To most of us, our hair makes a huge statement to the world about us. It's often referred as your "Crowning Glory" and most of the time I hoped to feel like a queen when my hair is styled right and flowing nicely with the breeze. That is of course, with the help of long flowing extensions from a weave, braids or wigs. Since as far back as junior high school I remember wanting to wear extensions of some sort or another. The fact is, I did. I tried so many different looks with curls, perms (aka relaxers), braids and weaves. In particular weaves. Sadly, I don't have that many pictures from those times. In more recent years though, with the help of cell phones that take pictures and digital cameras, I've been secretly trying to catalogue my hair looks. Over the years I think I became so hooked on weaves and extensions, that the thought of anyone I know or even strangers seeing me without long fake hair was terrifying. Imagine not being able to face the world as yourself?!! The thought seemed horrid to me. Yet, there I was, caught in that trap of not being able to be myself, year after year.
For so many reasons, likely dating back to slavery, many women of colour are embarassed to show their naturally kinky-curly, coiled hair to anyone. I mean who could blame us? The media was not very welcoming to women of colour who chose to show their natural hair either. With the message to "Tame" our hair constantly around. In fact I recently read an article about Oprah's hairstylist suggesting our hair textures must be tamed. That to me, makes it worse when you have others of colour encouraging that we tame our kinks or cover it up all-together. There is something seriously wrong with this. There were, and still are, images of black women with long straight flowing hair in fashion magazines and don't forget those music videos, with long luxurious looking hair weaves and extensions! I like to think of it as the Pocahontas or Poca Effect. Believe me, I know all about it. i truly love the look too. You'll see in my video that I've done it too. I've so been there and done that. I think I've finally seen the light and overcome being a part of this web of damaging deception. It is now time to get hair wise!
In my personal quest to live my life authentically, I've come to realize that I've been missing out. Missing out on connecting with my beautiful kinky hair. All of these years, I've ignored it and essentially hid it from the world, when I should've been celebrating it. Heck, I should've been flaunting it. I was under the impression that for years, I could never have long hair. Just one of the many myths about our hair type. I believed that black women couldn't have naturally long hair unless they were of a mixed heritage because that's what we were all told. This now angers and saddens me that I could've been so blinded by lies are we all are in so many different ways in the world. Boy, all of these years lost on truly loving my hair. I've made so many stylists richer. Some of the stylists out there are the worst for endorsing these myths. Sometimes, they're just plain old jealous and don't want to see their clients achieve growing long, healthy looking hair. Hence the wake-up call for me. I trusted her to care for my hair and she may have hurt it and me in more ways than one.
In May 2009, I went to see a stylist that I'd been seeing for about a year or so. I had been somewhat pleased with her work, particularly her weaves. She'd once told me I look much better with long weaves so that further secured my notion to never be seen with my natural hair. Although, the salon was actually a barber shop and it was often very painful for me to go and get my hair done with all of the men in there seeing my short and natural kinky hair. I would always feel a sense of panic or anxiety going into the salon that would last until I walked out of the salon.
The last time I saw her, she did a perm (or relaxer), then a weave. The big issue was an incident that occurred with the very last relaxer I had and will ever have. She was applying the relaxer to my hair and a huge strand of hair coated with relaxer had slapped me in my left eye. She did nothing. She just kept quickly applying the perm to my hair. I needed a second to wipe and wished I could've rinsed my eye, but I didn't get that chance. Again, she continued working on my hair, not allowing me the chance to go to the washroom to rinse my eye. It was a horrible experience. When I got home I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, praying that I wouldn't go blind at all. To this day, I have serious vision problems in my left eye. I never ever went back to that salon. I've only been to one other salon and that was in June 2010 to have only a weave applied to my hair. That too was not necessarily the greatest experience, but at least I didn't end up with lye in my eyes. I've never been to a salon since. I will never ever have any chemical treatments done on my hair. If I go to a salon again, it will be one that specializes in natural haircare. it must feel comfortable in every aspect or I leave. Period.
For me, I decided in December 2009, that I would do my BC (big chop). I cut off any relaxed part of my hair right down to my natural kinky roots. My hair was very short and of course, I cried. I felt so unattractive and bare. My two small kids stared at me with surprise and wonderment. I took pictures, knowing that maybe one day I'd look back to compare growth. When I went to that salon in June of 2010, my hair was still natural, hiding under yet another fancy weave. But last fall I'd decided that that was it. Enough is enough.
I'm now embracing and loving my natural hair. I'm going to try to catalogue my natural hair care and growth journey as much as possible. I hope that maybe I can inspire someone out there to do the same. I know that for me, I've enjoyed watching videos on YouTube of other naturally curly women doing the same. I think it's important to do this. Sharing and spreading the knowledge and experiences are so important. I would like to also do the same. I will share, as best as I can, my experiences, knowledge, recipes or even techniques with you all. I am not a hair expert or stylist, again, these will be based on my own experiences and things I've learned along the way from other sites or women. There will be no stealing of information from anyone. I will clearly state where I get information from (with permission of course). So come along with me and let's tame the world's outdated views about beautiful kinky-curly and afro textured hair.
