As most warm blooded females I know would agree, hair is an entire entitity of its own. I am not my hair, because my hair has its own personality, life and agenda. Lets start from the basics, me and my sister are both from Dominican background (obviously -same parents) and unfortunately/fortunately (not quite sure which one) we were blessed/cursed with extremely different types of hair. Both naturally curly & thin, my sister Gwen has softer locks and oily nature while I have dry extremely tight coiled curls. I relaxed my hair to make it permanently straight for about ten years or so and just recently finished growing out all the chemical damage done to it. I have been relaxer free for about 2.5 years now and it has grown out completely leaving me with my natural wild curls (that I occasionaly tame to make straight only using mild heat). Since Ive never had to take care of my own natural hair before (it was in my moms care as a child) I had no idea how to style and maintain my recessitated curls. I took to the internet, youtube and blogs to learn how to care and manage for my fragile locks and learned so much! I have a new found appreciation for my hair type and although I do have my days where I cant deal with it, there are other times where I can fully appreciate its range and potential. Walking into any dominican salon has always been a daunting task, but now especially more since many have not yet realized that its ok to wear my hair its in natural state. I dont have to get rid of these curls by flattening and chemically altering them, but instead I can work with what I have and restore my hair to its healthiest state before all the crazy self inflicted damamge. Here is somewhat of a timeline of looks throughout the years from pre relaxer all the way down to today. I was not aware that I would be partaking in this”journey” so my photos arent chronically time stamped like lots of females growing out their hair, but I did the best in compilating the progress and change over time.

Upper left – Self Explanatory! Childhood chemical and product free crazy hair!
Upper Right- My hair is chemically relaxed so my attempt at “curly” is a sad pathetic one (I thought I was cute though)
Bottom Left- Straight with some volume.
Bottom Right- Today in age! (Still have about 1 or 2 in to cut from the bottom for the straight pieces to be gone)

Blonde & Straight! I believe this was my 19th or 20th bday

Once again my sad attempts at curly locks. Check out my marilyn monroe! HAhah oh to be young again…

I decided to stop relaxing and coloring my hair. Boy was this a hard transition! In these photos you can see the new growth at my roots and the comparison to the rest of the straight hair. My long journey began!

I integrated the use of rollers and my curling iron to blend the two textures and different colors (Im starting to grow my own little ombre’ version for free)

The transformation is basically done! I cut off most of the ugly straight dead ends from the first pic and was left with bouncier softer curls!

The top photo was taken last week and reflects my most current state of hair. Almost close to my childhood wild curls and my color is almost out as well.

This was not easy and I wanted to just give up at times and go ahead and relax it. I am so glad I didnt! I still have the option to straighten it (using a blow dryer or flat iron) and also the choice to go curly as well. Having the luxury to do both is what some folks pray for and I am glad I got the chance to right my wrongs and appreciate both sides. My hair is shinier, stronger and above all healthier.

Stay tuned for a post on the products Ive come to love and discover for curly dry hair!

-Ari