Introducing... BALDILOCKS!!!!

Well well well, after many requests from Twitter, Facebook and various hair forums, I've finally decided to create a blog to document my hair journey, literally from scratch.  In order to put everything in perspective, allow me to give you a little history of me and my hair.

• I was born with a head of fine, curly hair that was too silky to accommodate any accessories, yet my mother still managed to find 3 strands to put in a tiny ribbon.

• Age 7/8 - I got my first curly perm.  I also got to sleep in a shower cap that made crunchy noises every time I moved and came off in the night, leaving my pillowcase greasy and practically see-through.

• Age 10 - First relaxer in Jamaica.  My dad had a fit when he saw it.

• Age 14-6 - Various relaxers, cuts and colours - y'know, the general amount of abuse teenage girls put their hair through.

• Age 17 - Hair dyed blonde and relaxed in the SAME WEEK.  It fell out.  I vowed NEVER to use the creamy crack EVER again.

• Age 18 - Relaxed my hair

• Age 20 - Cut off all my relaxed ends and said goodbye to relaxers FOREVER!

• Age 24 - Started locs:

Day 1

3 months

1 year

2 years

• At 27 I had my first child and I suffered post-partum hair loss, so I made the decision to cut my locs. 

The day I cut my locs.  I look real happy.

My big chop!

My first proper puff

Freshly washed 'wash & go' style

• At 28 I decided to loc again, but then after I had my second child, I suffered hair loss again, but much more severely.  I was determined to hold onto my locs - I did NOT want to cut them again.

• 29 years old and my hair is still falling out - especially at the front and around the edges.  And to top it all off, my 5 month old son grabs a handful of locs at the front and pulls them clean out of my head.  So.......

          On Thursday 3rd March 2011, I shaved my hair off completely:

Baldilocks!!!

So, that was my literal 'start from scratch'.  I have to admit, it felt SO liberating shaving it all off!  I was starting to get really depressed about the hair loss and fed up with trying to hide it all the time.  I've never really been too hair obsessed - I'm not really a fan of long hair unless it's extensions or a wig.  I realised that this new look was going to be quite a shock for some people.  I didn't tell anyone I was going to do it because I know I would have been bombarded with people trying to talk me out of it.  I didn't even tell my husband! Maybe I should have given him a little warning - he came in from work to find me in front of the mirror with his clippers in my hand - he thought I'd gone completely bonkers!  My mother didn't like it.  The words were "Hmmm, it takes some getting used to." coupled with her complete lack of eye contact told me straight away that she just wanted to cry!


So, what does one do whilst waiting for one's hair to grow back?  The answer: wear a lace wig of course!

Deep wave 16" lace front wig

There is NO need for a lace wig to look like something out of Planet of the Apes!

Three weeks on from my big shave, I finally had something to work with.  My edges were still very thin, so I just filled in the gaps very lightly with a little eye liner:

So that's me so far!  I am not afraid to say that I don't think I look like I hoped I'd look - personally I think I need to lose more weight in order to make a really short crop look good.  However, this is not going to be my permanent style.  I intend to keep it short, but my emphasis for the time being will be on nurturing my hair back to health.