Do You Have And Friends Who Taught You How To Go Natural? - I Did

If you would have told me three years ago that I was going to return to natural hair, I would have looked at you like you were crazy.  After relaxing my hair for the first time for my junior high school prom, I kept my hair chemically straightened until I went abroad and met my friend Eva.

Leaving my comfort zone of having someone always do my hair to having to figure it all out myself in a foreign country was daunting. I didn’t even know the first steps to finding a salon for a relaxer.

The first thing that I noticed about Eva was that she had amazing curls, which were styled as I’d later learn in a wash n go. She had the kind of curls that I always wanted but could never achieve with my chemically treated hair. When I found out that that she was natural, I was in awe.

It brought me back to the days where I had soft, curly hair that everyone loved to touch. It reminded me that natural hair was beautiful, even though it’s still attached to negative stigmas.

Eva broke down all the basics of going natural to me. What to look for in products, how to preserve my hair at night, and how to start a hair regimen.

When I decided that I wasn’t brave enough to big chop and start my hair journey from scratch like she did, Eva taught me about transitioning.

She showed me blogs, and shared her favorite YouTube gurus with me. I learned about Naptural85, Fusion of Cultures, and Chime Edwards, who are still some of my favorite vloggers to this day. Eva even filled in the gaps when I had other questions that YouTube couldn’t answer.

My friend taught me a lot about natural hair, enough to get me started on a path that’s transformed literally my entire life. She also taught me to be more aware of this large community of women that create a variety of beautiful hairstyles as a form of self expression. Going natural can be tough if you’re doing it alone and starting from scratch, but with the right help it can be so much easier.