How long have you been natural?
January 19, 2013 made 1 year and 5 months natural exactly.

What made you decide to go natural (or stay natural if you never relaxed your hair)?
A few things made me go natural. For one, my mom made the decision to go natural, so that was motivation for me. Because she chose to go natural we weren’t going to the hair salon as often and would only go when I needed to go. I started to really dislike how flat, limp, and lifeless my hair would look after I got it done so I decided that to save money and disappointment I would transition back to natural.

Big Chop, shot term transition or long term transition? Why?
For me, I’ve NEVER had short hair, EVER so I couldn’t see myself chopping my hair down to next to nothing so I wanted to do a long term transition and my goal was to transition for a total of 30 months and do my big chop on January 20, 2013 (my 21st birthday). That didn’t happen as you can tell but I did transition for 13 months. After dealing with the two textures of my hair for that long, I was ready to just cut it off and be completely natural.

What is your hair care routine/regimen?
My regimen is very simple. I believe that less is more and my hair thrives when I leave it alone. I moisturized and seal my hair about 3-4 times a week depending on how my hair feels. I deep condition once a week religiously. I shampoo my hair once a month. I cowash as needed. That sums up my regimen. I do the basics and make sure I listen to my hair at all times.

What are your top 5 ‘must-have’ hair care products/items? Why?
For me it would definitely be water, Shea butter, castor oil, coconut oil, and tresemme moisture rich conditioner. Water is an excellent moisturizer and I use it for just about every part of my regimen, its definitely an essential. My hair is extremely thick and LOVES Shea butter. When I use Shea butter it locks in the moisture and I can go a couple of days without having to re-moisturize my hair, which is always good in my book. Castor oil is an amazing oil. I love to use it for maintaining the thickness of my hair and it also helps with growth as well. I’ve been using it since 2009 when I started my hair journey, and it hasn’t let me down yet. Coconut oil is a great oil to have on hand. I find that it soothes my scalp, helps when I finger detangle, and also leaves a great sheen on my hair. Coconut oil is also one of the only oils that penetrates the hair shaft. Tresemme moisture rich conditioner is a staple of mine and I love it because it is a great conditioner for moisturizing. I absolutely love the way my hair feels after I’ve used it! I can use this as a cowash, leave in conditioner, detangler, and even a deep conditioner so I love that I’m able to use it for more than one thing in my regimen. It’s also very inexpensive, which is always a plus in my book.

What are your favorite styles to wear?
My favorite styles honestly are protective styles. As I mentioned before, my hair does well when I leave it alone so I definitely like having my hair in protective styles and I keep my hair in these styles 98% of the time. When I do wear my hair out though I love a big puff, fro, or twist out!
What is one thing you wish you knew about your hair or about your journey before going natural?
I would have to say that I wish I knew how much of a journey it really is. I relate my hair to a relationship. We have our ups and downs and we may fight and fuss and go through our phases where we don’t want to be bothered with one another, but at the end of the day its all love.

What is the most important tip you’ve learned throughout your natural hair journey that you think every natural should know?
I truly believe that everyone whether natural or relaxed should truly understand that YOUR journey is just that, YOURS. While its great to look at other people for inspiration and advice, you have to find and do what works for you. So many times we get caught up in doing what we see everyone else doing that we often times end up hurting ourselves. What works for one, doesn’t work for all.

What are thoughts on the natural hair community/movement?
I love it! I mean what’s not to love. I think its great that so many women are deciding to give up perms and are switching to natural. I love seeing other naturals out and about with their TWA’s or big fro’s. It’s a lovely thing to see and I hope that it continues to grow and continues to move in a positive direction.

Where can the Naturally Glam Fam find you online? What will they find on your site/blog/vlog?
You can find me on Youtube where you will see tons of videos on my natural hair and even videos from my relaxed days, transition, and big chop!
www.youtube.com/FABULOUSCURVES