Beautiful photos from Taran. She has her own website, called Areyaa, and also has hair styling tip video's on youtube. To see more of Taran, check out the links below and click on read more to hear about her natural hair story.
To see more of Areyaa, go to:
Website: Areyaa.com
Youtube: Taren916
Email: Taren.Areyaa@gmail.com
And click read more below, to read about Areyaa....
"Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY growing up as a biracial child, I always had HAIR issues.. My Swedish grandmother who raised me didn’t know the first thing about caring for my type of hair.. At the age of 13, both of us agreed and I was happy to get my first relaxer to make things “easier” for the both of us..
Fast forward to my adult years, At the age of 21, I started seeing more and more beautiful NATURALS around me and I actually WISHED my hair was like theirs and it triggered a memory of me remembering “Oh! My hair IS like that naturally!” This was my lightbulb moment and I decided from that day, sometime in 2003, I decided not to relax my hair anymore cause I wanted my “curl” to come back..
WHAT A MESS!
Back then, there was no YouTube and no one really talked about natural hair for me to actually start doing any type of research on it in the first place.. So when I made this decision, I was very ignorant of the TRANSITION process.. I even say now, if I was aware of the BIG CHOP.. I definitely would have been bold enough to do it.. But in my mind.. I thought that frequent wetting would magically get my curls back..Lol.. I mean, I was soooo ignorant about my haircare that I remember the very first time I tried to get my curl.. My regimen was shampoo of course… NO CONDTIONER! ( I know.. It’s crazy.. I was that bad that I didn’t understand the importance of condtioner)…. Took my blow dryer with no attachment (free nozzle) and just went wild and crazy with my SHAMPOOED ONLY HAIR!… What a nightmare that was as you can only imagine!! BUT.. I thought this was the way to do it and I actually went to work like that thinking I had achieved my natural look.. Lets just say it was an interesting day :-)
NATURAL BY ACCIDENT…
From that point on, frustration got the best of me and I gave up… Didn’t give into relaxing.. Thanks goodness… But I gave into straightening.. I had no clue that I was doing it all wrong.. Didn’t know there were “tricks for transitioning” that I could’ve used ie: twist outs, rod sets etc…. So I would always get dominican roller sets and sometimes flat ironing.. About a year later, I decided randomly to wet my hair and just let it airdry…. What do you know! My hair was CURLY!!! :-) So by accident, I tripped and stumbled upon my natural curls (already making the decision prior to just give up)… But I had completed my transition faze without even realizing that I was going through this process of GOING NATURAL..
CURL RELIEF…..
So finally I started getting the hang of my curls and consulted with a friend of mine back then who was natural on what I should do.. She gave me a few recommendations on what products she had used and some application techniques…. But most importantly, she introduced me to the infamous…….. DIFFUSER!!! Yes!! This was my savior! This introduction was the start of me enjoying my curls!
THE DISCOVERY OF YOUTUBE!
For a few years, I was back and forth being straight and being curly.. Then in 2009 I went to YouTube and randomly decided to type in the search bar “biracial hair”…. Back then, that is the title I associated my hair with but I know now that it’s not “biracial hair” … It’s just simply “natural hair”…. Moving along.. This was the biggest moment of my natural hair journey! I was amazed at how much information was given on this subject and I had been glued to YouTube for days! Already trying techniques that were actually working for me immediately!
From that point on, history was in the making for me.. I was inspired to start making my own YouTube videos on June 18, 2009 and never looked back! :-) http://Youtube.com/taren916
I’m just amazed at how much this has been a lifestyle change for me… It feels great finally accepting ME light heartedly…." - Source