Barber

A year and a half natural.

Posted on March 7, 2014 Updated on March 28, 2014

I am so sorry… I did not realize that I haven’t submitted an entry in a year. I promised to have a post up soon explaining how my hair journey is going. Above you will find an array of pictures showing the stages of my hair journey.

This entry was posted in Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, Barber, Beauty, Black hair, Curly hair, Cut Your Hair, Hair, Hair care, Hair Growth, hair hair care, Hairstyle, Hairstyling product, Health, Human hair color, kinky hair, natural, natural hair, Transition, Types.

My Hair is Happy

Posted on July 15, 2012 Updated on July 28, 2012

Yesterday marked the one month anniversary of my “big chop”. You can read more about that in “Hair Today Gone Tomorrow”. After I did the big chop I was afraid that I was going to regret my decision. The decision I made to stop relaxing my hair, to transition to natural hair, to big chop so close to my birthday and to go to the barber shop and cut off the majority of my hair.

What I can say is that I don’t regret a thing! I was tired of the scalp burns from the relaxer and the dissatisfaction from hair stylists. I transitioned and fell in love with my hair texture and when I big chop I was happy that one, I listened to my mother and went to the barber shop and two, that I stop trying the control the situation (Hello, My Name is Melinda and I’m a former control freak) and allowed the barber to not only cut off my relaxed hair but most of my natural hair as well.

I’ve learned this past month what products and techniques make my hair happy. I can tell that my hair is happy when my hair naturally curls up. The leave in conditioner my hair seems to be in love with, right now, is Darcy’s Botanicals Pumpkin Seed Moisturizing Conditioner. I use this product as a direct leave in after I deep conditioner, as a daily leave in and when I do my version of The Curly Girl Method (CGM). My version of the CGM is when I co-wash my hair and I apply a conditioner and do not wash it out. Darcy’s Botanicals Pumpkin Seed Moisturizing Conditioner is the only leave in product I really need for my hair at this stage. My hair is naturally curly so I have learned that I can tell if my hair likes a product or not if my hair curls up; I have tried different products in my hair and if my hair doesn’t like a product my hair will looked like wool. Not to say that there is anything wrong with a hair texture that doesn’t have a curl pattern. But Every time I apply this product to my hair, my hair can’t help but curl up it makes my hair happy.

Given that it has been a month since my big chop I was contemplating if I wanted to show any progress pictures, I decided that it wasn’t the right choice for me. I would rather do progress pictures every three months. My reasoning being that I don’t think you want to see a picture of myself with a ½ inch more of hair every month. I would rather show you progress pictures of myself with hair that is 1 ½ inch longer, especially when you consider hair shrinkage. People have told me that their starting to notice that my hair is growing and filling out and I can tell when I wash my hair because I can feel that it’s a little longer. But after I wash my hair and it dries I’m not able to tell because of the shrinkage; so I’ll show you in September when my hair has grown another inch.

Big Chop (mmaybury.wordpress.com)
The Big Chop: Fast Or Slow? (theraysofsunshine.wordpress.com)

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Hair Products, Natural Hair and tagged African American hair, African-American, Barber, Beauty, Cut Your Hair, Hair, Hair care, Hairdresser, Hairstyling product, Health, Shopping, Transition.

So What Made You Decide to Cut Your Hair?

Posted on June 19, 2012 Updated on July 16, 2012

I was asked this exact question ALL weekend! What frustrates me is not that everyone keeps asking me this question its that I don’t really have an inspirational story to tell because this hair cut was a happy accident. None the less I love my hair cut and my family, friends, boyfriend and co-workers love my hair cut too. They say that I really look nice and that I have the perfect face for this style. So all in all I am happy with the outcome.

A part of me is still waiting for someone to have a negative comment. But I am going to push that out of my mind because God has given me favor over this situation. One thing I have learned from this experience is that I am 100% comfortable in my skin. I know who I am and most importantly I love who I am. It is fantastic that everyone in my life is so supportive of my new hair style. But the truth is if I wasn’t comfortable with myself there would be no way that anyone would have seen this hair cut. I would have got up from the barber’s chair went to my car and cried my eyes out. Than the next day I would have went to the hair store and bought a wig and every time I would have taken that wig off I would have started to cry all over again.

So for me to walk out of the barber’s chair actually liking my hair style and going about my weekend is huge for me. I still can’t believe how this hair cut happened. If you would have told me six months ago I was going to cut my hair this short I would have called you a liar. I tend to be introverted, I enjoy being alone and I keep to myself in social settings so for me to cut my hair this short I can’t help but get noticed. Me getting noticed makes me a little nervous but I am up for the challenge. This experience is another way that I will grow as a person. The way I look at life is that if you are not growing and changing as an individual you are not living life. I know that I am not the same person I was a year ago and I won’t be the same person a year from now.

This entry was posted in African-American Hair, hair, hair care, Hair Products, Natural Hair and tagged Barber, Beauty, Cut Your Hair, Hair, Hair care, Hairstyle, Health, Shopping.

Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Aside Posted on June 17, 2012 Updated on July 16, 2012

Today I did the big chop. As stated in my last post “The Night Before” I had to prepare my hair for this cut because my hair was still in braids. So after I washed and deep conditioned my hair, the plan was that I was going to have my mom cut off my relaxed ends. It seemed simply enough in theory, well this plan didn’t actually work in reality. After my mother cut the majority of the relaxer off I still had relaxed ends all over my head. I couldn’t go to work like that on Monday so my mother convinced me to go to the barber so that I could get a shape up and remove the relaxed ends.

I’ve never been to the barber before so I was a little scared. But once I sat in the chair I told the barber that I just cut off my relaxed ends and that I needed a shape up. He started by asking me “how low do I want my hair cut?” I looked at him with fear in my eyes and he said he will walk me through the process. First he took off about an inch and that took care of the relaxed ends. Than he explained to me that he wanted to give my a style, he stated ” tapered on the side and some hair on top so that your wear your hair curly”. I was happy with that suggestion because I was not pleased with the way my hair was looking.

So after the barber cut and styled my hair, which only cost $12 I might add, I went home wet my hair added some leave-in moisturizer and gel and I was all set to go out. I never intended to cut my hair this short. I grew out my hair for nine months because I wanted to have some length to it. But I am happy with the outcome. I look at my short hair as a chance to learn how to take care of my natural hair. I can try different hair products and see which ones provide the best outcome; sleep in a little longer before getting up for work and most importantly I can stay cool for the summer!