I am 7 months into my natural hair journey. After years of bad (and I mean horrible) hair care, it is amazing to see the transformation that is already taking place. Since middle school (over 15 years eek!) I had lots of freedom to experiment with my hair – I have relaxed, dyed, flat ironed my hair to the point that I just had enough! Not brave enough to do a big chop, I am slowly snipped off pieces of damaged hair as it grows out. Most of my heat damage is right around the face, making my front hair permanently straight. Not wanting to go with the mullet look, I am living with those straight pieces as long as I can, and snipping only just the ends each month.
On to hair type…
I have have all of those dreaded lows – low density, low porosity, and (low) thickness. Ok the last one isn’t a thing, but you get the picture – I have thin hair in all of the ways that it is usually described. The result of this is fine hair and a pretty sad hour or so post wash. I mean really, I try to avoid human contact during that first hour or two so I’m not faced with the question, are you balding?
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Low Density– When in a ponytail it is especially noticeable, I don’t have all that much head on my hair.
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Low Porosity– Pull a strand of hair out of your head and put it in a glass of room temperature water, let it sit for a few minutes to gauge your porosity. If it sinks to the bottom you have very porous hair, if it floats to the top, low porosity. And, you guessed it, if your hair floats right in the middle, you hair is right in the sweet spot. My hair has a very low porosity, which translates into very dry hair that seems to rarely feel moisturized.
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Thin– By this I mean the individual strands of hair are very thin. Holding one strand of hair alone, it is almost hard to see it.
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Hair Type – 3a 3b 3c . As so many of us curlies do, I have a combination of hair types. At the nape of my head, I have about a 3a, this hair is borderline wavy and takes a bit of work to make it curl like the rest of my head. the middle 3c, with 3b around the sides and top.
This image illustrates how thin my hair appears when wet, and the volume it reaches when dry.
One of my favorite bloggers, Charmsie, filmed a hilarious YouTube video on the topic of fine hair, I can completely relate to this! Have a laugh.
Thanks for joining me in my transition journey!
xoxo jackie