With a fresh bleach job and faux hawk, in July of 2006, I decided I was done with the creamy crack. There was no real reason for me to go natural; but there was no real reason for me not to.
With mutts for parents, I always thought hair was supposed to be long and full of bouncy spiral curls, like mine. Not in my family! Everyone had relaxers so I begged and pleaded to get one. My cousins warned me, "You have good hair! You don't need it." But of course, I just wanted to fit in. Getting my hair washed and blow dried was a 6-7 hour process, not only because I had so much thick, curly hair that tangled very easily, but because my mom had absolutely no idea how to manage it. She grew up getting relaxers, and I was her only child, so her experience was close to none.
Fed up, she took me to the salon and I got my first relaxer at the age of 10. After the typical breakage I was warned about, and experiencing no noticeable growth from constant cutting. Eight years later was the last time I patted my head to prevent itching, got a sugar burn that eventually got picked out if my scalp, and had a relaxer.
I've been natural for 5 years and counting. This is is probably the only real commitment I've kept thus far and I'm damn proud of it. Having natural hair is about going with the flow. Shake it out and embrace it. If you don't love it, then who will?
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