It's Just Hair, Or So I Thought

I've heard the phrase it's just hair being thrown around, I've often thought nothing of it because this is the belief I've always held. I took for granted I grew up in a family with a healthy and positive view of black hair. I remember my mother being adamant about her stance on no relaxers. She would occasionally press our hair, my sister and I, but she refused a relaxer. We were always told by cousins, family friends that we had nice hair. Now my sister and I have type 4 hair which is tightly coiled. Most people I know, some who are in my close circle would consider that bad hair or problem hair. What a tragedy! I can't imagine what life would have been like if I grew up in a family that taught me my hair was bad! I grew up wanting hair that was big like Rudy Huxtable's. I don't recall ever wanting long hair, looser curls or any other type of hair. I guess I was comfortable with mine. I had no horror stories of hair braiding sessions with my mom. Instead, my mother was very gentle and I often remember dozing off as she would braid my hair. She would often put our hair in protective styles, at the time we'd just call them plaits. But thanks to youtube I'm now familiar with a lot of natural hair lingo.


Growing up, I just understood that my hair had to be neat and that was all. In retrospect, my mother refusing to give me a relaxer at a young age and my family saying to us that we had nice hair was the most loving thing that a family could do for two little black girls. However, at thirteen I begged and begged my mother to get a relaxer because all my friends had one, really just two, but I wanted to be cool and grown up. I should mention my mother never permed her hair. After badgering my mother, she finally, relented and so I began with the creamy crack. My hair was silky and straight I was happy not to have to blow dry, hot comb or have to sit and have my hair braided for extend periods of time. Freedom, well not so much. I'm not going to get into my entire hairstory, but it's pretty much like everyone else, except for the fact that I didn't hate my hair nor did my family make me ashamed about the hair that grew out of my head.

Two years ago I stopped with the relaxers, I Big Chopped my hair in June 2009. I'm so glad to be reacquainted with my natural hair. Since being on youtube I have learned a lot about natural hair and products. I'll be glad to pass on some of this information especially to the individuals in my close circle who have such a negative perception about afro textured hair. When I do watch these videos of women transitioning I often wonder why they would perm their hair in the first place because it was hair that would be considered by my family "nice hair", in other words, healthy hair. Thank god for my family! I can't imaging the psychological anguish those women must have gone through hearing negative messages from media and their own family. I just hope that I don't have to entertain questions from people as to why or comments about me trying to make a "statement." This is not a political statement, its my DNA, I'm not trying to be "afrocentric", I was born in Kampala, Uganda and I have deep chocolate skin, I don't think I can be anymore down than that. I just want to go back to that 8 year old who just wanted big hair like Rudy's. God willing, with patience and a lot of protective styles, I'll have my big hair.