Meet our Tyte members and share their experience with natural hair. Follow them on their journey's through transitioning and making hair raising decisions. If you wish to submit a journey Click Here

20 YEARS OF CHEMICALS!

I was born with a head full of hair and looking back at my elementary
pictures, I pretty much kept it throughout. When I was about 9, my father's
girlfriend put a "Jerri Curl" (who exactly is Jerri anyways) in my hair,
against my mother's protest (That's a whole "nother" story). My curls hung
past my shoulders and I "shook em like a polaroid picture". I was so excited
to feel my hair swing back and forth with every movement of my head. My
step-sister" and I would spend hours comparing our hair lengths.

About 2 years after getting the curl, I moved to a new state and the curl
wasn't as popular there, so of course I wanted it out. Instead of cutting my
hair, my mother put another curl in my hair, but skipped the rod part. My
hair was a mess. It was straight, thinning and falling out in handfuls. On
top of this, she put a "Gentle Treatment" relaxer in my hair. (She obviously
had no clue, or secretly wanted to see what I looked like as a boy). I think
I went extremely close to being bald. Somehow I don't remember this stage
clearly. They say we blocked out horribly traumatic events, and this was
probably one of the most traumatic things ever...so I thought.

FAST FORWARD 10 YEARS...
I never was one to go to the salon. For one my single-mother couldn't afford
it and for two, I was really good with hair. I was cutting, relaxing, and
curling all the girls hair at school. (In retrospect it was more like
butchering, frying and killing). Each time I did a touch-up, I permed my
entire head. I curled my hair every morning before school and was pretty
much destroying my hair and probably my scalp. Finally when I was about 19,
I realized that I was only suppose to put the perm on my new growth. I begin
to wear a wrap, so heat wasn't necessary. I combed my hair down in the
morning and wrap it around my head at night. I was learning how to take care
of my hair and finally, I was gaining a little length and strength...then
the french roll came out.

Of course I didn't have enough hair for the style, but weave was available
and even better, the gluing method was becoming popular for its convenience.
I went to the best french roller in town and the sista hooked me up. After
only a week, my hair started to itch like mad, so I had to take it down and
boy was I in for a surprise. The glue was so strong, I would have sworn the
tracks were fused to my scalp. It took me weeks to get all traces of the
glue out. Even after al the glue was gone, my scalp continued to itch and
not just a regular itch. The kind of itch that was seated so deep my brain
was itching as well. I had to dig into my scalp to get the slightest relief.
After each scratch, I pulled out 100+ strands of hair. This lasted for about
a month and I was left with a fist size bald spot right in the top of my
head, but of course this didn't stop me from relaxing it. I just relaxed
around it.

As it grew back, I would relax it and it would break right back off. My hair
would grow 2" in that area at the most, and worse, it seemed like it was
starting to spread. My hair began to thin everywhere the glue had been. To
cover the spot, I wore my hair pulled back in a pony tail, which I hated
because I have a very big head. The pony-tail had some length, but it was so
scrawny. I couldn't cut the rest of my hair short because I wouldn't be able
to cover the spot, but keeping it long made my hair look so unhealthily
thin. So for the next 10 years, I change my regime, used all types of
solutions, went to see several dermatologist, etc. My hair's health
gradually improved, but never completely recovered.

1st STEP TO RECOVERY
After about a year I decided to wage war against this breakage. I did all
sorts of research. I read every book on black hair care and started to find
website's that gave excellent advice. My hair started to grow and slightly
thicken up in the balding area, but never as healthy as the rest. While the
middle was thinning and breaking, the rest of my hair was thriving. I
started to pamper my hair and it grew to its longest point. I tried only
relaxing the thinning part every two or three touch ups, but as soon as I
did, the little growth that occurred would break off. I can NOT believe I
relaxed for a full 10-years after the glue disaster. That's how obsessed I
was with straight flowing hair. My hair was very healthy and the signs of
the glue disaster were fading, had not disappeared.

2nd STEP TO RECOVERY.
Three years ago, I had a baby girl. She was born with very fine, soft hair,
that was not very kinky at all. I realized that her hair would probably
never be able to withstand a relaxer, but I knew that if she grew up seeing
me with a relaxer, she would eventually want one, so with the combination of
having a daughter and reading in my research that it takes a year of no
relaxing or chemical process for severally damaged follicles to recover, I
decided to stop relaxing and go natural. I put my last relaxer in my hair in
December of 2004 and I have not looked back. I love my hair and the damaged
area is finally looking normal, although I don't think it will ever recover
fully, I am very please with the progress.

Angel Napps

http://public.fotki.com/AngelNapps/