I first attempted to go natural in 2010. The story is actually quite funny. 

I was in between relaxers but had never actually seen my hair in its natural state before. You see, my mum texturised my hair at 9 months and I'd been using Just for Me kiddie perms since I could remember; so when people would ask if I had a perm/relaxer, I would say no as I was genuinely  unaware that there was a difference between natural and relaxed afro hair. 

Anyway, my hair was wayyy past due and I was playing with my regrowth when I noticed my roots were curly. I was shocked because I had always obsessed over curly hair and tried (and failed) to get my relaxed hair to curl. So I googled a question a long the lines of 'I'm black why are my roots curly?' but of course nothing came up. So I reworded and reworded and eventually searched 'Afro curly hair' then I stumbled across Tightly Curly.  I perused the site and eventually found the page with before and after photos of women with natural curly hair. As expected they were all biracial...but upon further examination there was a dark skinned woman with beautifully defined tight curls.

I thought to myself she must be mixed with asian. 

Eventually I came across LongHairCareForum (as well as NaturallyCurly and CurlyNikki) and this was the beginning of the end. I spent hours learning about hair types, porosity, the hair's PH balance, length retention etc and stalking Fotki's (this was where most naturals were sharing images of their hair at the time pre-Instagram) as well as watching natural hair journeys on youtube (this being my favourite one, RIP longhairdontcare2011) . 

But I still didn't believe that my hair would be curly. Despite this I decided to go natural anyway as my relaxed hair did not ever grow past shoulder length. So December of 2010 I decided would be the last time I relaxed my hair.

I relaxed my hair in February 2011.

My hair looked horrible and was falling out and I didn't know how to combat the new growth. 

I continued to read and research about natural hair and also became more 'conscious' (more on this in another post) so the desire for natural hair grew stronger and stronger. 

By December of 2011 I vowed never relax my hair - and I haven't since then.

As my hair grew longer I fell in love with it and dedicated a lot of time and effort into making sure it was healthy. I made all sorts of mess in the bathroom trying to make homemade treatments and conditioners (with my favourite being the banana, egg and mayonnaise combination- I had bits in my hair for a week). I tried different products and methods and put into practice everything I'd learnt over the past year.

So here I am now 3+ years post relaxer, still learning and finally sharing my story.