Circle of Sisters Expo 2009

I have always been the one to do something with my hair for a while and then get tired of it and want a change. I had braids in for a while, they were pretty and I liked the way they looked on me. But I began getting the itch to see my real hair again.

I went to the Circle of Sisters Expo at the Javitz Center, in NYC. It was my first time, and to my surprise there were many hair vendors. I fell upon Cathy Howse's table. Her products are called Ultra Black Hair. What was appealing to me was that she had written books on black hair and her hair was a testomonial to her products being effective. Her hair was very long and thick. Her products work at thickening your hair so that it is strong enough to grow long. I was eagar to try it, so I bought her deep conditioner, moisturizer and leave-in spray treatment. I still had my braids in and were not going to take them out until the week of Thanksgiving. But I couldn't wait to take out my braids because my edges were starting to come out. The braids were too heavy to support my real hair.

I have been wearing braids for about a year but before that I had a texturizer in my hair. It was no longer in my budget to get the texturizer and keep up with the new growth. I did a big chop sometime in the sophomore or junior year of college but then I immediately put the texturizer in. My hair grew a lot. But I wanted more thickness to it. I wanted it to be fuller, that is when I decided to get it braided.

I've finally decided that I want to go natural, no more chemicals! I want to learn how to do my own hair, and learn what my hair likes and what it doesn't like. I've always viewed my natural hair (without chemicals) to be rough, & unmanageable. And it didn't help that I am tender headed. But I was so ready! I am an aspiring doctor and it only made sense that part of being healthy was also having healthy hair. Some of these ingredients that are in the shampoos, conditioners, etc. are known to cause serious health problems. We have to be more proactive about our health and our life. Just because society is selling us things, does not mean we don't have the responsibility to research the ingredients in these products for ourselves.

The picture above is when I had the texturizer. It was nice but I didn't always want my hair dripping wet.