I started noticing an increase in the amount of hair that was shedding in my late 20’s.  Since I had always had a pretty healthy head of hair, I didn’t pay much attention to the increased amount of hair on my bathroom floor.  As time passed, I changed hair styles to camouflage the thinning hair – mainly switching from longer to shorter hair styles.  This was easy since I really like short, trendy haircuts.  The problem was that I tended to let the short haircuts grow out and then the hair issues (thinning and breakage) became more noticeable – at least to me.  Other people didn’t seem to notice a thing – just thought that I liked to change my hairstyles.

I eventually went to the dermatologist to seek help with the hair thinning and breakage before permanent damage occurred.  Glad that I made that decision in 2008 – after 20+ years of enjoying relaxed hair.  Initially, I was not receptive to the suggestion of letting the chemical relaxers go – that took a few years LOL.  The dermatologist was able to convince me to make some changes to my hair care regimen.  One of the biggest immediate changes that I made was to stop getting relaxers and semi-permanent color on the same day.  Getting both services on the same day was a double whammy on the poor scalp and hair.  I just had to learn to live with a few gray strands.  Of course I continued to color my hair but just stopped getting the relaxer and color on the same day – LOL.  Gotta keep that youthful appearance going 😉

Seeing the improvement in the health of my hair that resulted from changing the chemical processes and several visits to my dermatologist convinced me that I really should consider letting the relaxer go and return to natural hair.  It has taken me about three years to finally make the decision to go natural.  I think that my scalp will be thanking me for that!  Healthy scalp equals healthy hair.

Let me say this – I do think that there are a few things that led to my hair issues, not just the chemical relaxers.  For me, I think stress and drastic changes in diet also contributed to my hair issues.  I would notice changes in my hair during particularly stressful periods in my life and when I did a low carb diet.  I am learning to deal with stress properly and hopefully will not try any extreme diets going forward.

Now that I’ve made the decision to go natural, my focus will be on the health of the hair and not the hair style.