A Selfie

This is how I had worn my hair for the longest time. Sitting at my desk wearing a blue ruffled-shirt, my hair was permed. I had headphones on, and I was answering a phone call. On this particular day, my hair looked slightly curly from it being roller set the night before. On days when my hair wasn’t roller set, it was probably curled with a curling iron.

I wasn’t very good at flat-ironing my hair. A friend introduced me to the half-a-wig. This was one of her favorite styles along with the ponytail. She had lovely dark brown wavy hair which she often wore back in a ponytail with a hair piece. She showed me how to style my hair with the half-a-wig and using a little bit of styling gel. I loved being able to fix my hair in just a matter of minutes before heading out the door to work.

This is a picture I took when I initially let my hair go natural. I probably took it on my nook that I had purchased sometime earlier during the year. I remember when the nook first came out. I had seen it on different posters at Barnes And Noble and I thought it would be nice to have one. It was the first nook and tablet I ever had. I purchased it at a Barnes And Noble one day on my way home. A first model, it only had a back-facing camera. This meant I had to turn the nook around and take the photo holding my nook backwards. The unique design of the nook was convenient. It offered a way to easily manage multiple tasks such as checking emails, writing a report, and taking care of different tasks during the day.

It had been about a year since I let my hair go natural when I took the picture on my nook. I had it in a short crop for a while. Before I let my hair go natural, I was wearing a perm. For years, I wore it without putting any color in it. I often tried to roller set my hair. This method of styling required the use of small-to-medium sized rollers and took about an hour. I had worn braids on occasion. I rarely went to a professional hairdresser as it was expensive. When I did go, it was generally because I needed a trim.

I decided to try putting color in my hair one day. I read up on it and decided to do a rinse. I went to the store and picked out a color. I found a shade of red that I liked. It was a reddish color, a little on the darker side. This type of color lasted only for several months as it washed out every time you washed your hair. I kept the same look for several months.

When the red color faded out of my hair, I decided to try a different color. I returned to the store and selected a shade of blond and tried it at home. I loved the color. I continued to style my hair, most days with an electric curling iron. Several months down the line, my hair had started to fall. I didn’t know what to do. A couple of days later. I was wearing a short natural haircut.

With this new haircut, I didn’t know how I would be styling my hair. I kept it short for a while. Cutting it off allowed me to give it some time to grow out the colored section of my hair and have it growing back healthy. Then, I decided to let it grow out. I remembered once having my hair styled by a natural hairstylist. I had seen beauticians do different things with natural hair. I myself was unfamiliar with any of the natural hair styling products.

I went to the store and picked out a product that would keep my hair manageable. I loved the product. It allowed me to keep my hair in its natural state while it grew out. Eventually, I decided to try and learn how to twist my hair. So, I watched a couple of Youtube videos. I went to the store and picked out a Taliah Wajeed hairstyling gel and I started learning how to style my hair naturally. I watched videos on how to twist your hair. Twisting my hair was a long process. My hair was no longer in a short crop. I consistently twisted my hair. Sometimes, I left it in a twist while other times, I took out the twists when my hair was dry and attempted to style it a natural look. This is one of the looks portrayed in the photo I took about a year after I stopped wearing a perm.