However, while I gave up hours and hours to sit in a salon chair, a natural hair movement had been bubbling on social media. On Instagram especially, women of all ethnicities were starting to use the #naturalhairmovement hashtag to show off their natural texture in all its curly, kinky and wavy glory – and it flicked a switch in me. It made me miss the curls that did their own thing, the sheer weight of my hair. Suddenly, I no longer saw those natural features as flaws, and if I'm being honest, I felt a bit silly. I was embarrassed by how easily I'd conformed to 'prettiness' ideals that favoured well-behaved, sleek and shiny lengths over my unpredictable but nonetheless beautiful curls that had a mind of their own. Interestingly, I'm not alone in lamenting the loss of my hair identity after overdoing it with straightening treatments. A quick Google will throw up heaps of Quora and Reddit threads from women who regret booking in, reporting that their once voluminous hair is now 'limp', 'lifeless' and 'boring'.