Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I Am Not My Hair
So good people I shaved my head over this past weekend, well a better way to put it is that I had to shave my head. Yes, ladies and gentlemen you read that first sentence correctly...... I shaved my head. I currently look like a black Sinead O'connor. So why did I shave my head? Well long story short I got a really bad perm from my hairstylist and my hair began to fall out at a horrifying rate. Like honestly is was at the point to where I would touch my hair and like 10-15 strands of hair would fall out. I mean is was real bad, Michael Jackson Bad. When it was breaking off it was breaking to the roots of my hair. So after looking at my hair and I had all these bald spots in my head. I decided to carry myself to Target and buy some clippers and shave my head.
I just needed to start over and the hair that was left on my head was already severely damaged, therefore I didn't see the need to keeping it. By shaving my head the hair that would now be growing would be healthy and not damaged. So I took the clippers and began to shave away. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might have been, I just kept telling myself that its hair and it will grow back. Although I never contacted my hairstylist about the bad perm, some people said I should've told her. Maybe I should've said something but I didn't see much of a point the damaged was already done, all she would have told me to fix the problem was what did.... shave my head to the point to the breakage. Also no I'm not mad, pissed off, nor do I want to slash her tires for the damaged she did to my hair. It just the risk you take when you chemically relax your hair, there's always a chance of breakage. Actually I'm kind of glad this happened, just for the simple fact that I'm now going to grow my hair naturally (without any chemicals in my hair). It was never in my plans to be natural, I just never had the desire to be natural. Even though I know its better for my hair, well now here's my chance to grow my hair naturally the way God intended me to be. I still plan on wearing wigs or weaves when my hair gets long enough but obviously my hair is trying to tell me something, its was saying "bitch we don't want and we don't do perms anymore". So I guess I better listen.
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What a wonderful thing! You look beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAbout five or so years ago, I did the same thing -- cut my hair down to damn near complete baldness. A big part of it was also because of, for me, years of damage that had made my hair so brittle, unpredictable and just...a mess. I also wanted to go natural, but then I proceeded to put a texturizer on it, for some reason still thinking I was being natural, lol. But anyway, a couple of months after that, I cut all the texturized hair out, closer to how short it'd been a few months prior, and then went natural for real, and have been ever since!
My hair is really weird, so it still gives me issues, and I've found I pretty much need to stay in the (natural hair) salon on a pretty regular basis (maybe every 3-4 weeks or so) to keep it under control and growing the way it should. Doing it on my on for long periods of time never works out, but I think if your hair isn't as weird and all over the place as mine and you can figure out how to maintain it on your own while still looking good, I say go for it -- SO wish I had that ability.
But anywho, welcome to the Au-Naturale Black Girl Hair Club! I'm sure you'll enjoy the ride. And again, you look great!
Thanks!!!! I really appreicate you saying I look good with a shaved head. Yeah, I had to shave it the damaged was just too bad. I have never gone natural before so this is going to be a challenged but I don't see myself putting another relaxer in my head. This was the last straw, I have had breakage before but never as bad as the last time.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of time, enegry, and patience that goes into being natural that I didn't really know about. Like what products to use, defining your curl pattern, etc. But thank God for youtube lol. Thanks again for your encouraging words.
Sorry - I didn't even know you'd responded to this 'til now!
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, YouTube definitely can be a great help if you know how to use it to your advantage. As many of those videos as I've seen, I still have a problem maintaining my own hair! lol.. But I've seen a lotta folks have success with 'em, so definitely more power to you!
And you are SO RIGHT - it certainly does take a lot of time, energy and patience to maintaining natural hair -- esPECIALLY as it grows out. You'll find a lot of people that love and appreciate the convenience of having extra-short hair because there isn't too much you need to do to it except kept it moist. And that's why a lotta folks opt to keep theirs short.
Not I! lol.. My goal has always been grow grow grow -- and longer longer longer! But I digress. One thing I wanted to say to you that if you later decide, once your hair gets longer, that you'd like to try the "straight" look again is that there's always the hot comb -- having your hair pressed out. A lot of chicks who never wanna see a relaxer ever again in life do sometimes do that alternative just to switch it up from time to time. And I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that -- I think any black woman who has had their hair straightened has been hipped to the power of the hot comb, but still thought it couldn't hurt to mention.
I have yet to have my hair pressed out since I've gone natural, but part of it is because it's still shown signs of being on the more fragile side and I'm just almost paranoid at this point! But it's still good to know the option is there -- and much more short-term and reversible unlike a perm.
I now understand way it takes some people 2 or 3 times to go natural because it can get frustrating. Hell its only been 2 weeks and I'm starting to feel that way.
ReplyDeleteI plan on seeing this through no matter way annoyed I get with my hair. I'm thinking about documenting this process.... well at least for a year. The problem I'm kind of having now is figuring out what products to use but I think that's just going to have to be a trial and error kind of thing. I do plan on straightening my hair when it gets longer tho. I think I just need to see what my real hair texture looks like... I've been getting a relaxer since I was 12. So I really have no idea how is really looks like in this natural state.