“I started running and lost 10 lbs, but I had a relaxer. I wanted to figure something out because exercising and having a relaxer wasn’t going to work…”
Arkansas, Little Rock, Women

“I was a nutrition major in college, so I did a dietetic internship with a local medical school one summer. There were 12 of us and only two people of color. The other women in the program women were runners and really focused on exercise which inspired me to get into running as well. I started running and lost 10 lbs, but I had a relaxer. I wanted to figure something out because exercising and having a relaxer wasn’t going to work. I’d gotten to the point where I would work and look good body wise, but my hair always looked a mess. At that point, I realized that I wanted to go natural and did a ton of research on the process of transitioning. I expected to literally just wake up, shake my hair and go. To be honest, I thought that it was going to be easier but it was nothing like that at all.”

“I transitioned to natural in my early to mid-50’s…”
Arkansas, Hot Springs, Women

 

“I transitioned to natural in my early to mid-50’s. At the time, my daughter encouraged me to consider going natural. I went natural because my hair was shedding really, really bad so I knew that I needed a change. I honestly think that my hair was shedding because of stress and the chemicals from the relaxers. My mother had thin hair at the crown and other females on my mothers side had thin hair as well so I knew that I didn’t want to lose any additional hair.

Being natural has been great. My hair turned around and has stopped shedding outside of the normal daily shedding. At work, everyone wanted to touch my hair and that’s a little irritating, but the overall support of my new look has been very positive. My husband has even supported the transition to natural hair because he often tells me not to ever consider going back to the relaxers.”

“I consider myself a hair coach…”
Arkansas, Blooming Entrepreneurs, Little Rock, Women, Women Owned Businesses

“I’ve been a hair stylist for 10 years and natural for several. At the time, I helped my clients transition from relaxed to natural and if I had clients who didn’t want to go natural they found someone else to do their hair. I see myself as a hair coach because sometimes women need a little help learning to love their hair. My clients are in all types of professions. For example, my eye doctor wears her hair natural, there’s a lawyer as well as a banker. One client did mention that her job wanted her to have a more professional look and at times all that could mean is a nice trim.”