 What's up on my curly people? I'm beyond grenade you watching beyond grenade today and today I'm launching a new segment on my channel called curl talk So we're gonna have curls obviously probably talking about curly topics But since we are girls who knows what we'll end up talking about but today I have a special curl friend Shayna hey guys and a Shayna as you can probably guess got a big chop So we're gonna talk about the truth behind Big chop because they might seem like all you do is cut off your hair And then it just grows back perfectly, but that might not be the case, right? definitely not the case in My situation I cut all my hair off and ended up crying for like seven days. Oh, no Seven days. So how long ago was this? This was in May. So about five months ago, and I decided to do it just kind of off a whim of my hairstylist telling me to cut my hair She's telling me for about four weeks and I was like considering considering considering and I never had short hair Definitely thought I wasn't gonna be cute with short hair And I finally did it and you did it because of heat damage color damage new look like what made you really cut it first It was heat damage. I straightened my hair every day. See what happens guys every day for like five years And while I was getting my hair done like I said with my hairdresser She was just like we need to cut all this up and restart like your curls are not doing what they normally do We need a fresh start fresh start and what made you decide to do that fresh start because I'm sure she was pushing for a while Like what was the final trigger though? It's okay. It's time for me to cut it off So the final trigger was definitely me just kind of taking the risk and starting over So it's basically just you know stepping outside of my comfort zone one getting rid of my heat damage and Being able to kind of do just the curly girl thing again I kind of missed just being able to wash my hair and have my curls out because once you have heat damage It's so hard. You're like trying to get like the straight pieces to curl You're trying to get the middle to like look the same as the end It's a mess. It is a mess and I've seen girls that have a Pretty much a hot mess on their head like they have you know the curls at the top the straight piece of the bottom I know one of you is watching right now and you're holding on to that dead length for no reason And I'm you might have done that too. My question always is like why like why do you think it's better to have long Ugly hair versus like short healthy beautiful hair. So long ugly hair or short beautiful hair Well, I'm Jamaican and Italian and like in both cultures just long hair is kind of a thing and my mom is Jamaican and she was always like Keep your hair long like cutting my hair was never really a thing. It wasn't even like I was insecure about my curls I was just like, oh, they're not looking the same. So I'm not gonna wear curly What would you say are the downsides of a big chop that many people don't really talk about? So the downsides of my big chop were probably like the initial the initial crying is definitely like puzzling I'm like, oh I shouldn't have done that another downside I would say is just like having to be So much more knowledgeable about how you're gonna go about getting your hair to grow I didn't know like how much work it really took to like know what you have to do Yeah, and I think that was something that I struggled before and why I didn't want to cut it at first But now that I did cut in there's so much more information out there about how you should like be treating your curls and getting It to grow and a couple tips that you've given me so I'm here I'm like more confident now than I was before about I was like, oh, I don't know that I know how to take care of my hair really Taking care of it people always think that like it's a lot of work to have curly hair Which is true to an extent we do have certain rules We have to kind of follow but once you kind of get into like a regimen of it really becomes second nature And that's what I really want to stress through having my channel is that Having curls is not as complicated as you think my biggest tip for Re-growing your hair or dealing with heat damage would be to deep condition once a week That's like my holy grail sentence I say every time I talk to somebody but if you really commit to using a deep conditioner Which is different than a regular conditioner leave it on your hair for 20 minutes rinsing it out and doing that Like every Monday or whatever day you pick you will definitely see your hair become softer It'll be longer and your curls will be more defined. That is the number one thing Are you are you deep conditioning once a week yet? Or are you getting there? I'm almost there. Okay I'm doing it very consistently if I didn't do it this last Sunday. Okay. I'm off. I'll forgive you What are some other hair growth things that you're doing right now like in your your weekly routine? So I have a scalp massager and I try to get it. I try to leave a do leaving conditioner in it I don't know if that's like a good tip or not. You need moisture. It's a good tip Right. I'm like I try to keep enough moisture in there because my hair tends to be a little on the dry side. Okay And what else do I do? I try not to shampoo it too much. I heard that or I read that and I'm not sure How often do you shampoo? Right now once a week Okay So for my transitioners watching I just wanted to let you guys know that just because your experience after your big chop You might still feel sad or like you don't you know might have regret that is a normal feeling You are not alone Shayna someone who cut it off and then did feel that regret and it took her what five months to maybe be comfortable with it So just because like you know you might watch YouTube videos or Instagram girls and they do their big chop And then they're just instantly happy you might start to think about yourself like why don't I feel that way? Like if that's I cut it off I should be happy about it But I don't that I make a mistake and I think putting that much negativity on you is just going to make your journey harder It definitely takes time you have to have patience and even at four months and you know at your length now How do you feel that patience like you know plays into that patience plays into it? Really large level mostly because that's all that you're gonna be told to be patient. It's really annoying You know but at this point now I'm like So much has been left out my shoulder So what has been lifted for example other than the legs on my shoulder? But I just makes me feel like I took a risk and I adjusted to it and that kind of ultimately gave me growth within myself I was like this was something that I needed to do and everything happens for a reason So I was glad that I did it because now I kind of look at myself a little bit differently And I have more confidence than I did before because it's like I literally almost went bald And and I still was able to feel myself a little bit Yeah, like I was like yeah, I didn't like it at first like now I'm like wow I'm like a brand new got this. Yeah And I always like looked at other people when they did the big chop and said like oh, it was like I'm I'm a new me. I'm like, oh, please. Yeah Your hair got me a new person. But now you actually feel that way. I honestly feel that way. Okay So you might not get that I'm a new person right after the chop It might be a couple weeks It might be a couple months But I do feel confident saying that you will eventually get there and I think us in the curly community We need to always encourage each other. I'm sure like you feel amazing when someone compliments you, right? Like short hair or not. Yeah But to know that you get those compliments with short hair long hair, whatever like you your personality It's always gonna shine through. Yes. I love my curls. Yes, I'm very team curly, but it also shouldn't really define who we are It's gonna be like an accessory that we do focus a lot on because it makes us happy But the journey will also make you happy as well knowing that you went from this length to maybe this length or whatever So that was being said would you recommend doing a big chop? What I recommend doing a big chop I would I think that it's like a great thing to do because When you're trying to get those healthy curls back or just your healthy hair back in general It's I think it's necessary. You can do it in increments obviously, but I just think that might take a look much longer very long While you're be more comfortable doing it like that stepping out of your comfort zone has been like a great experience for me, but Absolutely, if you're thinking about doing a big a big chop and you are on the fence about it I'm here to tell you that you should definitely go for it because it's When you like like it's Liberating rejuvenate Rejuvenating liberating whatever you feel it's always gonna be a positive feeling Eventually if you are considering doing a big chop, please leave me a comment below Let me know what's holding you back or if you have done a big chop Please leave a comment and let other people know how you feel about your big chop now How your curls have changed would you recommend it? I really want my comment section be a very like encouraging place So, please leave your stories below so we all can comment as well You also become our curl friend. Let's stay connected You can follow me on Twitter Instagram and snapchat at miss beyond grenade and you can follow Shayna at Snapchat Instagram at Shay live and on Twitter underscore at Shay life Shayna Thank you for coming on curl talk. If you guys enjoyed this, please give me a thumbs up and subscribe I post two new videos every week once on Friday and once on Sunday, so I'll see you guys next time Thanks for watching beyond grenade today