For Colored Girls who Have Considered BCing When the Ponytail is Enough

Moni writes...

I started my transition to natural hair in August, the same time that I started law school. Any law student will tell you that the first year is no joke, and it was no different for me. That left me little to no time to do anything fancy with my hair. I knew nothing about co-washing or braid outs, so every few weeks I'd go to the Aveda salon and have them press it for me. In between, I'd wash it myself and then just pull it back in a ponytail. Whenever, I did it myself, it was always that barely detangled ponytail. For six months, that same damn ponytail. In February, I headed down to Nashville to visit my boyfriend for Spring Break. I decided to get my hair set in straw curls while I was there, since natural hair salons are a luxury that simply wasn't available in my midwestern college town. When arrived at the salon, the stylist pulled out that damn ponytail and simply said, "Oh no, honey. I can't put straw curls in that.” There was a section about the size of a fist where those limp, relaxed ends had broken away from my strong, healthy natural hair. Although I had noticed that my ponytail had been getting smaller, in all of the work and stress of law school I didn't realize that it was that bad! There was nothing left to do but cut all of the relaxed hair off. When I walked out of that salon holding my new head of natural hair, my proud boyfriend was the first to tell me that it was beautiful.