One Strand; Two Textures

At first I thought my mind was playing tricks on me but after careful examination, I am sure that I have two different textures of hair on each strand of my hair. This is not something that occurred naturally, however and is due to previous color processes that I had before my BC.

During the time that I had my sew in, I noticed a few strands of shed hair that were just kind of twisted up in the cornrows, and almost became obsessed with pulling them out. I would examine each one to see if it was a sign of breakage (from the cornrows) and all of a sudden noticed that the end of each strand was noticeably thicker, less curly (dare I say…straight!), and darker in color. The rest of the strand was a finer in texture and extremely coily.

At first I thought, WTH?!

But then I remembered the days of demi-permanently coloring my hair with Chromasilk Vivids. I would mix a pure red and a pure blue to make the deepest violet ever, and cover my entire head with it. The finished result would give me the jet black look I wanted, without looking like I dyed my hair with a “box” permanent color. The color was some kinda fierce, because you could only see the violet sheen outside in the sunlight or with the flash from a camera lens.

Now, when I think about it, my last color application occurred just after I decided not to relax my hair anymore…when I had about a month or so worth of new growth. So these dark ends that I am seeing are clearly what is left behind of a color that I thought was long gone. I used to think that demi-permanent color didn’t alter the composition of the hair but I see now that I was wrong. The color really changed the way the ends of my hair look, feel, and act as compared to my new, unaltered hair growing beneath it.

The next time I get the itch to color…which I hope will be later in this natural journey…you can bet that I will be looking to natural alternatives.

Have you ever experience a texture change after a semi or demi-permanent color?