Hey lovers... how are we doing?  Great yes?  I’ve been doing okay myself.

So in a couple of days I turn the big 21... I’ve been excited and dreading this day for a while now. At this point all the dread is gone and there’s just excitement left.

As I’ve done in recent times I’m taking a comprehensive assessment of my set goals from this time last year and the new years resolutions I set this January (inserts link to post I can’t find) and for all the achieved goals I’m setting more. Anywho one of the goals I’m setting this new year of mine happens to include hair.
Now for the back story...
I was one of those kids who was  previledged to be in my fair share of weddings growing up, or as we would say here I did little bride for quite a number of weddings. For the average 90’s kid this meant that I had to have my hair chemically altered (relaxed) early in life so it could be adequately styled for the prestigious event. With time it got really bad. I had my hair relaxed ever so often that when I grew past the age of being a little bride and the flower girl we just had to keep up with the trend. Abi there’s 99 days for the thief and one day for the owner? Secondary school was that one day for my hair.

The fact that I had to spend good lengths of time away from home meant no constant relaxers. The way my hair broke was epic. It looked rediculous. I would go home after the ends had started falling off and relax it again. It just went from bad to worse. The whole back chopped off and the front was a mess. Then I didn’t know what was happening to my hair but to put it into todays language, my hair was transitioning. I got so frustrated by it that one mid-term I went home, took a pair of scissors and told my mum to chop it all off.

She was quite surprised by my decision but my mind was made up. A few people told me then that it may be better if I did nothing to the hair for a while so I told my mum I was staying off relaxers. I didn’t even have the slightest idea what natural hair was back then. None. I was just desperate to do anything to not look like a homeless girl where my hair was concerned. After a while people called my hair natural and I figured that was what it was. Then my school banned relaxed hair and the rest was history.
Untill graduation... when everyone wanted to be a big girl and relax hair. So I got relaxers again. But my hair wouldn’t fully relax. Then they would tell me that the relaxers i used weren’t strong enough. The saloonists would make it look like such a terrible thing that my hair never fully relaxed. Now with enlightenment I know that my hair was texlaxed then. But the lack of knowledge then made me change relaxers until I could get my hair bone straight.
 Now why I call it lack of knowledge  was because I wasn’t so informed about all of my options and whether or not they were all healthy so I never made an informed decision. By the time I was well informed. My hair was already chemically altered and going back or not has been a tough decision ever since.

 This is not to say that having relaxed or texlaxed hair is bad, it is all a matter of personal choice. The reason why going natural or staying relaxed has been a hassle of a decision for me is mainly cause by default setting (naturally) I am not overly blessed with hair especially in terms of thickness. While my natural hair has an amazingly easy texture and grows quite well it is also very light and tender. Any small thing and it will just break. Hence I tend to loose lenght almost as quick as I gain it. You would think that this should be a good reason to be natural yes?  But well when I got my relaxers I had pretty healthy hair and for a while I kept it that way. As is the usual foolishness with humans when I could flex with the hair my maintenance dropped and well the set back I am dealing with now can speak for itself. Right now I have no courage to transition or do a big chop either but I need my healthy hair back so I’m setting a healthy hair goal for my 22 year on earth.
What are my plans right now? They include:
• Going back to texlaxed hair. Given that having relaxed hair gives me absolutely no body to work with and weakens my hair too much for me to handle, coupled with my lack of courage to go natural, I choose to stay texlaxed in the interim. No more full relaxers for this girl.
• I’m changing my shampoos and conditioners. I need healthier options. I don’t have any products in mind right now but I plan to find out some. If you have suggestions please comment them.
• Less heat. No more hot hair dryers for this girl. Yes the occasional straighter cause I like my leave out and my college won’t let me have braids (long story). But we’d do that sparingly too.
• Shorter periods for a style and more protective styling. I tend to carry hairstyles for a long period of time. That has to stop. It’s unhealthy. And yes protective styling a lot.

• Deep conditioning and all that jazz. I used to do this. Time to resume.
• Trims. I just got my first trim ever. Really. That gas to continue.
• Moisturising and sealing. I am very guilty of letting my hair go brittle. It’s the era of change gurl.
I really hope and plan not to become one of those product junkies. I like to keep all my routines simple and very constant given that it has worked for me before.
So that’s it for now. You can trust I’d have loads of updates for you on this hair journey of mine. Any advise for me?
By the way my birthday is 7th September.  Who wants to buy me a gift?