The author has decided to go natural by ditching her permed hair and embracing her natural hair texture. She has experienced many hairstyles over the years, from braids to relaxers to wraps, but has grown bored with the process and wants healthier, longer hair. Her mother disapproves of her decision to go natural. The author is determined to big chop her hair this summer or next and care for her natural hair properly so it can grow long and strong without chemical processing.

1. Bye-Bye Permed Hair!!!!
I just recently have been inspired to go natural. And for those of you who don’t know
what that means it is a process in which African-American women who have pretty much felt
dependent upon perms their whole life due to being exposed to them at an early age decide to do
away with them. This is something that I feel was meant for me to do (eventually anyways).
There were many signs leading me in this direction now that I think about it; the first one being
the summer before my softmore year in high school. My mom had pretty much left me to my
own devices as it pertains to doing my hair when I entered middle school so I learned how to
slick my hair back in a ponytail via hair gel and never looked back. Sometimes I would even get
creative and let a bang hang down the side of my face(daring I know). Now I’m not even going
to front during my middle school years my mom did occasionally assist me in doing my hair
being that she’s so good at it. Check out the pictures below.

2. But as soon as I entered High School there was no more of that. I actually started off and
ended my freshman year with braids. See those pictures below.
My starter year braidswere done by a family friend and end year ones by “the Africans”. I
loved them and pretty much wore them like I wore my hair normally back in middle school, in a
ponytail. After I took my end of the year braids out I might have had about two months or more
of school left. So I did what I’ve always done to have my hair look “good” I got a relaxer. So
here is officially the point where my hair exploration journey started. I wore my hair relaxed for
majority of the summer slicking it back into ponytails with tons of gel in the morning and
combing the mess of it out at night. Stupid I know but that’s what happens when a growing girl
is left to maintain her own hair, stupid things that is. I even remember days where I would sit in
my room for hours flat ironing my hair so that I can wear it down only to put it back up in a
ponytail again because of it frizzing out, no way was I going to walk around with my hair
looking like a mop top. “Good Hair” for me then was hair that could fit perfectly into a ponytail
holder with no excess nap to be found anywhere (slick I tell you! Slick!). As you can probably
imagine or predict by the end of the summer my hair was a wreck. Broken and damaged in ways
that I would have never fathomed possible. But that was my situation and even worse school was
about to start back. So my mom took me to the hair salon and I got my first major hair cut done.
In a matter of hours I went from hair that fell down my back, unhealthy hair I might add, to hair
that barely passed my jaw line. Check out the results for yourself.

3. When I went back to school everybody loved my hair. Never before had they seen me
with my hair down and out. And I was quite smitten with it myself as you can tell in the above
picture by me giving the camera my best Barack Obama smile.
I loved my hair a lot that year and therefore took extra good care of it. Wrapping it every
night and not putting anything in it or on it other than a comb, brush and shine.
For the first time in my life I was actually able to do my hair on my own the right way
and I definitely had the results to show for it. I would wear my hair like this up until a week
before my senior year in high school. To be honest with you in the two years that I wore a wrap
my fascination with it wore off and I eventually started to hate how basic the process actually
was. I would get a perm and wrap every six weeks and that would be the end of that. I got bored
so I got corn rolls. Don’t have any pictures of this but trust me even If I did I probably wouldn’t
show you them because having those braid in my head were hell. Immediately after getting them
I regretted the decision. They felt like death they were so tight. My mom kept telling me
“Diamond eventually the pain will wear off” and it did two weeks later! Not normal at all. I had
corn rolls before in my elementary school years and never before had my head hurt that much
that long after receiving them. And here comes the best part after the hurting stopped the itching
began and needless to say less than a two weeks later those things were out my head. And I can

4. also safely say that the girl who did those braids will never ever touch my head again. After that
tragedy along with a perm and wrap I also got a report back from my stylist pretty much saying
that the braids I wore nearly pulled out my edges. Told you mama!I was back to my signature
permed hair and a wrap which I’m not even going to front I was relieved to have back. But like
always the feeling wore off. So now it’s the end of my first semester of my senior year and I’m
typing this with boxed braids in my hair. Pictures below.
I have a love hate relationship with these braids mostly because I hate the color I chose,
brown instead of black. You can’t tell by the pictures above because of the dim lighting in my
room but yeah the brown looks dingy and I kind of feel like I have dreadlocks in my hair, which
oddly enough is the part that I like. Having braids in my head never fails to give me an African
feel. And I guess the feeling is natural being that when my hair is permed I get a European (white
girl) feeling. I like the African feel better which is why I’m deciding to ditch the status quo and
do what I actually want to do with my hair which is to go natural. I want naturally healthy and
long hair. Not permed “good hair”. After I told my mom about my hair aspirations she was
adamantly against the idea. I was shocked that she took it the way she did. She just kept saying
“no, no and no!” But not even that will discourage me. It might delay me but it won’t make me
change my mind. So whether it is this summer like I had hoped that I would take the plunge and
go for the “Big Chop” or next I’m going to do it. And I’m going to love and care for my hair like
a mother would to a newborn child. And hopefully with all the love and care I plan to treat my
hair to “good hair” results will actually be breaded, true and natural.

5. Naturally
Diamond