I’ve had my natural curls for about four years now.
- Before then my hair was relaxed for nearly ten years, so I had a lot to learn about my natural curl pattern when I decided to do the big chop.
I think I’ve begun to get a good grasp of my hair and understand its needs, but there’s definitely been some learning curves. One thing that I had to understand was the many ways that air conditioning and heating can impact my hair curl pattern. I live down South, so using my air conditioner is a pretty regular thing in my house. When I cut my hair at the beginning of the new year, I was using my heater more than I was using the air conditioner. Because the air vent in my bedroom is directly facing the bed, the heater would be blasting on me and my hair throughout the entire night. I realized that the heat was causing my hair to be extremely dry when I woke up, so I ended up shifting the direction that the air vent faced. It’s not super easy to completely change the direction of the air vent though, so the heat only shifted a bit. I also noticed that when the thermostat was set to a temperature that was too high, my curls would experience too much humidity and get frizzy. On the opposite end of the spectrum, when the thermostat was set too low, my curls also experienced some struggle. It’s been challenging, but I’m learning a lot about my hair and I think that has helped me come to understand and accept myself as well.