Wednesday 27 April 2016

The Big T

'The Big T'

*noun phrase*

Definition : The state of accepting your roots and beautiful kinks and coils and wearing your hair without the concentrated sodium hydroxide previously used to straighten the Bantu out of your hair.
Basically starting the transitioning journey which is the Big Chop; but like, for COWARDS.

Fellow readers, welcome to my life.
If you stalk this blog well enough you may have realized I did this whole post about how I want to cut my hair and start growing it without any relaxer. 
If you are also keen, you will have realized that I took down the post a few days after I wrote it.
Why?
Because even after having India Arie on replay, following a million naturalistas on Instagram and researching about how to prepare for the Big C, I chickened out. Basically the Big C in my life stands for Big Coward.

*bows head in shame*

Nonetheless the idea of going natural still haunted me. It was fueled every time I went to the salon and had to deal with heat and the constant pulling and imagined the idea of exposing my tender scalp to chemical burns.
Honestly I was done.
And even now, I am officially over that life.

When I relaxed my hair in November 2012 I did it because I was sick of braiding my hair. Back then I thought the only way to wear natural hair and have it look pretty is if it's braided or weaved up. The idea of blow drying my hair was out of the question because my natural curls couldnt stay put after a blow dry no matter how much I burned them. So my only option seemed to be to hit up the salon and relax the mane.

I was okay with it. In fact my hairdresser was pretty good, it grew a teeny weeny bit.
But lately I just feel like I am sick of that life.

I have been having massive curl and kink envy and so I have decided to just go natural again. And since I am a coward (read I am majorly insecure about le fivehead) I decided to ease myself into it by transitioning.

So welcome to my natural hair journey. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my musings and sharing bits of advice because Lord knows I need it. This journey will involve a lot of doing my hair myself which up until a few hours ago, I had never done before. So people I need help. And prayers. And encouragement. And advice. Lots of it.

Personally I feel that in 2016, natural hair is more than just hair.  It represents a wave of pure self love and self acceptance and a refusal to accept one ideal kind of beauty. It represents a wave of females (and supportive males) who want to break a false beauty construct that has led to so many women feeling inadequate.

-you see your face. you see a flaw. how. if you are the only one who has this face. – the beauty construct
Nayyirah Waheed, salt.

So of course for me this journey will be filled with poetry celebrating black girl magic, India Arie and lots of writing,  I hope.

And I have decided that today, the 27th of April is a perfect day to have a hair anniversary since I just had my first proper home wash day. It was quite the task. I have never done my hair at home. Ever. But baby we did it. And beinf in control of this process for the first time felt so....liberating. 

As I write this, my hair is in matutas(or three strand twists as they are known in natural hair land) I would post a pic of that but lezzbereal,  we don't know each other like that lol:-D

I hope my musings will inspire you to accept yourself in all your natural nappy haired beauty and chocolate coated magic. Except this one. This post was me being vain and blabbering about my hair (because I am a narcissistic writer who should have been listened to more as a child.)

Aaanyway... Here's to Black Girl Magic, good hair and beautiful days.

Love,
Meggie.

PS... Drop a comment, hit my facebook DM or whatever.
Sharing is Caring people, this new Naturalista needs that info. :-):-)
Thank you❤

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