Highly Textured

Whoo hoo! I'm finally here!

Hey guys. After months of quietly lurking and blog-stalking any- and everybody with something to say about natural hair, I finally decided to start a blog of my own. (There can never be enough natural hair blogs, right?) Of course, this is all too expected for my friends, since I have about 8,967 other blogs to begin with... but hey. I couldn't help myself. And I've never claimed to have restraint anyway. Besides, with more and more of my close girlfriends going natural, I felt like this was the best way to share the journey with them.


So anyway, quick intro -- My name's V, and I've been natural since 2001. I have no epic, soul-wrenching transitioning story to tell -- basically, I became natural by default. 2001 was the year I started college at Howard University, a four-hour drive from my home -- and my hairdresser -- in Pittsburgh. Being the overly-cautious 18-year-old that I was, I refused to let anyone put relaxer in my hair except Weavin' Steven, of "Top Model," "Tyra Show" and "Split Ends" fame. (Yup, that was my hairdresser -- but back then he was just Steve Ross from Latrobe... without the grill. Love him.)

Anywhoo, I saw these adorable little waves starting to grow out of my scalp. "This is cute," I thought. "And they're not hard to straighten." Eventually, I learned how to coax a textured, wavy/curly look out of my entire head, relaxed ends and all. The secret -- Hawaiian Silky Gel Activator.

Omigod, horrible, right? I had a little companion bottle of sheen spray too. How embarrassing is that? But that's all I knew of creating curls back then. So every morning, before class, I wet my hair, applied the gel in sections, and blow-dried for this crazy, wavy-curly look. (I don't think I'll ever forget the scent of the process.) It sounds nuts, but the girlfriends unanimously decided that this was my "look" -- we all had one at the time.

(The girls and I right before one of our nightly jaunts to the 18-and-over club -- and me, complete with my hair, hoops, and "tribal" name necklace.)

Fast foward almost eight years and countless cream, gel and color applications later. I still have my natural texture, but for the first time since freshman year, I have my natural color too. (Seriously, Feria should give me a check for all the boxes I've used over the years -- but that's whole 'nother post). And since I'm finally getting a feel of my TRUE textures, since they change with any chemical processing, I'm celebrating -- by finding new ways to style, new ways to nourish and sharing it all on a new blog.

So... welcome! Have a seat and enjoy!

-- V.