How I Grew My Natural Hair After Big Chop | Tips & Ticks For Healthy Natural Hair

What'S up kitty heart welcome back to my channel and if you're new here make sure you like comment, share and subscribe. We talk about all things: internal peace, claiming space for who you are natural, hair talks and more and as you can see by the title, this video is going to be a natural hair. Talk. Today, i'm going to be discussing my personal natural hair journey that i have been on seven years going on eight and i'm just going to discuss that along with tips i have for growing your hair, your natural hair in you know the healthiest state, but first things. First, we always start with a quote of the day and today's quote of the day is going to come from yours, truly um. I'Ve just been on a not roller coaster journey journey, to say the least. I'Ve been on this magical journey of you know embracing uh. My confidence more, you know finding optimism and all my hardships and you know battles and yeah just pretty much embracing the whole journey. So today's quote of the day is going to simply be when you embrace the journey. It creates a beautiful story to tell, and that quote from me literally hits home for me, because you know i feel like we always lose sight of embracing the journey, not just the good parts of the journey. But you know the really hard parts, the tough parts, the sad parts anything that may cause you know to feel a little low. Sometimes - and you know we watch all these inspirational interviews, we watch you know the popular one right now. Everyone talk is talking about, is kanye's, you know, and you know, kanye embraced, that beautiful journey and that's what has created this beautiful story that everyone is wanting to listen to everyone is, you know, getting super motivated off of it, so you know keep embracing that journey. Like it's so much beauty in the journey itself that it really is in the destination that might be another quote too, but yeah it all ties in together, so take that quote, apply to your life today and let's just get right into this video. So yes, today we're going to be talking and discussing my natural hair journey, so, as you can see my big puff if you're new here this is all of my hair. This is all my natural hair um it was. I was going to have it out in a throw at first for you guys, but honestly i got hot and i just felt like putting it up so yeah i've been natural since 20, fully natural since 2015. I actually did a big chop, so i did that big chop in 2015, after transitioning for about nine months um. While i was in college. So yes, i have perms all my life. You know i'm going to drop pictures in here too, as well as i'm talking, but i've had perms all my life um. My hair was never super like bad. When i had the purse but definitely unhealthy. I remember one time i had a perm um. I think it was middle school and it actually took all of my edges out like me and my younger sister, we lost all of our edges from this really bad perm that my mom had put on our hair, and you know i think from that point i Was kind of traumatized, but i would see like other black girls like me, that looked like me and they would you know, wear their natural, hair and stuff, and you know younger me was just like you know i didn't know any better. I was really ignorant to the fact that, like you know that was actually you know healthy hair wearing your hair in your natural state and not constantly putting perms and chemicals in it and stuff to make it look straight and uh with the professional and all of This stuff that society was trying to say that black girl's, hair needed to look like and so yeah. I feel like from that age. I just was like kind of had to back my hair like well. Why doesn't my hair do that when, like i watch it like, you know things like that, and you know just as i got older and i started meeting new friends being around different people and i would see other black women embracing their natural hair um. I didn't grow up in a household where you know natural hair was embraced uh. So when i started being around different women, you know girls, my age, older women, i'm just like. Oh, my god, like i love that, like i want my hair to be like that, and literally girls would be like your hair. Does it i'm like? No, it doesn't, and it's like well, if you didn't have perms it wouldn't do that. So that's when i was just like okay, so then fast forward. When i got to college, you know we're really kind of after high school. I was like i kind of want to start embracing my natural hair, like i don't know literally. What came over me like, like i said i just think i started embracing my blackness more and you know i kind of felt, like i didn't know who i was like i kept trying to live up to these standards in society of you know what i was Supposed to look like as a black woman and how you know, as far as how i was supposed to be accepted and all of that good stuff, so yeah fast forward when i was starting my freshman year at college um i had these braids, then i used To always, you know rock braids, like senegalese twists. Those are like my thing back then so i had some senegalese twist um, probably i want to say like mid like or mid first semester, i was rocking those up until um. We have one our national tournament, so i was rocking those till about february. So then i took my braids down and when i tell y'all literally, this was in 2015. literally. I wish i still had a picture. I had a picture in my iphone that i had. I had the iphone 5c. I would never forget it, the green one, that's what i had and literally y'all. I had maybe about this much the length of like my curly hair. That came in like my natural hair and then like this much length of like straight hair from my perm hair and so literally y'all. When i tell y'all, i could not comb through my hair, like i had washed it and everything - and i was like literally