Naturally Curly to Straight Hair

I have had absolutely no desire to straighten my hair! I haven't done so in almost 2 years. Once I went natural 2 years ago, I decided to stop putting heat on my hair.  It wasn't hard for me.  I just loved to see my curls all the time.  I decided in March 2014 to go ahead and straighten my hair due to my straight-hair-loving-hubby coming home from deployment.

I started out with the products pictured below.  I got them from the PX on post, but have seen them in Walgreen's as well.  I simply shampooed my hair, then used my Tresemme Naturals to do a mini deep conditioner, and finished with the conditioner.

After washing my hair, I then used coconut oil to massage in my scalp.  I used a leave in conditioner (any will do) to set my hair to braid in four braids.  I let my hair air dry over a day.  I just put on a beanie when I went out in public.

The next day, I called my neighbor over and she did the dirty work.  She put the serum on each section of my hair and sprayed it with the spray before flat ironing my hair.  Since my hair was already dry, my neighbor said we could use less heat by eliminating the blow dryer and just using the flat iron.  I honestly did not believe the flat iron alone would straighten out my curly hair.  Especially not my wavy roots.  My neighbor knew what she was doing because she got the job done by using less heat!

Now that I could see my length, I could also see my scraggly ends.  I had my neighbor cut them.  She only cut a little because she was afraid to cut much of my hair.  At night to preserve my hair I would wrap it or put coconut oil on it and twist it around into a low bun held with bobby pins.  This kept it straight, but with a little body.  I was only able to deal with my hair being straight for a week.  I eagerly washed it out.  I wanted to keep it for two weeks, but to me, straight hair is more work than my naturally curly hair.  I had to do too much to it daily to style it and keep it in place.  Once during the week I use the serum and sprayed my hair with the heat protectant and used the big curling iron to give my hair some big curls.

Yes this is a bathroom selfie!

Everyone but me liked my straight hair at this point and before I went natural.  I was never impressed.  It was always a hassle for me and I felt that I could never do anything with my hair.  I couldn't make it cute.  After being natural and wearing my hair straight, I felt that I looked very boring and ordinary.  Nothing about my hair stood out to me.  I ended up doing what I always did when my hair wasn't natural, put it in a ponytail.  That was my everyday go to style.

In May 2014 I straightened my hair again.  It wasn't because I got the straight hair bug, but because my Mom who is a hair stylist, was coming to visit and I could get her to cut my ends more.  We pretty much followed the same process with a few changes.  I washed my hair just the same.  That time, instead of braiding my hair and letting it air dry, my mom still put coconut oil all over my scalp, and then used the serum and heat protectant spray in each section before blow drying.  She added a little bit of the serum (to the ends) and heat protectant to my hair again when she went over it with a flat iron.  I used the same wrapping or bunning methods at night to preserve my hair.  After a few days I used the big curling iron again.  That time I kept my hair straight for two weeks.

It wasn't hard to revert my hair back to curly.  Maybe I will save that for another blog post!