I got quite a lot of surprise messages online when I shared my big hair chop. Mixed with questions, comments and curiosity, I decided to answer all these questions in one blog post.
Why did I cut my hair? Truth is, I wanted a fresh start. Simple. I am not going through any emotional distress as some people think. It was honestly a time to reset, start afresh with better, fuller, healthier hair. I thought about it once, sometime last year, and the urge became increasingly apparent by late December.
Why I cut my hair.
The last time I had my hair this short, was over 20 years ago. Since then, I have had two babies that drastically destroyed my hair, and changed the way I managed my hair. Prior to having my babies, I moved to the US in 2017 and began noticing significant hair damage, which could have been caused by either the weather, the hard water or me just not being able to manage it all by myself consistently. I resorted to quit relaxing or texturizing my hair, and stick strictly to silk press. I found a Jamaican lady, shout out to Ms. Winnie Simpson, here in Oklahoma City, and she began restoring my hair through keratin treatments and silk press. My hair gained significant volume and length.
Then I had my first boy, I saw the drastic hair loss especially in the front. Then came my second boy, and the hair began to thin out. Mind you, I didn’t notice my hair was thinning out until I went in for another hair appointment, and she said “Joy, you need to quit doing those braids, you are losing your hair. For me, the braids were convenient, seeing that I worked a full time job, managing my home, family and business etc. Braids sustained me, but they contributed massively to thinning out my hair.
I traveled to the UK in September 2025, got back in October, went in November to get another braids, shout out to Tobi for sorting all my fantastic braid looks. She goes “Did you cut your hair”?. I said no. At that point, I knew I needed to do something to restore my hair. The decision was made to chop it all off and start all over. That is it. Nothing more. Just a girl in need of fresh, healthy hair.
How I Plan to maintain it.
As one who is not big on wearing wigs, I plan to wear it out as often as I can, washing it once every 2 weeks to get it deep conditioned. That is one of the advise I got from my hair stylist. Your hair needs to be deep conditioned every 2 weeks for it to grow healthy. This I couldn’t sustain when I had braids on for a month. She advises I do more cornrows than single braids, as those tend to pull the hair follicles more and the attachments may not pair well with the strands of my natural hair.
It’s been 6 days since I cut it off, and so far, what I have had to do is apply water in the morning, and brush with my curl sponge for a minute, then lay my edges and go! So easy. I purchased a few hair products like Curl cream, mouse, magic blue, gel etc, to lock in the curls after a hair wash day. However, on an everyday basis, I will only spray water to fluff and activate the curls. I plan to do braided cornrows when I get some more length and, I truly want to embrace it, enjoy it and go with the flow.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post, be sure to stay connected with me on Instagram @joyebenspiff. TIKTOK and Pinterest Simplystylebyj