'My hair fell out so easily': Woman whose addiction to straightening her hair left her with 'a huge bald spot' reveals how she gave up her flat iron for good

• Jelani Addams Rosa chronicled how straightening her hair left her with thinning strands and broken ends in an essay for Seventeen magazine
• Last year, the 25-year-old writer, from New York City, went 365 days without using any heat on her hair  
• Previously, Jelani would straighten her hair up to ten times a day 

By Erica Tempesta For Dailymail.com

Published: 13:02 EST, 5 May 2015 | Updated: 14:59 EST, 5 May 2015

A woman whose addiction to her flat iron left her with 'a huge bald spot' in the middle of her head has revealed how she gave up her heat styling tools for good after realizing the severe damage they were causing to her hair. 

In an essay for Seventeen.com, Jelani Addams Rosa, a writer from New York City, chronicled how her desire to have straight hair left masses of her hair falling out, while what remained was thinning and broken. The 25-year-old, who was born with tight red ringlets, started battling her mane's natural texture in middle school by getting her strands chemically relaxed, and by the time she was 17-years-old she was spending two hours a day straightening her hair with a flat iron.

'I even brought my flat iron to graduation and spent the entire hour backstage touching up my hair trying to combat the 95 degree sweltering July heat,' she wrote of her last moments as a high school student.  

Au naturel: Jelani Addams Rosa (pictured) has finally embraced the natural texture of her curly red hair after years of being addicted to her flat iron, which she once used straighten her hair up to ten times a day 

Jelani, who confessed to straightening her hair up to ten times a day, admitted that she always hated the constant maintenance her hair required. 

While she disliked having her mom coax her curly hair into braids and buns as a child, it was in middle school that all her friends starting sing flat irons.

'Everyone was rocking super-sleek hair,' she explained. 

But it took her hours to straighten her hair and her desire for a 'low-maintenance life' led her to believe that chemically relaxing her strands was the solution. 

'Everyone I knew with relaxed hair had curtains of straight, smooth hair all the time, and it didn't seem like much work,' she said. 'So I went to the hair salon and got a relaxer, not knowing that I had just signed up for years of salon visits and constant upkeep.'

Ironically, by the time she was in high school, she aspired to have curly hair again - just not the tight curls she was born with.

Jelani, who wanted to have the same loose waves actress and singer Adrienne Bailon showcased in the Disney movie The Cheetah Girls, opted to get a perm eight months after she had relaxed her hair.

But when she washed her hair following the chemical treatment, she realized her hair was falling out in clumps. 

'I didn't even have to comb it; just touching it caused my hair to fall out with so much ease I began to wonder if it was even part of my head to begin with,' she recalled. 'I stepped out of the shower to assess the damage, and it was exactly what I feared. I had a huge bald spot right in the middle of my head.'

Jelani told Daily Mail Online that the salon was unaware that her hair was relaxed before she had gotten her perm, but added that they never explained to her why her hair was falling out when she returned to the premises to seek help. Instead, she was offered free conditioning treatments.

After spending the next day sobbing in the guidance counselor's office, Jelani experimented until she came up with a hair style that would hide her bald spot. 

'Every day I would straighten my bangs to cover my forehead (another insecurity of mine) and slick my hair back into a bun, fluffing it out so that no one would ever guess that half of my hair was missing,' she said. 

Jelani wore her hair like that for the remainder of her freshman year until she was senior. She had shunned chemical treatments and by the time she was 17-year-old her hair had almost completely grown back.

She explained that, as a senior, she had fallen into the habit of using a flat iron to straighten her hair for special occasions, including trips and talent shows, even though it took her two hours to do the night before, plus another 20 minutes the next morning.

Starting over: The 25-year-old writer, from New York City, shared this photo of herself during the first year of letting her hair go natural. Because of all the previous damage, her strands wouldn't even curl 

'My teachers complimented me, guys who never noticed me before said I looked nice, and even girls I'd never spoken to would tell me I had nice hair,' she said. 'The compliments made me want to straighten my hair more often, and by the end of the year, I was flat ironing it every day.'

Those compliments became ingrained in her mind and by the time she was a freshman in college having 'perfectly straight hair became a crucial part' of her self-esteem. 

'I woke up early every day to flat iron it before class, then would leave on my iron so it was hot between classes for touch ups,' she recalled. 'I was flat ironing my hair anywhere from three to 10 times a day.'

By this time, Jelani was well aware of the damage chemical treatments could do to your hair, but she never thought much about the heat damage associated with flat irons. 

Hair stylists had to cut off so much of her dead ends that she had a bob midway through her freshman year. When she returned home for winter break, her friends immediately asked what had happened to her hair. 

Jelani told Daily Mail online that she 'absolutely noticed' her hair was thinning, but was 'in denial' over the damage she had done to her locks.  

'A close friend of mine said it looked like it fell out again, and another told me it looked broken and fried. Even though I knew they were just curious, the comments stung,' she wrote. 'I felt like all the time I spent trying to make my hair look perfect was a waste of time.' 

Jelani knew she had to make changes, but she wasn't ready to give up her straightened locks. She spent the next two years getting her hair washed and set at her hair salon every Sunday thinking the conditioning treatments were helping offset the damage from her straightening iron.  

Where it all started: Jelani was eager to try and replicate the curls showcased by actress and singer Adrienne Bailon (pictured) in hit Disney movie The Cheetah Girls 

'Then one day my friend's boyfriend came and met us at the hair salon and he told me I looked like I was balding,' she recalled. 'I was heartbroken - I felt like I was 13 years old again, crying in my bedroom over my hair.'

It was at this time that she decided she wanted to make an effort to embrace her natural hair texture. She worried about what her friends and family would think, especially her new boyfriend who had never seen her without her hair straightened.

When she was 22, Jelani began weaning herself off of her flat iron, going from straightening her hair multiple times a day to a few days a week to only a couple times a month. But her hair was no longer curly because of the previous damage. It took two years for her hair to start to curl again. Jelani eventually opted for a shorter, healthier haircut and chopped off her dead ends. 

And while Jelani initially feared how people would react to her new look, she soon learned how freeing it was to embrace her natural texture.  

'Embracing my natural hair changed my life in ways I never even considered: I was no longer afraid to get stuck in the rain, or go swimming with my friends, or sweat when I exercised,' she explained. 'I didn't carry a flat iron around in my purse anymore just in case I needed a touch up.'

Last year, she took her plan one step further and vowed to go 365 days without using any heat, including flat irons, blow dryers and curling irons. 

Now Jelanie said her curls 'look better than they ever have', telling Daily Mail Online that she will still straighten it sometimes for special occasions. 

But now she uses less heat and visits professionals who know how to maintain the health of her curls.  

'I'm hoping that as I continue to take care of it, some of that length and thickness will come back. If it doesn't, that's also fine. Because now I'm healthier, too,' she wrote at the end of her essay. 'I no longer feel the need to change my appearance.

'It took me 11 years of texturizers, relaxers, perms, heart damage, over styling, and nearly losing all of my hair to realize that the hair I wanted was there all along.'  

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