Kira’s Hair Journey
I didn’t know what my natural curl pattern looked like until June 2019. Yes, you read it right, June 2019 is when I found out I fell in the 4C category and that I was low porosity. Growing up I did not have a say so in my hair journey. My mom began putting the creamy crack into my hair from the time I was 4 until I was 13. When she wasn’t putting creamy crack in my hair, she was deciding what styles I could and couldn’t have. When I moved in with my dad for high school, he only believed in wearing braided styles or wearing my natural hair. Absolutely no weaves! He had no idea how to do hair. His idea of doing hair was putting some water in it, some natural cream my grandmother made and calling it a day.
I had no clue what products to put into my hair, no idea how to style it, no idea how to keep it healthy. I tried any and everything to make my hair look cool, but it only resulted in damaged and broken off hair. I went through the “if Rihanna can rock short hair so can I”, phase. I cut it off, dyed it and cut it off some more. But I still had no clue how to really love my hair and how to maintain it. The only thing I had really learned and remembered, was that I was not my hair like India Arie had once said.
Well, then came June 2019. I had scheduled an appointment to get my hair braided, and they booked my appointment for the wrong location! Having to wait a few additional days to get it braided, I started researching how the hell to do my own hair. I followed youtubers, googled various hair types and tried to absorb as much information as I could. Three days just wasn’t enough. As time went on, I just moved on to another protective style and in between washes, tried to find products that worked with my hair.
As I thought “hm, I could just keep wearing protective styles until further notice”, here comes Covid-19 and the immediate closing down of salons. With no knowledge of when things would open again, I started buying natural hair care books. I followed some YouTube accounts and really started learning about my natural hair. I guess you could say I really courted my natural hair and created a true natural hair care routine. I would listen to my favorite 90’s R&B songs while I detangled, a little bit of trap music while I deep conditioned and back to love songs while I took down my twists.
When salons opened back up for a short period of time, my hair stylist asked me what products I had been using on my hair. My hair detangled nicely, it had grown, and there weren’t any split ends. After talking to her, she also mentioned that she was just now learning to take care of her natural hair and that’s when I decided it was really time to embrace knowing, maintaining and ensuring my natural hair flourishes in all seasons and not just during quarantine.
