I started this post a few weeks ago to pay homage to my Trinidad curls and the magical way they behaved amidst the warm weather, sunshine and beaches. After my curls went a little crazy in Mexico, I was looking forward to a better hair vacation. As I began writing the post, I realized the transition is complete and now I can fully appreciate what happens here on out! Now…looking back on it, I laugh at myself and the pictures I once deemed “curly hair” pics but as with everything in life, everything happens when it when it should and for me, it couldn’t have been more perfect timing.
As far as perming/chemically straightening my hair, I would probably have about 2, maybe 3 perms a year so giving up perming my hair wasn’t a big deal. In 2009, after a long stint without a perm, I just decided to keep rolling with it. But get this (this is what makes me laugh/shudder), I had just bought a super fancy flat-iron so I thought it was perfect, I would no longer perm my hair but would let it air dry and then would flat-iron it and have perfectly straight hair. The ease of flat ironing my hair is what caused me to never even look back or consider a perm.
Alas, my flat-iron was what was the bigger deal for me to give up. Honestly, it also just didn’t click for me. I know, I know… everyone talks about heat damage and giving up heat and how blow outs damage your hair and flat irons are the devil for curls but in my mind, my “straight” hair was healthy! I didn’t have damage so what was this “heat damage” everyone was talking about?! I heard and thought I grasped the idea, I thought I understood what “damaging the curl pattern” meant…so I thought letting my hair air dry and THEN flat ironing it was less damaging. I mean, it is… less heat… but um yeah, not so much. My poor curls were still being damaged. Throughout the three years, I was working on my curls. I have always had stints of time when I wore my hair curly so I was doing the same things I had always done. With the rise of new products and the increase of friends transitioning, we talked hair constantly. (Right… so nothing has changed) I laugh because I definitely think patience and a good camera are the two most important things you need to transition! LOL.
Speaking of pictures… they tell the story far better than I can:
April 30, 2012: This picture was taken before my first appointment at Devachan. This is how my hair dried naturally without product.
I was so excited about my Devachan haircut, I had started using their conditioner and had fallen in love with it! I felt for the first time, I had found a product that made my curls better. (Yeah, I know it doesn’t seem that way in the picture, but trust me, it was happening!) The Devachan experience was great, it was slightly annoying because people kept telling me I still had a good amount of permed ends and well… that just wasn’t true. (My color indicated where my hair growth was for me because I colored it well after I started this process). Anyhoo… they chopped, colored and educated me on their Devachan process.
But after the cut, nothing major happened, I was still left with barely there curls. So I went back to straightening it. I would try but it just didn’t look cute so I would go back to my faithful flat-iron, which never failed me! I spent the summer going back and forth. I would probably wear it straight once a month.
August 29, 2012: One of my last blowouts. I liked my straight hair. It was full and healthy but dammit… my curls couldn’t coexist.
September 27, 2012: The curls were starting to really show.
" data-orig-size="612,609" title="September 27, 2012" data-image-title="September 27, 2012" data-orig-file="http://mamakbest.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-shot-2013-04-18-at-11.28.40-AM.png" style="margin: 2px" data-recalc-dims="1" data-medium-file="http://mamakbest.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-shot-2013-04-18-at-11.28.40-AM-500x497.png" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-large-file="http://mamakbest.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-shot-2013-04-18-at-11.28.40-AM.png" />September 27, 2012: The curls were really starting to show. Finally in October I was at the frustrated point and started cutting my hair. Everyone thought I was a bit nuts because I was doing it myself but where to cut was obvious. There were curls and then there was straight hair. I believed my naturally curly hair should be easy and not require lots of effort. I wanted to wash and go and be done with it but because I had straightened it for so long, it always took finagling to get the curly do I desired!
October 16, 2012: Frustrated, I just started cutting my hair. I decided the ends just needed to go!
" data-orig-size="611,607" title="October16" data-image-title="October16" data-orig-file="http://mamakbest.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-shot-2013-04-18-at-11.55.11-AM.png" style="margin: 2px" data-recalc-dims="1" data-medium-file="http://mamakbest.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-shot-2013-04-18-at-11.55.11-AM-500x496.png" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":""}" data-large-file="http://mamakbest.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Screen-shot-2013-04-18-at-11.55.11-AM.png" />October 16, 2012: Frustrated, I just started cutting my hair. I decided the ends just needed to go! When I tell you I slipped down the rabbit hole… I was actually put in hair timeout by several people. (My sister winced if someone said the “h word”!) As soon as I cut a few inches off, it made me want to cut more because my hair responded almost immediately, the difference was obvious and I was so tempted to just chop all the color. The difference in my curls where color was present and the natural color had me seriously considering it. But I decided to be patient and slowly trim off the color. I told myself I couldn’t straighten it for at least two months. At one point I almost threw out the 10 pairs of scissors in my apartment. I would trim it almost every day, a little snip here, snip there… but it was working! ( I told you I took a lot of pictures during this process!)
March 29, 2013: Just under 6 months since I started cutting it and abandoned my flat-iron and just under a year since the first Devachan cut.
