February 04, 2004
Somebody Stop Me!
Last night I conditioner washed my hair, moisturized with a little shea butter, and put my hair into medium size bantu knots. I looked like a lil pickaninny. *lol* This morning I took the knots out and fluffed it some. It looked...ok. I'm not gone take pics cause I don't damn feel like it. Now! :D
Soooo...I'm thinking about doing the big chop. Very soon. Like today. Or tomorrow. Why? Hell, why not? My hair is fragile as the dickens anyway, so I know the relaxed hair will be breaking off more and more as time wears on. My initial goal was to grow out my hair for six months or so and then do the chop. I go back and forth about this shit every damn day and it's getting very tiresome. To show you how unattached I am to my relaxed hair...my dumb ass cut off a lil chunk of hair off in the back, just for kicks (hey that's what gel is for *lol*) I suppose if I was out in the public eye more I would definitely be more concerned. But I'm not.
I was also considering getting kinky twists to help me keep my hands out of my head and help with the patience factor. The only problem I see with this is the fact that I won't be able to "baby" my natural hair and I LIKE to play with my hair. That's why I can never keep braids for long. And I'm cheap and I can think of other things to do with the money I would use to get it done. Soooo...
We shall see.
I've received varying reactions to my decision to go natural, from disbelief to disdain to encouragement to apathy. I think my family is used to me being a weirdo, so though they are very attached to their relaxed hair, they know better than to try and talk me out of it. As for the one man whose opinion matters to me...I'm sure he's cool with the napptural thing. Probably not the short short cut though...you know how the menz are about hair. *sigh* Oh well, it's about me, right?
I know that some women would prefer to have loose, curly, "good" hair when they go natural. And I have to say if the only reason you are going is natural is because you think your hair will turn out that way, then you might need to reexamine yaself. You are still trapped in a way of thinking that leads us to relax or texturize our hair in the first place. Please believe I would be doing this no matter what "grade" of hair I ended up with...kinky, coily, or curly.
I was looking at the hair album of a sista with some beautiful kinky hair and my sister said, "Natural hair can do that?!"
It shole can. All that and more. 
I say go for the big chop! I completely skipped the transition stage. I'm not big on patience and didn't have the time for it. I was a little scared so I got my hair texturized, but 7 months later I see that I didn't need it AT ALL. Surprisingly, I haven't had any big bouts of frustration. Sure, every now and then I don't know what to do with it, but I am currently rocking the shake-n-go and I am LOVING it. Now all I have to do is find a way to get the look that I want w/o having to wash my hair everyday, hehe. It's not drying out or anything but I do have to get up an extra hour to give it enough time to dry (either on its own or with the help of a hood dryer). I've cut my product use down to Healthy Hair Butter (only used on the edges) and oil sheen so that it doesn't get very brittle. Sorry for such a long comment, but I get excited when it comes time to sharing hair tips.
Posted by: Rosalyn at February 4, 2004 10:13 PM