HAIRY SITUATIONS: AN INTRO

For most of my life I've used......Cream of Nature.......I know there's been some Motions, Just for Me, Michael Clay and something else in there but I remember always going back to Cream of Nature and why not? It took care of my hair -For the most part.

Well let's start with a hair history. I've always been sort of a "natural" Mostly because I HATED getting my hair done. My hair was very long as a child (by fourth grade it was on my elbows! -LITERALLY) and my mother would sit me down by the stove and hot comb my hair (all those hours and it NEVER stayed) so yeah I was never one for all that hair stuff. Then my mother told me -you're going to middle school, you're going to want to wear pretty hair styles like the other girls.

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FAIL!

I tried to told her (lol) that ya know that wasn't me but in the end, I ended up with a perm. Now granted before this perm I had a texturizer here and there (Just for Me) but it had to be once every other year. I don't remember having a perm frequently. But her friend put 3 perm boxes in my head and......well...all my hair fell out (I got Tina Turner'd lol -it's funny now) I cried forever! I mean I hated getting my hair done.....but I loved my hair.

In highschool I alternated between, a bun, a wrap, and braids. Towards the end of junior year I decided to try to loose weight and that forced me into rocking natural hair and I continued throughout the summer. I never got my hair flat ironed during the summer anyway. Senior year it was alternating between wraps and braid outs. My hair grew. And it grew pretty long. That is until college.

Freshman year I lost a lot of length. Why? Well I told you I never liked getting my hair done -and I'm not proud of this (now) But I'd go a straight month without washing my hair (mostly because the bathroom was public and I didn't like spending a lot of time in there) I would let my hair kink and KINK. Then I got some rods -that took out my hair. I never straightened it because there wasn't anyone that could and I couldn't do it myself. (Child I ain't got the patience) Then I was stressed!!!! Everything that could go wrong....WENT WRONG (financially, sexually, physically, mentally) Just wrong and well that landed me in a world of depression (don't worry I'm back!) and my hair went with it.

Second semester of my sophomore year I decided to try and loose the fifty pounds I gained freshman year. (I did say shit went wrong physically didn't I?) Well that forced me definitely into rocking natural hair. I alternated throughout the semester between braid outs and a "straight fro" (cuz my hair doesn't fro...unless it kinks and even then it's a sad excuse for a fro so it just looks like a volumonous wrap that doesn't wrap lol) Then I came across this national hair growth competition which sent me on the journey of no return.

I've learned so much! But honestly it feels like an information overload. First it was what product should I use? Then what regimen should I follow? Then should I be using this product? It has what it in?! Ah damn can't use that. The real natural stuff costs how much? Okay so it the chemical stuff so bad? ...It grew my hair when I was younger.

SOOOOO MUCH TO FIGURE OUT! but I'm not on this journey alone and well. it. feels. beautfiful; to take this much pride in one's natural self is breath taking because for so long so many people have been telling us, that what we got ain't what we should want. We have been so poorly educated in how to care for our hair (not to mention all the harmful products we use and I'm not just talking about on our hair) It is unfair that we live in such a society that should treat it's minority population as an afterthought as opposed to a population of persons that need care that differs from the majority -and that isn't bad. It's just different! However, big corporations only ever see MAJORITY and the money and the advertising, investing, attention is gonna go there WELP! TOO BAD SUCKA EMCEES cuz we naturals it OVER HERE!

It isn't about placing ourselves on pedestals. But loving that which makes us, us. To all my naturals....CHEERS