Is Natural Hair for Me? That Is The Question….

Is Natural Hair for Me?

One of the most perplexing things about going natural is learning how to manage your tightly coiled tresses without damaging them.  Even the simplest task of combing your hair can become a detangling nightmare if you don’t know what you are doing. Don’t get me wrong, going natural has been one of the most rewarding and enlightening experiences of my life.  I love my natural threads and I will never, ever alter them again.  But, if I had not taken the time to find help and resources, my successful transition to natural may have never happened.

The only thing I do regret about going natural is not doing it sooner.  Because of the way my natural coils are flourishing, I find myself wishing my mother had never permanently straightened my hair as a child. Where would my hair be today if only we had embraced it (instead of changing it) from the beginning?

Let’s talk about embracing natural hair.  Just a little over a year ago, I would have never left the house without my hair fleshly straighten with some type of hair piece or weave.  My whole womanly identity depended on having the exact opposite of what God gave me.  So how in the world am I natural today?  When I think about how I transitioned from relaxed to natural hair one things comes to mind, You Tube.

Mentally I began to view full and kinky hair as healthy and beautiful.  My hair had become thin and limp from repeated relaxing, gluing and weaving.  I can recall sitting in front of my computer for hours just watching natural hair journey videos on youtube.com.  These sisters had long, thick, fully natural hair.  I got to watch their hair grow (through slideshows) from small mini-fros to long-coiled threads.  I was so jealous of what those natural-haired sisters had, I wanted it for myself.  These women possessed beautiful hair, and what they could do with it made it even more appealing.  Where once I craved bone straight really long hair (which I could only achieve through weaves), I now desired my own thick full hair.   This may sound strange, but I never realized that all natural hair has a curled/coiled texture.  I hadn’t truly seen natural hair until I saw it on YouTube.  Yes, I have seen those media provided images of the afros and braids; but honestly those images do not show us the true attributes of natural hair.  I think back to my mother struggling to maintain the heads of four little girls.  What resources did she have?  What information was available to her to teach her how to care for her hair and ours?  You guessed it…relaxers, texturizers, pressing combs, etc.  So she did what most black women did; when her little girls were old enough for it, she relaxed it.

I want you to understand that I have nothing against sisters who choose to relax their hair.  I believe in choice, as long as you are sincerely happy with your choice.  But if you are having problems with your hair, and you’re relaxing it for all the wrong reasons, find help to change and improve your relationship with your hair.

Let me ask you a question, have you ever seen the recessing hairline?  I am not talking about male-pattern baldness.  I am talking about the hairline along the sides of the head (the temple) and down around the ears.  This is a condition called Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia (CCCA).  I learned that this condition is found only in women of color.  A doctor explained this devastating fact to me after seeking dermatology help when I suffered from it myself a few years back.  The doctor told me there are two main causes of this condition.  The first is excessive pulling of the hair usually caused by tight braiding and twisting, and the second is chemical abuse of the scalp through improper use of relaxers and texturizers.  Some of us out there are trying to unrealistically change our hair, and in the meantime we are also causing irreversible damage through cosmetic trauma.  Why are some of us running from our natural hair?

I realize now that natural hair is not nappy, bothersome, or ugly.  If cared for properly it will grow more wonderfully than it ever could in your wildest dreams!

My transition dealt largely with how I cared for my hair.  Properly caring for your natural hair is essential to the happiness of your tresses and yourself.  We have all seen (or can imagine) the “nappy-head”.  This negative image haunts the minds of millions, but this is not a genuine image of our hair.  This is an image of a confused “natural”, owned by someone who does not understand it.  When going natural we must re-learn how to care for our hair.  You cannot manage natural hair the same way you do relaxed hair.  It is not more difficult, natural hair care is simply different.  Unfortunately there aren’t very many resources for natural hair care available today; this is changing as the natural-hair positivity pandemic spreads across our nation.

If it weren’t for my loving natural-headed saviors on YouTube, I would still be spending hundreds of dollars on tracks at the hair store (and in the mean time damaging my own hair in the process).  I want to strongly urge you take a minute or two to visit youtube.com; type in…natural hair journey…natural hair care…and any other ideas about natural hair that come to mind.  Next open your heart and your mind, then ask yourself, is natural hair for me?

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