For a while I was thinking it was time to do another relaxer. I haven’t done one in ages and I was getting tired of having to flat-iron my hair all the time. I didn’t really want to go to a salon to get it done, because I feel their products are so harsh. I usually use a child’s home relaxer because it’s a bit milder and my mom did it. Since she was coming for a week-long visit, I thought she could do it while she was around. But she wasn’t comfortable with it.

For some reason, I decided to instead, try to embrace my curls and learn how to manage them. I got a bit of gel, and some shampoo and conditioner that is supposed to be for curly hair and had about a week of doing that.

Then I started searching online for tips and suggestions on how to manage curly hair. Two days ago I stumbled upon the Curly Girl (CG) method. From there I found naturallycurly.com and their thread on CurlTalk (what they call the forums) with before and after photos. I was convinced. During lunch yesterday, I went to the drugstore and got my first set of CG products.

Since I did my last sulfate wash last night, I feel like today is really my first day as a CG. My hair still feels super dry, but when I look in the mirror, I love seeing the curls. It’s going to take some time for me to get over the fact that I can’t run my fingers through my hair (part of what I loved about flat-ironing and straightening my hair), but hopefully it won’t be so bad as it gets better moisturized. And I think I need to up the amount of conditioner I use. I don’t think I’m using nearly enough, even though it feels like I’m using a ton of the stuff.

But my husband, although he keeps calling me his poofy girl, absolutely LOVES my curly hair. He just smiles every time he sees it. My daughter on the other hand, I think, likes it better straight. Of course her hair is super straight (much like mine was when I was her age).

But she’s 5 and has a hard time adjusting to change. She didn’t like my mother without glasses either (mom just had corrective eye surgery).

I’ve been reading a ton of info online and I think I want to try some homemade concoctions as they seem like they would be less expensive than buying more and more products. Especially since I foresee myself going through conditioner much faster now that I’m trying to moisturize my hair better.

It’s a new me, and if I can battle through it for a few months, I hope to see a good change to the condition of my hair.

Here is a pic of the before (straightened as was the norm) so I can document the journey.