(MommyJD) Hair Overboard

My earliest hair memory is when I cut off my long side ponytail in the bathroom when I was six years old. I was under the supervision of my sister and she did a piss poor job of supervising. My mother was devastated.

My next memory is 4 years later later when I was invited to a swimming party sleepover. Since I could not bring my mother, the pressing comb, and our kitchen stove along with me, I insisted that my mother let me have a relaxer. To this day I cannot believe that she went along with this plan just so that I would have "manageable" hair and not look like a mini wildebeest in front of my caucasian friends. But in her defense she was probably tired of our hot kitchen sessions with the pressing comb.

After 9 years of getting regular relaxers I finally ceased putting creamy crack on my scalp and decided to go natural. One workshop from an older Spelman sister and I was convinced that my hair could do without the chemicals. I've never doubted my decision, but there have been some bumps along my journey to long natural hair.

I wish there had been blogs back when I was a freshman at Spelman to guide me through my hair woes. Perhaps there was and I just couldn't find it or didn't seek the information. But these days there is an overwhelming presence of hair blogs from Curly Nikki to Black Girl Long Hair that provide tons of tips and advice about keeping natural hair healthy. And this is my latest obsession.

Recently KJ and I sat down in my bathroom and inspected every (and there are several) hair product underneath my bathroom sink. Like I said, this hair business can get overwhelming, but from the few blogs I do read I have learned what ingredients are good for your hair, which are not so good, and which are absolute no-nos. I ended up throwing away half of my supply to make room for better products that will feed my hair. I'm such a product junkie! My newest products are currently in the mail and are courtesy of VAiN, a new company by another fellow Spelman sister. She has turned me into a bona-fide ingredient snob, lol!