1. What's your name and where are you from? 

Liss (C. Lovely) from PA. 

2. What is your hair type?

​​Type 4 hair.

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I started going natural the summer before my freshman year of college. 

This was the perfect opportunity for me to start fresh, learn about myself, and start loving myself the way God created me. I wanted long healthy hair and I was so inspired by watching YouTube videos of people sharing their hair journeys. Although some people were unsupportive of my decision, I didn't care because in the long run my opinion was the only one that mattered and I was going natural regardless. 

Also, I thought if I can't even love my own hair, how will I expect my future daughter to do the same...I have to set a good example:)

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

It was hard for me to be patient. I got frustrated a lot during the transitioning phase because it was hard dealing with my 2 hair textures (natural roots and permed ends). It made it difficult to detangle and challenging to style. I just wanted my hair to grow fast!

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

• Wash, deep condition, and moisturize using the L.O.C. method once a week
• Cowash if my hair is really dry throughout the week
• Moisturize every couple of days by spritzing my hair with water at night before I go to bed
• Apply black castor oil to my edges 

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

I don't really do anything. I just style my hair for the day if it's not already in a protective style. 

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

• Spray my hair lightly with water
• Apply black castor oil to my edges (apply it to hair strands if needed)
• Tie my hair with a satin scarf

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 
​
Very rarely. I Straighten my hair once a year and occasionally blow dry. 

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

My name is Raquel Robertson. I am born in Dallas, TX. Raised in Denver, CO and currently living in New Orleans, LA.

2. What is your hair type?

​I have a few different hair types. Wavy in the front which is 3b and back is more 3c.

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I went natural about 3-4 years ago. My transition started when I saw a photo of this ladies hair that was so full and curly. In my mind I thought, "yessss, I want my hair like that." I also had a friend that used a lot of natural products on her hair and she introduced me to how she washed her hair and I loved it. 

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The most challenging about going natural was having patience while transitioning. Mainly because I wanted my curls to look a certain way.

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

MY weekly regimen consist of washing my hair at the beginning of the week then wear a style for the whole week. Through out the week I moisturize my hair by spritzing it with water and apply moisturizer and sealant if I need it. 

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

In the morning I usually just style my hair for the day.

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

At night I spritz and moisturize then I wrap it up for then night using a satin scarf or bonnet.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 
​
​I use heat on my hair occasionally. Once of twice a year I straighten my hair. During this time it’s not a lot of heat just enough to straighten it.

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

My name is Ashly Rodriguez. I'm from Boston, Ma.

2. What is your hair type?

​My hair type is a mix of 3c/4a. In the back of my head my hair is 4a and as you get closer to the front it is more of a 3c. 

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I went natural June of 2014. I had the choice of either relaxing my hair again after a year of not getting one or just cutting off the relaxed ends and going natural. I decided to cut off the ends.

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The most challenging thing was letting go of the flat iron for over a year to let my natural hair be great. That break gave me a chance to get my curls healthier again and get rid of my heat damage that I dealt with. Also learning ways to style my hair was also a challenge at first but now I love being able to explore new styles to try on my hair.

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

Each week I Cowash or shampoo my hair, then I deep condition my hair. I always let the deep conditioner sit in my hair for about an hour before I rinse it out. I really just listen to my hair and what it needs. If one week it's dry, I'll add a hot oil treatment in the mix or If I need to give my hair a little TLC after a few weeks of styling, I will add a protein treatment. 

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

About 3 days of the week I massage Jamaican Black Castor Oil on my scalp  in the morning. If I feel that I need to, I will moisturize my hair in the morning with a mix of leave in conditioner and oil.

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

I just make sure my hair is protected each night before I go to bed. I always put my hair into a couple pineapples when my hair is out, and cover it with a Bonnet.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 
​
​I haven't in some time. I've given my hair a major break for the past year and a half. But I do plan on using it for some styles in the future. 

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

Alicia Gettys. Birmingham Alabama

2. What is your hair type?

Don’t really know my hair type. I care more about my hair being healthy than trying to classify my curls has one type

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

Transitioned in 2013. Fully natural in 2013. There wasn’t a monumental thing or an epiphany. I use to wear my straight hair in lots of curly hairstyles. Saw that in between perms, my curl pattern was something I liked, so I went for it. 

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

Dealing with the humidity in the South during the spring and summer months. Moisturizing is key. I would find myself moisturizing my hair daily just to make sure. Winter also plays heavily on hair moisture but it doesn’t get that cold down here. 

