I recently developed a new passion. I've been hesitant to mention it before and have actually kept it all under wraps for a while but my obsession is growing by the day and its getting to the point where I feel I have to say something or I'll just explode! It's not really a new passion, just an old one infused with a new burst of energy and information and a whole new world of people who just like me are discovering a part of themselves that has been cherished and abused and despised and tortured. Manipulated and hated. Teased and preened and proudly flounced and shown off... Its amazing the things we do to our hair and it still faithfully just keeps growing back. Yes. I'm crazy about my hair.
I recently stumbled upon this whole hair revolution quite by accident. I have always been a rather hands on do it yourself type of person when it came to my hair. I love to do my own hair and so after I got into the whole relaxer phase and had to get my hair done at the salon every two weeks it used to bother me. So much that one time I tried to wash my own hair at home, for old time's sake, I ended up with a tangled mess that I eventually had to cut-off. That was the first time I went natural. After shedding a few tears at the hair loss I embraced it. Finally, hair I could wash again.
I managed to put up with it for a while until it grew quite a bit and became rather unmanageable, I found myself back at this lovely new hairdressers getting my hair relaxed again. She worked wonders and my hair was lovely all curly and bouncy and shiny, I played with it, coloured it and pretty much enjoyed the hell out of it, but my hands itched to get in on the action and I would spend a lot of the time braiding my hair just so I could have a part of the fun. After having my hair in braids for several months in a row I took my hair out and realised I had a sizeable amount of hair underneath after some contemplation, out came the scissors and I was free again. I was determined to stay natural this time around and decided to try locing it when it got too long to manage. Two years later, I still can't get myself to do it. Just as well because after a visit to a salon where I had to have my hair teased and pulled and fried by a hairdresser who had no idea what do with it and kept asking me every few minutes why I just couldn't get my hair relaxed, I realised that I love my hair just as it is. It was almost an epiphany. I love my hair.
Then one day while trawling the web looking for styling ideas for my hair I came across Long Hair Care Forums and it was like finding my long lost family. This site led me to tons of other hair care sites, hair inspirations. Who'd have thunk it? People who are just as obsessed about hair (many of them much more) than I am. I couldn't believe it. Now, several months, and tons of information later. Here I am... so madly in love with this stuff that grows on my head. And I can feel it loving me right back too. It's healthier and more manageable than it has ever been and I know that things will only keep getting better and better.
I was surprised to discover that this new love for our hair is being viewed as a sort of revolution. Many of the 'natural' hair sites tended to take a very militant approach to hair care with strict rules about what is or is not considered natural. I could sense a lot of pain in that and it seemed rather misplaced because this is just hair we're talking about.
But is it 'just hair'? Or does our hair carry with it our unhealed wounds of self-hatred and feelings of inadequacy from being unable to attain an illusive image of beauty that society has long presented us with? Is it the physical manifestation of our desire to fit in and our inability to do so? Sometimes it's more than just hair, it conceals a plethora of beliefs that tend to trickle down into how we feel about ourselves and how proud we are of who we are. It is so great to come to a place where hair becomes just hair, and better still becomes beautiful hair, just as it is. An outlet for freedom and self expression, no matter what it looks like. Whether it is worn in its natural state or preened and teased into whatever it is the wearer conceives in their mind. To look at yourself and think to yourself, I love my hair. Braided, relaxed, coloured, loced, spiked and barely there... it's just hair.
And if you take a good look. It is all beautiful hair... just as it is.
I Am Not My Hair - India Arie I recently stumbled upon this whole hair revolution quite by accident. I have always been a rather hands on do it yourself type of person when it came to my hair. I love to do my own hair and so after I got into the whole relaxer phase and had to get my hair done at the salon every two weeks it used to bother me. So much that one time I tried to wash my own hair at home, for old time's sake, I ended up with a tangled mess that I eventually had to cut-off. That was the first time I went natural. After shedding a few tears at the hair loss I embraced it. Finally, hair I could wash again.
