And so it begins. The decision has been made. I'm gonna be a natural sistah! I have decided that after years of relaxing, heat styling, and beating my hair into some sort of submission, it's time that I give my hair a rest from the stress and revert to a state of natural hair.

I share a love/hate relationship with my hair. We have an understanding. I love the fact that I can do different things with my hair, and I take advantage of this by constantly changing it. Braids, weaves, cornrows, micros, relaxed, semi-natural, highlights… I’ve done it all, with a greater or lesser degree of success, whilst maintaining relative hair health. Because, like I said, me and my hair have an understanding. Or, at least I thought we did.

It seems my hair has been slacking on its half of the bargain. Gone are the lustrous lengthy tresses of days gone by. Thick flowing strands have been replaced by thinner lack-lustre imposters. My hair is a dull reflection of its former self, and since I am probably to be blamed for this, I intend to bring it back from the brink.

And, so as I said, the decision to go natural has been made.

Now, allow me to clear something up. I’m not making this transition because of any anti-relaxer movement or because I think natural hair is the ONLY way to go. I understand that people like choice and diversity. I’m doing this because I have recognized that the health of my hair is deteriorating and I would like for it to return to its former glory. Furthermore, it's been a while since I have seen my hair in a completely natural state, so I’m quite intrigued to see what that looks like. When I was younger, my hair used to be thick, Angela Davies thick, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 thick, couldn't part it if you tried thick, might as well just set it free thick. But, after my first relax at age 12, even when I grew my hair out, it always grew back soft and wavy rather than tightly coiled. To be fair though, that was probably because I always ended up relaxing it again before it had a chance to revert too much.

Hair is a beautiful thing isn’t it? Often referred to as a woman’s crowning glory, the diversity of hair is an awe inspiring thing. Hence why this blog is called Mane Texturez. It will aim to document my journey to “nappydom” as well as celebrate all that is beautiful about natural tresses.

So, let us begin...