When I was a little girl my mother never told me I had good hair, instead she chopped it all off as a way to make it easier to maintain.  She didn’t have to worry about it but that is all I did, worry.

If I would have been told I had good hair, maybe I wouldn’t have grown up with such a complex about who I was and what I looked like.  From the time I can remember I was always self conscience about my hair and ultimately who I was.  I wasn’t proud but instead I was ashamed.  Ashamed that I looked like a boy, ashamed that my hair didn’t flow to and fro, ashamed that I couldn’t style it, make it lay down or any of the styles I saw the children around me doing but at some point I wouldn’t let her cut it anymore.  Instead I tried  letting it grow but to my dismay it wouldn’t  grow very much.  Most of my life the extent of my hair growth was at best shoulder length and that was with the “aide” of straightening combs and later on perms. I even tried the Scurl, sad but true. It wasn’t until years after I gave birth to my son, which was a huge turning point in my

life.  Prior to his birth I read many books on how to prepare my body,  it was a goal of mine to bring him into the world as healthy as I could.  With the knowledge I gained and the persistence of his father stating how he wanted to lock his hair, I started thinking about it myself.  My grandmother had always had dreadlocks, well as far back as my memory allows me to recall and so it wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary.  I was always in awe of the length at which her natural hair had grown and I knew deep down inside of me that mine could grow to at least past my shoulders, which was at that time my goal.

On the 1st day in January of 2006, I made the decision to do it!  I had already stopped using perms and was wearing my hair naturally but as many of you know, if you have curly hair and/or African genes your natural hair appears to be much shorter than it’s true length, so I still had not reached my “past shoulder length goal” even when I tugged on it to stretch it out.  It was around this time that I took being healthy to the next level, researching ingredients, reading and innerstanding labels, throwing out all the crap that sat under the bathroom sink, you know the so called beauty products and I started fresh, naturally.  As I was just starting my journey I didn’t know about the depths of ingredients as I do today but I knew that less was better.

Today, February 7, 2015  I couldn’t be happier or more proud of my hair journey.  The last  time I measured the length of my locs they were about 23 inches long!!! That’s
right, they land right above my hips!  Never in a million years did I think MY hair would grow this long and all naturally at that.  I don’t put a single chemical, rarely any heat, never any dyes and only products that I have created via MyCoCreations.  My favorite products are Earthy Essentials Shampoo, which rinses squeaky clean and doesn’t leave a residue, our Island Vibez Conditioner which leaves my locs soft and silky while moisturizing my scalp and our White Chocolate Body Butter which I apply in between washes to add some moisture, vitamins and an amazing aroma.  Every once in awhile I will do a vinegar rinse to balance the pH and give a little extra cleanse to them and finally I use our Whipped Hair Kreme/Loc Jam from time to time where I apply to the ends of my locs where it tends to get a little dry.

So, ladies and men please take the time to let your children know that they have good hair, they just need to learn to care for it by eating properly and not trying to force it to be something it’s not, whether that be through coloring, styling, frequent cutting, heat application and/or chemical application.  Something I recently  learned from listening to Sherrice Sledge, certified herbalist via this (blog talk radio interview) is that when you cut your hair often you are training it to not to grow.  It makes so much sense to me why I had challenges with my hair as a youth and if I knew then what I know now, I would probably be tripping over my naturally lovely hair!

Always Keeping it Natural (AKIN)!

 ~Arminda