Well y’all, it’s been a month and I think it’s about time I come clean. I LOVE my natural hair! Okay but everyone already knew that, so what’s this really about? Take a look at THIS…
Yes what is you are seeing is real! Yes I did do THAT! Not that, Lord no… there is no reason for that madness. But yes I did cut my (2nd set of) locs after 8 years. Don’t worry, they will be back. But for now, I am loving the freedom and versatility of my loose natural hair. It’s only been a month since I went back to my TWA and already I’ve learned so much about myself as it relates to my hair. Here’s a few revelations I’ve had so far:
I don’t care about length or popularity of my natural hair style.
Again you might be saying that everyone already knows that about me, but…. Perhaps I wasn’t really sure. I grew my locs pretty long – about midway down my back – before cutting them to chin length. And people kinda tripped out when they saw me because they couldn’t believe I did that. After chopping them off, I kept “trimming” to make sure they stayed that length until I just couldn’t keep up with the growth anymore.
Now to the interesting part… Since this is the 2nd time I’ve “big chopped” my locs, I thought I might have withdrawals like I did the 1st time. That 1st time around, I really surprised myself at how much I missed my hair – the length, the texture, styling. But this time I just felt… well, light and free. And not a care in the world about the style or the length. And interestingly enough, even though people were shocked, I got rave reviews! Mostly 😉
And speaking of freedom…
I actually DO feel that hair holds energy, natural hair and locs especially.
This is not something that I ever really felt before, even though it is hotly debated in the natural hair world and widely believed in the loc’d nation. I found it interesting, but never believed in it. Hair is hair right? Maybe… but what made me cut my locs this time and based on how I feel after doing so, I discovered that it does hold true for me. The last 8 years of life have been all over the place and I could actually feel differences along the length of my locs – density, porosity, texture. I wasn’t too bothered by it, but a change was looming and once I gave in to it… Well like I said earlier, I feel light and free.
I don’t like to comb my hair.
But I DO like to style it. Please don’t confuse the two. I didn’t like to comb it back when I was a permie or when I was pressing (during my transition back to natural so many many years ago).
Since my cut, I don’t really comb my hair much (which is a good thing for loose natural hair). Mainly just when I co-wash.
This is how I wear it on a daily basis. I do put about 5 flat twists in it every 2-3 nights so I don’t have a Don King every morning and to keep the moisture in (sweet baby Jesus, my hair can get dry and is so very non-porous).
Anyway, all I do is use my fingers to kinda fluff or pull it out. Or push my ol’ school afro pick (only the with the “Black Power Fist” works for this) through the roots to loosen.
And last but not least, I realized that…
I’m really not feeling straight hair.
I think I already knew that, but just thought I’d test the theory out on myself. So as you can see, I did straighten my hair. I blew it out and then flat ironed it. Folks loved it. Cute. Sassy. And I agreed. BUT… I immediately craved my afro back. I need texture.
I sent an anniversary pic to DH and hoped that he would hate it so I could wash it out and be the REAL sassy me again. Luckily, even though he thought it was cute and sassy too, he much preferred my true nappy, kinky natural hair full of texture.
YAY! And you might never see me like that again. So take a good look… and say goodBYE!!
A little water and a curler or 3, and I’ve got my ‘fro back just in time to celebrate my 5th anniversary with the hubby!
So what do you think? Me with locs? Me with a tapered afro? Me, straight up?
