"Tracks on Tracks on Tracks..."

As I was checking out one of my favorite blogs, Natural Belle, a video was posted of students from The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom debating Afro/Caribbean hair. Although the video is slightly lengthy it's definitely interesting to see that the same stigmas and opinions on black hair is shared universally. Check the video out below.

Being a Natural Hair Renegade is OKAY!

One of my good friends (who is currently transitioning to natural) and I were discussing the great styles she can't wait to wear as her hair grows longer and when she eventually cuts off her relaxed ends. As we were talking she did tell me that her greatest concern with being natural was the fear that she'll have to be put into some type of "box" and even more importantly that she will be attacked by natural hair Nazis (figuratively of course). I wasn't really sure what she was talking about so she explained...

"I know you blog  but I don't want people to feel as if they know more about my hair than I do. I don't want to feel like I have to prove my naturalness by buying certain products, wearing certain styles and doing things to my hair that people feel like I have to do when  I cut it off. I don't want to feel like I have to follow certain blogs and videos to make sure i'm doing the right thing. Cause I feel like people make it their mission to make sure everyone does it their way cause they think they know best. Hair's cool but it's the least of my worries." 

I understand exactly how she feels. And I think a lot of newly naturals/transitioners/those considering going natural, feel that way too. I've definitely had people try and tell me what to do and not to do at the beginning and even now. Within my first year of being natural folk critized my obsession with long term protective styles, my use of cheap  products with sulfates/mineral oil/patrolum and all the "bad stuff" we are suppose to avoid. my use of pricey products, and washing my hair weekly. I know they were just trying to help and spit wisdom on my behalf, but sometimes their advice was mistaken for lecturing, and who wants to be lectured about hair??? I don't. And I'll definitely be honest. In the past I've been guilty of giving the side eye to some of the products my friends use in their hair. But at the end of the day when anyone who ask me what I use and what they should use I ALWAYS say,

1. Things work differently for every person

2. What works for me may not work for you at all

3. Experiment with different products, styles, tools and techniques until you find what works for you

4. You don't have to spend beaucoups of ducketts to have great results

5. DO YOU BOO! If hot sauce and ginger ale leaves your hair moisturized, shiny and silky smooth, you betta hit up a Costco and stock up!

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But in all seriousness as much of a movement natural hair has seemed to become it really is what YOU put into it. You don't have to follow blogs, set up a youtube account, or go to a meet up to consider yourself "natural". Don't feel as if you have to make a blog showing your journey either. No one is asking that you blog about the different things that affect and take place in your life. You probably don't have a blog of what you eat everyday, the modes of transportation you take to work or the types of  different newspaper articles you read daily. But if you do that's great! 

The reason I started this blog was so I could watch my journey to healthy, long hair. It's what I'm interested in and it's what I choose to do. It was never about telling people what they should and should not do to their hair. It was created as a rexource of ideas, suggestions, methods and personal musings of not just me but anyone who wants to contribute. And so far it's been amazing! I hope no one has felt like I've "lectured" and if you have I do aplogize. That was never the intent and i'll make sure to keep that from happening in the future.

But anyway as always I love your feedback and remember although it is just hair, You have the right to be as engaged as you want to be when it comes to it. Don't let anyone discourage you  or make you feel as if you're not doing it right. The only right way is your way. Period.

*Happy Hair Days*
=D

True Life: I Have Natural hair. Period.

I was talking to one of my best friends on the train the other day. He was asking me if I considered myself a “natural girl.” I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by the phrase so I asked him to explain. He then asked me if I was one of those girls obsessed with using only natural hair products, stalking hair blogs and watching Youtube gurus every day. I laughed because I’m definitely guilty of those things (in a very minimal way of course). Then a lady riding behind us said, “Yeah she’s one of those natural girls. She probably listens to neo-soul and has an ankh tattoo on her back, too.”