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

Oil treatment (4 hours), Shampoo, Deep Condition (8 hrs), Apply product, wear bun overnight and into the next day (hair is still wet). Wash and go’s can last 4-5 days depending on weather and my workout routine for that week. 

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

Dampen hair with water, apply EcoStyler to curls, pull back into low pineapple, get ready for work, take down and shake 

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

Nothing much. Pull up into pineapple and either put on Satin cap or sleep on satin pillow (most of the time it’s the pillow)

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 
​
I protective style with perm/flexi rods 5-6 times a year (use low heat). To straighten my hair, I use large rollers for a roller set (med heat) and hit the roots if needed. I will straighten my hair 3-4 times a years. Always apply a protein treatment before straightening my hair. 

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

My name is Leslie Jerome, Instagram name is neptunesquest. I am from Long Island, New York.

2. What is your hair type?

My hair type is 3c/4a.

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I had terrible heat damage so I transitioned and big chopped on June 2014.

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The most challenging thing about going natural for me, is preserving hairstyles. (Perm rods, braidouts etc.)

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

I deep condition weekly with my homemade avocado deep condish and cowash it out, and do the LOC method and style my hair.

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

My morning regimen is I remove my satin scarf/ bonnet and fluff my fro 

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

My nighttime regimen if I'm wearing a Wash&Go I usually band my hair at night so I can keep my fro stretched.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 
​
​No I do not but I plan on straightening my hair for my 3 year anniversary.

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

Hey you! Yeah, YOU! My name is Linda Hurd and my nickname is Leeny Lynn. I am from the West Bank of New Orleans, Louisiana.

2. What is your hair type?

​I am mainly a type 4 hair type with a sight mixture of 3b and 3c in the front of my crown.​

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I actually went back to natural when I was in high school as a junior. I did it because growing up I always had natural hair and peer-pressure made me go to a hair salon to get a relaxer. I was tired of being bullied and called names. I realized that after relaxing my natural hair in eighth grade that people were going to bully me regardless if my hair was relaxed or natural. I started accepting myself for who I was and the young woman I was becoming. I transitioned to natural for 6 months and did a big chop. I never looked back and embraced my natural.

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The most challenging thing about going natural was finding products and hair styles that worked for me.

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

My weekly regimen is pretty solid whenever I rock my wash n gos.

Oil scalp and do scalp massages Monday through Wednesday. Wednesdays nights I mainly detangle and pre-poo my hair for Thursdays. Thursday is my mid-week wash and re-style. Sunday I shampoo and deep conditioned my hair and style. Then I repeat the same.

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

My morning regimen is me simply taking my hair out from under a bonnet or scarf and I shake it out. I pick my roots and spray a little oil mist on my hair and I’m out the door.

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

My daily night regimen mainly consists of spraying a water, leave in conditioner, and oil mixture on my hair before hopping in the shower. I place a shopping bag on my head to lock in the moisture and it creates the greenhouse effect for my hair. The steam from the shower makes my spray concoction come to life and makes my hair very soft and hydrated. I oil my scalp just a little bit and place on my scarf and bada boom! My hair is ready to play in the morning!

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 

Yes, I use heat on my hair to dry my curls after a wash n go. I use heat at least three-five times a month to stretch out my roots too.​

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

My name is Evani Hawkins and I am from Doylestown, PA in the US.

2. What is your hair type?

I believe I have 3c/4a and some 4b textures. But I don’t really like to hair type because it doesn’t give you any valuable information. I have normal to fine hair (fine hair along the sides of my head near my ears) and also normal to low porosity (finer hair has lowest porosity). 

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I big chopped February 29, 2016 after transitioning for 1 year. I decided to go natural because after 4 years of texlaxing it was hard to maintain a consistent texture, because my hair naturally has many different textures. I found myself wanting either bone straight relaxed hair or natural hair, and I picked natural. 

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The constant styling, and how time consuming it was at first, the more you do it the better/faster you’ll be, but I also think ease comes with length and knowing which products work for you.

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

Wash with ACV and shampoo
Deep condition with a hair masque (sit under dryer for 30 min)
Moisturize with aloe vera juice, oil with coconut oil, and seal with styling crème (LOC method)
Style based on however I am feeling that day or what events I have coming up that week J
*Repeat every week*

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

Nothing, I usually take my bonnet and/or scarf off use bobby pins, or coordinating hair accessories and go.

