Until a few years ago I thought that I had to be chemically enhanced to be loved and romanced. As a woman of color, this is a very real issue in this country. Let's get real for a few moments shall we. Every black woman in America has been misjudged by someone at some time and place in her life for something as trivial and as monumental as her hair. Kinky, coiled, curly or "nappy". We adopt inferiority complexes about our hair from the media, our peers, loved ones and perfect strangers. What do they know?
Some of us carry that baggage from the cradle to the grave. I say it's time to exhale and let it all go. We are all uniquely beautiful in our own way. Going natural i's a very personal decision and I'm not attempting to "convert" anyone; I simply want to champion those of us who have evolved mentaly and spiritualy to acknowledge that there is nothing wrong with the kinks in our hair, it's our kinky minds that poses problems. Love your natural hair and it will love you back.
As for me, I began the difficult process of slowly untangling myself from the matrix of "lyes" a few years back. Originally I didn't think that I could do it. I had always surrounded myself with people who looked like what I thought I wanted to look like and dated the types of guys who would not support me in a decision to be my most natural self. You know the types of men who only want a woman if her hair is "unbeweavable", silky straight and down to her butt. All I had heard growing up was that so-and-so was so pretty because of her hair and all of the women that were celebrated in the media didn't have kinky hair.
Kinky hair was not cute! That was the message I got growing up. "Fix her hair", "Oh your hair is so KINKY", "She needs a perm" and other such negative comments never helped my self esteem or that of any of my friends. I took this mentality from my adolescence into my early adulthood. I had every wig and weave available for over a decade. Madness. Fortunatly for me, I was finally able to move beyond that realm of negativity wrapped up in pretty lies. There was nothing wrong with my natural hair. God loved me enough to create me that way. Who was I to tell him that his design was flawed?
You don't need to immitate anyone else to be beautiful. Deciding that I wanted to go natural was just the first step. I tried all sorts of natural styles and I was fine until I spotted a cute relaxed style one day in a magazine and decided that I just had to have it. Well, the day af ter I had it relaxed (by another professional) all of my hair began to shed and break off. That was my final attempt at relaxing my fragile hair. I took my clippers and shaved it all down to a very cropped ceaser. Remember Grace Jones. Yeah, that was it. I colored it a mild shade of Auburn and allowed it to grow.
My once fragile hair began to grow faster than my patience. You would think I had learned by now right? Somewhat. I tried all sorts of natural styles, but quickly became frustrated with my hair being dry and brittle no matter what I did. I decided to seriously explore locks and I knew that I wanted them if I could have micro sized locks that allowed me to retain my femininity and my desire for versitility. I began to investigate Sisterlocks(tm) and aftera very short time I decided not only to live the life, but to become a representative. So began my natural life and I love it!
