Hair, Already Here!!

Let's move from the theatrics of saying all the wonderful benefits that natural hair can offer and get straight to the root of the situation!  Nurtured, loved and grown, where do we grow from here! I couldn't resist the pun in that one.  I have been natural for 2 years and 10 mths. and I am quite fascinated with the phases that my hair has journeyed  through.  I am loving the fact that I can pull it into a flawless puff, or allow the curls to cascade down my shoulders.  However, I  am wondering what phase comes next or at all?  Is all the hair that to be adorned on my crown already HERE!!

Will my hair continue this exciting journey or have I been plagued to be one of the many that have reached  my terminal length.  I am actually still reluctant to believe there is one but I digress.  Let's face it one of the many benefits of being natural is the remarkable state that our tresses can grow.  The healthy state that we can cultivate them  to  maintain. 

Fully understanding terminal length has me questioning if our counterpart of naturally locked brothers and sister excluded from this so called terminal length merely because there shed hair just continues on in their lock OR could it be that our hair if uninterrupted just really keeps growing and growing and growing.  After all when put into protective styles in effort to be away from the elements our hair flourishes and grows.

So my question to myself am I okay with the  here that is currently fixated on my head  or do I yearn for more?  Is my hair at the terminal length that even if I continue protective styling or nurturing it would get no longer???  We have all learned and have some level of understanding of the phases of growth that goes in and out of dormancy BUT does our hair really have a final destination! What's your take on it?

When to get PROFESSIONAL HAIR HELP!



bglhonline.com

So your on this journey with me.  I have to assume this considering after all your reading a "natural hair blog." Or maybe you are considering leaving the white Crisco alternative alone.  Either way let me warn all of you back of the house, in your bathroom late at night COSMOTOLOGISTS!  Yes, COSMOTOLOGIST.  Eh hum,  SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP WHEN TRIMMING, DUSTING, OR CUTTING YOUR HAIR. 

Yes, I am yelling because, yes it is that serious.  I have been natural for 11 months eagerly educated myself and researched and cross canceled...You get the picture I studied, every technique known yet I made the reckless mistake of UNEVENLY  big chopping.  Now this was not a problem at all in my earlier phases but I tell you Bob, or Karen or you, I hate that I now embark on my 1 year anniversary after have retained a bit of length yet in my 11th month noticed that I will at some point have to ...cut a CHUNK to even it. 


Now I know that this doesn't have to be done now I can just let it go slowly but my point being I could have avoided this had I not Big Chopped at 2am in the morning after watching endless hours of my fellow Youtubers!  As a whole I am pleased with my length retention and a great deal of it has to with protective style as well as my 6 month transitioning.  I have to say a piece of me sure wishes that the whole of my head was as long as the piece that effortlessly touches the collar bone of my neck.  Sigh, lesson has been learned so YOU don't have to. 

Embrace The Stage your in...Even The TWA

Embrace The stage your in...Even if it’s the TWA

So you big chopped now what? You have mastered the all too familiar wash and go and now your bored. You can barely wait to adorn those strands with two strand twist or seductive twist outs and coils that have major hang time. But I warn you not to rush. After all longer hair natural’s envy you in this million degree weather. Embrace the stage that your in and learn from it.

I recently just graduated from what seemed to be an endless time of co wash, apply product and then off to enjoy the cares of life. It couldn't get any better. I was amused by the ease and the liberty that accompanied this new low maintenance style. Yet, 3 months of that and the amusement of how simple it was, was gone! I searched and researched the Internet endlessly trying to find new cute ideas and accessories all while trying to figure out when my first “real” puff would arrive. I knew that only patience would bring what I longed for so I waited, and waited, and waited.

4 months out of my 7 month transition my “growth” came. “ Oh, wow, your hair looks really good and it is growing beautifully!” There, I had the growth that I needed. Let me be clear my hair hadn't gotten any longer than the 3 inches of curls that I had, but the growth came in my maturity. No it wasn't that I lacked confidence because my mind was made up to endure the process once I chopped. The growth came when I learned how to embrace the stage I was in. 

