The beginning of my research began in December 2017, that was when I started to cut my relaxed hair off. Since then, I subscribed to as many natural hair gurus as I could on YouTube. I didn’t officially remove all of my relaxed hair until spring of 2018. That was because I wanted it to be at ponytail length before I cut the stringy relaxed ends. So the winter of 2019 was the first time I had the chance to really where my natural hair out in the cold weather. It was the complete opposite of the nice warm summer days where I could just cowash (cleaning and re-moisturizing hair by using conditioner only) and walk out the door. I had to find something to do with my hair that didn’t involve me braiding it for 3 hours every week. I began to look up protective hair styles when I initially cut my hair but I decided I wanted to learn how to manipulate it myself. Now that my hair is past its awkward phase, somewhere in between short and not too short, it’s a little harder to manage. At this stage it’s harder to see the difference in growth. Most “naturalistas” prefer to do some form of protective styles that revolve around wearing weave. I can’t always afford that, so I decided to look into the DIY community. Since the community is online, I reached out to a close friend that could help me with a closer hands on approach. Doing hair comes with practice, so I needed a guide to tell me that I was heading into the right direction. I wanted to save money, avoid damaging my hair, and learn something new.