences for me. I embrace who I am and I believe I love myself better now that I have learned to love and nurture all of me….the way God made me. And that includes my curly hair!

This is me, I am a work in progress and I look forward to sharing more insights on topics concerning my journey to being set free!

I <3 being a Curly Top!

Blessings, Apryl

I guess third time is a charm your hair is very nice do you have any close up so we can see it in all its beauty do mine sharing your style for the pic you have as your avatar.

I agree, third time is a charm! I really enjoyed your story and i can relate to being inspired by your mom. My mother and grandmother have both always been natural so it made me wonder why did I continue relaxing. And its so true about looking like everyone else, natural hair really makes you stand out! Your hair looks great, keep up the great work

Sure, thanks for asking. I meant to post a couple of pics and totally forgot...LOL. All the pics I have right now are some pics my Honey and I took for our engagement. I will post some more pics very soon! But hopefully you can kinda see my hair from these.







My hair is styled in a dry twist out here, for elongation. Right before these pics were taken, I regrettably had to cut quite a bit of my length off due to some unfortunate circumstances. It was because of this "trim" that I decided to really look into more natural and healthy haircare alternatives!

BTW, my sweetie has some nice "baby" curls (waves) here, too! LOL

Belizeanbeauty wrote:I agree, third time is a charm! I really enjoyed your story and i can relate to being inspired by your mom. My mother and grandmother have both always been natural so it made me wonder why did I continue relaxing. And its so true about looking like everyone else, natural hair really makes you stand out! Your hair looks great, keep up the great work

Tell me about it! That is the most amazing thing about natural hair as far as I am concerned! No two curlies are alike. I can use the exact same products as you, follow the exact same steps and have a completely different result! That's why I tell newbies, get to know your hair and get to know you!

Thanks for the compliment! As I said, I'm a work in progress.
Blessings

your hair (and makeup) are absolutely beautiful in your e-pics! congrats too!

is that a twist out or braid out or something else?

btw I'm from Memphis - so you can call it Mississippi and I know exactly where you are coming from in your hair story. I live in LA right now and went to Howard in DC where people were experimenting ALL the time. In LA I think getting a relaxer is less common than wearing your hair natural or just getting your natural hair pressed - so I felt a lot more comfortable doing it here than I would have in Memphis. I went back to TN recently and my aunt just looked at me and was like "that's how they wear their hair in cali now?" I couldn't even say anything. and she's saying this while her hair is completely thinning away because of how frequently she puts relaxers in her hair.... smh...

Your pics are gorgeous! Love the hair! Agree with you both d.denise and beautifuleyez.
I'm from Detroit and there was like an unspoken omen, for those who wore natural hair. Everyone in Detroit has a perm, or weave!

I love the way you wore your hair for your e-pics. You two are so cute together!

Your e-pics are beautiful - and so is your hair!

Congrats!

Your pics are gorgeous. I'm in love with your hair. Just lovely!

Your hair and makeup are pretty! I live several states away from my family so they haven't seen my hair yet. I'm going home for the holiday and I'm curious to see what's going to be said. Either way, it won't sway me b/c I love my hair.

Your hair is beautiful. Please share your regimen and when is the big day? Have you decided how you're wearing your hair? I have questions for days, lol! Congrats!

beautifuleyez wrote:Sure, thanks for asking. I meant to post a couple of pics and totally forgot...LOL. All the pics I have right now are some pics my Honey and I took for our engagement. I will post some more pics very soon! But hopefully you can kinda see my hair from these.







My hair is styled in a dry twist out here, for elongation. Right before these pics were taken, I regrettably had to cut quite a bit of my length off due to some unfortunate circumstances. It was because of this "trim" that I decided to really look into more natural and healthy haircare alternatives!

BTW, my sweetie has some nice "baby" curls (waves) here, too! LOL

OMGoodness you are beautiful!!!

First, congratulations on your engagement! You will be a beautiful bride.

Your twist out looks amazing. I hope you share with us what you have found works for you so far.

Looking forward to reading more posts.

Take care and be blessed!

love love love! Congrats! your story, hair, and make up are all wonderful

Thanks so much for all the kinds words and compliments! It really means so much!

@TerraD and d.denise, yes I am truly amazed how some areas of our planet can be sooooo far behind and less accepting of natural hair. I have said this before, but if I had been aware of a community like this when I first started my journey, I think I would've made a lot less mistakes. Kudos to CurlyNikki for all her efforts!

@Enchantment, my regimen is currenting under construction...LOL. A couple of staple products for me are Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding and Curly Buttercreme, they have always worked very well for me. I have just recently discovered henna, vatika coconut oil, and a trusty Denman brush....I can't wait to share those experiences with you guys and I will a bit later today!

My wedding is March 20th, the first day of Spring! As far as my hair for my wedding...well....wedding hair woes....that's all I can say at the moment....SIGH.

@ChrsLvsBks, as I said my regimen is changing and so are my techniques, but I am loving that I have a group to share and trade info with along the way!

I am a work in progress...

Thanks again ladies for the kinds words of encouragement!
Blessings

check out this site: http://africanamericanweddinghairstyles.blogspot.com/

I understand how you feel about wedding hair, it was one of my biggest stresses and I still didn't like my hair the day of.

