Natural to relaxed and back to natural!

By MsNastassja

(Although I have posted a few comments as Afro Chiq, I'll be going by MsNastassja from here on out. Sorry for the confusion.)

I heard people have been asking about me (YAY!). So I figured I should write a little blurb about myself and the journey I have gone through with my hair.

I first got my hair relaxed in the 4th grade. I don't have any pictures saved on my computer from when it was natural in 3rd grade, but surely you can use your imagination.

4th grade - 1998

In the 7th grade I took swimming lessons, and the chlorine damaged my hair. That, plus me not knowing how to take care of my hair (and obviously being too grown to let my mom help me out with it), led to my mother deciding it was time to go natural in the 8th grade. She said that she too had to go natural at one point due to damage and breakage, but that once my hair was healthy again I could go back to relaxing as she had done. She made it sound fine and dandy.

However I remember not being pleased, because I liked how my hair looked and was afraid of changing it. So here I am, transitioning in the 8th grade. My mom hot combed the roots and we just hoped and prayed they wouldn't puff up too much, but as you can see, the roots are thick and the ends are thin. This was a miserable period for me. There weren't blogs and youtube videos to help people transition back then!

8th grade - 2002

The next few pictures don't really have much story, but they sort of show how my hairstyles have "evolved" over time as I tried experimenting with different things. At this point, I guess I had given up on the hot comb situation, and I would just tie it back in two puffs or chiny bumps (aka buns/bantu knots). I still go back to this style on the regular because hey, I'm lazy. I'll admit it. My sister and I are like night and day when it comes to how much time we're willing to spend on our hair!

9th grade - 2003

10th grade I got this cute little style going on. I was more confident with the fro. Being (I kid you not) one of the handful of natural girls in my school of approximately 2,000 diverse students, and the only one who ever wore a fro (at the time), people knew me as the girl with the fro. I noticed though that by my senior year, there were a few brave girls rockin' their own fros!

10th grade - 2004

So by my junior year, I was still wearing my hair in fros or just tied up on the regular, but decided to try using gel for picture day. Why they let me leave the house with triangle hair is beyond me. I apologize to those with triangle hair. I'm sure you're workin' it better than I ever could! I still attempt gel every now and then (but a different one from what I used back then) and I'm sure I'll be doing reviews or going into more detail on that at some point in the future.

11th grade - 2005

And to complete the whole thing, here I am at prom senior year.

I guess I'm just an Afro Chiq after all.