I managed to put up with it for a while until it grew quite a bit and became rather unmanageable, I found myself back at this lovely new hairdressers getting my hair relaxed again. She worked wonders and my hair was lovely all curly and bouncy and shiny, I played with it, coloured it and pretty much enjoyed the hell out of it, but my hands itched to get in on the action and I would spend a lot of the time braiding my hair just so I could have a part of the fun. After having my hair in braids for several months in a row I took my hair out and realised I had a sizeable amount of hair underneath after some contemplation, out came the scissors and I was free again. I was determined to stay natural this time around and decided to try locing it when it got too long to manage. Two years later, I still can't get myself to do it. Just as well because after a visit to a salon where I had to have my hair teased and pulled and fried by a hairdresser who had no idea what do with it and kept asking me every few minutes why I just couldn't get my hair relaxed, I realised that I love my hair just as it is. It was almost an epiphany. I love my hair.
Then one day while trawling the web looking for styling ideas for my hair I came across Long Hair Care Forums and it was like finding my long lost family. This site led me to tons of other hair care sites, hair inspirations. Who'd have thunk it? People who are just as obsessed about hair (many of them much more) than I am. I couldn't believe it. Now, several months, and tons of information later. Here I am... so madly in love with this stuff that grows on my head. And I can feel it loving me right back too. It's healthier and more manageable than it has ever been and I know that things will only keep getting better and better.
I was surprised to discover that this new love for our hair is being viewed as a sort of revolution. Many of the 'natural' hair sites tended to take a very militant approach to hair care with strict rules about what is or is not considered natural. I could sense a lot of pain in that and it seemed rather misplaced because this is just hair we're talking about.
But is it 'just hair'? Or does our hair carry with it our unhealed wounds of self-hatred and feelings of inadequacy from being unable to attain an illusive image of beauty that society has long presented us with? Is it the physical manifestation of our desire to fit in and our inability to do so? Sometimes it's more than just hair, it conceals a plethora of beliefs that tend to trickle down into how we feel about ourselves and how proud we are of who we are. It is so great to come to a place where hair becomes just hair, and better still becomes beautiful hair, just as it is. An outlet for freedom and self expression, no matter what it looks like. Whether it is worn in its natural state or preened and teased into whatever it is the wearer conceives in their mind. To look at yourself and think to yourself, I love my hair. Braided, relaxed, coloured, loced, spiked and barely there... it's just hair.
And if you take a good look. It is all beautiful hair... just as it is.
Little girl with the press and curl
Age eight I got a Jheri curl
Thirteen I got a relaxer
I was a source of so much laughter
At fifteen when it all broke off
Eighteen and went all natural
February two thousand and two
I went and did
What I had to do
Because it was time to change my life
To become the women that I am inside
Ninety-seven dreadlock all gone
I looked in the mirror
For the first time and saw that HEY....
I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations no no
I am not my hair
I ma not this skin
I am a soul that lives within
Good hair means curls and waves
Bad hair means you look like a slave
At the turn of the century
Its time for us to redefine who we be
You can shave it off
Like a South African beauty
Or get in on loc
Like Bob Marley
You can rock it straight
Like Oprah Winfrey
If its not what's on your head
Its what's underneath and say HEY....
Does the way I wear my hair make me a better person?
Does the way I wear my hair make me a better friend? Oooh
Does the way I wear my hair determine my integrity?
I am expressing my creativity..
Breast Cancer and Chemotherapy
Took away her crown and glory
She promised God if she was to survive
She would enjoy everyday of her life ooh
On national television
Her diamond eyes are sparkling
Bald headed like a full moon shining
Singing out to the whole wide world like HEY...
If I wanna shave it close
Or if I wanna rock locs
That don't take a bit away
From the soul that I got
If I wanna wear it braided
All down my back
I don't see what wrong with that
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