I was so surprised by her comment, and I thought she was kidding so I laughed while my friend told her that he wouldn’t be surprised if those things were true. Then she continued to tell us what a “natural girl” is. And let me tell you…the conversation showed me that the usual ignorance about “good hair” is now being replaced by the ignorance of defining those who chose to go a certain route with their hair.

Honestly the stereotypes that come when people notice that you have natural hair has always been ridiculous to me. When I first got to my college campus (an HBCU btw) everyone was wearing Indian Remy and pin curls. The only females you saw with natural hair either had dreads and those with fros were automatically classified as the afrocentrics. Even those who had been natural all their lives wore their hair in straight styles so you would have never known… 4 years later when you walked onto the yard if anyone was rocking a sew-in it was because they were using it as a protective style on top of their teeny weeny afro.  Everyone else was rocking twist and braid outs. It seemed like as I matriculated everyone was jumping onto the natural hair bandwagon. As great as it is that so many females were embracing their natural roots and embarking in healthy hair practices, so many people made predetermined notions on what it meant to be natural…

Some of the crazy stereotypes I’ve heard are as follows:

*You must constantly listen to only Neo-soul

*Erykah Badu and Jill Scott are your new idols

*You must dislike white people

*You stop using anything that has sulfates…even in your dish and laundry detergent

*You always have to be part of a “movement”

*You have some type of adinkra or something that symbolizes Africa ,tattooed on you

*You must be a vegetarian or vegan or at least have attempted to be one

*You’re constantly lighting “Black Love” scented incenses

*You criticize everyone with relaxers and preach to them about the dangers of the creamy crack

* Meditation and yoga are now common practices

*You only use 100% natural products on your hair.

*Seeing even a glimpse of anything with the words “Blue Magic” makes you faint

*Walking by the Miss Jessie’s and Shea Moisture section in Target makes you swoon

*The use of the word “sister” and “brother” have replaced people’s first names

Some of these things could most definitely be accurate for SOME folk. Don’t get me wrong, You won’t be seeing me use any blue grease anytime soon. But I’m sure a mass majority of the natural hair population, that have chosen to leave the relaxers for someone else, are just trying to have long, healthy hair. Nothing more or less. Unfortunately even those who are natural and especially some of our “natural veterans” seem to think that there are requirements and restrictions to anyone who decides to go natural, and in the words of some great philosophers, I find that sh*t CRAY.

Some people believe you have to catch the “Mother Africa Syndrome”. And that’s just not the case. If I do decide to try and reconnect to my roots (beyond the ones in my scalp) then so be it. But that does not mean that is the same fate or wish of everyone who decides that crack is wack.

The lady on the train even told me that she didn’t understand how “us natural girls” could be so obsessed with the health of our hair and not of the rest of our body and our mind.  She said and I quote, “The ones who are gun-ho on being natural are always the fattest and most messed up. They need to stop worrying so much about how their fro looks and more about putting down those McDoubles.”

Yeah….she said that. And that’s when the side eyes began. I’m always an advocate for positive mental and physical health. It has definitely been proven that the better your diet is and the less stressed you are, the more likely you’ll have continual healthy hair growth. But that statement was clearly not said in a positive way. She was clearly trying to tell me that I have more important things to consider than how my hair is styled. And of course I had to let her know how her statement and apparent assumptions didn’t apply to me…and shouldn’t apply to anyone else. To put it simply. It’s not that serious. I’m not trying to be a certain type of person because I decided to go natural. If I choose to coat my strands only with coconut oil, hand pressed from the depths of the rainforest in the middle of the Bermuda triangle but I decide to eat 3 KFC’s Double Downs (sorry it was the grossest thing I could think of) everyday for the next year, then I sure can…and I sure WILL! No one should make any type of suppositions about what someone does because they have decided to do something.

It would be like me saying, “You wear weaves so that means because your hair isn’t real and neither should your body.  Get breast implants, butt injections and a nose job. Start trying to be as fake as your hair from head to toe!”

Sorry for my rant but the conversation on the train really had me thinking. Moral of the story; there is no right way to going natural. And there should be no assumptions made when someone chooses to do so.