It was July 2018 when I realized I had done something seriously wrong to my hair. Within a six-month period, I had gone to full and luscious locks to dry, brittle, and seriously damaged locks.  I can look back on that year and get a good sense of what had changed to get me to that point. I had just started a new relationship in July 2017, one year prior. It was the honeymoon phase of course, and all I wanted to do was do everything together ALL of the time. For me, that meant adapting to his lifestyle. The biggest change was my workout routine. My choice in workouts was 90% low intensity, and on the rare occasion where I did high intensity, it was usually on wash day.

We went on dates and ate out practically every night. Before we would go out, I joined him on his workout. They were always right after work.  Much higher in intensity than I was used to. And afterward, I had an hour to get ready before we went out. How I cared for my hair within the time period between gym session to date night was where I went wrong.  

Being single and on my own schedule I would usually let my hair air dry and go about my business and I didn’t heat style it every day, I was naturally cautious. But then I’m seeing this guy, I want to look my best for him. So I realized air drying wasn’t an option with only an hour to get ready. So I started using dry shampoo to absorb the sweat. At least I thought that’s what I was doing. You can read more about my thoughts on dry shampoo here.  Over time, I had noticed how my hair felt super stiff, dry, and my scalp always felt agitated. I also notice a tremendous amount of shedding, on the bathroom floor and literally just sitting down – my hair was breaking off.

When I took the photo in July 2018, it was the shock I wasn’t ready for. People had kept saying to me, “Oh my gosh, did you cut your hair?” – and I would just say “Umm, no?”. I was blissfully in love and had not even noticed the magnitude of my hair loss. All the signs were there and ignored them.