Then and Now......

Here is my hair in 2006. I was at this point 5 Years Natural, and I used a blow drier about twice a month:

I was also an incredible product junkie. My hair never got any longer than this. And then 2 years ago, I went and got it pressed, and a huge chunk fell outta my hair in the middle, and i decided to big chop, which looked like this:

Don't try to tell me that those earrings aren't Bangin'! Anyhoo, i was still using a lot of heat. so about six months ago, i decided to stop with the blow dryer. Only because my last comb attachment broke, and I was too lazy to run to Sally's and get one. So I went on Amazon.com and got one of those cute hair dryers that looked like a thick wide toothed comb with a cord. Except that it was not cooperating with my hair. Meaning that it refused to go through my strands. So I said to hell with it. let's try heat free for a bit and see what happens.  I also now only use a handful of products. The results are:

Soooo......I think the no heat thing is going pretty well. I may use heat again, although I'll admit that I'm a bit leery of the pressing comb and flat iron, but that was my own error.  Who knows? I will say that this is the first time that I have ever seen my real texture.
But I will also tell you that i don't think that heat determines whether or not one is natural.  Chemical processes that irreversibly change the  texture of ones hair (relaxers, texturizers, perms) do.  Tell me in the comments section:

Have you experienced heat damage? If so, what did you do?