in the middle of me, washing it, my hair was like it was like. No, we don't like this like where we have our natural thing. Going on, we got these straight ends at the end, and we don't like that like, like that's literally what my hair was saying and i'm just like comb wasn't happening. I broke one comb, i'm just like bro, like i'm, trying to detangle my hair and like it's not going to happen with this straight hair, so beat my food. This is like maybe i'm nine months in the transitioning phase, so i'm like bro. I literally have no other choice but to cut this perm on my hair, or else i'm going to be looking crazy. Like i don't like my hair was not going in a ponytail, it just wasn't going to do it like it was not going into a ponytail. Nothing, it was nothing i could finish to have my to where i could do something without cutting my hair, so literally y'all, i'm sitting there contemplating i swear it may have been like one or two in the morning, yeah i'm sitting there concentrating with the scissors. I'M just like i don't want to cut my hair. I don't want to cut my hair long story short. I just like grab a whole chunk of my hair and just literally cut like cut it, so i had no choice but to finish and y'all. When i told you i was in puddle of tears, like crying as i'm cutting my hair, like literally i'm so happy, i had roommates at the time, i'm so happy. They were not there. I don't know why they weren't there, but thank god they weren't and i'm literally just cutting away cutting away cutting away, and i literally cutting all of the perm out. So by the time i called the paramount. I was left with a fro and i have a picture of that. So this was the fro i was left with and i had watched it and y'all. When i say it was a teeny weeny afro a twa, i literally had a teeny weeny afro. So literally, i stayed up all night because i literally just could not believe it and i had already watched a couple of like youtube, youtube, tutorials or what i should do with like a teeny weeny afro. So i pretty much did like a wash and go and even at the time like my wash and go's were trash, but i did the best i could um. So i did like a wash and go, and you know that's when i really understood what real shrinkage was, so my hair was already short on top of it drying up. It was just to my head, like yo, it was so short, and so i um called my teammate brael and bro. If you're watching this video, she knows if she, if she leaves a comment, she will tell you. I was very like oh my gosh bro. I cut my hair off come on right now. She was my teammate. I was really close with it and she's. Just like. Oh my gosh, i'm on my way kim moy. She was the first person. I call it didn't call my parents, nobody and so she comes over it and when i tell you i'm literally in a plot of tears, i think i am hideous. I'Ve always had you know long straight hair, all my life, you know i'm just like i'm looking like, i don't even know. I feel like i like a little boy at this point and literally the first day bro says to me he's like he is beautiful and you know i needed that because i was the confidence was down here. Okay, i, like it wasn't even above my ankle. It was down, and i'm just like i'm hideous like what like. Why would i do this stuff without like and brad was just like? No, it's beautiful be mindful me and bro used to literally watch like natural hair videos. All the time and braille was already natural like she already like was no perms, and so you know she was just like he's beautiful. It'S going to grow blah blah blah, so that was basically giving me my confidence literally. I was just like screw this. I'M gon na embrace my hair. I was watching like videos of like girls who basically did the big chop and you know embracing it. You know how to care for it nourish it and all of that - and i was just like bro, i'm rocking this, like i'm gon na rock reddish fro. This frog is not going to wear me, okay and that's exactly what i did pretty much to finish off that you know school year. I would have braille like do my hair and like uh protective, like styles like braids, because, like my hair was long enough to do like the two strand twists but uh i just the braids were just they were, giving a better turnout for me at the time And you know, i didn't understand that your curl pattern actually changes over time and my curl credit pattern had ended up changing over time, and so you know so in the beginning stages. I did a lot of braid outs. Like literally braid outs was my go-to and i literally did not do them myself. I'Ve always had someone else doing whether it was braille or my sister. Those are kind of like my go-to people, who did my braid outs and literally that's what i did like braid outs, because i had like the wash it goes. I didn't. I wasn't really caring for the shrinkage to my head with my hair, already being so short, and so i was just like. I need some type of you know elongation. So braid house was my thing for maybe like the first like couple of months in the 2015 and then literally y'all. I kid you not. I just was waking up and my hair was like a little longer and you know you know when it's on yourself. You don't really know so you're, just like no, maybe i'm kind of dragging it, but, like literally i was taking pictures y'all. I really wish i still had these pictures. I was taking pictures, maybe like once a month of, like you know, stretching my hair down and i'm just like wow, and you know when i started putting my hair, my puffs. Oh my gosh, my little tiny puffs. They were so short and i'm looking at my puff now, like my puffs, were so uh short. But when i remember when i first put into a puff, it was so small and then literally i got into like, maybe close to like the end of 2015, and i'm like i had it in a puff, and literally it kind of has some little curls hanging From the pump i'm like, okay, i'm getting somewhere like, but it was so funny because