June 5, 2010 – Almost 3 months after my very last perm. One side still curled when wet, the other side… not so much!

July 11, 2011 – 4 months into my natural hair journey. A twist out on mostly permed hair. Looking back, it lays much flatter than a twist out on my natural hair.

August 2010 – 5 months into my natural hair journey. This was a twistout again. The ends are still so straight.

September 12, 2010- 6 months of new growth, but considering how long my hair is, it’ll still take forever to fully grow out.

September 25, 2010 – 6 months of new growth on wet hair.

October 24, 2010 – 7 months of new growth on wet hair.

November 14, 2010 – 8 months of new growth. This was a nice twist-out and my hair looks pretty healthy.

December 12, 2010 – 9 months of new growth on wet hair.

December 13, 2010 – I blowdryed my hair. I was tired of wearing a ponytail so I put my hair down and took some pics. Reminiscing on my straight days.

December 21, 2010 – 9 months into the natural hair journey. I straightened my hair to trim it.

December 21, 2010 – Then I twisted it up for the night. I like my twists.

February 6, 2011 – 11 months of new growth on wet hair.

February 6, 2011 – 11 months of new growth on wet hair. I stretched it up to show the difference in thickness as well as the amount of new growth compared to the amount of perm.

February 18, 2011 – My 3C curls are coming in nicely. Wish I had more of it, but one day I will.

March 14, 2011 – Officially at the 1 year mark. I honestly expected it to take 2 full years to grow out my perm, but after examining my hair at the 1 year mark I realized it would take MUCH longer. I can’t lie, I was disappointed.

I wasn’t able to create the post I wanted to for tonight because it requires gathering a lot of pics, but perhaps tomorrow.

It’s hard trying to recap the last year of my journey, when there’s so much that’s happening now that I’d like to write about.

I think there’s a point where u feel so compelled to do the big chop (BC) just to rid yourself of what’s left of the perm. I think I’ve reached that point. The only thing holding me back is that I’m scared to death of having short hair.

My hair has been long all my life. Well… since I was 2 (My hair didn’t actually start growing until I was about 2). There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having short hair. I actually think I would look nice with short hair. I’ve just never had short hair, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I need the comfort of my emergency ponytail for the bad hair days (and there’s been many of them). It’s too much change. I’d be getting used to natural hair AND short hair. Yikes!

Although it’s very tempting at times, I’m going to try to work with my hair at this length for as long as I can. I’ll continue to trim my hair regularly, but just a little more often than if my hair was permed. I’m hoping slow and steady really does win the race.