Rome wasn't built in a day : Feyi's Journey to Natural

Immediately after my big chop

I didn't make the decision to go natural overnight, I didnt have a drastic lets cut it all off moment. About 2 years prior to my big chop I became really bored with my hair: having the same look all the time and doing the same old things. A couple of years before my big chop I wrote a list of things I wanted to do before I turned 30 and on said list was "do something completely different with your hair and change your look" I was getting that its time for a change itch.

I got sick of the repetitive endless trips to the hairdressers to relax my hair, got sick of buying relaxer, straightening my hair, not being able to swim as often as I would like and all the other pitfalls of chemically straightened hair. I started taking a fancy to curly styles and well relaxed hair didnt really make that too easy to do. So I stopped with the relaxer and started texturising my hair, I was happy with that for about a year and a half but then the new growth had a completely different texture from the rest of my dead straight over-processed hair. It looked WEIRD, didnt know how to style it or what to do with it. I know now that this was my transitioning period, didnt know it then lool. Never heard the word used in the context of natural hair till I had done my big chop. I didnt know anything about natural hair, what to do with, how to style bla bla. Kinda always thought it was for the black and proud queens like Erykah Badu and the likes. I didnt fancy having a massive afro on my head. Note that at the time, I had just finished my masters degree and was applying for jobs, praying for interviews and getting ready to jump into the corporate world, going natural really didnt seem feasible/socially acceptable.

Anyways at the time I lived in Sheffield and popped into an amazing salon on West Street called Nuba http://www.nubahairandbeauty.co.uk/ . There I met the amazing Serena Giscombe, she is absolutely amazing, she won the black beauty northern stylist of the year award in 2011 and a couple of other awards. Serena told me I had a really nice curl pattern (had no clue what that meant) and asked if I had ever considered going natural. I believe that was my  I AM GOING NATURAL moment. Do note that I had decided to do a PhD and not jump into the corporate world, so I figured if I go natural and find its not for me and isnt really feasible for the corporate world, I would ditch being natural and go back to my relaxer ways (am not a sell-out but having a job and paying my bills seemed more important at the time than taking a social stand. Sue me). Serena told me to book an appointment in 2 weeks to come and get it cut. The idea was that I would have 2 weeks to sit with the decision and be sure. Yes that is important. YOU NEED TO BE SURE.  

I booked the appointment and Serena and I came up with a plan. We were going to do my big chop, I had about 5-7cm of untexturised, unrelaxed hair. But we were going to make sure I had enough hair to  do braids and that meant leaving some relaxed bits, as little as possible though. So this was the plan, big chop followed by hair in braids for 1 month.

As the day of my big chop (13th of May 2011) drew nearer I was excited and was totally sure, insanely nervous, slightly terrified but sure. I rang up my dear darling Faridah who had gone natural as I was walking to NUBA to do my big chop. She was supportive and has remained so. So yep I did the big chop (see pic) and had braids put in immediately. But I was too excited to keep the braids in for 1 month. I went back to NUBA after 2 weeks (if that) with my braids out, Serena was shocked lool but I was that excited. She cut off the remaining straight bits and I happily rocked my little fro (see pic).

My little fro

I have been natural for 2 years now and I would not change it for the world. 

Kinks and Curls,
Feyi.