How I Traded Stocks And Bonds For Natural Hair Blogging + A Giveaway (CLOSED)

I used to think that I had my whole career strategy figured out. When I went to University my intention was to go to law school, become some hotshot lawyer and life would be good.

Instead, I got into finance and honestly, I loved it. I was that girl in her 20’s walking around lower Manhattan in her 6-inch heels in the morning then trading them in for some multifunctional sneakers by the end of the day.

So how did I end up here? One thing I have learned about life is that there will be curveballs, some of them hard and some of them very different from what you had planned for your life. The key to curve balls though is to always be prepared to pivot, and then embrace the challenge of the situation.

When I watched Wall Street collapse in 2008 things changed in the financial world and many of us working in it knew that if we were to survive our careers we need to look into alternative streams of income. Along with the collapse of Wall Street, I was also facing a small personal crisis. My hair was falling out. Correction! My hair fell out, I lost the entire crown of my head because of a relaxer that was left in my hair way too long.

I had a problem because now I was faced with the fact that I probably could never relax my hair again and since I had not been natural since I was 13yrs old, natural hair was a foreign concept to me. How in the world was I going to maneuver this one?

One night I decided that I should approach this issue like I would any other issue in my life. When the financial crisis hit, I looked for jobs in alternative industries that suited my personality. When I got tired of New York I moved all by myself to a whole other state and figured it out.

This was no different, I decided to learn everything I could about natural hair, how to transition, how to care for it, how to style it, and my biggest concern was how to keep my hair healthy and growing.

I studied everything I could every night all the while going through the process of transitioning and big chopping all of my damaged ends.

This was 2008 so you know the movement was just starting to steam up and I was able to follow some of the new blogs including this one BlackHairInformation.

Then I had an epiphany, I wanted to contribute to the conversation, I wanted to write about natural hair, my hair, and my experiences and share what I had learned over the year or so that I studied it. I started writing for BHI around 2010 and I kid you not my entire direction changed. I traded my love for stocks and bonds (even though I kinda still love that) for everything related to hair.

I have learned so much over the years and still I continue to study heavily in an industry that has been the most fun yet the most challenging. With that said, recently I launched my own blog and it has been a labor of love, to say the least I wanted a chance to express myself a little bit more.

Flex my love for all things hair as well as delve into the beauty world and some pop culture. My Jamaican bloodline dictates that I have a little spice and reggae music up and through there as well under one umbrella.

The name of my blog is Emilycottontop . It is a name my dear husband actually gave me years ago based on my middle name “Emily” and my soft cottony curls that he loves so much.

Alma has graciously allowed me to do a giveaway with our BHI community as a way to introduce myself formally (even though ya’ll should know me by now) and my newest venture.

For this Giveaway, we will be giving three lucky winners a chance to try out the glorious Elongtress hair growth enhancer oils* and all you have to do is support a sistah by signing up for my newsletter. Click below to enter.

>> Enter The Giveaway <<