My Curly Hair Journey

Hi everyone! I’m Jordan and I figured I’d start this page off by sharing my hair story. I started my natural hair journey in high school, transitioning from 6 years of relaxed hair. Yes, I had my hair relaxed when I was 11 years old because my mom couldn't handle the thickness of my hair. Throughout the years having relaxed hair, although my hair grew because I could see new growth, I couldn’t see any growth. My hair was stuck at armpit length! So I decided to go natural. It seemed like a trend at the time so I said, "Why the heck not?". I transitioned for one year before big chopping. However, while transitioning I would flat iron my new growth so it blended with my relaxed hair, without using heat protectant. 😬 Yikes, I know. So when I big chopped I had a LOT of damage. I didn’t know this though, I was too excited. I styled my hair as usual, enjoying my natural, unbeknown to me, damaged hair.

I grew my hair for about a year, then I graduated from high school and was about to attend university. I wanted a fresh start to my fresh start.😆 So I decided to texturize my hair and get a haircut. It was very short, and I mean ABOVE MY SHOULDERS short. I had cut my armpit length hair to neck length. It was so cute and it took me two weeks to finally do it. I felt confident and ready to take on the world, all the feelings that came with a fresh haircut. For a while I loved my short hair but I couldn’t keep up with it. It started getting frizzy and my hair was only texturized so I had to flat iron it to make it straight and cute again. I was NOT about to go down that road again. So I did protective styles; mini twists, braids, braid outs and buns and transitioned again. Of course I looked crazy but it was necessary. I would do anything to get my natural curls back.

After another year of transitioning (the right way, with no heat) for a year, I big chopped again after reaching collar bone length with my natural hair. It felt so healthy and strong and I saw my true curl pattern. I had gotten used to mini twists so I immediately did that style on my natural hair. After about one year I wanted to see my hair straight and also see the length of my hair, so I straightened it. I immediately regretted it and reverted my hair back to curly mid straightening. I then let my hair grow and took good care of it with mini twists. I noticed that just leaving my hair alone and let it do its thing while in the protective style was a game changer. I stopped using heat on my hair completely, no blow dryer, no defuzer, no flat iron and no curling wands. To check my hair length I would just pull down my curls! Now I think I am addicted to mini twists. As soon as I take them down I do them again! I noticed that my hair would tangle quickly if not in a protective style. Learning about your hair is important to maintaining length and growing it. So in all I chopped my hair off three times! That is insane. It has been one and a half years since my last big chop and I am now at mid back length! I passed my growth plateau of armpit length and am now on my way to tailbone length!

Follow me along my journey and share your hair story!! Let’s do this together! Follow on Instagram @ivoryhairdiary➿✨