i didn't even realize my hair was like getting longer at the time like i literally didn't, and so then that's when i started embracing like twist outs um, because for one i Did not know how to braid. I still to this day do not know how to braid. That is on the bucket list, to learn how to break so i'll. Be wanting to do some braid outs, but my fingers just don't it don't do it. So you know. That'S when i started doing twist outs and stuff, and so literally twist house was my go-to thing still to this day twist out is like my go-to thing. I have just now started trying to embrace the washing goes more and figure out a technique, but twist outs and uh right now, flexi rods, i'm loving the flexi rod sets uh. Those have been like my go-to, so yeah. I started doing twist outs a lot, and that was that was my thing and literally when i tell y'all i was not doing anything special. I was literally doing a twist out wearing it for about three four days until it got old and then i would start uh, then i would deep conditioner wash my hair that just kind of leads me to like the tips. So i actually haven't read my phone hold on, because i did not want to leave nothing out for y'all and i actually have number one as deep conditioned once a week. So i have my wash day video on here. You guys can check it out, but you know i kind of dive deep into you know. I don't really shampoo my hair a lot first of all for my hair personally shampoo dries it out, and you know, of course i'll shampoo, because eventually i need to clean my hair duh, but i'm not like shampooing once a week or you know like that. No, but deep condition is definitely a good tip in that beginning stage, because when i tell y'all when i first cut my hair, i was on it. Okay, i was like my hair is going to grow, it's going to be healthy and that deep condition once a week i was on it, and so that's my first tip second tip trim ends regularly. Okay, that is important. I tend to see a lot with naturals um. They want their hair to be so long, and i was - and i was in the same phase as well, because i wanted my hair to have this length and i would have like some split a little split in or you know, a loose curl that wasn't even Going with the pattern, i'm just keeping it on no and what i had to learn was you trim your hair. Your hair is going to grow back at least two three more inches by the end of that month, honestly, give it about four weeks after you did, that trim your hair is going to grow, especially you're, already doing the deep conditioning, keeping moisture and combing it out And putting a protective style your hair will grow. Do not worry about that little two inches that the hair that you have to cut off. It'S going to go back another three, four inches, probably in the next two months, so literally trim those ends. Y'All, like i actually need to trim some of my ends now to be honest with y'all and so yeah trim those ends regularly. That is really important. My third don't compare your hair to anyone else's um. I was struggling with that a lot of beginner stages, especially so, if you're watching this and you're wanting to do the big chop or you in or you're in the transitioning process, or you know anything, don't compare yourself your hair to no one else's. You have to really love on your hair. How it you know, naturally, is first of all what a boring world it would be if we were all the same. My stepmom tells me that all the time - and that includes our hair - you know i try so hard not to look like everybody else. First of all, i don't look like everybody else. God made me to you know, look like this. I have a big head. I have high cheekbones, i'm tall, you know all these things and i'm just like big eyes, and you know i just have to embrace my look same thing with your hair. You have to embrace your curls your pattern, and you know you have to find out what works best for you. It is going to be trial and error. Okay, so even like, if you're watching a tutorial with me like if you feel like your hair, looks like similar to my curl pattern stuff and you want to go ahead and try that product yes go ahead. But don't you know compare like it has to look exactly like this or i'm not going to like it, no embrace what is on your head, embrace your crown, okay. That is very important for so protective styles, so i kind of already touched base with that. With the twist outs and braid outs, i was doing on my natural hair. However um you know getting like what is it not with braids or you know, you know protective like weave break. Those are fine too um, because i do those as well. The main thing is, though, when you do get those braids, don't think, because you have braids in your hair, you don't have to tend to your real hair. Definitely keep like that moisture in your in, like your real hair and things like that. That'S important because of course, when your braids get old - and you know you get lazy, don't like take them out - trust me i'm guilty of it. You got to keep that moisture because then your hair becomes like real dry and brittle. When you take the braids out you get to washing it, you have to get all that gunk out. You know you want to keep as much moisture in it as possible, so make sure you do that, and that leads me to my fifth point: stay away from heat as much as possible and just anything that can interfere with. You know your curl pattern loosening or getting damaged so quick story time. In my natural hair journey y'all, i had actually damaged my hair in 2018, so i was obsessed with like the color purple like in hair. I still am low-key and, however, if i find a professional who can who actually specializes with coloring, you know natural hair. I will do it, but i wanted purple my fro to be purple so bad like and i'm like i'm gon na. Do it so i'll call myself watching some little youtube, tutorials be mine for these, these are people who are already familiar