If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that I have been natural for quite some time. 7 years to be exact! Over the course of my adult life, I’ve had a couple of different hairstyles and colors. I’ve experimented with weaves, wigs, ponytails, and braids. I decided to take you on a trip down memory lane and highlight my favorite hairstyles from the past 7 years! Let me know which is your fav!
#5 Bob – Circa 2013
This was the first time I had ever had a hair cut outside of getting my ends trimmed occasionally. I remember riding the bus with my good friend Ashley and finding this small hair salon in our college town. I decided to get this haircut right after graduation. I wanted to get rid of my perm and change up my look, a haircut seemed like the best way to kill two birds with one stone! I loved the cut but it was short-lived. My main goal was growing out my perm so I let it grow out and never got it cut again. Looking back, I should’ve rocked this for at least a year but I’m happy I was brave enough to do it at all! At the time, my hair was permed and a lot thinner than it is now. I wonder what this style would look like on me now!
#4 TWA aka Teeny Weenie Afro – Circa 2014
So after my bob grew out for about 6 months, and my natural roots started to come in, I got scissor happy. Mind you, this was during the ‘natural hair movement’. If you remember anything about that time, the Big Chop was the thing to do. I was wrapped up in the hype on youtube so I decided, against the advice of my mother, to chop it off! I love this style because it was brave. This is the shortest my hair has ever been. It forced me to learn about my hair and curl pattern quickly. It also forced me to stop relying on my hair to feel beautiful. If I could change anything about it, I would have gone to a salon and allowed a professional to do it. It took me forever to find and snip all of the random straight ends out of my afro.
#3 Tapered Cut – Circa 2018
This was fun, and again, a short-lived time! I don’t remember what inspired me to get this cut. It might have been Kendra Kensay, one of the Youtubers who changed my life early on. I always wanted a short, trendy, haircut but I thought I needed to have a perm in order to achieve this. Well, Kendra gave me a new perspective. I loved this cut and probably would’ve kept it up had I not gotten pregnant and moved to Arizona a few months after getting it. The stress of the move and not being near a reliable stylist lead to me growing it out.
#2 In between fro – Circa 2015
This is the length I reached after growing out my TWA for a year or two. Every time I look back at these pictures I just love my hair! Something about this length just really complimented my face, because no matter what it just always looked so full and beautiful! I remember how quick and easy it was to twist because the length was long but not too long. At times I got frustrated with the tapered cut because the back was so short that my twists would sometimes unravel. I never had that issue with this length! Another thing I appreciated about this length is that it is right before I hit the awkward stage. Unfortunately, I stayed in the awkward hair growth stage for quite a while!
#1 Present day fro – 2020!
My afro is for sure in my top 3 of the best things to happen to me in 2020. My second pregnancy and the hormones definitely did a number on my hair. I might have lost edges due to postpartum shedding but the length retention from that pregnancy hair growth is amazing! This is the longest my hair has been, probably since childhood and I’m loving it.
I’ve had it straightened once at this length and I was really impressed. My hair is as long as the weave I used to wear! Wearing it in an afro is even better, now that I’ve changed up my styling methods. Before, I could never get my hair to hang down or show its true length due to shrinkage. But now I’m using bigger twists when styling and using the blow dryer to stretch my roots. This is a method I picked up from one of the girls on my youtube list, Yolanda Renee.
I’ve had a lot more styles in between these but some styles or hair eras stick out more than others. What is your favorite on this list? Do you have a hair era of your own that you love above the rest? Let me know in the comments below!
