Here’s an example of one of the many silly conversations my husband and I have from time to time- this sort of gave me the topic/idea for this blog post. First of all, check out Exhibit A below- the infamous linsertorte-a popular German cake- Andre’s grandma makes the best version in all of Germany-trust! Oh, and she’s given me the recipe 
Me: I’m about to make a yummy green smoothie, would you like some?
Andre: Not if you’re going to put veggies in it.
Me: It’ll be so good, trust me, I’m mixing bananas, apple, some agave syrup, spinach and celery.
Andre: *guttural ‘ugh’ sound*
Me: It’ll be so yummy, why don’t you taste a little bit to see if you’ll like it.
Andre: well… I guess- nahh, ok, maybe a little- nahh, blechhh!!
Me: fine, you’ll regret it when 10 years from now, I’m looking all young and healthy and vibrant and energetic and you’re all-
Andre: My dear, I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s not going to happen if you’re juicing and still eating a whole linsertorte all by yourself.
Me: Hey, don’t judge me, I’m doing this step by step ok?
Exhibit A: This linsertorte is not meant to be resisted.
He just laughed at me y’all. We’ll see who’ll be having the last laugh 10 yrs. from now.
But anyway, the reason why ‘Step by step’ (and not just the song) got stuck in my head is because I receive messages via the blog and facebook, from ladies who want to go natural, but are unsure of themselves, and are feeling overwhelmed with all the info, youtube videos, facebook pages and blogs. They see so many fabulousness 
with the natural hair ‘movement’ – this is for lack of a better word btw- but it’s a lot to be bombarded with. From products, to styles, to techniques, to terminologies and acronyms etc etc. It can be a lot and I understand that. And that’s when the ‘I want to go natural but I don’t know what to do’ comes in. Don’t forget, learning all this ‘natural hair care stuff’ takes time, so be patient and take this journey step by step.
So- stop, take a deep breath and relax. Obviously, you won’t learn everything overnight, not unless you’re this guy, and even he had some pharmaceutical help. Cool concept for a movie btw, not that well executed, but still entertaining and Bradley Cooper was great in it.
But I digress, with all that being said:
1. You do have to research- a bit,lol. You don’t want to be like me, who needed about 3 tries before finally sticking to her natural hair journey. I know, it’s a shame, but it really was due to a lack of info. Thankfully, during the final round, I immersed myself in curlynikki and watched a few videos here and there but not enough to go all crazy-cos those youtube videos are addictive. I always suggest starting with a website like curlynikki because she has a bunch of blog posts on starting a natural hair journey, or putting together a regimen that I find really beneficial. There’s a lot of great info on there and she’s also quite funny. Her comment section is great, you learn a lot from other naturals who are happy to share tips that work for them. A great youtube source for me (esp. as a beginner) was Kimmaytube, she has lots of good hair advice as well, she’s someone I consider to be an awesome teacher and her hair growth is just wow. For style inspiration check out Napptural85 and Simplyounique. They all have fabulous hair now, but they also have their ‘back in the day’ videos on there,lol, and those are really inspiring as well.
2. Next, try to keep it simple. It’s important to build a regimen so that you have a plan to stick to in order to ‘get you in the groove’ of things, but keep it simple- again, you don’t want to be over whelmed. The basic steps here should be: cleanse,condition, moisturize/seal and style. Keep in mind that every step in the hair care regimen should add or maintain the hair’s bff aka MOISTURE. So start by chucking all those hair products that contain alcohol, parabens, mineral oil, and sulfates. They dry out the hair or prevent it from absorbing moisture, and are bad for your health so get rid of them now.
3. Speaking of hair products, take an interest in the ingredient listings on your hair products, it might seem like a pain in the beginning, but after you’ve gotten over the horrible flashbacks from chemistry class (or was it just me? ok then) you’ll love knowing what those crazy words on the jars and bottles mean. This helps a great deal in picking out products. You don’t want to waste money on just any product that looks or smells good or claims to be nothing short of ‘fantasticalness’ when it’s just a piece of crap with strawberry flavour.
4. Big Chop(BC) or Transition. For ladies with chemically straightened hair, that is for you to decide, they both have their pros and cons. I was not a good transitioner because I used heat to blend in the two textures one too many times and I will not suggest it. Finally cutting off my hair after a year of transitioning was such a huge relief, even though I hadn’t had the guts before to chop off my hair into a teeny weenie afro (TWA).
5. Love your OWN hair. It’s great to admire other people’s hair, because let’s face it, natural hair is beautiful and so versatile, but no matter what your curl pattern is, it’s yours and yours to cherish. Yes Tracee Ellis Ross’ big curls are beautiful, but so are yours, no matter how it looks like, so love them, because that’s what ‘going natural’ is all about. We all have beautiful hair, from Tracee, to Kimmaytube, to Taren916 to Ani to me-hahaa Different heads of hair and they’re all beautiful. Join me in saying it loud and proud- I love my hair:
Then I remembered my MAC Ruby Woo 
