I'm Chinnel Simmons A.K.A. Nelly...family woman, natural hair enthusiast and lover of all things pretty and fashionable.
For the longest time, I've been asked questions about my natural hair. How do you get it like that? What products do you use? Is that your real hair?!? Soooo I'm here to scribe my naptural journey and hopefully help you along in yours.
I've had natural hair the grand majority of my 30 year life. I have a 3B/C hairtype, which is a mix of spiral curl & coily textures. As a youngster my hair was extremely thick, very long and grew quickly. I started with kids relaxers at age 12, begged my mom for it because I wanted to have straight hair like my friends...pleading that it was so much more versatile. Since I had so much hair my mom didn't argue too much. We found that I have a very strong grade of hair and needed adult relaxers to tame my tresses. My hair was growing so fast as a teenager that 2 weeks after getting a relaxer I'd be in need of another. I went to Dominican hairdressers to get my "wash and set" every 2 weeks like clockwork to "blow it out" and "wrap it up" with my bobbypins.
At 18, I thought all of that was too much and decided to try going natural again. I made sure to find a real hairdresser who could assess my hair and advise me in how to maintain hair health as opposed to a hairstylist who just does what you tell them to do. I read up on going natural and saw several people saying you have to do the B.C. (big chop) if you want to go natural. Now my opinion on the issue is this...if you have healthy hair, with no split ends you DO NOT need to do the B.C. You can simply trim your ends as you normally would and it will eventually all grow out...that's what I did, it took 2 1/2 years for all the relaxer to be cut. If you have damaged hair (breakage, splits, brittle) it is best to do the B.C. as you want to start with a healthy base. Starting your natural journey with a T.W.A.(teen weeny afro) can be challenging for the person not used to rocking natural hair. I chose to have my hair pressed straight by flat iron/hot comb every 2 weeks. I also kept the style up by wrapping the hair nightly and keeping my own flat iron at home.
Protective styles such as twists, braids, wigs and weaves can help in the transitional phase. PLEASE, please, please be cautious of who does your hair and how they do it. I've seen several people who lose their edges and thickness to their hair being pulled too tightly or overdoing it with the weaves and braids.
Yours in HairLove,
Nelly Naturally
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