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

Depends on the style, but usually nothing, I put my bonnet and/or scarf on (scarf for my edges) and go to sleep, or I use my satin pillow case if I had a late night. Ill add coconut oil if my scalp feels dry whenever necessary.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 

Nope!

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

Kilsi Rodriguez. I was born and raised in New York City.  

2. What is your hair type?

My hair type is a mixture of 3C & 4A but leaning more towards 4A

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I've had an up and down journey with my decision to go natural. I first decided to go natural at the end of sophomore year in college because I went away to school and it was to expensive to get a relaxer where I went to school. Even though I stopped relaxing my hair in college I still straightened it every week.

​The summer after graduation I started to enjoy my curls so I decided to wear them. I went on vacation to Dominican Republic and they put something in my hair that took all my curls away and made my hair fall out. So when I got back I cut my hair into a bob. I no longer relaxed my hair, but continued to straighten it every week. Because my hair was "natural" my hair would get frizzy, so I decided to do a Brazilian straightener. Once again, my hair wasn't natural anymore. One day, I was looking at my hair and started to cry because I remembered I had curls and was actually natural. So I decided to stop doing anything to my hair and go back to how it was after I graduated from college. I transitioned for about 2.5 years and last year I did my official big chop. I haven't looked back since

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The most challenging part is that I am Latina and as a latina, specifically Dominican, my type of hair is not viewed as beautiful. I do not have the "typical" Spanish girl hair that everyone associates latinas with. So getting past that was very difficult. Explaining to my family that my kinky hair was actually something good was difficult because I didn't believe it either. As a kinky haired latina you suffer such an identity crisis and you really have to love yourself and your hair before anyone else can love it too. I did a lot of soul searching after my big chop because moving forward I would have to stand up for my hair and I needed to make sure I was ready to do that.

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

Weekly, I do a style on Sunday. It may be a twistout, braidout, perm rods, etc. and I'll try to maintain it over the week. When it starts to frizzy up I get creative. I try to only wash my hair once a week. So I co-wash one week, and shampoo wash the next week. I also, deep condition weekly.

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

Let's my hair down a either 1. fluff or 2. create a style

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

Tie my hair unto 6 ponytails, and sleep with a satin bonnet or on my satin pillow.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 

​No direct heat. The heat I use is from my hair dryer when I do perm rods and its always on low.

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

My name's Maiya. I'm from Connecticut.

2. What is your hair type?

​​I have Type 4 hair. 4a, 4b, and 4c. Kinky, curly, coiled. Lol definitely difficult to deal with at times.

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

I decided to do the big chop on September 12th, 2014. It'll be three years this year. I'm so proud of myself. What made me go natural? I became impatient with trying to find hairstyles and haircuts that fit me. It was a lot to deal with and I honestly thought it was more work than being natural. So I told my mother I wanted to cut all of my hair off. Although she didn’t take me seriously. I continued to push the thought and it happened. My older sister went with me to a barbershop. That day changed my life.

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

The most challenging thing about going natural is having patience. I'm impatient as impatient gets. Learning that the process doesn't happen overnight and disciplining myself to not cut my hair in any way really taught me about growth. Not only hair growth but self-growth. I never had a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be able to grow my hair back. Since I was so dedicated to having beautiful curls, doubt never crossed my mind. Not knowing what would be ahead of me, I really didn't care because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this.

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

Wow um, my weekly hair regimen….hm, that's hard. I sleep on a satin pillow case always. It really helps because sometimes I'm super lazy and I don't feel like putting my hair up. Depending on how I feel, I'll wash my hair every two weeks (with conditioner/deep conditioner). I shampoo my hair every 3-6 months. A majority of times, I wash my hair at the end of every month. Everyone's hair care is different. I, personally, don't have to wash my hair as much (blessings). Lol, but when I do decide to wash my hair, I wash with a homemade avocado hair mask. That includes honey, and as many oils as you like. My favorite oils to use are Tea Tree Oil, Moroccan Oil, Avocado Oil, Almond Oil, Olive Oil, Jamaican Black Castor Oil, Carrot Oil, Aloe Vera Oil, Macadamia Oil, Amla Oil (Sally's Beauty Supply sells most of these oils for about $3-5). Hot Oil Treatments are a life saver. I do them every week. I suggest all of my curly gals and guys to do the same. You'll see amazing results.

