Doin' the 'Natural' Thang

So it seems to me (btw, I hate when people start off a sentence with "so," just because EVERYone is doing that now...but I'm doing it anyway, and I digress...)...So it seems to me that nowadays the new hair "thing" is "going natural." Maybe it is indeed a new trend that is recently picking up loads of followers, or maybe because I'm getting older it's a trend that's characteristic in my age group. Either way, it's interesting to see the pattern and the trend amongst Black women and their, well our, hair choices.

I have what people of my hue tend to call "good hair." I don't like this terminology but I'm using it because thats the easiest way for all of you to know what I'm talking about, rather than using the hairspeak that I've picked up from my recent and unwaning addiction to LHCF (Long Hair Care Forum). Anyway, when I was little, my mom use to do my hair all the time. I only went to the hairdresser for special occasions....Like....EXTRA special occasions such as preschool graduation. A relaxer was more than out of the question. My hair was thickkkkkk and lonnnnng and, looking back on it, I don't know how my mom did it. Washing hair was an all day task. I would lay down on the kitchen counter on my back with my head hanging in the sink, and she would wash my hair just like that. Rinse thoroughly until there was no shampoo left in my hair (which took almost as long as washing it to begin with), get up, detangle (it was a miracle the day we discovered Just for Me detangler), separate and braid/knot the hair, blow dry section by section, hot comb...All day. Only for me to sweat it out by the time school was over the next day.

It wasn't until 9th grade that I got a relaxer. I was on the Marching Band, and there was no way she was going to have me sweating out my press everyday because she wasn't going to be the one to fix it. And I can't say I blame her. I was excited about my relaxer. I started washing my own hair for the first time - in the shower at that! In my excitement, I was naive. I still sweat my hair out everyday, so I figured the only solution was to flat iron it every morning before school...and that I did. When my ends started to break off, I didn't notice. But my hair dresser did. Over the next few years of high school...probably up until college, my hair got shorter and shorter. Sometimes due to excessive heat, and sometimes because my hair dresser gets a little scissor happy. But I began to grow it back, with the help of LHCF, and now am very happy with it.

Happily un-nappy.

Now here is my issue with this whole natural thing: NOTHING! Absolutely nothing. I think natural hair CAN be gorgeous. Yeah I said it - "can" be. Just because you decided to grow out your relaxer, or chop it all off and sport your natural hair does not mean it's cute. To me, that is. And because it's not MY hair, it really shouldn't make a difference to you what I think about it. So if you are doing the natural thing and having some trouble with it, more power to you!

But don't you dare criticize me because I choose to wear my hair relaxed or straight or rollersetcurly. Not all of us relaxed Black women wear our hair this way because we are Anti-fro...The truth is, for some people, (i.e. MNB) relaxed hair is just more manageable. I like my hair long. Whether it's relaxed or natural, God-willing, it's going to be long. Long relaxed hair works with my schedule. I don't have time to deal with long, natural hair, no matter how beautiful I think it is. So don't tell me that I'm not embracing my African heritage by rejecting the hot comb and settling for the no-lye. Stop making everything so complicated. Sometimes, the motive is simply practical.

Now that I'm done with my rant, I'd like to recommend to everyone to join LHCF. Contrary to what the name may suggest, it's not just for black women with or who want to grow long hair, but for those of us who want to grow healthy hair. There's a lot of support for transitioners (those who are moving from relaxed to texlaxed/natural) and weave-wearers and whatever else you can think of. It's really great.