Hair, it is a complex and high maintenance prospect of life in our society. Some people choose to shave their heads to not have to deal with it. For some hair is a struggle. I am a part of that some because I do not even know how to braid. I am also one of the lucky ones because my mother does my hair and she does a great time each time she does it. This essay, however, is about my game of tug of war with my hair and the simple but also complicated process of transitioning to chemically relaxed hair to my natural hair. I will discuss my experiences with my hair before I decided to transition, how it was during the transitioning process and finally how my life is present day, now that I am completely natural. When I was about five years
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I, on the other hand, wasn’t having that because I absolutely did not want to be bald at school as a middle schooler and I was very popular at that time. One time we went to a beauty supply store and they explained the concept of transitioning to my mom and that was the route that we chose for me to take instead of the big chop. Transitioning is when instead of cutting off all the chemically relaxed hair at once you grow out your hair and as time goes on trim your hair so that it stays the same length until there is no more chemically relaxed hair left. May 2014, that is the first time that I had box braids and those box braids were my very first step in this new natural direction. To my surprise the process to get those braids took way longer than the process of getting a perm but I still liked the fact that it was something different that my hair never experienced prior to that time. After that we did what is called a straw set. Yes, it is called a straw set because it dealt with straws and it gave me very tight curl spirals. We did many styles like that and sometimes had my hair fully braided and did some crochet braid styles. These styles were there to conceal the line of demarcation between the chemically relaxed ends and the new growth in the roots. On March 20, 2015, a big day and the official day of me being …show more content…
There were many moments when I really hated my decision of going natural because believe it or not natural hair is a hassle. On top of that some insecurities of mine really start to show when I wear my hair out at times. Don’t get me wrong though I do love my natural kinky coily hair and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world there are simply inner struggles. My hair was growing and flourishing but then something went awry. My hair started to break off in this one section of my hair and it was partially noticeable. I couldn’t wear it out as a normal afro with nothing pushing it up into a puff. That period of my natural hair journey taught me something very important though. Sometimes on the outside everything looks okay but if you look inward then you will be able to start noticing problems. That changed my life because I never tried to access life that way because it never dawned on me to do that. Don’t even get me started on shrinkage. My 4c natural hair is so tightly packed that you would think that my hair is only three inches long but the truth of it is that it is eight inches long. My natural hair has shined a new light on life for me and I don’t consistently regret my
I, on the other hand, wasn’t having that because I absolutely did not want to be bald at school as a middle schooler and I was very popular at that time. One time we went to a beauty supply store and they explained the concept of transitioning to my mom and that was the route that we chose for me to take instead of the big chop. Transitioning is when instead of cutting off all the chemically relaxed hair at once you grow out your hair and as time goes on trim your hair so that it stays the same length until there is no more chemically relaxed hair left. May 2014, that is the first time that I had box braids and those box braids were my very first step in this new natural direction. To my surprise the process to get those braids took way longer than the process of getting a perm but I still liked the fact that it was something different that my hair never experienced prior to that time. After that we did what is called a straw set. Yes, it is called a straw set because it dealt with straws and it gave me very tight curl spirals. We did many styles like that and sometimes had my hair fully braided and did some crochet braid styles. These styles were there to conceal the line of demarcation between the chemically relaxed ends and the new growth in the roots. On March 20, 2015, a big day and the official day of me being …show more content…
There were many moments when I really hated my decision of going natural because believe it or not natural hair is a hassle. On top of that some insecurities of mine really start to show when I wear my hair out at times. Don’t get me wrong though I do love my natural kinky coily hair and wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world there are simply inner struggles. My hair was growing and flourishing but then something went awry. My hair started to break off in this one section of my hair and it was partially noticeable. I couldn’t wear it out as a normal afro with nothing pushing it up into a puff. That period of my natural hair journey taught me something very important though. Sometimes on the outside everything looks okay but if you look inward then you will be able to start noticing problems. That changed my life because I never tried to access life that way because it never dawned on me to do that. Don’t even get me started on shrinkage. My 4c natural hair is so tightly packed that you would think that my hair is only three inches long but the truth of it is that it is eight inches long. My natural hair has shined a new light on life for me and I don’t consistently regret my