My hair history

I have been into my hair since before I can remember, but I never really knew how to care for my hair.

My mother says that I have always had a healthy full head of hair, so much so that it was too much for her to handle due to me being tender headed as a child. Everyone in the home was tired of hearing Danielle cry when she was getting her hair done as if someone was trying to kill me, so my grandmother took me to her stylist where my hair was cut and I received a Jheri Curl- I was about 3 or 4 years old at this time and do not remember my hair texture before this although I have seen pictures.

I do not know what happened to the Jheri Curl, but when I was in the 4^th grade, my godmother relaxed my hair with the Just for Me box perm and when it was time for a touch up I went to another one of my mother’s friends to have this done. I remember by hair being really long to where it touched my shoulders in a high ponytail. This was all that I knew how to do on my hair so I wore ponytails daily and neglected to comb the middle of my hair or tie my hair up at night. As a result, my hair began to break off, especially where I kept the ponytail holder and subsequently it was cut.

Throughout Junior High School, my hair was still full and thick and was about shoulder length. I still only knew how to do ponytails, but I went to my hairstylist who was known to my family for about six years. During this time, my stylist would relax my hair every 4-6 weeks and I thought nothing more of it. During the summer months, I would braid my younger sister’s hair who is eight years younger then me, but her hair was natural. I would wonder why her hair curled up when it was washed but mine remained strength. I just knew in the back of my mind that my sister had a Spanish daddy!

I would get my hair box braided by the African Hair Braiding Shops every summer since I was about 12 years old. Another hairstyle fave of mine was flat twists in the front and drop curls in the back. I used this time to also experiment with my hair with two strand twists and rubber bands, or  box braids with my own hair. I knew my hair was growing as only my new growth was being relaxed, but I was unable to retain the length, and I thought nothing of it.

In 2003 I stopped going to my and I decided to begin doing my hair myself, except for relaxers. I was in college at this time and was introduced to box braids with human hair which I wore in the winter months. When my hair was not in braids, I would flat iron or curl it almost everyday to style my hair- without heat protectant. I did not know what a "protective style" was, but I was accustomed to wearing my hair up, in buns, and in braids although I preferred to have my hair, and all that was breaking off, on my shirt. 

By 2006 my hair was passed my shoulders and I decided to get a “trim” from the Domincan salon. Needless to say that trim ended up being an “even cut” where all my hair was cut into a bob that stopped right at my chin. Around this time I was introduced to 10-12 inch sew in’s which I wore for about three months out of the year and began to install tracks in my sister’s hair once she entered high school so that I could learn to do them on myself. Afterwhile, my stylist would convince me to get longer hair as my own hair was longer then the weave.

In 2010, I began to admire the African American women on youtube with long healthy hair. I never had the thought that "black hair could not grow" because I considered my shoulder length hair long enough to put into a bun and ponytail, however, having hair touch my bra strap seemed impossible.  In March of 2010, I came across the hair sites of Hairlista and Keep It Simple Sista and jumped on the "natural" bandwagon. I told myself that I was going to transition for a year and then cut off all my relaxed hair because I wanted to know what my natural hair texture looked and felt like. I completed my first goal which was the stretch from March 22, 2010 to March 22, 2011. During this time I purchased a hooded hair dryer and tons of hair products that other youtuber’s recommended. The stretch was easy but I stopped going to the salon because everyone kept trying to give me a perm and did not realize that I was trying to go natural. However, once my year stretch was up, I could not take the two textures anymore. Instead of cutting my relaxed ends, I got my new growth relaxed.

Since the start of my journey, I have been determined to grow my relaxed hair as long as I can while keeping my hair and scalp healthy!