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I know you can.

3/17/10

Why I went natural





The other day after 6 months of transitioning, I had the remaining of my perm cut off. I took a picture of my new crop and sent a mass text & uploaded the pic to facebook. Many of my close friends were so happy, because they know that I have been wanting to go natural for the longest (since 2003). Mostly everyone LOVES my natural hair, but there are two incidents that disturbed me. A friend guy of mine received the picture of me, and simply responded "Wow". This friend has told me on numerous occasions that he thinks I'm gorgeous, now I'm convinced that what he meant to say was my hair was gorgeous. Incident number two: My stepfather calls me asnd says "I have 3 boys, not 4". I didn't know that by me cutting my hair that I had lost all of my female parts & transformed to a boy. Needless to say those two incidents hurt my feelings. Thank God for family & friends who are supportive, natural friends, natural twitter groups, blogs, etc. So what made me do it? In September I saw Chris Rocks "Good Hair". It was disturbing to see the length that some Black women will go in order to achieve "beauty". Who told us that our natural hair isn't beautiful? Why is it that women of other races can wear their natural hair, but we can't? My decision was also spiritual. "God saw all that he had made and it was good" Gen 1:31. This is how God created the hair of people of African descent and it's good. Who are we to permanently alter it? Does God make mistakes? Did he forget to straighten our hair?I once saw a girl one the train with fake hair, fake eyelashes, fake nails, and she had on gucci boots, with a gucci purse. I thought to myself "I wonder how pretty she is without all that mess". Why is she hiding? We have been so conditioned to only accept beauty in one form that we are afraid of our own unique, powerful beauty.If I would've known that by me cutting MY hair would personally offend some people, or cause people to act different towards me, then I would've cut it shorter. My only regret is that I didn't go natural sooner.



"NOW TAKE THESE KINKS OUT OF YOUR MIND, INSTEAD OF YOUR HAIR" -Marcus Garvey-

4 comments:

  1. Welcome to the Natural world...Fabulous that you made the transformation. Please visit www.naturaliscoolenough.blogspot.com and comment on the shea butter post and win a t-shirt and shea butter or share your new hairstyle and win a t-shirt. Congratulations and love your blog!

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  2. First and foremost, you are absolutely beautiful! We probably would have never seen your features if you kept your hair long! It is so sad that we have made so many accomplishments, yet we are still slaves to relaxers, weaves, etc. Like you, it took me a long time to cut off my hair. I finally went natural in 2005 and stayed that way for 2.5 years. After those years of dealing with the tight curls and a bathroom full of different products, I was weak and went back. After only a few weeks of being relaxed again, my hair said 'Why the hell did you do that?' and started shedding to teach me a lesson. Well, that was last May and the last of the relaxer is gone; this time I cut it as if grew. To be honest, I think I was rebelling against the myth that you have to have long hair to be beautiful (READ: the Black men who think like that). Now I am learning about all the different products out there and I am looking forward to sporting the curly look for summer!

    I think you look fabulous..to hell with everyone else! You do you!

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  3. Your hair looks amazing and you are absolutely beautiful! I've been transitioning since November 2009. Even before that I was only relaxing my hair twice a year.

    As long as you love YOU and your natural hair forget everyone else.

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  4. Thanks guys for the comments. I didn't realize how much I was going against the grain until I cut my hair. Today I was with women from South Africa, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. They all said that I look like an African Princess. I know that it is because of my natural hair... I'm loving it :-)

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