The Haironista Story.

I had hair or whatever. Really. It just never sticks around. When I was younger, my hair was maintained with braids, cute little curls, and other styles that required little to no heat. Of course, my hair was thick and bushy, but. it was also healthy and actually had some length.

However, as I got older, my hair began to suffer from lack of care and use of too much heat. By freshman year of high school. I had a sensitive head of hair that never seemed to do what I wanted. Of course, breakage ensued.

Between sophomore and junior year, I had this habit of rolling my hair all the time, causing crazy growth spurts and leaving me with some really pretty hair that was truly growing. It had really progressed until the second semester of senior year. 

My hair was very damaged and broke off. I had purchased a flat iron without different heat settings. It was far too hot for my hair and immediately broke it off, breaking my heart completely. Afterwards, I started to take steps to grow it back, but I always back tracked by using heat on and off as soon as I saw little growth.

After one of my more recent hair mess ups (rushing in the dorms to get my hair did, excessive blow drying, etc.), I've decided to take the time to focus on putting some health back into my hair. I know that it's going to be hard at first, and it's going to require some patience, but I am making progress. 

So bear with me...

I'm definitely a haironista in progress.

Also, if you scroll down, you can look at some pictures of my hair days.

Baby me! Lol. I don't think I wanted to be photographed here.

Toddler/ Preschool me? Told my mom I wanted my hair to be free, and lawd... lol.

My hair as a youngin. Back when Creme of Nature was the BIZNESS and pressing combs were the hottest thing around.

(I'll find my lengththy days eventually. Lol. I ain't at home with my ALL younger year photos. Sorry.) 

Flash foward to middle school. Pretty thick and kinda dry to the touch if I remember correctly. Stiff too.

My hair looks really smooth here because it was. This was when I had a new beautician who did my hair right, though. I loved it. This was around the eighth grade. Still in middle school.

 Freshman year. I dunno if you see it, but it is slightly broken off due to heat damage. No? Lol. It's there. Trust me.

Sophomore year I got a new beautician, who introduced me to new ways of styling my hair. I don't think this is a good example of the crazy breakage I had by the time I got to her..but hey. I did a great job of destroying any memories of the awkward years.

After rolling my hair a lot, I was starting to actually retain length. Plus, I remember mixing olive oil and shea butter together sometimes with water, resulting in this. One of my first decent hair days in a minute by the end of sophomore year.

By junior year, I was doing random but kind of cute things to my hair. I was actually doing styles that were great for my hair but didn't cause breakage.

Sorry this is tiny, but by the end of junior year my hair was actually holding on to its length. I was really, really excited about it.

During the summer, I was still curling my hair up a lot, and I don't recall any breakage.

I came back home with all of this hair. My beautician, as usual, had my hair laid for my senior pictures, which by the way, I wore NO MAKEUP (well, some gloss) for. They still came out looking great.

Then, I had a major setback. Thus, my hair was cut. It was still cute, but after extensive heat damage. It had to be done.

The rest of senior year was spent trying to return my hair to normalcy....

I conserved my hair though. I even rocked a fake bob at prom.

First semester of college and through the summer, I conserved my hair. Sometimes, I used bantu knots. (excuse my facials). Other days I just rolled it into my "granny curls" that sometimes turn out cute and not at all grannyish...I digress.

Then, I got a little bit of growth...and didn't know how to act. Got the flat irons and blow dryer ready to show off my length. PLUS, my new beautician by my college...did NOT use conditioner on my hair. You already know, right?

My hair broke off AGAIN.

So now, it's in the reconstruction process. And yes, that's what my dorm walls look like. And ya'll get to witness. Oh mah lawd.