Serenity23 wrote:Your hair and makeup are pretty! I live several states away from my family so they haven't seen my hair yet. I'm going home for the holiday and I'm curious to see what's going to be said. Either way, it won't sway me b/c I love my hair.

Serenity, I have learned that some will like it, some won't, some will have something to say, positive or not, and others may look you up and down and their expression may say it all...but, it's your hair, and your life, and YOU have the RIGHT to do what makes up happy!

tiashauntee wrote:check out this site: http://africanamericanweddinghairstyles.blogspot.com/

I understand how you feel about wedding hair, it was one of my biggest stresses and I still didn't like my hair the day of.

Thanks, tiashauntee! I appreciate the help. Yes, my worst fear is that I will not be true to myself and listen to the opinions of others....but no, I rebuke that! I am going to choose the hairstyle that I want and if it doesn't work, I will have no one to blame but ME!

beautifuleyez wrote:

tiashauntee wrote:check out this site: http://africanamericanweddinghairstyles.blogspot.com/

I understand how you feel about wedding hair, it was one of my biggest stresses and I still didn't like my hair the day of.

Thanks, tiashauntee! I appreciate the help. Yes, my worst fear is that I will not be true to myself and listen to the opinions of others....but no, I rebuke that! I am going to choose the hairstyle that I want and if it doesn't work, I will have no one to blame but ME!

Honestly, the only person's opinion you need to be concerned about (other than your own) is your finance's opinion. If you like and he likes it no one else matters.

Your hair is beyond gorgeous!

Did you get the chance to give your Denman brush a test run?

curlykinks wrote:Did you get the chance to give your Denman brush a test run?

CurlyKinks, I am glad you asked and I will answer your question in my next post!

Day 2:

It’s a whole new world…

So, after recently discovering this site and a few others out there on the World Wide Web, I have been so overloaded with new ideas, products, and techniques I was just itching to try. Being the PJ that I am, I have been scouting about looking for some new things to put in my bag of goodies that could potentially help with my hair! Over the last couple of weeks, I found myself most intrigued by the idea of henna, washing my hair without shampoo, and new styling techniques, specifically styling like Teri does over on tightlycurly.com.

I decided to start slowly, first by going through the tons of hair products that I already have, make assessments, purge what I no longer needed and take an inventory of what I had before I went in search of the new products I wanted to try. After doing that, surprisingly the list of the products that I went in search of was relatively short….for now.

So what did I buy? I bought 3 boxes of Reshma henna, some olive oil (I already had some in my cupboard, but I wanted some just for my hair), Vatika hair oil, HE Hello Hydration (I never thought anything like this would work for MY kinky, curly hair), GF Sleek and Shine (after reading CurlyNikki rave on and on about this), and a Denman brush. I decided to start out rather slow because as a makeup artist and former cosmetic sales girl, I always suggest to my clients not to go out and totally switch routines because whether you have great results or terrible ones it will be very difficult to narrow down the superstar products from the duds if you switch everything at once. So, I opted to use some of my current products and introduce these to start.

So, I hennaed for the first time a week and a half ago, and I have to say I LOVED IT! My hair was so shiny and strong afterwards… the ends where I have grown out red highlights were really poppin’ (I’m still debating if I want to eventually try indigo so that I may achieve a more even color for my wedding but idk). Anyway, that experience went well, so yesterday I was ready to try some of my other new goodies. I didn’t plan on doing a henna gloss so soon, but after being so pleased with my first henna experience I decided to go ahead and try a henna gloss to see how that turned out. After leaving the henna gloss on for over a hour and a half, I DC’d with some CD Khoret Amen Hair Smoothie that I already had. I added about a ¼ cup of olive oil to the remaining ½ jar that I had. I ended up using all of this concotion. Then I co-washed with some Suave Coconut Condition (ok so this was something new that I picked up too). Next, I co-washed for the second time with HE Hello Hydration. I was amazed at this one! No way would I have thought that I could find such a rich conditioner from Herbal Essence! This totally blew my mind!

Now I was ready to try Teri’s technique with CurlyNikki’s GF Sleek and Shine. Again, I was utterly shocked. I used the conditioner and my detangling comb followed by my new Denman and OMG! My hair was detangled in no time! My thick 3c/ 4a hair usually takes me at least 30 mins to detangle, on a good day, was done in less than half the time and I knew I hit pay dirt! And what makes me even more excited than that is…..I had hardly any shedding at all! Usually when I am finished detangling my hair, I have a hair ball the size of a medium size rat (u know the ones you see on TV running in allies and such), but yesterday I had barely any at all. I would say I experienced less than 5% of the shedding that I consider normal for me. It was AMAZING! Now do I attribute this to the henna? The box says it reduces “falling hair.” Or was it because of the new conditioners? If so, which one? Or was it due to my new Denman? The answer is….I haven’t a clue…LOL. This is what I warn my clients about, but all in all I am in heaven and I am overjoyed that I found some new products that are working for me. I did have a brief moment of sadness though, how could it be over the past 4 ½ years I have been doing it all wrong…ripping my beautiful curls from my scalp as I try to comb it and detangle, even if I was only doing it a couple times a month it is still a hard pill to swallow now that I have found a better way.

That being said, again I thank all of you who have shared your experiences and products and techniques that have lead to my discovery of A WHOLE NEW WORLD!

I <3 my Curly Top!

Blessings

Wow i love it thanks for sharing