If you follow me on instagram (@rootsundone) then you’ll already know that I’ve cut my hair off but if you don’t then well, now you do. Below I’m going to talk about the main reasons to why I’ve cut my hair and what my plans are now that I’ve returned natural (I don’t want to say now that I’ve gone natural as we were all natural at one point anyway so it’s more like returning)

1- The first and main reason to why I cut my hair is because I was fed up of it. I was fed up of dealing with two completely different textures (coily roots and straight ends) and the lack of styling options with trying to make the two textures blend. Some people find success in braid outs and twist outs (my mum for example) where as my hair just says no. I’ve come to the conclusion that my hair just likes to be naturally free which leads me onto my next reason.

2- The second reason for my big chop was because styling my hair every day (when I wasn’t protective styling) was becoming a struggle due to how thick it is plus the straggly straight ends and I had a gut feeling that I was doing more harm to my hair by holding onto these damaged ends than if I were to just cut them off #HealthOverLength. Doing my hair before (while I was transitioning) wasn’t stressful but now that I’m natural it’s even easier and I’m loving the ease of wash & go’s. Further more if you have damaged ends, if you don’t let go of them the damage will travel up the hair shaft creating more damaged hair that needs cutting off in the long run.

(There’s no way to completely reverse any form of damage such as heat damage, colour damage or general damage such us split ends, or to completely get rid off a chemical treatment such as a texturiser/relaxer without cutting it off)

3- Reason three for cutting my hair was for the health of my scalp (and overall hair in general). I’ve self diagnosed myself with scalp psoriasis (or something like that) and I was finding that having my hair packed together and tied up all the time and so not being able to give my scalp a breathe was making my flaky/scaly scalp worse. Now I can literally feel the breeze on my scalp when I’m out and it feels so good. Also I don’t want to go to the doctors for my scalp as most of the time they just prescribe people with skin conditions steroids which can have longterm negative effects. I also believe that with changes in lifestyle such as diet or what products you use you can calm or treat a lot of conditions yourself. An example is I’ve swapped regular cream/lotion (which like many hair products can contain a lot of rubbish ingredients, even the ones from the doctor) for organic or 100% virgin coconut oil and I wouldn’t even imagine looking back.

What Next?

Now that I’m 100% natural, I’m planning to focus on the health of my hair and gentle styling so that I can retain all of my length and so grow healthy long hair. At the moment my hair’s the shortest it’s been since I was a toddler and shrinkage doesn’t help but I’m working with it and pushing myself to accept it as it can only boost my confidence in the end. Overall it’s a big change but it’ll benefit me in the longrun and at the end of the day it’s just hair, it’ll grow back. Everyone’s hair grows regardless of race, religion, gender (unless you have a medical problem). If you feel that your hair isn’t growing it’s most likely breaking off faster than it’s growing, giving the illusion that it’s not growing.

Incase You Didn’t Know…

Afro, coily and kinky curly hair (what we would generally call ‘black’ hair) is very fragile due to the kinks, curls and bends within the hair shaft making those points prone to breakage, especially if it’s not cared for properly. This is why people with looser curl patterns or straight hair have an easier time growing long hair (but not necesserily healthy hair) as their hair doesn’t have as many (if any) vulnerable points.

Before… (March 2015- a couple months into my transition, straightened my hair)

After…

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