When I was 10....
I have been having set backs in the progress and growth of my hair from as long as I can remember. As you will notice when reading this post the different phases and setbacks of my hair coincides with my my internal migrations between my family lol. Most of the trouble started when I was 10 years old. I visited my father and step mom in Cayman Island for summer vacation I had neck length soft hair that was regularly maintained by my aunt. She had cane-rowed my hair for my visit as I was staying for the entire holiday I eventually had to take down the the cane-rowed style for washing. I washed my hair under a tap outside using shampoo and conditioner. What I was not aware of was that Cayman tap water is desalinated water . At the time I really didn't know much nor did I know how to care for my hair but after that experience, what I did notice was that my hair became extremely dry and wiry and after returning to Jamaica I no longer had neck length hair. My aunt at the time was furious and no matter what she did my hair did not return to the soft texture it previously had.
When I was 12
I moved to live with my father and stepmom when I was 12 . The care and upkeep of my hair was entirely in my hand, My hair had not recovered much from the incident in Cayman and caring for my hair was not something I was really into. At that time I did alot tight cane-rowed. I used to fancy myself as a Eve look-alike lol. Some girls in my class began to texturise their hair with S-curl and Wave- nouveau, their hair started to gain length with each application as well as noticeable changes in their curl pattern. I decided to ask my mother to get it done as I wanted to have a great curl pattern and to see length. every few months I alternated between S-curl texturizer and Wave-nouveau. I eventually sticked to S-curl as it was easier to apply and it did not require a lengthly visit to the hair salon. As you would have guessed I did not really gain length, however my curl pattern changed and I loved it. My stepmom was furious she did not think I should've gotten a texturizer at my age but my mom had already agreed so it really didn't matter. My dad and step mom moved back to Cayman and I move back to live with my mom well my uncle.
Scurl Texturizer
By this time I was self still self -texturising my hair, experimenting with bleaching, colouring my hair and cutting. As I said I fancied myself to be somewhat like Eve, I was a big fan of hip hop at the time and my I wanted to be just like her. One evening I purchased a box of honey blonde hair colour. I applied the colour as instructed by the box. It came out great, the following morning I went to school I was called to the principal's office where he warned me that if I did not return the next day with jet black hair I would be suspended. Now if you live and went to school in Jamaica you would know how strict the schools are on grooming etc.That evening I raced to the pharmacy,purchased the jet black hair and self colour my hair the same night. Eventually my experimenting phase died down my hair eventually went back natural and I stopped focusing on my hair and being a rebel and directed my attention to doing great in high school. I started rowing a lot of two strand twist and single plait braids. The only time I did something different to my hair was during the summer when all the girls in my family- my cousin, uncle's girlfriend and I would wear braids. As I was not enthusiastic about my hair I did not add braid spray but would apply Purelene Hair food, bergamot and the black hair grower when the hair was excessively dry. My hair did not achieve much length and it has never moved from neck length.
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| Purelene Hair Food |
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| Purelene Black hair grower |
My first relaxer....
I got my first relaxer when I was in final year of High school. My high school was a vocational one and cosmetology was taught as a part of the vocational curriculum so I had my hair relaxed by one of the Cosmetology teachers. It turned out great I had length and body and I stated to show a bit more interest. I would use my mom setters and lottabody to roller set my hair at nights. My hair did not come out great the next day by the way. My hair didn't grow much as you can imagine. but what i didn't have at that time was problems with split ends or shedding hair. If only I could go back and figure out why there was no split end or shedding. In 2004 my dad and stepmom moved back from the US, and my step mom asked me to move back in, mainly to help her grand daughter to prepare for the competitive high school entry level exam.
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| Lottabody a staple of my mom when she had relaxed hair |
When I moved back I started seeing my step mom's friend who was a hairdresser. After going to get my hair washed and treated by her in a couple months my hair was brushing shoulder length, and it was thick. I started to get a lot of compliments on my hair which I rarely got. This however did not last long. One day I went to the kitchen and saw bottle of settling lotion on the counter, I thought my stepmom left it there by mistake and decided to use to roller set my hair. I was so impressed with the results of the roller set that I started to use it every night to roller set my hair....talk about excess manipulation. I picked up this habit from my aunt and mom roller set their hair every night. Needless to say I was in for a surprise. My hair started to literally fall off my head. So my shoulder length hair disappeared. Luckily I was not bald but my lovely hair was at a point of no return. The moral of the story here is to never use products found in the house that doesn't belong to you. So braids came to the rescue I braided my hair just in time for the start of a new school.After High School....
I had officially left high school but I went on to what they would call in Britain a six form college. I decided to move back in with my mom and attend the all girl school which was near by. For my first year I sported a low hair cut. It was just simply cute but I got tired of it and wanted well kept hair that most of the girls at school had. As summer came along I braided my hair. on a visit to my grandma she decided to oil my scalp with organic castor oil which was done by an elderly lady in the community. I wore braid all summer long, using the castor oil on my scalp very day. When the holiday drew to a close I decided to relax my hair ( I didn't even know at this time that i was doing an involuntary relaxer stretch). When my hair was complete and I look at myself in the mirror I just could not believe my eyes. My hair was shoulder length again. and this was when I was convinced of the effects of castor oil on hair growth. When I got back to school, my hair was the envy of all the girls. they wanted to touch my hair, they wanted to know who was my stylists and where was she located. As castor oil was popular nor widely used among the upper echelons of Jamaican society and I did not want to be seen as poor and not having 'popular branded oils' I decided not to mention it as a part of my hair comeback. Since the scent was very putrid as it was not the manufactured ones like JBCO I decided to limit my use to only weekends. My hair remained the same length.
My gap year...
After completing six form I spent a gap year working. At one point I used to take care of my hair a lot - infact I would attend the hairdresser weekly doing deep treatments with aloe-vera, eggs etc. My hairdresser was into natural hair remedies and I was happy to be her guinea pig. I remember seeing improvements in my the thickness of my hair but I didn't really continue the treatments and decided to braid my hair as it was easier to handle now that I had begun working. I got so tired with the length that after a year of working I decide to do a big chop. I braided the hair to attend work as my head looked kinda weird. I started university approximately 5 months after my big chop. I will speak about the progress of my hair in university in part 2 so look out for that.
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| My hair 3 months after my big chop in 2007 |