Each stage of my journey from the initial thought has been amazing. My transition allowed me to see that straight hair was not the only way to keep my hair manageable, my big chop allowed me to see that long hair was not the Utopia of beauty, and as my coils and kink’s grow I am learning new hairstyles and how to build health through each stage. Now, I view the stage that I am in as a blessing. I envy the Big chopped girls because after all we are in the dead of summer and let’s face it they have the perfect swimming, and get up and go be fierce hair, and yet I envy the longer haired girls because they have the perfect updo sassy hair. Yet I embrace the stage I am in after all both girls wanna be where us TA’s are LOL. We have the ease of manipulating longer styles to fit our length yet it’s short enough not to work to hard to rock it and becoming overheated. So, as we embrace our stages let’s treat it as we do life. Learn from it, Laugh at it and embrace the stage that we are in.

Although, infancy is the place we all long for in hindsight it’s maturity once reached that we wish we had when we look back.

Natural Hair Envy is Why I became a Natural!

Compliments of Google Image

There I was sitting in the mall's food court staring endlessly at a women's hair.  Her curls streamed the back of her neck endlessly, cascaded over her shoulder's effortlessly and shined radiantly under the soft iridescent light of the fluorescent bulbs in the food court.  I remember wondering what treatment or process she used to get such healthy hair. I sat wishing that I had the nerve to ask her where she got her hair done or what product's she used.  And that, is exactly what I did.  I sat there, wishing,  that one day those long flowing stresses would be my crown and glory.  I had no idea of the ethnicity, the process or if it was a treatment.  I just knew that my hair in its relaxed state was not given the body that this girl's hair was.  So I did as many of us would have done.  I went home and braided my chemically treated strands to give the illusion of wavy or curly hair.  Now this may not have been everyones instinct to do but something about the freedom the health and the style in this woman's curl captivated and intrigued me to no end.  After trying thin braid outs that came out to stringy, thick braid outs that came out to limp and wet braid outs that came out too limp. I finally just twisted my hair out and yes, the illusion of the wave was definitely there, but the volume the strength and the sheen were no where in sight.  Why?  I had no idea as to why at the time.  Several years passed and I still had the vague memory of that woman's crown and glory.  I still remembered the strength that ran through both her presence and her hair.  Time went on and never did I think to ask anyone of that hairstyle.  Often in the past if I seen a fly doobi' or rockin' wrap I wouldn't think twice to ask someone or even the person how they obtained that look.  But I never did, I continued processing my hair and chucked her hair up to simply be hair of a different persuasion.  Before long I notice a new fad that had taken place in many of our hair was singing the same song as woman I had encountered year's earlier.  Was the Jerri curl making a come back in a more chic way, was it that more babies of multiple diversities were being birthed, or was there a new brand of weave on the market. The answer for all was no.  They had simply embraced the hair that naturally toiled, turned and curved out of their scalps.  they had embraced the soft and kinky strands that we had all to often forgotten long after receiving that first flat iron, press out or texturizer.  After all, the purpose was to "maintain" or make our hair "manageable".  But why was their hair so tamed in it's natural "skin"

African American women have been rocking there hair in it's natural persona long before Chris Rock's well known biography "Good Hair" hit media.  They have been silently educating through their display of beauty and effortlessly rocked their hair in all it's glory.   From Whoopi Goldberg to Camille Cosby these women have supported and flawlessly grabbed the attention of the media to show that our hair is not only beautiful but fierce.  Our hair demands attention, it demands to be noticed and more than ever it demands to be accepted.  After several long evenings of seeking and scouring to find the answer to what I was silently wanting, I found it, and everywhere.  I found it on Facebook through I <3 Naturalista, I found it on YouTube through YouTube Alumni and veterans such as NikkiMae, Kimmytube and MsVcharles my favorites.  I found it through twitter and blogs such as Naturalsunshine.ning, and CurlyNikki.  I found it through women that decided to break out of the status quo embrace beauty in all its textures and pave the way for many of us to follow.  My journey has just started and it has been just that, a journey.  I have had to explain, encourage, answer and defend my decision to choose to accept the hair that God has chosen for me.  And I don't mind doing it, because if my hair can stream the back of my neck endlessly, cascaded over my shoulder's effortlessly and shine radiantly under the soft iridescent light of the fluorescent bulbs I have did my part in representing our healthy hair.