Throwback Thursday | What My Natural Hair Means To Me

I was looking for a Throwback Thursday photo earlier in this week and I came across one of my photos from when I first began my natural hair journey.  Looking at the pictures led me to reflect on a conversation I had this past weekend with some of the lady friends.  We were out at a local restaurant, chatting about random female topics.  It seems that hair is one of those things that frequently comes up when women get together in a group, and this night was no different.  Amid the conversation about styling tips, and product suggestions someone brought up the topic of “the big chop”.  The “big chop” is a term African-American women use to describe the transition when they cut off their chemically treated hair, usually perm, to begin growing out their hair in its natural state.  Several ladies in the group began to reminisce about when, why, and how they did the “big chop”.

Until we had this conversation, I hadn’t really noticed that it’s been over 10 years since I transitioned from chemically permed hair to allow my hair to grow in its natural state.  As we talked and the more I reflected, I realized that I did the “natural thing” way before it was the “hot” thing to do.  When I transitioned circa 2001, natural hair was NOT being embraced in pop culture within the African American community as something sexy or fashionable.  There were not a plethora of blogs, YouTube videos, or even magazine articles about natural hair.  The product for natural hair was SCARCE.  It was truly a lot of trial and error figuring out what to do to keep my hair healthy and styled.

What I DO remember vividly was the social response I received from going natural.  Since it WASN’T a popular look, I got a lot of stares from people…you know…that “aren’t you going to do something with that?” look.  A lot African American men didn’t readily embrace it at that time either, so dating was quite challenging.  I got a lot of “Do you ever STRAIGHTEN your hair? I’d love to see it that way.  I’m sure you’d be so pretty” [Insert BLANK STARE here].  Some older family members even told me I’d NEVER get a man with my hair looking nappy.  Whew!!  It was a challenging journey in the early years! 

In spite of the trial and error, the negative comments, the social rejection I wouldn’t trade my natural hair journey for the world!  I’m actually GLAD that I did it when it wasn’t the popular thing to do.  I’m glad I did it when it tested my OWN belief system and self esteem.  I used to be EXTREMELY image driven, and going natural was one part of my journey towards connecting with my inner beauty.  I purposely went natural during that period in my life because I wanted to shun the need for social approval.  I wanted to separate myself from societies definition of beauty.  During those years, I was able to lay the foundation for so many of the things that motivate me now in my quest to empower women.

Going natural was the beginning of my self love journey.  I believe that everything happens in Divine timing.  I started my journey at the time that was right for me to get what I needed to be EXACTLY where I am today.  I really never imagined over 10 years ago that so many women would be joining me on this journey.  Because of the challenges I faced at that time, I did not foresee society embracing natural African hair as something beautiful and a means of self expression.  I am glad we have progressed! It is so beautiful to see something that is uniting women within our community.  It is wonderful to see women loving their own natural image.  Now that we have begun to embrace our hair, we can get to the other things on our list: skin tone, weight, height, body type, etc.  Let’s continue this self Love movement until we can celebrate all that we are!  

What about you? Are you on the natural hair journey with me?

What have you learned about yourself and your hair since embracing your natural hair?

What is the NEXT part of you that you will be growing to Love?  

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