What Goes Up: Breaking Up With My Flat Iron

It's been nearly two years since I shaved my head and ever since then, I've been working on finding ways to be kinder to my hair that still exist within my comfort zone. At this month, I dove right in to #NoStraightenSeptember...which was the catchiest thing I've been able to think of for the last 20 days. It's more acurately, #NoHeatSeptember, but that just doesn't have the alliteration and everyone knows that's how things catch on. All in all, here's the deal. I vowed to stop spending every single day straightening my hair simply because that's the way things have been done for the last 13 years.

I started straightening my hair during 8th grade. My base memories for that year were wearing WAY too much eyeliner, believing that Simple Plan was really singing about me, trying to convince my mom that I wasn't falling in with a bad crowd (my favorite of which is still a best friend today), and taking a big ass flat iron to my hair everything single day to calm the frizzy chaos that was my hair.

I've made a lot of big changes over the last two years compared to my high school hair care routine. First and foremost, I stopped washing it so damn much. I've heard for years and years that washing your hair every single day isn't good for it and will dry it out. I started washing it every other day shortly after high school and more or less stuck to that schedule (occasionally waiting three or even FOUR days *gasp*). I did a little research after my big shave to discover that some people don't use shampoo on their hair at all! They used other things like special (likely expensive) co-wash 'lite' shampoos or more natural alternatives. I chose to just start washing my hair less. This allowed my body to realize that it was beginning to produce too much grease and slowly limit that amount as my scalp got used to the less frequent washings (usually once a month). Now that my hair is a little longer, it feels like I need to wash slightly more (closer to once every 3 weeks).

When I shaved my had, I vowed to avoid bleach/lightening products because I knew how much damage store bought products can do to the hair. I couldn't walk away from dye all together though. I started buying Manic Panic red, a well-known vegan dye. All Natural ingredients and minimal to no damage done.

This month I decided to give up the ultimate evil...heat. I stopped blow drying my hair. I stopped straightening it. I stopped tearing out my wet hair with a brush. I stopped putting it in tight ponytails. I even went out and bought a sulfate free shampoo so I can really embrace my curls. Do you know what happened? It's been a real game changer. Suddenly I'm looking back at photos from the last two years wondering why I spent so long straightening and torturing it in the first place when the answer was just a few google searches away. i just needed to learn how to take care of MY hair.

I feel more confident than I've ever felt and all because I took a leap out of my comfort zone and it paid off. So now I'm nearly two years post shave and my hair is longer and healthier than it has been in at least a decade and I am ecstatic to see the lengths it will grow now that I know how to properly care for it.

Do your research.

Experiment.

Figure out what works for you.