Protective Styles: The Trials
Ok guys this post is going to be a little longer than others mostly because it’s the first time I’ve told you the story. Also there will be pictures with awful lighting, and no rule of thirds in mind. Remember this is a journey So here we go….
My Hair. *Immediately hears India Arie*
I went back natural in 2013 because I thought my hair would grow faster, then I just liked to see my curls, then I started blowing it out it looked better than my permed hair. It looked thick, and full of volume.
Then I decided I wanted to be FIT. Only Lord knows why? I had to flat iron my hair every morning after the workout. It was team too much for the kid and I knew it was bad for my hair.
So I began to wear it natural in order to avoid heat damage and then the real struggle began. My hair was sooo dry, like retained no moisture, and all I wore were puffs. I gave myself coil bangs once. It was a negative. So I reverted….. not to creamy crack, but to wiggyworld.
I used to adore wigs. I wore them all the time. They were always curly wigs, most of them long and curly.
I even had a blonde curly wig. Imagine that right. She was an impulse buy, but she was cute! Wigs were my new best friends. I wore my big giant curly wig everywhere and everyone always thought it was real.
Biggest wig compliment ever is when someone thinks your wig is your hair.
That’s when I realized I could be growing my natural hair by keeping it moisturized and braided down instead of in that dry ass puff. I felt like I was at the end of the rainbow. I definitely have favorite wigs too, ones that I buy three times a year. Links: Curly Sue & Get your life
Braid it down
Then I threw it back to every black girl’s summer time do. I got some box braids and I loved them. LOVED them. I had big sections, but not big braids. I didn’t want to spend a weekend taking them down. Check them out though. This is via the gram so don’t laugh or do.
Thing about braids for me is I can’t keep them in long. My scalp needs to breathe. I have a terribly dry scalp and as much as I grease, oil, and moisturize those parts. My scalp is screaming. I tend not to use grease, it doesn’t work for me at all. It’s just slimy and clogs my scalp up. I use water and tea tree oil. The most soothing spritzer ever when I can tell my scalp is suffocating. They lastedd maybe a month. Maybe.
I did love them though. So next I tried a braided lob. It did not turn out at all how I wanted it to. I low key hated it, but I got lots of compliments on the hairstyle. Of course my scalp wasn’t here for them so that lasted all of 3 weeks.
The Highlights
After my stint with braids I fell hopelessly back in love with my fro. I added highlights and my fro was obviously bigger than before. My curly braid out/ fro outs were starting to be epic and all was aligned in my hair world for like months! Then SMACK! Right out of left field. I found myself in the beauty store and it was like the wig section was calling out to me and I bought a new wig! The first wig I’ve bought in like 2 years. Bae was obsessed with it. This wig was different than the other before her. She was short with loose curls and I normally do long big curls. So I was surprised that she was such a hit, but she was, then I had to have more. I bought Donna. She gave allllll thee life. I slayed all over the world, and you could not steal my sunshine when I wore her. It was LIT for like a full 3 months. Again Curly Sue & Get your life
Then I went into hair depression. I didn’t like my hair anymore. I was over my new girls. I just really wasn’t into my hair options. So I made a random split decision to go Merlot Red and it was poppington.
Merlot hair
The change in color was a massive jump for me. I do not take risk with my real hair like ever. So I was afraid but Oliver looked out of course and the red was just amazing and the previous highlight took on a lighter red so it was beautiful, but I did not want it to be curly merlot. I want Merlot straight no chaser, but I just couldn’t keep it salon straight and I had to wash it. I was heartbroken, my red hair in its natural state was pretty too. I just really really liked it straight soooo of course I buy a new wig and she’s … yep you guessed it, she’s merlot red. I wore her during CIAA weekend. She was curly but she had volume so I liked her, but we have a fickly relationship. I grew tired of her and I still wasn’t really feeling my natural hair anymore, mostly because I couldn’t remember how to style it. On to my next protective style.
Crochet Braids
Okay I was a member of the GTFO club when it came to crochet braids. They always look so obvious and I could never get pass that. I’m so picky about my hair and my shoes. Hair I’m sooo picky about. I do not like anything that looks obvious. Crochet Braid styles have come a loooonnnggg way. They have erupted as this trend that has branched off into many different styles and I finally hopped on the bandwagon to find out what was poppin.
The first style I got was blown out marley hair that I put on flexi rods and dipped in hot water. They were cute, but hard to manage for me. The second go round I tried a corkscrew curl and I ABSOLUTELY loved this style and it's the style I'm rocking in the pics above. The only thing is that darn scalp of mine again. My scalp was pretty much suffocating. There was too much hair unfortunately and my scalp was on fire & all the tea tree oil and water spritz in the world wasn’t saving me this time. I had this style for a week or maybe 2 weeks.
Now I'm changing back to wigs. Super easy to style in the morning, and now that I've mastered the dark curly for wigs, and typically with bangs. I plan to really branch out into some color with my wigs... watch out for something long coming soon.
