Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hair

I have been experimenting with my hair. I know, this is nothing exciting, women do it all the time, but I really have not. The biggest change is that my hair is now natural. No relaxer, nothing that won't wash out. I have been doing a lot of online research trying to find a product that will give my natural hair some curls without frizz and have come across a lot of angry black women. I didn't realize when I put my hair in braids three years ago that I was joining a new edgy "natural" movement. I was just pregnant and didn't want to mess with my hair. When my baby was a year and a half I figured I had 15 minutes or so to devote to my hair so I could take the braids out. At that point I was completely natural, and I loved the hair. I didn't know what to do with it, but I loved it. Now leaving my hair natural is not a political choice, or a black awareness statement, or anything. Like I said it all started out as being too lazy to take care of my hair, then continued on as hey maybe I don't have to have my husband perm my hair while we are overseas!
So it came as kind of a shock to me that so many women AGONIZE over whether or not to go natural. There are SO many websites, articles, tweets, etc written by women who have decided to thumb their noses at America and go natural I was surprised. In fact, my natural tresses could be signaling that I am edgier, or trendier than I actually am. I think I am saved by the fact that I still straighten my hair on occasion, but when I go back to the states I intend to have my hair professionally looked at to see if I can get the most AWESOME AFRO ever, just because it looks cool, not because I am in any way Afrocentric.... you can ask almost anyone... I am the least Afrocentric person you will ever meet.
Anyway, I have decided to share my experiments with the world. So I will post some pics of the experiments as the happen.