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

My daily morning regimen depends on what I have to do that day. So if I'm having a chill day at home, I'll leave my hair up in a pineapple do or two buns. Just to keep it out of my face. If I have to be somewhere whether it be an event or a party or I'm going out with friends, I usually leave my hair out. I don't moisturize my hair EVERY day. I moisturize whenever my hair is dry and brittle or hard to manage. That's every 2-4 days. Plus, always having your hands in your hair causes split ends and breakage, so it's good to just let it be whenever you don't have anything important to do.

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

I don't have a special night time regimen. I just have to make sure my hair is out of my face. Since my forehead is acne prone. And because I use a lot of different oils in my hair, that shows, so I wash my face twice a day to keep away dirt and oil. If I'm bored, I'll experiment with my hair. Like trying different hairstyles I picked up from Natural Hair Youtubers.

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 
​
​I don’t use heat often. Only when I want to do a blowout. That's rare. I haven't used heat in over a year. Which is such an accomplishment for me because before going natural I was addicted to using heat on my hair. I love my curls too much to ruin them. Heat isn't bad at all. Just make sure you don't use it a lot.

1. What's your name and where are you from? 

Hello! I'm Cherise from a small city in Pennsylvania. 

2. What is your hair type?

​I believe my hair type most closely matches a 3C curls type with some 4A curls. I've noticed since big chopping my curls have tightened up a bit.

3. When did you go natural and what made you do it? 

The very first time I went natural was in high school. I had been relaxing my hair for years and noticed a ton of breakage. This, mixed with stylists who felt I needed a perm every 4-6 weeks, didn't help and I lost a ton of length. So I transitioned. By senior year I was completely natural and had most of my length back. I decided to go into the military after high school and relaxed my hair. I was worried about being able to care of my natural hair while in training. My worries were simply that; I actually wore braids and took care of my hair no differently than when my hair was natural. Fast forward a few years and I was natural again but wanted a change. So I got a short, relaxed, cut. The maintenance on this cut proved to be too much so I again transitioned for the final time. My hair was finally healthy, long, and very curly. Of course I had to ruin it! Spring of 2015 I decided to get an ombré. I went to a professional and thought my curls would be fine. Unfortunately, the lightened ends straightened out my curls and it was a mess! I tried everything to get my curls back, to no avail. July 2, 2015 I decided to big chop and rocked a tapered cut until it grew back out. Now I'm about halfway to my original length!

4. What was the most challenging thing about going natural? 

Definitely finding the right products. First, there weren't very many natural hair products in the market. This made it hard, and costly, to try products and find what works. I also found styling difficult. In high school I rocked Afro puffs because it was the simplest thing I could do. I also dealt with being "different" since natural wasn't a big thing in 2003-2007. Most of my peers wore relaxers and weaves. I did occasionally straighten my hair and loved the results. Without the relaxer my hair had more bounce and my wrap was much thicker. 

5. What is your weekly regimen? 

Currently, on Sundays, I deep condition with Berry Curly Naturals Berry Mint Deep Conditioner. I leave this on for about thirty minutes to an hour with a self heating cap. Then I wash with As I Am Naturally Coconut CoWash. Lately I've been loving separated chunky curls. I use the LOC method with the Berry Curly Naturals Line. First I use the Strawberry Pineapple Leave In on a medium sized section of hair. Then I use the Wild Berry Growth Oil and the Berry Bliss Butter. I finger curl the section and move on. I'll let it air dry for the rest of the day then sleep with a bonnet at night. In the morning I add a little bit of the Wild Berry Growth Oil to separate the curls. I find this combination gives me a ton of moisture and hold. 

6. What is your daily morning regimen? 

I shower in the morning to allow the steam to loosen my curls/style. Then I add a little oil to fluff with my hands. If needed I'll also use a pick to fluff it out. The bigger, the better! 

7. What is your daily night time regimen? 

At night, I just sleep in a bonnet and on a silk pillow. For now, I don't need to retwist/braid. When my hair was much longer, if my hair was too frizzy I would wet it down and rebraid/twist it. Pretty simple! 

8. Do you use heat on your hair at all? 

​Since big chopping I've straightened my hair twice in the last year. I did this because I needed a trim and mini chop to even out my grow out from the tapered cut. When the weather cools down I'll probably straighten again for another trim and length check. I typically don't straighten in the summer because if the heat.