2. Progress

5 months

6 months

9 months

11  months

1 year

First things first, I am not a slave to my hair and I never will be. I do whatever I see fit, suitable and comfortable. I'm not afraid to walk out my house without having a weave in or braids, yes it did take sometime to gain this level of confidence but when you learn to please only your self and not those around you it becomes a lot easier to do what ever you want.

 I personally think the first year of being natural is the easiest well from my experience anyway;

• you're very excited about the journey
• you're extra careful with the way you handle your hair
• you want to see your hair reach its full potential.

 when I first big chopped I wanted to wear my hair out all the time but I didn't like the way I looked so I made my mum do my braids, I had braids in for the first 5 months (no not the same braids). Every time I took out my hair I would just shampoo and deep condition then a day or two later I'll be back in braids. I guess I was very protective I wanted to play it safe, I was too scared to experiment because I didn't know what my hair could handle, what hair type I had (4a,4b,4c etc), what I could and couldn't do. I went to my local hair shop and was advised on what shampoo and conditioner I should use, I also bought Coconut oil (my life) mainly because I always heard people talk about it, so I thought I will also give it a go. Out of all my many many hair products Coconut oil is baeee and it'll forever remain my favourite. 

I soon realised that my hair was long enough for a weave with a natural leave out. I can't exactly remember when I did my first weave since being natural but I think I was about 5/6 months in. now I've never been a fan of the invisible parting or the full head sew-in except for the full fringe/front fringe, I always did the natural leave out and I had to strain my hair with heat which at the time I didn't mind but now I sort of regret it. I was never a fan of heat protector because it always made my hair extra dry so I just never used it at all ( crazy, yes I know), like I stated in my first blog post I didn't have many people around telling me that not using heat protection was a bad idea. Whilst others were happy that I was back in weave especially my dad. He thinks once you get to a certain age you should only do a weave to grow your hair. Yes my dad is a little crazy and likes to contradict himself lol. I like to think that my first year was a success!

The growth of my second year was a bit slower. I noticed that my hair grows in width before it grows in length, which I'm very okay with especially after my episode of ultra thin hair. During the second year I started watching YouTube tutorials religiously. My favourite naturalista (natural hair guru) is Naptural85 she is amazing although she is miles ahead of me (hair/length wise) but I've learnt so much from her in the past 11 months. I've also learnt different tricks and made them my own. Don't worry I will reveal them in my later posts. I guess this was my year of experimentation, i tried so many different shampoos and conditioners, oils, hair masks, hair treatments, deep conditioners, leave-in conditioners the list is bloody endless!

What you see here is a failed attempt of me trying
to put bendy rollers in my hair. of course it
didn't go according to plan, everything just shrank lol.

This right here was after a hair mayonnaise
treatment. The shrinkage gets a bit extra
sometimes.

This was during an air dry.

And once again another flopped style ruined by
the shrinkage, this was suppose to be bantu knots out.
 As you can see they didn't work out lol.

Remember; everybody's hair grows at their own pace and we all have different textures x

1.The Lead Up

Hello, bonjour lol (cliche I know, I know), I'll start off by introducing myself- My name is Patricia Katula and I'm 19 years old. I'm Congolese, "omg you don't look Congolese wow" (I get this all the time and till this day I’m not sure whether it’s a compliment or not, but I'll just keep it moving). I live in London and study Criminology at Birmingham City University. I’d also like to thank you for clicking on this link and for even considering reading on. I am very grateful- may the good Lord bless you. 

Oh look! That's me 

 

In order for me to tell you all the purpose of this blog, it’s only right that I tell you why I started this blog as well as my journey. On the 28th August 2012 I proceeded in “the big chop”- for those of you who don't know what this is, it means cutting off the relaxed/permed parts of your hair.

From as long as I could remember, my mum used to relax my hair every six months. At a very young age I had no say in regards to what was put in my hair. It was all up to my mum as you all know, mama knows best lol. It wasn't until secondary school that my mum eventually gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted with my hair- even yet, I still stuck to frequently perming it. My sister’s wedding came and I got my first weave in august 2009. Of course I was very excited because my hair was Laiddddd. But before I got my weave I was scared of the idea of it since most of the girls my age that got weaves didn't make it look very good; luckily for me my hair was done very well, which I'm grateful for.

I didn't do another weave again for about a year and just continued relaxing and braiding it. I've always had very full hair even though my hair wasn't very long, but the more I relaxed it the thinner it got; which at first I didn't see a problem with. My mum has always been my hairdresser so I've never needed hairdressers or anyone else. However my half-sister once did my hair so tight that I literally couldn't move my head and I cried like a baby. My mum had to take it out in the middle of the night and as each cornrow came out, so did my hair and as my mum finished, my hair had completely broken beyond repair( I have very soft hair). 

I stopped relaxing it and began putting weaves-in and braids until I saw that it started repairing but I stupidly decided to relax it again… what a big mistake! By Prom 2011 I mistakenly bought super relaxer rather than regular relaxer (considering I have super soft and super thin hair), which of course didn't mix well with the super relaxer. I didn't even have the relaxer in for two minutes however my scalp began to itch like crazy and it lit felt like my hair was on fire so I began crying (second time in my life crying over hair). My mum rushed me to the bathroom and washed my hair with cold water. Upon finishing, I came downstairs and my mum began laughing. I rushed to the mirror to see what was so funny (praying that I wasn't bald), luckily I wasn't, but my hair was three different texture - the back was straight and relaxed, the middle hadn't relaxed and all and the front was curly (3c type). I was beyond confused but there was nothing I could do as prom was around the corner so I just had to deal with my confused hair. Prom came and went.

 I've started college now, Christmas 2011 came and normally my mum would do all our hair or I'd do my own hair (oh I forgot to mention I do hair, I'm pretty good at it too, I don't mean to blow my own horn but you know ...) but for some reason this Christmas was different as I had my natural hair and I didn't know what to do with it so I decided to relax it and put it in a bun ( bearing in mind I hadn't relaxed my hair since prom) so I relaxed my hair this time using a regular relaxer however within just 5 minutes my scalp was burning, so I immediately washed the relaxer out. Once again I had multiple textures but this time it wasn't as bad as before and it almost looked cool so I just left it and I put it up in a bun. My mum said "I don't think relaxer is for you any more" I simply agreed. So from that day on I decided I would never go back to relaxing my hair again. 

And so began my transitioning journey December 2011 to august 28th 2012!
Back then I didn't know anyone who was natural or wore their natural hair out so I had no idea how to deal with the transitioning stage. There was no one around to give me advice and literally everyone I spoke to had relaxed hair, so everyone thought I was crazy for giving up the creamy crack; but I knew it was for the best. I'm not even going to lie, I didn't know that I could go on YouTube and find basically everything I needed to know about natural hair. I wish someone had told me sooner that way my transitioning period would've been easier. First year of college I met two girls who were on their 'natural hair journey', one was transitioning and the other one was officially natural. I was intrigued by them and they soon became my inspiration. Fast forward to summer 2012 I told my dad I was going to cut my hair and he said "not in my house you won't " lol the thing with my dad is, he is very old fashioned and believes a woman should have long hair because long hair equals beauty where the longer you hair is, the prettier you are. I thought this theory was very stupid tbh but I kept that to myself. August 28th I said “mum I'm cutting my hair” and by this time I had loads of regrowth and I'm sure all the girls with relaxed hair know that regrowth is such a problem no matter you hair texture. I took a pair of scissors grabbed my hair and cut my hair to show my mum I meant business as she was doubting me.

This is 3 months in.
 I can't find the actual picture
of when I big chopped 

           

   credits: Irinie x