Hair trimming is something I never really did. The only time I would trim my ends was in the salon when I would get my hair straightened. When I started to wear my hair curly for the majority of the year, I never trimmed my hair. Emphasis on never. I have gone a whole year without trimming my hair, and I saw nothing wrong with it. But as time went on, I started to understand why trimming our ends was good and what curly cuts are. From some research I did a while back, girls with curly hair should be trimming our ends every six weeks or so.

Some of the benefits of trimming our ends are as follows:

• Gets rid of the split ends
• Gives you that healthy bounce back in your curls
• Less frizz
• Hair grows back healthier
• Easier to detangle

That being said, about three weeks ago, I straightened my hair. I try to stick to straightening my hair two or three times a year to reduce heat and prefer my curls anyways. Fast forward to the weekend that just passed, I decided to wash my hair as I wanted my curls back and wanted to style it for a wedding I had coming up. I had gotten a curly cut at the end of 2018, however, my hair has just gone back to that ‘M’ shape it has before, so a change was definitely needed.

So, wash day is approaching and I’m super nervous because I know I have heat damage (yes, I used heat protector), and my ends we super bad as well. I washed my hair then deep conditioned it, left it overnight and washed it all off the next day. I had bought professional hair scissors from the hair shop, so I was ready to chop chop chop!

Hair cleansed, treated and washed. Cool. What I didn’t expect was the heat damage that made me cry THREE times within the space of an hour lol. I didn’t even want to measure the length of the damage because I would get upset all over again, but all I know is that my hair hadn’t been that damaged since I started my whole journey. As you can see in the image to the left, the left side of my hair had not been cut yet, and shows how damaged the ends and other strands had gotten.

So, I cut off a chunk of my hair and since then I’ve styled it twice. I used the Denman brush to manipulate my curls and create coils that disappeared. This is a technique that is good to use if you feel like your hair does not look like how it used to, or isn’t bouncy enough. Braid outs and twist outs are also good to manipulate and create a pattern in your hair.

The curls are going back to how they usually are, so I’m not too stressed out about it anymore. I also bought Hair Mayonnaise that contains olive oil and egg protein, so that also worked its magic overnight.

As you can see, all the parts I cut off were dead. I could have waited for them to come back after continuous protein masks and deep treatments, but I have done the wait before and I simply wanted a changed.

This is all to say, don’t stress out if your hair gets damaged. If you have to scream or cry about it, let it out. I know many girls (including myself), that have held onto their hair because it is ‘who they are’ and their identity. But sis, hair grows back. And I’m sure many girls will understand where I am coming from when I say that we are not our hair. We aren’t defined by our hair, nor should we gain confidence or seek validation because of our hair. Short, long, relaxed or natural – our hair is something to be celebrated not stressed out about. So, enjoy every second of the process, the ups and downs and see how much happier you will be.