the big chop

well this is me.... nessa, and like many other black and bi-racial girls, i forfieted many years of blissfully curly comfort, by purchasing and indeed burning out, atleast 3 pairs of hair straighteners.... so i decided to go for the big chop! and take a year or so to document my restoration process.
as a bi-racial woman (african/ european) with naturally ringletted curls, my hair had always been pretty hard to manage, partially due to a lack of knowledge but mostly due to my ridululous insistance on doing my own hair as a child (arghh)...
growing up in wales literally meant that i had two pre-destined hair-care routes.... pomade/relaxer or hair gel/hair mousse.... neither particularly suitable for a bi-racial curly haired kid i hear you say... nevertheless, i took both routes and routinely forced my hair back into a tangled up bun...
then i moved to london! and after the forceful insistance of a cousin, i visited a salon with my mother and had my hair pressed into submission... think oil, plus heat, loud sizzling and a burnt scalp....
but wow, it looked amazing.
straight hair became my thing, my hair was soft, long, moved in the wind lol and required little more than a wide toothed comb and coconut oil.
however...the problem with humans i feel.... is that we nit-pick beyond belief.
realising that my roots and ends routinely curled up (generally a day or two after straightening) i decided that pressing it every single morning (highest heat setting) would aleviate this problem... and yes, it worked... a little too well.
4years (and hundreds of african history books, angela davis, malcolm x autobiographies, style formation and intellectual advancement) later.....i stumbled across an unfortunate reality.
pressumably a few of you have experienced the following.....
you decide that curls are once again beautiful, wash your hair with the frenzied excitment of a reformed bank robber, only to realise that those mid brown, blonde streaked ringlets you once hated, but now long to revive..... equate to little more than waves with straight ends.
hmm
not exactly impressive.
i learnt from my mistake... and after a few months of denial, and persistant straightening, i cut it all off....
my mission as forementioned, is to...
-grow it back 1step at a time
-look after it using natural products only
-understand my hair and what it needs
-AND GROW A FLY CURLY FRO

join me on my journey, share your own stories and we can do this together!!!
whether bi-racial or afro-caribbean .... i'd love it if you could all send me pictures of your monthly natural hair growth or documented evidence of your big chop! so i can post them up and we can create a special lil' community!....
think of it as a weight-gain plan haha