Blog Single

My Afro, My Identity

MY AFRO, MY IDENTITY

I have always had a soft spot for natural hair. I remember making up my mind to grow my hair long when I was in form five. For starters, long hair was not allowed at school and so I would find a way to pack it by tightly tying a scarf on it each night. By morning, you would not know that my hair was a few inches longer.

When I completed high school, I knew I was free to let my hair grow. But I did not even know then, that I had zero knowledge about natural hair. All I knew was to comb and that was it. By the time I joined campus, it had grown long enough to hold but I was finding it hard to maintain it. So I bowed down to the pressure of relaxing it. My hair type did not seem to rock when relaxed. It is coily and this just made it too thin on my head after being relaxed.

The lack of volume made me come off like I had the unhealthiest hair in the whole world. It was simply thin and long. After three years of trying to keep it in that state, I made up my mind to cut it off. When I mentioned it to my workmates, they assumed I was either mad or demented. I remember walking into the saloon that evening after work and telling the lady that I needed a haircut.

Over five women turned my way and were asking what was wrong with me. One gave a resounding jeer but I was determined to do my chop. I had one inch growth but I was cool with that. The hair was cut and I walked out of that salon looking like a 16-year old girl. I kept attracting stares from everyone but I honestly did not care. All that mattered was that I had gotten rid of that burdensome hair.

I did love my new look and I do not remember how many selfies I took in that season. I looked hot! Yes, you read right; hot, hot, hot!

What nobody knew was that the last thing that made me decide to get rid of my relaxed hair was when I saw a natural hair bride. Did she look great? You bet! Chic looked so beautiful and her curves made her all the sexier. I got to tell you one thing dear reader; it was in that moment that I knew I had to wear my hair natural on my wedding day

And that is how I started out on my journey to rock it all-natural. Truth is I still had zero knowledge about taking care of my hair. All I knew was that I had to oil it a bit and comb it. I eventually got tired of combing and started to sponge style it in my own uninformed way. Even then, I looked beautiful and I was happy that I was less worried about constant saloon visits plus the long hours I used to take when trying to style my thin relaxed hair.

A few months down the road, my hair started to grow longer and that was when I tried to get means to pimp it up a little bit. A flower here and there would get my hair looking more kempt and beautiful. I kept on trying as much as I could to check its growth; I was impatient and badly needed to start doing every style but my length seemed to have gone on vacation with Saint Paul.

As my first year; having natural hair drew close, my sister advised that I could be plaiting threes in my hair each night as it could help with straightening it a bit. I had zero knowledge about shrinkage and was already getting frustrated with combing. That was the first step to an effortless natural hair maintenance journey.

Watch out for part 2 of this episode as I share about how I found a place that later became home for my natural hair. Do not forget to share this with a friend. I will be right back…….