Here is a link to a video I made showcasing only a couple of unnatural looks and several natural ones. I love my natural hair! More to come as my hair growth progresses. Peace to you all natural lovelies!
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=c437be221e1b926ec6a0af&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
For so many reasons, likely dating back to slavery, many women of colour are embarassed to show their naturally kinky-curly, coiled hair to anyone. I mean who could blame us? The media was not very welcoming to women of colour who chose to show their natural hair either. With the message to "Tame" our hair constantly around. In fact I recently read an article about Oprah's hairstylist suggesting our hair textures must be tamed. That to me, makes it worse when you have others of colour encouraging that we tame our kinks or cover it up all-together. There is something seriously wrong with this. There were, and still are, images of black women with long straight flowing hair in fashion magazines and don't forget those music videos, with long luxurious looking hair weaves and extensions! I like to think of it as the Pocahontas or Poca Effect. Believe me, I know all about it. i truly love the look too. You'll see in my video that I've done it too. I've so been there and done that. I think I've finally seen the light and overcome being a part of this web of damaging deception. It is now time to get hair wise!
In my personal quest to live my life authentically, I've come to realize that I've been missing out. Missing out on connecting with my beautiful kinky hair. All of these years, I've ignored it and essentially hid it from the world, when I should've been celebrating it. Heck, I should've been flaunting it. I was under the impression that for years, I could never have long hair. Just one of the many myths about our hair type. I believed that black women couldn't have naturally long hair unless they were of a mixed heritage because that's what we were all told. This now angers and saddens me that I could've been so blinded by lies are we all are in so many different ways in the world. Boy, all of these years lost on truly loving my hair. I've made so many stylists richer. Some of the stylists out there are the worst for endorsing these myths. Sometimes, they're just plain old jealous and don't want to see their clients achieve growing long, healthy looking hair. Hence the wake-up call for me. I trusted her to care for my hair and she may have hurt it and me in more ways than one.
In May 2009, I went to see a stylist that I'd been seeing for about a year or so. I had been somewhat pleased with her work, particularly her weaves. She'd once told me I look much better with long weaves so that further secured my notion to never be seen with my natural hair. Although, the salon was actually a barber shop and it was often very painful for me to go and get my hair done with all of the men in there seeing my short and natural kinky hair. I would always feel a sense of panic or anxiety going into the salon that would last until I walked out of the salon.
The last time I saw her, she did a perm (or relaxer), then a weave. The big issue was an incident that occurred with the very last relaxer I had and will ever have. She was applying the relaxer to my hair and a huge strand of hair coated with relaxer had slapped me in my left eye. She did nothing. She just kept quickly applying the perm to my hair. I needed a second to wipe and wished I could've rinsed my eye, but I didn't get that chance. Again, she continued working on my hair, not allowing me the chance to go to the washroom to rinse my eye. It was a horrible experience. When I got home I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, praying that I wouldn't go blind at all. To this day, I have serious vision problems in my left eye. I never ever went back to that salon. I've only been to one other salon and that was in June 2010 to have only a weave applied to my hair. That too was not necessarily the greatest experience, but at least I didn't end up with lye in my eyes. I've never been to a salon since. I will never ever have any chemical treatments done on my hair. If I go to a salon again, it will be one that specializes in natural haircare. it must feel comfortable in every aspect or I leave. Period.
For me, I decided in December 2009, that I would do my BC (big chop). I cut off any relaxed part of my hair right down to my natural kinky roots. My hair was very short and of course, I cried. I felt so unattractive and bare. My two small kids stared at me with surprise and wonderment. I took pictures, knowing that maybe one day I'd look back to compare growth. When I went to that salon in June of 2010, my hair was still natural, hiding under yet another fancy weave. But last fall I'd decided that that was it. Enough is enough.
I'm now embracing and loving my natural hair. I'm going to try to catalogue my natural hair care and growth journey as much as possible. I hope that maybe I can inspire someone out there to do the same. I know that for me, I've enjoyed watching videos on YouTube of other naturally curly women doing the same. I think it's important to do this. Sharing and spreading the knowledge and experiences are so important. I would like to also do the same. I will share, as best as I can, my experiences, knowledge, recipes or even techniques with you all. I am not a hair expert or stylist, again, these will be based on my own experiences and things I've learned along the way from other sites or women. There will be no stealing of information from anyone. I will clearly state where I get information from (with permission of course). So come along with me and let's tame the world's outdated views about beautiful kinky-curly and afro textured hair.
Here is a link to a video I made showcasing only a couple of unnatural looks and several natural ones. I love my natural hair! More to come as my hair growth progresses. Peace to you all natural lovelies!
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=c437be221e1b926ec6a0af&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
No comments:
Post a Comment