with. You know dying hair. They probably have a professional who does it, but i'm just watching the professionals doing and thinking i could do it. So i bleached my hair because the color purple that i wanted my hair needed to be lighter and my hair is a very dark brown. So me and my sister bleached, my hair and y'all. When i tell y'all absolute mess, i'm actually going to drop some pictures because i actually have some pictures of it um it was an absolute mess um. My hair literally, my curl pattern was like where, where did it go? I feel like. I was back to the damaged perm hair around again like i was crying i'm just like bro. I'Ve worked so hard and my my fro wasn't even like super big yet, but it was just now flourishing into that elongation. It was like right here like when it was out, and i'm just like. Why did i do that and the color part it even ended up being the color purple i wanted just. I took a big risk and literally did not get the results i wanted, and i was just like never again, and so literally i just had to you know, train my hair back. You know the deep condition is. I had to cut out a lot of that damage from the ends, of course, and just training my curl pattern back, which i eventually got it back, but you know that was a process in itself. My hair ended up turning green in the back. It was. It was a mess y'all, it was a hot mess and 10 or 10. Don'T recommend doing that yourself if you literally do not know what you're doing. I do believe you can't get your natural hair professionally dyed and it can still be okay, but just get someone who knows what they're doing and just so it can be done right and um, like i said just to piggyback with the heat damage, heat is okay, Just don't overdo it with the heat, because your hair does eventually starts getting trained onto what you're consistently doing. I know a lot of naturals because they don't try to embrace like the chrome work shape it does, and all of that they tend to. You know flat iron, it a lot or you know whatever don't overdo it y'all, because that's going to ruin your curl pattern. I personally have not experienced that part yet, but i've seen people that's happened to and you know part in bracing. Your hair is embracing the journey and bracing. You know where their hair naturally flows. What is used to what it likes. You know embracing the you know, the products that you use, that you know and it responds well to it. You know it's a journey and my last tip is y'all. Do not do not put a lot of tension on your hair, be gentle with your hair love and carry on it like it is the hair on your head. That is sacred um. I see a lot of people that get frustrated and you know going down with the brush or detangle brush. You know, be gentle, be patient with your hair. That is important. You have to be patient if you're, not patient, with your natural hair, it's just not going to work for you just straight up. It'S not going to work for you um! You know if you just if you just don't care to just learn how, to you know, learn what your hair do and how to respond to certain things or embrace. You know certain things. It does it's just not for you and that's okay. It is okay, um. So that's my main tip just being patient and loving on your hair. That'S important but, like i said, i'm embracing my journey, taking no mistakes, learning from them, so i don't compound mistakes and look. This is where i am now in 2022. Seven years later, like i'm not even at a ten year mark yet y'all like i'm in year, seven going on year, eight, and so it's just still so much more - that i'm learning about my hair, like my hair, literally tends to do its own thing literally. I would be like okay, i'm gon na, like i'm gon na, do this and it should be up, come out this way and then come out another way and it it's still bomb, i'm just like i'm gon na embrace this, i'm gon na rock this, like it's, The hair on my head - and i know that i still put good energy intentions into what i'm doing it when i'm doing it, so you know i'm just gon na rock whatever it gives me um, but yeah. Those are just like my. Those are just my tips that i've done in my journey and what i found to work for me, but yeah guys make sure you, like comment, share and subscribe. If you like this video, i actually do have some more good content coming and you should be receiving it every wednesday. That is my plan y'all every wednesday, like i said, i do fall behind a week or two, but i come right back. I just have a lot of things going on a couple announcements that i should be making, hopefully in the next, maybe two or three weeks by whatever video i'm doing at that time. So, yes, guys um make sure you share share share. If you like this video, please take those tips and tricks and apply to your life. If you are on your natural hair journey, if you've done the big chop like me, and you know just trying to embrace your, you know natural roots, starting with your hair and then literally, what i've found that what i have found is that, once i started embracing My natural hair stuff, like internally, i just started embracing other things about myself as a black woman, like you know how how i talk, you know how i you know, project myself as i enter a room just embodying this confidence that you know i didn't always have, Because you know, being a black woman was like nothing to embrace. Basically, you know we have to embrace looking and being like somebody else in society, because that was the thing or the norm to go to. So you know those are things that i ended up finding like that. You may not find them within yourself and you do start your natural journey, but i did and i've and i've talked to other people, and i have friends that have done the same thing. So yeah um, like i said if you like this video, give it a thumbs up once again like comment, share and subscribe, and i will catch y'all catch you guys later, peace out, mwah