My Journey: Falling In Love With My Hair

Back in 2009 was the first time in my life that I really noticed women deciding to wear their natural hair texture. Out of curiosity I began to stumble upon websites like naturallycurly.com and curlynikki.com. Wearing natural hair was an idea that seemed foreign and oddly incorrect to me at the time.Like many other black youths of today’s society, I had been cultured by media to reject the beauty of my black heritage from my skin to my hair. For most of my life getting a perm or relaxer regularly was normal and it was the only option. I got my first relaxer at the age of 5, therefore I have spent the last 15 years of my life getting “touch ups” and unaware of the beauty of my hair’s true hair texture. People often told me that wearing natural hair had political connotations, that no black man would want a woman with natural hair, that natural hair would cause me to lose job opportunities, that natural hair would make me look less feminine, etc. Because of these various statements, I shied away from wearing my natural hair texture. I continued to get relaxers, but I became more and more intrigued with natural hair and often toyed with the idea of wearing my natural hair.

In June 2012 I declared my official and final decision to go natural. I haven’t had a perm since early April and now I am in my fourth month of transitioning my hair! I am trying to go for a long term transition, 9 months to a year. On announcing my decision to my friends and family I have been met with mostly positive feedback. Alot of people have actually said that “You’ll look pretty like that!” Or said that they are thinking of going natural too. The most shocking response was when one of my friends bluntly said, ” I don’t believe in natural hair.” It was shocking because that just sounds so odd, it is the hair that grows out of our heads. The hair God gave us, not an abomination!

Here I am 18 almost 19 years old. In my late teens I began a journey to embrace my black heritage. The skin that I was teased about by my peers in middle school is beautiful and desirable and I am comfortable in it. The hair that I once hated and thought was “bad” is good and I love it. I feel that I have finally embraced myself a whole. I love who I am today and I am proud of the epiphany that I had.

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• Tagged: natural hair, personal journey, self acceptance, self discovery, transitioning hair story