My hair story

[TazM]

I thought it would be weird to share my hair story with people, how much is reflects different times in your life, but I've read some stories on here and realised a lot of people had very similar stories so here's mine

As a little girl I always had long blonde hair, my mum believed girls should have long hair so we never had to cut it and it was nice back then. When I got to about 13 my hair started going dark and I was horrified, I thought you could only be beautiful if you had long blonde hair (maybe Barbie had something to do with that) so I started bleaching my hair and I wouldn't allow even the tiniest bit of regrowth so I was bleaching and bleaching and as you can imagine my hair was breaking off and looked like straw, it even had gone green at some stages, so it was a mess.

Then I went the other way, having been bullied at school and having problems at home, among other things, I then went black! I started dying my hair black and all I would hear from my parent was how horrible it was so I started switching back and forth, blonde to black, blonde to black, but I guess it was never quite blonde again, a streaky black orange mess. I was also cutting my hair all the time, if I was having a bad day I would take it out on my hair, and I read on this site and agree that it was a control issue.

Then when I was 17 my hair didn't even look like hair any more, nothing I did to it made it look passable so I ended up shaving it all all! As scary as that thought may be I actually felt a lot calmer at that time, like I could just blend in and nobody noticed me anymore and nobody could comment on my hair and I didn't have to think about my hair because it was all gone!

It grew back though and I started messing with it again, going black, going blonde, and everything in between. Then I got a boyfriend and he liked it being as blonde and long as possible, which I did for a while but we all know bleach and long hair don't often go hand in hand so it was a mess once again and I just didn't feel like it was really me anymore. So I stopped bleaching it and just wanted my natural colour back, even though he harassed me to bleach it and said my natural hair colour was horrible and boring.

But I stuck with it and did not want to go down the hair abuse path anymore, I just wanted to be myself and I think all those years of dyeing was just me trying to be someone else. So it's been about two or three years since I last dyed my hair and about 6 months since I cut the last bits of dye off the ends, and you know, I absolutely love my hair colour and can't believe I spent so long covering it up and doing what other people wanted me to do with it, so now I want to grow it long again as a way of celebrating my freedom from hair abuse and the fact I'm happy just being me again

[swearnsue]

Welcome to LHC! You have been on quite a journey already and you have found a good place to be yourself and to be happy and healthy. Welcome!

[Springgrl]

This is such a wonderful story! Welcome to the LHC!

[spidermom]

I'm glad you learned to love your natural color because that's the easiest way to keep hair in good condition. Welcome!

[Sisgoldenhair65]

Welcome and congrats on your newfound "hair peace". Lo

[Sisgoldenhair65]

Sorry, my iphone did something screwy and posted before I was finished. Uugh....anyway, I was saying I'm looking forward to sharing your hair journey!!

[ratgirldjh]

Welcome!

Enjoyed your story. Reminds me of one of my sisters who used to do 'everything' to her hair! She still colors it and then always is interested in what I do to mine since it is in much better shape than hers - but she refuses to try the things that I do... LOL

Just make sure to not go overboard trying everything at once like I did when I first came here and your hair will thank you for it

[CocoBean]

Welcome to LHC, and glad you love your hair. I did the same thing for awhile, not as drastically with radical color changes, but with gray hair starting to come in, always wanting to cover it and not admit that my hair was changing color (which meant I was starting to show my age).
So I stopped coloring it and let the gray grow out... only it's not as bad looking as I thought it would be. People have complimented me on the color, asking what kind of hair dye I was using!!
Looking forward to hearing more about your hair adventures, and remember to enjoy the journey!

[ApatheticFairy]

Awesome story-- a brave move to shave it all off. I'm envious I'm happy you love your new/old natural color. We'll both be taking this journey together!

[sparrowswing]

Your story is very uplifting. I can definitely see how your emotions and control issues could easily be taken out on your hair; I think most people self-destruct like that in one way or another at some point. I too thought you could only be pretty with blonde hair, thanks to the Barbie empire that ruled my childhood. (I also thought it had to be curly, but I think that's a side-effect of growing up in the 80's.) I remember in school the other girls used to pick on me and call me a witch because my hair was long, straight, and dark. Looking back it's kind of funny, considering one or two of those little girls decided they were pagan once they grew up and got away from their parents.

Luckily, though, I had a wonderful relative - who just happened to have naturally curly, pale blonde hair - who took me aside one day and told me if she could have any hair in the world she'd want mine, but she wouldn't trade because she wouldn't want to take something so wonderful from me. I must have been maybe six years old. But that stuck with me, and even when I went through my rebellious phase as a teen and wanted blue hair, I only dyed my bangs and the very ends of my hair that would be cut off soon anyway.

I think every child needs someone in their life to say something like that.