In 2005, I published my hair book, The Beauty of Textured Hair. But long before that triumphant moment in my life, I had gone through hills and mountains in a never-ending struggle with my hair.

As I explained in my homepage, I created this website because I have my very own hair growth system to help women of color grow longer, healthier hair. I call it The Shima Hair Growth System. By following my system consistently for the last two years I realized that achieving longer hair wasn't that difficult. It took discipline, but it wasn't rocket science. Too many women of color are walking around today with unhealthy hair that apparently doesn't grow because noone has ever really taught them what to do in perfect detail as I am about to do. We are taught so many different things by so many different people that in the long run it just ends up confusing us and our hair ends up growing shorter and shorter instead of longer and longer.

For me, Protective Styling solved all of my hair problems. How? Well, by eliminating our #1 enemy...hair dryness. It is hair dryness that is still at the top of the list as the reason why black hair won't grow. Knowing this I always thought to myself that if there was just some way to banish this enemy from our hair for good we'll be all right. I discovered Protective Styling quite by accident. I had become so fed up with my hair one day and simply put it up in a bun and left it that way for about two weeks. I had never gone so long with a hair bun, because I was always constantly styling my hair according to the latest styles. And then two weeks later I removed the hair bun and I noticed something I never noticed before...my dry ends weren't dry anymore! This peaked my curiosity and as an experiment I began wearing my hair in a hair bun for another two weeks and then another two weeks and another two weeks, until finally it hit me that as long as I kept the "Ends" of my hair preserved it will grow because dryness can't get to it!

Needless to say I was overjoyed, and I began experimenting with more Protective Styles that kept my "Ends" hidden away.  I also discovered that Protective Styling alone wasn't going to keep my hair growing long and healthy if I didn't have some type of "System" set up to help me with the maintenance of my hair, too. I began taking notes and logging everything down and before I knew it I had completed my first hair book, The Beauty of Textured Hair. I compressed my hair book in a simple to follow step-by-Step Guide.

It is in my Shima Hair Step-by-Step Guide that I provide the steps to the 3 Protective Styles that helped me to grow my hair as long as it is today. I recently developed my DVD "Protective Styling equals Longer Hair." in which you can watch me on your TV screens creating my favorite Protective Styles! My hair book, The Beauty of Textured Hair chronicles my personal story with my hair as well as information on the best hair products to use for our hair and pictures of variations of Protective Styles for Natural and Relaxed hair. That's another thing that I want you ladies to understand. Protective Styling works on Natural hair, too! This means that you don't have to relax your hair to use my system. You can keep your hair in it's Natural state and still grow out your hair as long as you want it to. When you purchase my DVD you will automatically receive a P.S. 411 (Protective Styling 411) that simplifies Natural Protective Styles you can use to grow your hair.