relief is all I've felt since i started dreading my hair. i actually feel a weight lifted off my shoulders. i've done just about every conceivable thing to my poor head. my dad is black and my mom's white. i have my dad's hair.. mostly - parts of it are really tight curls, some of it is straight, some is just frizzy, it's really all over the place - but i was raised by my mom and she didn't know what the heck to do with my hair. so it's been straightened, relaxed, rollers, flat-ironed, blow dried, dyed, i've rocked a fro, i've chopped it all off and it spent about 5 years braided. it's been burnt, fried and destroyed and took my scalp along with it.

so i'm one of those people that does something crazy to their hair when something crazy happens in life. i think i find it somewhat therapeutic to make such a change. i have a 10 year old daughter and an 8 week old son. the last time i chopped all my hair off was after my daughter was born. i took all my braids out and was left with a GIANT mane of hair that hadn't seen any relaxing in 5 years. there was just no way i could deal with it at the time, so i stood in front of the mirror and cut it all off. all of it. as close as i could get without being bald. so here i am 10 years later and i just had this beautiful little boy and it's about that time. just don't want to deal with hair. too time consuming, too expensive, too DAMAGING!! so i was faced with the choice of either cutting it all off again or dreading it. obviously dreads won

i'm a week in right now and i'm loving it. my scalp is happy, my hair is soft and my head is a lot healthier. i've discovered that conditioner is horrible! lol, at least my head thought so - it feels much better without it. i have A LOT of hair and it's THICK. so when i started, i separated it with those tiny little hair bands. i did that because i have so much hair, i know i'd have ended up with 3 giant congos on my head. then i took them out 1 by 1 while doing a little twist & rip to keep them separated at the roots. i've given it a good wash once since i began with neutrogena and that's it! i'm leaving the rest up to my hair to do as it will.

as far as reactions from people, i find those closest to me are most opposed. it's interesting.. anyway, so begins my dread journey. thanks for reading! and by the by, i love this site, i'm lazy but i'm going to try to keep updating about my journey. i think it'll definitely be cool to look back on some day ^_^