I’m starting my first blog post by sharing my story and finding my purpose with you. I’m a huge fan of natural hair and I used to create natural hair content. It was my goal to educate and inspire others to love their natural hair. I was getting to know my hair and learning how to take care of it while being an inspiration. Taking part in the natural hair movement was everything to me. I was one of those girls that liked to say “I would NEVER wear wigs!”. Little did I know that time was going to teach me otherwise.
My story and finding my purpose wasn’t that easy for me. I found out the hard way to never say never. You just don’t know what challenges the future has for you and that’s one thing I’ve learned for sure. The biggest nay-sayer to wigs ‘me’ is walking around as a wig ambassador nowadays and I’m creating content around wigs.
While you’re wondering what happened to me, I have to admit that I still don’t know.
Wait. . . . what?
Yes, I don’t know what happened to me.
The fact is that my natural hair started to fall out. It happened periodically and out of the blue (that’s how it felt to me).
A few years ago I started to see tiny build-up patches around my hairline. I don’t remember what the doctor said it was, but she prescribed me a special Keto shampoo. I had to wash my hair three to four times a week. This was a hard task for me because washing my kinky curly hair ain’t easy, and its a long process.
Why was this happening to me?
I tried my best to follow my doctor’s advice for using the shampoo. But I noticed that the build-up patches started to spread on my head. A sign for me that the shampoo didn’t work. My hair kept on falling off and thinning out and this made me depressed. The idea of not being able to create natural hair content anymore got me more stressed out.
I wanted to be an inspiration with my natural hair so badly and then this happened. I couldn’t understand why this was happening to me. Back then I still forced myself to create natural hair content while dealing with this, hoping that it’ll stop.
Medical examination
I freaked out more when family members and friends noticed my unhealthy looking hair. They would ask me why my hair looked so thin and broken. They’d also ask why it looked like my hair wasn’t growing. I felt ashamed and this pushed me further into depression.
In the meantime, I went through two separate medical examinations because of some lumps I discovered in my breast. These lumps got tested and thank God they were not harmful, and they’re not related to my hair loss condition. I experienced this period as quite intense and draining. I’ve decided to give this medical research a rest or until I’m ready again.
Allergies
I’m dealing with hair loss that’s still a medical mystery.
So far I’ve noticed that I’m allergic to products that people rave about, like Shea Butter. Yes, Shea Butter, can you imagine, because I couldn’t believe it.
The African Black soap that has Shea Butter as a main ingredient burns my face and scalp.
It leaves tiny burned patches on my scalp. It made me wonder if that caused the patches that I discovered a few years ago on my scalp. Besides, those burned patches I also had extreme hair loss after a few days. Products with Shea Butter as a main ingredient would break my hair too.
Another product my hair doesn’t tolerate is Castor oil. Castor oil was the other product I grabbed onto. I hoped that it would thicken and grow out my hair because it’s supposed to do wonders for hair, right?
Not for me, it causes more hair loss, and my hair breaks and sheds like crazy. That was a big disappointment to deal with another natural hair setback again. At this point, I stopped looking for products that could ‘save’ me from my hair loss condition.
The solution
As unhappy and depressed as I was, I still had that simmering love for styling my hair. Leaving my hair alone as much as possible reduced my hair loss a little.
I knew my hair couldn’t handle any form of stress without breaking but I started to miss creating content. Styling and trying out different hairstyles with my natural hair, my passion is what I wanted to do again.
But at the same time, I had to put my natural hair through the least amount of stress. That question started to boil in my mind. I started to think out loud and I asked and looked for a sign several times.
That’s when I notice it . . . .
I saw it everywhere; at college, on my social media feed, at work, and even my friends wore it.
Was this the answer to my question?
Wigs?
But, I would never wear wigs. . . . and yet, this was the perfect solution for me. I could still style and try different hairstyles and at the same time, it was also possible to leave my natural hair alone.
So, I stepped over that (I would never wear wigs) mindset and decided to give wigs a try.
A new experience
Entering the world of wigs was a whole new experience. I realized that my passion for hair evolved into a whole other direction than I had planned. I had more fun than ever, yay!
By simply opening myself up to other options like changing that “I would NEVER wear wigs” mindset.
I realized that we sometimes block our blessings. Holding on to a certain mindset sometimes creates a tunnel vision that works against us.
People say it, but I’ve experienced it.
I’ve learned to never say never. You just don’t know what might happen. The one thing I never wanted to do brings me so much joy now. It pulled me out of my depression.
I’m still dealing with natural hair loss but It’s not taking away my happiness. It’s part of my journey and I’m not ashamed of it anymore. My hair loss condition is still unknown but it’s minimal in comparison to others. People are dealing with hair loss, due to various reasons. Think about hormonal changes, alopecias, product allergies, hair accidents, cancer, chemo, vitamin deficiencies, and many more.
Finding my purpose
Now I understand my purpose is to mainly serve women that are dealing with hair loss and go through depression because of that. Women that feel insecure. Women that deal with so much more on top of that.
“It’s just hair, it’ll grow back ”, doesn’t apply to everyone, some people wouldn’t understand and that’s okay. We are not going to let this issue take away our happiness and confidence from being the woman we are.
Thankful
I’m beyond grateful that I can share this story. This blog is part of my story and finding my purpose. That I can combine my late discovered passion for wigs with my love for content creation. The idea of bringing joy into your life while walking in my purpose warms up my heart. I’m so thankful to do that.
I’m here to serve, to bring joy, to teach, to share, to motivate, to inspire.
I’m here for you.
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