Natural Hair Movement????

I was a little black girl with long, thick and course hair. My mother had no idea how to maintain my hair nor how to keep it healthy. Like most mothers in our community she resorted to the “Creamy Crack” which is to say that she chemically relaxed my hair with products designed to straighten the hair of little black girls with unmanageable tresses.

I was nine years old when my mother relaxed my hair for the first time. The chemicals took to my hair like a charm because it’s witch craft you know. I digress. My hair was the smoothest it has ever been and the straightening agent elongated my hair and gave me a look of ( Do you have Indian in your family??) and extra attention from various people. I was pretty, as said by many. What was I before?

Needless to say this hair regimen became routine and a way of life for me. It also began a road to damaging hair and scalp issues. If one iota of new hair growth peeped through, I knew it was time to set in motion acquiring my “hair fix”, thus the creamy crack analogy. I couldn’t allow the world to see me as “unpretty”. Sad, I know, but that was my reality because I couldn’t be unpretty, I just couldn’t. My face and hair were my most valuable assets by society’s standards because I was also a “heavy set, plus size fat girl” so I needed to be pretty!

Once I got older and truly valued myself for who I am and not what I look like, it allowed me to care less and less of what society thought of me and more of how I saw myself. I began to grow out of my chemically induced products for seven months and it was harrrrrrrd! And what I thought would be even harder was chopping off the relaxed portions of my hair leaving me with a small Afro. Who knew how wrong I was? I felt liberated!!! Their was a renewed sense of purpose for me (if that makes any sense). I didn’t feel ugly, I felt purposeful. My out look changed in many facets of my life and my view of others as well. It was wonderful.

I often wondered why when most women became more educated on this topic and wanted to reclaim the natural state of their hair, why media outlets named it a “movement” as if it was a trend or a phase. There is a well acquainted phrase my pastor often says and it’s “When you know better, you do better” and for many African Americans women educating themselves on hair care and fully making the decision to RETURN natural is a preference not a movement.

Do I miss my relaxers? Honestly. I did on many occasions and that was because I felt I needed a certain “look” for a holiday function or an event where my kinky coils would not fit in. I quickly got over that stinking thinking and once again researched the many versatile styles my hair could achieve without backsliding to my former addiction.

There are hundreds of thousands of bloggers and vloggers chronicling their natural hair journey but every experience is different. There will be successes and failures but it wouldn’t be a journey without hills and valleys. If you’re interested in following my journey, subscribe to my You Tube channel: Crissygurl. I will come out of my introverted comfort zone and share another piece of me with you all. 💁🏾‍♀️