I Got 8 Hours Of Box Braids And I've Never Felt More Like Myself
Cosmopolitan|August 2019

Low maintenance from here on out.

Kimberly Aleah
I Got 8 Hours Of Box Braids And I've Never Felt More Like Myself

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with my hair. I grew up in a mostly white community in Georgia, where my natural curls stood out among a sea of stick-straight strands. And like most teens, I was obsessed with fitting in, so I relaxed my hair and added extensions until I looked like(ish) the other girls.

Now that I’m in my 20s and living in NYC, I feel way more comfortable wearing my hair natural—but let me tell you, it is not as simple as those YouTubers make it look. Trying to reverse years of chemical damage takes a lot of work: Twice a week, I use a deep conditioner, twist up my hair, and make sure it’s tied down properly. The whole process probably takes more than an hour and a half.

This story is from the August 2019 edition of Cosmopolitan.

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This story is from the August 2019 edition of Cosmopolitan.

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