I realized that I haven't mentioned anything about my own journey into napturality so here is a little question and answer session about my journey. (and no the photo to the right is not me!
How long have you been natural?
I really can't even remember but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say since about 2002 or 2003.
Why did you decide to go natural?
Well, it really wasn't a conscious decision that I made. I, of course, had been a permie until the emergence of braids and micro braids. I had been wearing braided styles since about 1991 or 1992. Occasionally, when I would take them out, I would relax my hair if I was wearing it out for a while or sometimes just the edges if I wanted my braids to look nice. Most of the time I was in braids anyway so becoming natural just kind of happened. I realized that because I was just going to re-braid it anyway, why bother relaxing. I turned to braids because I liked the growth factor. My hair grew so much when I was pregnant and in braids and I wanted to keep the momentum going so to speak. During that time, I was the hair board queen, I started looking at photos of natural hair and all of a sudden relaxed hair seemed less and less appealing to me.
Did You have a long or short transition?
I guess while I was...
wearing the braids, I was actually transitioning without knowing it or at least without planning to so I would have to say long. My plan was to stay in braids but the more natural heads I saw, the more curious I became about my own natural hair.
Did You Big chop?
Not really but I do remember the day I cut off my relaxed ends. I had talked my mother into getting braids, (her first time ever and she had a really cute cornrowed style) After taking them out, she washed her hair without combing it out first and was met with a head full of matted, tangled mess. She then got out the scissors and cut her hair down to a TWA and a week or two later I followed suit. (not down to a TWA mind you,because I had some length from wearing braids for so long) I remember that day like it was yesterday. I had just stepped out of the shower and just decided to cut off my relaxed ends. (a month or two before I had taken down a braid and cut the relaxed ends off of that section) I still wore braids for a while after that until scalp issues and a bald patch made me ditch the braids for good. I didn't totally miss out on the Big chop though as I was forced to do it 2 years ago after a bad dye job left me with broken edges around my hair line to about an inch back.
What Do You Love about being natural?
I love the versatility that I have now that Im natural. I love that my hair is big and beautiful and stands up straight and salutes people as they pass by. I love the fact that water is now my friend, raining out? No problem my hair loves it? No more talk of sweating my hair out, no more swimming without getting my hair wet, no more burns from the curling iron and sitting in hair salons for hours on end.( although that was a rarity for me because I have always been a do it yourselfer as far as my hair is concerned.) I love everything about being natural, I mean really, What's not to love?
What types of styles do you wear?
I mostly wear twists,and twist outs. I ,on occasion when I can get it right, wear wash and goes and puffs (although I haven't worn a puff in a while now). Currently I'm contemplating locing so I've been in twists now for about a month or so. I'm the type that likes to stay playing in my hair and I love to change it up and experiment with products a lot so right now I'm just trying to see how long I can stay in twists without touching them and I'm finding it hard as hell.
What's so hard about it?
Well the most difficult thing for me is to not re twist my hair when they start looking fuzzy and lose. As a matter of fact, after a month or more of twists(I think some even began to bud) I took them down and re-twisted them two days ago in an attempt to make them smaller.
So have you decided to loc for good?
I think I'm just about 99 percent there. I really love the look of sister locks but my mind just cannot rationalize me spending upwards of $600 to have them done. I also like the look of braidlocs and that is something that I would be able to do myself since I was the micro braid queen ( and yes I did my own) but I figure if I somehow changed my mind, un locing a braid would be too difficult to do so for now, I'm settling with my twists. They aren't as tiny as I want them but they'll have to do. I did happen to meet someone who inquired about my hair and told me that her niece had just gotten locks. Of course I talked her ear off and she told me that her niece had gotten sisterlocs for $100 bucks. Now that is definitely doable with me but unfortunately, her niece wasn't with her at the time so I couldn't see if they were actual sisterlocs and how they were done.
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